Mark Keierleber writes: When Baltimore students sign into their school-issued laptops, the police log on, too. Since the pandemic began, Baltimore City Public Schools officials have tracked students’ online lives with GoGuardian, a digital surveillance tool that promises to identify youth at risk of harming themselves or others. When GoGuardian flags students, their online activities are shared…
Category: U.S.
Biden’s Health Agency Looking to Boost Abortion Patient Privacy
Allie Reed and Christopher Brown report: The Biden administration’s efforts to protect reproductive health information from law enforcement post-Dobbs hangs on how much authority its health agency has to preempt state criminal laws—a thorny issue for health-care lawyers. A recent executive order shows the administration is considering how to beef up privacy protections for abortion-related health information. It’s…
Ring, Google and the Police: What to Know About Emergency Requests for Video Footage
Ry Crist reports: Ring, the Amazon-owned video doorbell and home security company, came under renewed criticism from privacy activists this month after disclosing it gave video footage to police in more than 10 cases without users’ consent thus far in 2022 in what it described as “emergency situations.” That includes instances where the police didn’t have a…
These Companies Know When You’re Pregnant—And They’re Not Keeping It Secret
Shoshana Wodinsky and Kyle Barr report: A Gizmodo investigation into some of the nation’s biggest data brokers found more than two dozen promoting access to datasets containing digital information on millions of pregnant and potentially pregnant people across the country. At least one of those companies also offered a large catalogue of people who were…