Dystopia is in the eye of the beholder? Katherine Hamilton reports: Eighty House Republicans voted with Democrats on Tuesday to pass the Immunization Infrastructure Modernization Act, which if passed by the Senate and signed into law would fund a federal vaccination database. According to the bill, also called H. R. 550, the government would provide $400 million in taxpayer…
Category: Govt
FBI document shows what data can be obtained from encrypted messaging apps
Catalin Cimpanu recently reported: A recently discovered FBI training document shows that US law enforcement can gain limited access to the content of encrypted messages from secure messaging services like iMessage, Line, and WhatsApp, but not to messages sent via Signal, Telegram, Threema, Viber, WeChat, or Wickr. The document, obtained earlier this month following a FOIA request…
U.K.: The ICO fines the Cabinet Office £500,000 for data protection breach
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has fined the Cabinet Office £500,000 for disclosing postal addresses of the 2020 New Year Honours recipients online. The ICO found that the Cabinet Office failed to put appropriate technical and organisational measures in place to prevent the unauthorised disclosure of people’s information. This is a breach of data protection…
As critics warn of genetic ‘surveillance’, RCMP explores use of DNA matching in criminal probes
Catharine Tunney reports: … While law enforcement’s use of genetic genealogy has been credited with advancing and solving cold cases, it’s also raising ethical questions about how police are taking advantage of the at-home DNA testing trend. “There have been some pretty big wins with this technology, but the downsides are pretty big as well,” said Brenda McPhail,…