EPIC joined a coalition of 28 consumer privacy groups in a letter to Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.) and ranking member Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) that asked te Senators to include consumer advocates in an upcoming hearing on consumer privacy. At this time, the Committee has invited, AT&T, Amazon, Google, Twitter, Apple and Charter Communications. The consumer privacy groups wrote, "the absence of consumer representatives all but ensures a narrow discussion, focused on policy alternatives favored by business groups." Proposals endorsed by consumers include, "federal baseline legislation, heightened penalties for data breaches, the end of arbitration clauses, the establishment of a privacy agency in the U.S., techniques for data minimization, [and] algorithmic transparency to prevent the secret profiling of American consumers." The groups also noted that a recent Harris survey found that "78 percent of U.S. respondents say a company's ability to keep their data private is 'extremely important,' but only 20 percent 'completely trust' organizations they interact with to maintain the privacy of their data."
The Drug Enforcement Agency has released to EPIC a new FOIA production about the AT&T "Hemisphere" program. Hemisphere is a massive call records database made available to government agents by the nation's largest telecommunication company. AT&T discloses to the government billions of detailed customer phone records, including location data, without judicial review. The new release to EPIC reveals that both the FBI and CBP obtained access to these call details records. EPIC filed suit against the DEA in 2013 after the agency failed to respond to EPIC's FOIA request for information about the Hemisphere program. EPIC previously argued that the names of other agencies with access to Hemisphere records should be released. In June, the Supreme Court held in Carpenter v US that government access to location data is a search subject to Fourth Amendment review. EPIC filed an amicus brief in the Carpenter case.
EPIC has filed a lawsuit to compel the National Archives and Records Administration to release Brett Kavanaugh's White House records about warrantless surveillance and the Patriot Act. EPIC's lawsuit follows the agency's failure to respond to EPIC's two urgent Freedom of Information Act requests. In the complaint, EPIC explains that timely release of these records is now essential to assess Kavanaugh's role in the White House surveillance programs. In Senate testimony, Kavanaugh claimed that he knew nothing about these programs, but documents indicate that he drafted President Bush's speech on the Patriot Act, communicated with John Yoo, the architect of the warrantless surveillance program, and defended suspicionless surveillance of the American public. Last week, EPIC sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee urging postponement of the the committee vote on Kavanaugh until the documents EPIC requested are released. EPIC highlighted concerns about Kavanaugh’s White House years in an earlier letter to the Committee.
