Khushi Mehrotra, Kushan Niyogi, and Shabbir Ahmed report: The Greater Chennai Corporation has engaged a private agency to collect biometric data such as fingerprints and retina scans of thousands of residents in the city belonging to the lowest strata of society, without any discernible safeguards to protect this data. For several years, a firm called…
Category: Govt
Dutch police fined for filming passersby to check on social distancing
DutchNews.nl reports: The Dutch privacy watching Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens (AP) has fined the Rotterdam police force €50,000 for using cars equipped with cameras to monitor if people were keeping to the 1.5 metre social distancing rule, without first assessing the privacy implications. The cameras took detailed photographs of people on the streets and stored them, but…
Fortnite Video Game Maker Epic Games to Pay More Than Half a Billion Dollars over FTC Allegations of Privacy Violations and Unwanted Charges
— Epic will pay a $275 million penalty for violating children’s privacy law, change default privacy settings, and pay $245 million in refunds for tricking users into making unwanted charges — The Federal Trade Commission has secured agreements requiring Epic Games, Inc., creator of the popular video game Fortnite, to pay a total of $520…
EPIC, Coalition Urge President Biden to Ensure That Federal Policing Funds are Not Used for Abortion Surveillance
From EPIC.org: In a letter, EPIC and a coalition of 54 civil and human rights, civil liberties, and reproductive rights organizations urged the Biden administration to enact policies to prevent states from using federal funds and federal law enforcement assistance programs to investigate or prosecute abortion care providers and individuals seeking abortions. The letter highlights the…