Scott Bomboy writes: A United Nations report about “killer robots” is a new spin on the rising concern about drones—and the legal problems caused by self-guided machines could be closer than you think. The U.N. Human Rights Commission plans to address part of the issue later this month in Geneva. Christof Heyns, a South African…
Category: Misc
Colorado’s Mark Udall, a privacy watchdog, stumps for domestic drones
Allison Sherry of the Denver Post reports: Sen. Mark Udall has worked to carve out a reputation on Capitol Hill as the Senate watchdog to the Obama administration on intelligence gathering and privacy issues. He successfully fought to prohibit the IRS from reading Americans’ e-mails without a warrant. He pushed last year to amend federal…
Dust off that chair and get busy, PCLOB!
On December 15 2011, the White House announced the President’s intention to nominate David Medine as Chairman of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. Yesterday, the Senate confirmed him in a 53-45 vote, with two senators not voting. Will the PCLOB actually make a difference, though? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Privacy surprises … that somehow aren’t
Stewart Baker writes: If you’re looking for laws of unintended consequences, you can’t do better than privacy. Take two examples plucked from last week’s front pages: Here’s the New York Times reporting on massive fraud in the billion-dollar settlement of claims that the Agriculture Department discriminated against black, Hispanic, and female farmers: Read more on The Volokh…