According to the Washington Post, the FBI "provided grossly inflated statistics to Congress and the public" about the number of encrypted cellphones inaccessible to law enforcement. The FBI stated it was locked out of 7,800 devices, but a subsequent review suggested the actual number is about 1,200. EPIC President Marc Rotenberg told POLITICO that the revelation was "a very serious matter" that "calls into question" the FBI's other statements about "the scope of electronic surveillance in the United States." According to the federal wiretap reports, in 2016 a total of 68 federal wiretaps were reported as being encrypted, of which 53 could not be decrypted. In a 2016 debate before the American Bar Association, former FBI Director James Comey said the FBI was locked out of about 650 phones. Rotenberg countered that 3.1 million phones were stolen or lost in a year and subject to misuse without strong encryption.
Senator Edward Markey (D-MA) and Congressman Joe Barton (TX-06), along with Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Congressman Bobby L. Rush (IL-01), have reintroduced the Do Not Track Kids Act, a bill that would strengthen the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by extending its protections to children under 15 and creating an "Eraser Button" that would allow parents and children to delete publicly available personal information. The bill would also prohibit targeted advertising to children, mandate data security standards for internet-connected devices sold to children, and establish a "Digital Marketing Bill of Rights for Minors" that would limit the collection of children's personal information, including geolocation information. EPIC recently warned the Federal Trade Commission not to weaken existing rules under COPPA that safeguard children's privacy. EPIC and a coalition of consumer groups have also urged the FTC to stop companies from selling dangerous, internet-connected "toys that spy".
The 12th international conference on Computers, Privacy and Data Protection will take place in Brussels, January 30 to February 1, 2019. The theme of the conference is "Data Protection and Democracy." CPDP is seeking panel proposals from academic consortia, research projects, think tanks and other research organizations. The deadline is June 21, 2018. CPDP2018 offered 85 panel sessions with 420 international speakers from academia, public and private sectors and civil society. More than 1,000 people from from 55 countries attended CPDP2018. EPIC is an event sponsor of CPDP and will present the 2019 International Champion of Freedom Award on January 30, 2019.
