The Justice Department, as part of the open government case EPIC v. DOJ, has agreed to reprocess the Mueller Report by June 19 and potentially release additional material pertaining to Roger Stone. The Justice Department has withheld significant portions of the Mueller Report on the theory that disclosure would interfere with the criminal case against Stone. But as EPIC noted in a recent filing, trial court proceedings in the Stone case have now ended. Judge Reggie B. Walton is currently conducting an “in camera” review of the complete Mueller Report following the court’s recent ruling in EPIC’s case. Earlier this week, the court ordered the Justice Department to appear before the court on July 20 and provide more information about its redactions to the Mueller Report. EPIC's case—the first in the nation for the disclosure of the Mueller Report—is EPIC v. DOJ, No. 19-810.
Amid nationwide protests against police brutality and racist policing, three major technology firms said this week that they would abandon or prohibit law enforcement agencies from using their facial surveillance technologies. On Monday, IBM announced that it would no longer offer “general purpose IBM facial recognition or analysis software” and that it opposes the use of such technology for “mass surveillance, racial profiling, [and] violations of basic human rights and freedoms.” On Wednesday, Amazon said it would prohibit law enforcement agencies from using its facial surveillance software for one year and urged Congress to “place stronger regulations to govern the ethical use of facial recognition technology.” And on Thursday, Microsoft reiterated that it will “not sell facial-recognition technology to police departments in the United States until we have a national law in place, grounded in human rights, that will govern this technology.” EPIC has launched a campaign to Ban Face Surveillance and through the Public Voice coalition gathered the support of over 100 organizations and many leading experts across 30-plus countries. An EPIC-led coalition has also called on the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board to recommend the suspension of face surveillance systems across the federal government.
EPIC and a group of over 80 consumer, privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties organizations have sent a letter to the House and the Senate that endorses "principles to protect the civil rights and privacy of all persons." The group stated that technology used in response to Covid-19 "must only be allowed if it is non-discriminatory, effective, voluntary, secure, accountable, and used exclusively for public health purposes." EPIC and a coalition of organizations previously sent a letter to the Coronavirus Task Force, urging the federal government to set guidelines that protect privacy and ensure equity in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. The coalition raised concerns about public-private partnerships that utilize technology to respond to COVID-19 without the necessary privacy safeguards. Earlier this year, EPIC wrote to Congress stating that it is "essential that government agencies and private companies implement standards that safeguard privacy." EPIC has laid out several recommendations related to privacy and the pandemic.
