Via cdt – “The USA FREEDOM Act (H.R. 3361) is the most significant national security surveillance reform legislation in more than a decade. The bill was watered down in the House prior to final passage, prompting CDT, other public interest groups, and many major technology companies to withdraw support for the bill. CDT is urging the Senate to make… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Legislation
Sunlight Foundation Announcement – We finally gave Congress email addresses
Via Tom Lee: “On OpenCongress, you can now email your representatives and senators just as easily as you would a friend or colleague. We’ve added a new feature to OpenCongress. It’s not flashy. It doesn’t use D3 or integrate with social media. But we still think it’s pretty cool. You might’ve already heard of it. Email. This may not sound… Continue Reading
Mobility Progress Report: Are Federal Agencies Passing the Test?
Download the survey here via the Mobile Work Exchange: “It’s been two years since OMB’s Digital Government Strategy and nearly four years since the passage of the Telework Enhancement Act of 2010. Is the Federal government making the grade in mobility and telework or is it barely passing? So where are we? Mobile Work Exchange interviewed 154… Continue Reading
On Privacy, New Survey Places US Attitudes Among EU Countries
EPIC – “One of the most comprehensive surveys of privacy ever undertaken finds US attitudes toward privacy remarkably similar to those of Europeans. The survey of 15 countries on privacy, and tradeoffs consumers are prepared to make, placed the US squarely in the middle of European countries, roughly between France and Italy on one side and Germany and… Continue Reading
Global Response to Snowden Disclosures Revealed in New Report – EFF
EFF – “It has been one year since the first Snowden disclosure and in lieu of this first anniversary, world privacy expert and publisher of The Privacy Surgeon, Simon Davies, conceived and published a report titled “A Crisis of Accountability: A global analysis of the impact of the Snowden revelations.” The report includes contributions from individual countries, summarizing the extent to… Continue Reading
Political Polarization in the American Public – Pew
How Increasing Ideological Uniformity and Partisan Antipathy Affect Politics, Compromise and Everyday Life “Republicans and Democrats are more divided along ideological lines – and partisan antipathy is deeper and more extensive – than at any point in the last two decades. These trends manifest themselves in myriad ways, both in politics and in everyday life.… Continue Reading
UK – When is CCTV covered by the Data Protection Act?
“Most uses of CCTV will be covered by the Data Protection Act. This gives you the right to see information held about you, including CCTV images of you, or images which give away information about you (such as your car number plate). The Data Protection Act sets rules which CCTV operators must follow when they gather,… Continue Reading
Senate Holds Hearing on Consumer Location Privacy Protection
EPIC – “The Senate recently held a hearing on the Location Privacy Protection Act of 2014 authored by Senator Franken. In an opening statement, Senator Franken said his “bill makes sure that if a company wants to get your location…they need to get your permission first.” FTC Director, Jessica Rich, testified that location data is “sensitive information” that “raises privacy concerns.” The… Continue Reading
Disclosure Universes and Modes of Information: Banks, Innovation, and Divergent Regulatory Quests
Hu, Henry T. C., Disclosure Universes and Modes of Information: Banks, Innovation, and Divergent Regulatory Quests (May 26, 2014). Yale Journal on Regulation, Vol. 31, No. 3, 2014. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2442092 “In 2013, a new system for mandatory public disclosure came into effect, the first since the creation of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)… Continue Reading
Truth in Lending rule now available in easier-to-navigate format – CFPB
“The public, industry, and the government all benefit from regulations that are easier to find, read, and understand. That is why last year we launched our eRegulations tool which combines important information that can often be difficult to navigate or is spread throughout a regulation, often separated by dozens or even hundreds of pages. Ideally, using eRegulations… Continue Reading
Protecting Consumers Five Years After Credit Card Reform
Center for American Progress, Joe Valenti | May 22, 2014: “In 2009, President Barack Obama signed into law the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act, or Credit CARD Act. This law ended credit card industry practices in which interest rates could change at any time and in which hidden provisions enabled companies to charge significant fees without justification.… Continue Reading
Systemic Risk and the Asset Management Industry
Douglas J. Elliott, Fellow, The Brookings Institution: “The recent devastating global financial crisis has focused policymakers on sources of risk to the financial system that could have spillover effects on the economy as a whole. This search for “systemic risk” has ranged widely, going well beyond the banks that are at the heart of the… Continue Reading
