EPIC has asked the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse a lower court decision allowing the FAA's Drone Advisory Committee to conduct much of its work in secret. EPIC filed suit last year against the industry-dominated Committee, which has consistently ignored the privacy risks posed by the deployment of drones—even after identifying privacy as a top public concern. As a result of EPIC's lawsuit, the Committee was forced to disclose hundreds of pages of records that it unlawfully withheld. But the lower court ruled that the Committee did not need to disclose records from its secretive subcommittees, where many drone policy recommendations were developed. The case is EPIC v. Drone Advisory Committee, No. 19-5238 (D.C. Cir.).
This week the Director of National Intelligence declassified several opinions from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and Court of Review concerning Section 702 of the FISA. The courts determined that the FBI violated the law when it searched for information about Americans in communications intercepted for foreign intelligence purposes. The documents also reveal that FBI repeatedly exceeded the scope of its authority to search for Americans’ information. The Court of Review ruled in July of this year that the FBI must record every search of an American’s data and the basis for that search. As a result of these rulings, the FBI has changed its surveillance. In January 2018 EPIC obtained a Justice Department report detailing concerns with the FBI’s “backdoor searches.” EPIC has long advocated for reform of U.S. surveillance laws, which do not adequately protect the fundamental rights of Americans or of individuals abroad.
The California Attorney General, Xavier Becerra, announced today a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Action for the California Consumer Privacy Act. The proposed regulations will "establish procedures to facilitate consumers’ new rights under the CCPA and provide guidance to businesses for how to comply.” The
California Attorney General held several public forums about the proposed regulations, and will hold four more public hearings to provide interested parties with an opportunity to comment. The deadline to submit written comments is December 6, 2019. A recent report from EPIC on privacy legislation in Congress notes that some lawmakers are seeking to preempt strong consumer privacy laws in states such as California.
