Analysis

How the FCC’s Voluntary Nutrition Label Program Could Equip Consumers to Shop for Secure Connected Devices

The FCC's Cybersecurity labels for the Internet of Things (IoT) should be dual-layered, should be accompanied by robust enforcement, and should not serve as a safe harbor for cybersecurity deficiencies.

Assessing the Assessments: Comparing Risk Assessment Requirements Around the World

As part of EPIC’s project Assessing the Assessments: Maximizing the Effectiveness of Algorithmic & Privacy Risk Assessments, we have taken stock of impact assessment requirements on the state, federal, and international levels. The chart below brea…

Congress Has a Critical Opportunity to Protect Americans by Passing the Government Surveillance Reform Act

Today, Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Mike Lee (R-UT), as well as Representatives Warren Davidson (R-OH) and Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), introduced the Government Surveillance Reform Act (GSRA), a sweeping bipartisan, bicameral bill that would rein in the gro…

Summary: What Does Biden’s Executive Order on Artificial Intelligence Actually Say? 

Last week, the Biden-Harris Administration issued its Executive Order on AI: “Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence.” The EO emphasizes the need for regulation of high-risk AI and—critically—recognizes …

Tracking Real Algorithmic Harms in California as CCPA Obligations Near

Assessing the Assessments: Maximizing the Effectiveness of CCPA Risk Assessments 

With the support of the Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment, EPIC is launching our latest project in this field: Assessing the Assessments: Maximizing the Effectiveness of Algorithmic & Privacy Risk Assessments. Through this project, …

NetChoice v. Bonta: The Case That Threatens the Future of Privacy

Last month, a California district court judge enjoined enforcement of the state’s Age-Appropriate Design Code, or AADC, based on a dangerously overbroad reading of the First Amendment. The weaponization of the constitution in NetChoice v. Bonta…

ICE’s Privacy Impact Assessment on Surveillance Technologies is an Exercise in Disregarding Reality  

A recent Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) published by the DHS in 2022 details ICE Homeland Security and Investigations’ use of several categories of surveillance technologies. The PIA outlines ICE’s narrow conception of a “reasonable expectat…

Strengthening Privacy and Data Protection Policy in the National Cybersecurity Strategy

EPIC is launching a new project on Strengthening Privacy and Cybersecurity Standards, with the support of craig newmark philanthropies’ Cyber Civil Defense Initiative, to advance important elements of the National Cybersecurity Strategy.

In Acheson Hotels v. Laufer, a Dangerous Opportunity for SCOTUS to Make it Harder to Establish Informational Standing

This morning, the Supreme Court will hear argument in an interesting—and, unfortunately, salacious—case about Article III standing. Acheson Hotels v. Laufer is about whether a person with disabilities has the right to sue a hotel when the hote…