Electronic Privacy Information Center - News, Features, and Slideshows

News

• Nest, Amazon and their IoT ilk spark privacy concerns

  Privacy concerns might throw a wrench into companies' plans to make Internet-connected devices mainstream fixtures in the home.

• The Upload: Your tech news briefing for Tuesday, June 23

  Privacy group demands Uber probe... Europol hunts Isis online... Oracle goes all-in on the cloud... and more tech news.

• US privacy group complains about Uber data collection

  Uber Technologies' new data collection policy, allowing the ride-hailing company to access a user's location even when the smartphone app is not actively in use, violates the privacy rights and personal safety of U.S. customers, according to a complaint filed Monday by a privacy group.

• EPIC appeals to court for FAA drone privacy rules

  The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) asked an appeals court on Tuesday to force the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to come up with privacy rules concerning drones.

• Samsung faces complaint in US FTC over Smart TV 'surveillance'

  A complaint filed by a privacy group to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission charged that Samsung's Smart TVs intercept and record private communications of consumers in their homes, violating a number of rules including the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.

• 2014: The year in quotes

  From rattled airline passengers who fear the coming of smartphones to jurors who don't know a smartphone from a tablet, here are some of the colorful quotes from IT news in 2014.

• EPIC seeks enforcement action over Arizona data breaches

  A privacy watchdog filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission against a community college district in Arizona that lost the personal data of 2.5 million students and employees in two data breaches.

• Privacy group files FTC complaint over Facebook's 'emotional contagion' study

  Facebook "purposefully messed with people's minds" in a "secretive and non-consensual" study on nearly 700,000 users whose emotions were intentionally manipulated when the company altered their news feeds for research purposes, a digital privacy rights group charges in a complaint filed with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

• FTC Commissioner Wright's calendar heavy on lobbyists, light on consumer groups

  The official calendar for Joshua Wright, a commissioner with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, shows he has had many meetings with technology company lobbyists, but none with consumer advocates, even though consumer protection is a major part of the agency's mission.

• Groups ask US FTC to investigate Facebook's purchase of WhatsApp

  The U.S. Federal Trade Commission should investigate Facebook's proposed US$19 billion acquisition of mobile messaging app WhatsApp -- and possibly block it -- because of the potential impact on users' privacy, two privacy groups said in a complaint filed Thursday.

• Appeals court again nixes Google's bid to overturn Street View case

  A U.S. appeals court has once again rejected Google's argument that it did not break federal wiretap laws when collecting user data from unencrypted wireless networks for its Street View program.

• Supreme Court refusal to block NSA data collection not surprising

  Privacy rights advocates and legal experts this week said they were disappointed but not surprised with the U.S. Supreme Court's denial of a petition challenging the legality of the National Security Agency's phone metadata collection program.

• US Supreme Court declines to review NSA phone spying case

  The U.S. Supreme Court has denied the Electronic Privacy Information Center's petition for it to review a National Security Agency (NSA) phone record data collection program.

• Privacy groups seek FTC probe of Google, Yahoo for exposing data to NSA

  Several advocacy groups are calling for an investigation into Internet companies Yahoo and Google whose networks were secretly accessed by the National Security Agency.

• Supreme Court shouldn't review NSA spying case, US gov't says

  A privacy group lacks legal standing to challenge a U.S. National Security Agency data collection program, and the U.S. Supreme Court doesn't have jurisdiction to grant the group's request for it to review the program's legality, lawyers for President Barack Obama's administration have argued.