Blog Post

  • The Department of Transportation’s Underused Privacy Authority

    September 9, 2024

    Due to the rise of invasive airline data practices and facial recognition technology at airport gates, EPIC strongly encourages the DOT to use its unfair and deceptive enforcement authority to address harmful privacy practices.

    • Consumer Privacy

    • Face Surveillance & Biometrics

    • Surveillance Oversight

    • Analysis

  • “Free” Prison Tablets: In Promise and In Practice

    August 29, 2024

    • Access to Information

    • Communications Privacy

    • Consumer Privacy

    • Democracy & Free Speech

    • Analysis

  • Wristwatched: A New Frontier of Health Monitoring in Prisons

    August 22, 2024

    For over two decades, states have used electronic monitoring, or e-monitoring, to track and limit the movements of individuals on parole or pre-trial through wearable technology.

    • Data Protection

    • Face Surveillance & Biometrics

    • Health Privacy

    • Surveillance Oversight

    • Analysis

  • Emerging Consensus & Increased Accountability: How Cybersecurity Regulation is Changing

    August 15, 2024

    • Cybersecurity

    • Data Security

    • Analysis

  • The FCC Capped Rates on Prison Phone Calls, Here’s What Needs to Happen Next

    August 8, 2024

    • Communications Privacy

    • Consumer Privacy

    • Surveillance Oversight

    • Analysis

  • Update: Tracking of Real Algorithmic Harms in California as CCPA Enforcement Begins

    August 8, 2024

    As part of our project Assessing the Assessments—supported by the Rose Foundation—EPIC has continued to track instances of specific AI harms to consumers relevant to enforcement of the California Consumer Privacy Act. These examples are listed below with the setting and application of the system, a real illustration of the harm that occurred, and what types of harm are done to consumers. EPIC has previously tracked these types of harms under its ongoing Assessing the Assessments project and will continue to track them in the future.

    • Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights

    • Commercial AI Use

    • Consumer Privacy

    • Privacy Laws

    • U.S. State Privacy Laws

    • Analysis

  • It’s Time for Courts to Tackle AI Harms with Product Liability

    July 25, 2024

    After this past Supreme Court term, federal agencies' ability to regulate AI is up in the air. But AI regulatory efforts in Europe show us that agencies aren't the only way to regulate this technology. Our courts have a role to play too, and product liability may just be a path forward.

    • AI Policy

    • Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights

    • Commercial AI Use

    • Data Protection

    • International Privacy

    • Analysis

  • Far From a Punt, SCOTUS’s NetChoice Decision Crushes Big Tech’s Big Litigation Dreams

    July 16, 2024

    The Supreme Court's decision in the NetChoice cases is a huge blow to Big Tech’s litigation strategy of requesting the broadest possible relief from regulation based on nothing more than vibes. 

    • Children's Privacy

    • Data Protection

    • Platform Accountability & Governance

    • Platform Governance Laws & Regulations

    • Privacy Laws

    • The First Amendment

    • U.S. State Privacy Laws

    • Analysis

  • In NetChoice Cases, Supreme Court Labels a Surprisingly Narrow Class of Online Platform Company Activities as Protected Expression

    July 10, 2024

    This blog post will discuss three major takeaways. First, the Court recognized that platform companies are engaging in protected expression in the narrow set of circumstances in which they enforce their community and content guidelines. Because humans at the companies used their editorial discretion to develop those guidelines, they reflect an expressive judgment about whether individual pieces of content conform to those guidelines. Second, the Justices signaled that when companies use machine-learning algorithms to enforce community and content guidelines, a lack of human input or oversight may mean the expression is more attenuated and less deserving of constitutional protection. Third, when companies curate user-generated content using non-content-based signals such as user behavior, it is unlikely to be considered expressive.

    • Platform Accountability & Governance

    • Platform Governance Laws & Regulations

    • The First Amendment

    • Analysis

  • The Role of Digital Privacy in Ensuring Access to Abortion and Reproductive Health Care in Post-Dobbs America

    June 13, 2024

    The Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022 unleashed a reproductive health crisis in the U.S. The country also faces a data privacy crisis. The two are intrinsically related, increasing the risks that people face to access reproductive health care.

    • Data Protection

    • Health Privacy

    • Analysis