Following the first annual review of the pact, the European Commission has approved the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield, a framework permitting the flow of European consumers' personal data to the United States. However, the Commission urged the U.S. to appoint a permanent Ombudsperson to review complaints, to restore the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, and to pass the Obama-era Presidential Policy Directive-28 into law. In a recent letter to Congress, EPIC emphasized the need to update U.S. privacy laws. EPIC Senior Counsel Alan Butler has also highlighted weaknesses in US privacy in DPC v. Facebook, a case now before the European Court of Justice.
The Presidential Election Commission is coming under increasing scrutiny from lawmakers and even its own members. On Tuesday, Commissioner Matthew Dunlap charged that the Commission had given him "utterly no information" about the Commission's activities. Dunlap involved the public records statute to demand documents about the Commission he sits on. Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are also demanding records from the Department of Justice about the Department's possibly unlawful coordination with the Commission. Questions have also been raised about the Commission's hiring practices. The Commission was previously forced to suspend the collection of voter data in response to EPIC's lawsuit, but it recently resumed that process. EPIC has urged state election officials not to release any voter information until the Commission conducts a Privacy Impact Assessment. EPIC's case is EPIC v. Commission, No. 17-1320 (D.D.C.), and the related appeal is EPIC v. Commission, No. 17-5171 (D.C. Cir.). The argument before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled for November 21, 2017.
EPIC's President Marc Rotenberg will testify this week before the Senate Banking Committee on reform of the credit reporting industry following the Equifax breach. The hearing, "Consumer Data Security and the Credit Bureaus," follows several Congressional hearings with Equifax CEO Richard Smith. Rotenberg will emphasize the need to limit the use of the Social Security number in the private sector and to give consumers control over their personal data. EPIC will recommend a national credit "freeze" and free life-term credit monitoring services for all U.S. consumers. Rotenberg detailed how the credit reporting industry is broken in a recent article in the Harvard Business Review. He also warned that the failure to update U.S. privacy law has placed the digital economy at risk and may lead to the suspension of trans-border data flows. EPIC has previously testified before the House and Senate on the need for Congress to address data breach and identity theft.
