Privacy

PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland officials voted on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2020, in favor of the nation’s first-ever ban on private entities using facial recognition technology in its city public spaces. In a second ordinance approved on the same day, the... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Census Bureau says it has improved its ability to give accurate data while protecting the privacy of its 2020 questionnaire responses, but experts worry they won’t be able to test the agency’s strategy before it is finalized.... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Senate on Thursday easily passed an amended bill to revive and increase oversight of surveillance powers. Senators voted, 80-16, to pass the measure before finishing up work on Capitol Hill for the week. Under a previous agreement,... Read More

MIAMI — Last month, police departments in Daytona Beach, Fla., and Connecticut unveiled what was initially touted as a potential new tool against a pandemic: drones capable of taking a person’s temperature from 300 feet in the air. Both agencies... Read More

WASHINGTON — When Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, a Democrat, suggested recently that the state might use residents’ cellphone data to trace the spread of the coronavirus, opponents on both the left and right were aghast. The American Civil Liberties... Read More

WASHINGTON — Nearly two years after the arrest of the suspected Golden State Killer revitalized DNA forensics, some state lawmakers around the country are pushing to stop or restrict police searches of genetic code databases. Other lawmakers, meanwhile, want to... Read More

WASHINGTON — Top U.S. technology companies are shifting their focus to state capitals to shape emerging data privacy laws as progress on a federal bill has slowed. Trade groups representing consumer-oriented technology companies such as Amazon, Google and Facebook, as... Read More

WASHINGTON — Steps taken by the Census Bureau to protect individual responses may muddy cancer research, housing policy, transportation planning, legislative map-drawing and health care policy, researchers have warned the agency. The problems come from a new policy — differential... Read More

WASHINGTON - The House last week voted overwhelming to advance a bill designed to tamp down on robocalls by increasing the fines on those who make them and requiring phone companies to play a more active role in stopping them.... Read More

NEW YORK — Legislation that would begin to regulate the use of facial recognition technology in the country’s most populous city could soon be made into law. While cities around the country move to ban facial recognition and other types... Read More

WASHINGTON - A bill introduced Tuesday by the chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security would establish a bipartisan commission of non-government experts to examine the ways social media and other online platforms have been exploited to promote and... Read More

WASHINGTON — Fake charity appeals or IRS tax delinquency notices. Tricks that tempt you to call an overseas hotline — and rack up expensive charges. By one estimate, Americans lost more than $10 billion thanks to scam phone calls over... Read More