Chris Riotta reports: Lawsuits are mounting against President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s push to slash government spending, as Washington raises alarms over reports that Musk’s aides are feeding sensitive federal data into artificial intelligence systems to pinpoint budget cuts. The Department of Government Efficiency – a Musk-led task force with dubious authority to gut…
Judge Denies Kochava’s Motion to Dismiss FTC’s Suit Over Selling Geolocation Data
There’s an update to the FTC case against Kochava for selling geolocation data. Kochava had previously tried to fight the FTC’s enforcement action, but was told in July, 2023 that the FTC’s suit would go forward. Now Hunton Andrews Kurth writes: On February 3, 2025, U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill of the District of…
DOGE Betrays Foundational Commitments of the Privacy Act of 1974
Law professor Danielle Citron writes: Under the auspices of the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency,” Elon Musk and former staffers—all recent college and high school graduates—have been given access to agency databases teeming with sensitive personal information. The group has entered the Treasury Department’s payment system, which stores federal tax returns, Social Security numbers, home…
UK orders Apple to open up users’ encrypted cloud data, report says
Reuters reports: Britain has ordered Apple (AAPL.O), to give it unprecedentedly broad access to encrypted user data stored on Apple’s data cloud, the Washington Post newspaper reported on Friday. The UK government’s “technical capability notice” requires blanket access rather than merely assistance to access a specific account, the paper reported, citing unnamed sources. Governments routinely ask technology…