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Category Archives: E-Records

Climate Deregulation Tracker

“The Climate Deregulation Tracker identified steps taken by the Trump administration and Congress to scale back or wholly eliminate federal climate mitigation and adaptation measures. The tracker is linked to our database of climate change regulations and our two other climate regulation trackers: the Climate Reregulation Tracker covering the Biden administration and the Climate Backtracker covering the second Trump administration. Read more about… Continue Reading

Meet the tracking companies that follow you around the internet

Datawrapper – “Considering the cookie consent banners that have come to grace our screens on a daily basis, it might not come as a surprise that companies are interested in extracting data from your online activities, and that browsing the internet is not exactly a private affair. Still, it is hard to grasp how this… Continue Reading

Big Brother Becomes Little Brother

Ken Klippenstein – Corporations are the new nation state, U.S. intelligence admits – Envious of the power and wealth of corporate America, the head of U.S. intelligence has issued a new directive calling on the spy agencies to “routinize”  and “expand” their partnerships with private companies. Agencies are even authorized to incur “risk” in these… Continue Reading

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, January 26, 2025

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, January 26, 2025 – Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex… Continue Reading

The Protesters’ Guide to Smartphone Security

Privacy Guides: “For most protesters, activists, and journalists, your smartphone is an essential tool you depend on for organizing with your peers, accessing and distributing information, and helping others. It also represents a great risk, as a tool that is easily appropriated by authorities for targeted and mass surveillance. The perennial question when it comes… Continue Reading

PowerSchool hacker claims they stole data of 62 million students

Bleeping Computer: “The hacker who breached education tech giant PowerSchool claimed in an extortion demand that they stole the personal data of 62.4 million students and 9.5 million teachers. PowerSchool is a cloud-based software solutions provider for K-12 schools and districts that provides tools for enrollment, communication, attendance, staff management, learning systems, analytics, and finance.… Continue Reading

DOGE gets an extreme makeover

Musk Watch:  The Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was established on Monday by Trump, with Musk receiving a White House email address and office space in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. The executive order states that DOGE will replace the US Digital Service, an official part of the Executive Office of the President. By… Continue Reading

Federal Court Rules Backdoor Searches of 702 Data Unconstitutional

EFF: “Better late than never: last night a federal district court held that backdoor searches of databases full of Americans’ private communications collected under Section 702 ordinarily require a warrant. The landmark ruling comes in a criminal case, United States v. Hasbajrami, after more than a decade of litigation, and over four years since the… Continue Reading

Guidance on Presidential Memorandum Return to In-Person Work

OPM Memorandum, January 22, 2025 “…The President’s PM directs agency heads to “take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in-person at their respective duty stations on a full-time basis” “as soon as practicable.” It allows agency heads to “make exemptions they deem necessary” and directs that… Continue Reading

Initial Guidance Regarding DEIA Executive Orders

OPM Memorandum to Heads and Acting Heads of All Agencies, January 21, 2025. – Pursuant to its authority under 5 U.S.C. § 1103(a)(1) and (a)(5), the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (“OPM”) is providing the following initial guidance to agencies regarding the President’s executive orders titled Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing… Continue Reading

LinkedIn accused of using private messages to train AI

BBC: “A US lawsuit filed on behalf of LinkedIn Premium users accuses the social media platform of sharing their private messages with other companies to train artificial intelligence (AI) models. It alleges that in August last year, the world’s largest professional social networking website “quietly” introduced a privacy setting, automatically opting users in to a… Continue Reading

4 Cybersecurity Misconceptions to Leave Behind in 2025

The New Stack: “Most people know that cyberthreats lurk around every corner. Be it an opportunistic lone criminal or a hacker with the power of a nation-state behind them, it can feel like the world and its dog want to access your private data. Beyond this, though, how well do people grasp the threat? According… Continue Reading