Thomas Harrison reports: Border agents can turn on a U.S. citizen’s laptop, phone or other digital device, scroll through the data and then confiscate it for weeks even if they don’t have any reason to suspect that the owner is guilty of a crime, the First Circuit ruled Wednesday. “Given the volume of travelers passing…
Category: U.S.
Ancestry says it fought two police requests to search its DNA database
Zack Whittaker reports: Consumer genomics company Ancestry has confirmed it fought two U.S. law enforcement requests to access its DNA database in the past six months, but that neither request resulted in turning over customer or DNA data. The Utah-based company disclosed the two requests in its latest transparency report covering the latter half of 2020. The…
Court Dismisses CCPA Claim Against Google
Rafael Reyneri of Covington & Burling writes: Last week, a federal district court in San Francisco dismissed a claim under the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”). The plaintiff alleged that Google had collected personal information without complying with the CCPA’s notice and consent requirements. The court held that the CCPA’s private right of action does…
Fears over DNA privacy as 23andMe plans to go public in deal with Richard Branson
Kari Paul reports: The genetic testing company 23andMe will go public through a partnership with a firm backed by the billionaire Richard Branson, in a deal that has raised fresh privacy questions about the information of millions of customers. Launched in 2006, 23andMe sells tests to determine consumers’ genetic ancestry and risk of developing certain…