Byron Tau reports: A new Treasury Department watchdog report warns that law-enforcement agencies may not be on firm legal footing when they use cellphone GPS data drawn from mobile apps without obtaining a warrant first. In a review of the Internal Revenue Service’s use of a commercial platform that allowed the agency to track cellphones, the Treasury Department…
Category: Govt
Norwegian DPA issues fine to Aquateknikk AS
The Norwegian Data Protection Authority has fined Aquateknikk AS EUR 10,000 (NOK 100,000) for having performed a credit rating on a private individual without legal basis. This case came in response to a complaint from a person who discovered that Aquateknikk had performed a credit rating on him when he had no customer relationship or…
FBI Seized Congressional Cellphone Records Related to Capitol Attack
Ken Klippenstein and Eric Lichtblau report: Within hours of the storming of the Capitol on January 6, the FBI began securing thousands of phone and electronic records connected to people at the scene of the rioting — including some related to members of Congress, raising potentially thorny legal questions. Using special emergency powers and other…
Singapore Government Plan to Install Monitoring App on Student Computers Meets with Resistance from Privacy Groups, NGOs
Scott Ikeda reports: In response to the school closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic last year, the government of Singapore is rolling out an initiative that aims to ensure all secondary school students in the country have a computer for home learning. However, these student computers will come packed with a potentially unwelcome addition: a…