Joseph Lazzarotti of JacksonLewis writes: It can be cathartic responding to a negative online review. It can also backfire, as can failing to cooperate with an OCR investigation as required under HIPAA. The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently announced four enforcement actions, one against a small dental practice that imposed a $50,000 civil monetary penalty under HIPAA….
Category: U.S.
EFF Files FOIA Lawsuit Against DHS to Shed Light on Secretive Extreme Vetting Program to Collect and Data Mine Immigrants’ Social Media Speech
SAN FRANCISCO—The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for records about a multi-million dollar, secretive program that surveils immigrants and other foreign visitors’ speech on social media. DHS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) use the Visa Lifestyle Vetting Initiative (VLVI)…
Court Won’t Hear Merits of EPIC Suit Challenging Secret Postal Service Surveillance Program
From EPIC.org: A federal district court on Friday dismissed EPIC’s lawsuit challenging a secret surveillance program run out of the law enforcement wing of the Postal Service, reasoning that EPIC did not suffer a “cognizable injury in fact” from the Service’s unlawful refusal to disclose information about the program. In EPIC v. USPS, EPIC is seeking to enforce…
This Database Stores the DNA of 31,000 New Yorkers. Is It Illegal?
Troy Closson reports: Three years ago, Shakira Leslie was returning home from a cousin’s birthday party in the Bronx when officers pulled over her friend’s car for a traffic infraction. After she got out of the back seat, the police searched her and found nothing illegal. […] weeks later, Ms. Leslie learned new details about…