From the good folks at EPIC.org: The Department of Justice has, after more than three years, finally begun to respond to EPIC’s request for cell phone surveillance orders issued by federal prosecutors. EPIC first requested copies of the orders in 2017 and then filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department in 2018 when the agency failed to…
Category: U.S.
Hidden Canvas analytics violate student privacy, shift power to professors
Will Romano reports: On a campus where the majority of classes are held online, Canvas and its embedded video-sharing platforms Zoom and BBCollaborate Ultra have become the primary form of communication between students and professors. While these platforms are the leading way to create an online learning community, they share with professors data that violates student…
FBI Seized Congressional Cellphone Records Related to Capitol Attack
Ken Klippenstein and Eric Lichtblau report: Within hours of the storming of the Capitol on January 6, the FBI began securing thousands of phone and electronic records connected to people at the scene of the rioting — including some related to members of Congress, raising potentially thorny legal questions. Using special emergency powers and other…
Ninth Circuit Sends Alexa Surreptitious Recording Case to Arbitration–Tice v. Amazon
Venkat Balasubramani writes about the appellate opinion in Tice v. Amazon, No. 20-55432 (9th Cir. Feb. 19, 2021): Lawsuits over voice-activated assistants (and other smart home devices) are interesting. Plaintiffs have been creative about who asserts the claims to navigate around the issue that often sinks class actions: arbitration. This has resulted in claims brought by…