Tag: Regulation

On Wednesday, President Obama signed into law the USA FREEDOM Act of 2015, which bans bulk collection under some U.S. surveillance powers, increases transparency, and improves accountability of surveillance agencies and oversight mechanisms. The law is far from perfect, but its passage is the first step in a long journey toward comprehensive surveillance reform that protects the human rights of all people around the world.

The United States sat through its 2nd-ever hearing at the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday. The hearing is part of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process, a fairly new mechanism through which every U.N. member state undergoes scrutiny of its human rights record. We give an overview of what was said about U.S. surveillance, provide the U.S. response in full, and offer our analysis of that response.

The 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled that bulk collection of U.S. telephone metadata is unlawful. The ruling is the most significant judicial statement to date on the overbreadth of current U.S. surveillance practices.

Today, Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD) re-introduced the Cyber Information Sharing and Protection Act (“CISPA”), a bill that has passed the House of Representatives twice previously, both in 2011 and 2013, and subsequently also twice faced a veto threat from the Administration. We once again urge Congress to reject CISPA. Instead, Congress should pass the Secure Data Act. Unlike CIPSA, it would actually protect user privacy and increase data security.

The parliament in Kenya approved a dangerous new national security law yesterday.

Migration Commissioner Avramopoulos decided not to wait for the opinion of the CJEU on EU-Canada PNR and signaled his desire to quickly reach an agreement on the 2011 passenger data directive.

This week, the conference of presidents of the European Parliament gave its final approval to the appointments of Giovanni Buttarelli and Wojciech Rafa? Wiewiórowski to become the new heads of the European Union Data Protection Authority.

The sweeping new powers contained in Australia’s terror laws have the potential to violate privacy and expression rights of Australians and non-Australians and to “strike at the heart of press freedom.” The terror laws create a mutually reinforcing surveillance scheme, greatly restricting the spaces in which people are free to think and to act on and offline.

President Obama’s Executive Order is a great first step towards protecting user security. But it is now time to get serious about providing the level of security our personal data deserves. As National Cybersecurity Awareness month winds down, Obama should instruct administration officials to respect and support the increased use of encryption.

On October 22nd, twenty-seven new European Commissioners selected by President-Elect Jean-Claude Juncker are set to be confirmed by the European Parliament. In the 5 years ahead, a certain number of these incoming Commissioners will have a huge influence on digital rights and security issues that impact the lives of European citizens and, indirectly, the rest of the world.