A few reports we were reading this week about facial recognition that we found of note. First, Odia Kagan of Fox Rothschild writes: Following the Federal Trade Commission’s decision in December 2023 to ban Rite Aid from using AI facial recognition, it has become crystal clear that U.S. regulators expect a risk assessment when a retailer…
Category: Surveillance
Privacy Victory! Judge Grants Preliminary Injunction in OPM/DOGE Lawsuit
A good-news press release from EFF, today: NEW YORK–In a victory for personal privacy, a New York federal district court judge today granted a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) disclosure of records to DOGE and its agents. Judge Denise L. Cote of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York found that…
California county accused of using drones to spy on residents
Lester Black reports: Sonoma County has been accused of deploying hundreds of drone flights over residents in a “runaway spying operation” that has violated the constitutional rights and privacy of locals, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union. The North Bay county of Sonoma initially started the 6-year-old drone program to track illegal…
How the FBI Sought a Warrant to Search Instagram of Columbia Student Protesters
Shawn Musgrave reports: Newly unsealed records provide new details about the Trump administration’s failed effort this spring to obtain a search warrant for an Instagram account run by student protesters at Columbia University. The FBI and federal prosecutors sought a sweeping warrant, the records show, that would have identified the people who ran the account along with…