Month: November 2020

Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) investigation into Amazon Ring doorbell reveals egregiously lax privacy policies and civil rights protections. Lawmaker found Ring has no evidentiary standards for law enforcement to request video footage, no compliance mechanisms to ensure footage of children isn’t collected

The hot new COVID tech is wearable and constantly tracks you. Sports leagues, large employers and colleges are turning to devices that could usher in more invasive forms of surveillance.

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Amazon launches Amazon Pharmacy, a delivery service for prescription medications. Poses several privacy concerns.

Microsoft announces it will challenge every government request for public sector or enterprise customer data and it will provide monetary compensation to users if it discloses their data in response to a government request in violation of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

The United Nations issues a joint Statement on Data Protection and Privacy in the COVID-19 Response

Tim Berners Lee’s startup Inrupt releases Solid privacy platform for enterprises

The Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, Navdeep Bains, proposed legislation in Parliament that aims to overhaul Canada’s data privacy law. Bill C-11 will create new data privacy obligations and new enforcement mechanisms for these obligations if it becomes law.

(compiled by Student Fellow Jacob Golan)

Arthur Conan Doyle’s estate sued Netflix because Sherlock Holmes is portrayed in Enola Holmes as compassionate, a portrayal of Sherlock Holmes that only took place in the final 10 books which are still under copyright.

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel has filed freedom of information petitions against the Israeli army and Israeli police to find information about their use of facial recognition.

Activists have begun working on a facial recognition system to identify law enforcement members.

EU court released a judgment in a suit brought by Privacy International that sought to define privacy obligations under the privacy directive.

California Proposition 24 is on track to be approved by voters which would expand the state’s privacy laws and allow customers to opt in or out to certain privacy protections.

The LGPD’s (Brazil’s general data protection law) regulatory authority finally has directors and can begin regulating.

Michigan amended their constitution to require a warrant to search electronic devices or communications; Portland ME outlawed facial recognition via referendum; STOP settled a lawsuit with the NYPD that challenged the NYPD’s practice of requiring religious people to remove their head coverings so their mugshots could be fed into a facial recognition database.

Due to widespread civil unrest in Africa a number of countries have restricted use of social media: Lesotho has sought to require those with 100 or more followers to register with a central communications agency; Tanzania restricted the use of social media during its most recent election; Nigeria has also sought to regulate social media after recent national protests.

Massachusetts approved a right to repair law for cars that will give owners access to the data that the cars collect.

The Fourth Circuit affirmed a denial of a preliminary injunction that sought to stop Baltimore’s aerial surveillance program.

(compiled by student fellow Jacob Apkon)