The U.S. Supreme Court announced that it will consider President Trump's appeals to block subpoenas by Congressional committees and the Manhattan District attorney for his financial records, including tax returns.The Second Circuit rejected the President's attempt to block a grand jury subpoena, finding "no support" for the argument "that a President's private and non‐privileged documents may be absolutely shielded from judicial scrutiny." EPIC previously sought public release of President Trump's tax returns in EPIC v. IRS, arguing that disclosure was necessary to correct numerous factual misstatements made by the President. In EPIC v. IRS II, EPIC is currently seeking "offers-in-compromise" and related tax records of President Trump and his businesses.
Following widespread protest over the proposed sale of the .ORG domain by the Public Interest Registry to a private equity fund, ICANN posted a response. In a blog post, the ICANN CEO and Board Chair acknowledged that "PIR must obtain ICANN's prior approval before any transaction that would result in a change of control of the registry operator." ICANN further stated that it sent a letter to both ISOC and PIR, "asking them to please be clear and open in all of their communications." EPIC President Marc Rotenberg, a founding board member and former chair of PIR, said that the secrecy of the deal was "a failure of process." He told the Financial Times "You can't make decisions about the allocation of internet domain names in the dark." In a recent commentary for The Hill, Rotenberg said that ICANN should block the sale. Prior to establishing PIR, EPIC launched The Public Voice project to promote civil society participation in decisions concerning the future of the Internet.
The Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD) and the Heinrich Boll Stiftung Foundation published a new report on the privacy practices of Amazon, Netflix, and Spotify in the EU and the US. "Privacy in the EU and US: Consumer experiences across three global platforms" revealed that the companies provided less protection to US users, and that none of the companies complied fully with GDPR. The report recommends "baseline federal data protection and privacy law that does not pre-empt stronger state privacy protections and that creates an independent data protection agency." EPIC's recent report on federal privacy legislation Grading on a Curve: Privacy Legislation in the 116th Congress evaluates federal privacy bills. EPIC has called for comprehensive baseline, federal legislation and the creation of a data protection agency.
