John Queally reports: Privacy advocates and civil liberties defenders are expressing outrage after the Democratic-controlled U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday night voted down a bipartisan amendment designed to end, as one group put it, the U.S. government’s “most egregious mass surveillance practices” first revealed by National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden. In a final…
Category: Laws
The Lofgren-Amash Amendment Would Check Warrantless Surveillance
Matthew Guariglia writes: The NSA has used Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act to justify collecting and storing millions of Americans’ online communications. Now, the House of Representatives has a chance to pull the plug on funding for Section 702 unless the government agrees to limit the reach of that program. The House of…
Now In Effect: New Mexico Electronic Communications Privacy Act
Mike Maharrey writes: SANTA FE, N.M. (June 14, 2019) – Today, a New Mexico law goes into effect that limits the warrantless use of stingray devices to track people’s location and sweep up electronic communications, and more broadly protects the privacy of electronic data. The new law will also hinder the federal surveillance state. Sen. Peter Wirth…
China Seeks Public Comments on Draft Measures related to the Cross-border Transfer of Personal Information
Yan Luo, Zhijing Yu and Nicholas Shepherd of Covington & Burling write: On June 13, 2019, the Cyberspace Administration of China (“CAC”) issued the draft Measures on Security Assessment of the Cross-border Transfer of Personal Information (“Draft Measures”) for public comment. (The official Chinese version of the Draft Measures is available here, and an unofficial…