The ENCRYPT Act Protects Encryption from U.S. State Prying
It’s not just the Department of Justice and the FBI that want to undermine your right to private communications and secure devices—some state lawmakers want to weaken encryption, too. In recent years, a couple of state legislatures introduced bills to restrict or outright ban encryption on smartphones and other devices....
What to Watch for in an Internet Without Net Neutrality (And How To Stop It)
On Monday, June 11, the FCC's rollback of net neutrality rules goes into effect, but don't expect the Internet to change overnight.We still have promising avenues to restore net neutrality rules, meaning that Internet Service Providers need to be careful how much ammunition they give us in that political...
Facebook Has A Consent Problem—And The Solution Starts With Transparency
Last week, the New York Times and others reported that Facebook allowed hardware companies, including some in China, access to a broad range of Facebook users’ information, possibly without the users’ knowledge or consent. This included not only a given user’s personal information, but also that of their...
California Can Lead the Way in Open Access
There’s a bill in the California legislature that would be a huge win for open access to scientific research. The California Assembly recently passed A.B. 2192 unanimously. We hope to see it pass the Senate soon, and for other states to follow California’s lead in passing strong open access...
Even Though Net Neutrality Protections Are Ending, Congress Can Still Bring Them Back
June 11, 2018 is the day that the FCC’s so-called “Restoring Internet Freedom Order” goes into effect. This represents the FCC’s abdication of authority in upholding the hard-won net neutrality protections of the 2015 Open Internet Order. But this does not mean the fight is over.While the FCC ignored the...
Does the Government Really Need this Much Power to Deal with an Attack of the Drones?
Earlier this week, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee held a hearing on the Preventing Emerging Threats Act of 2018 (S. 2836), which would give the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security sweeping new authority to counter malicious drones. Officials from both those agencies...
Once Again, New York State Considers a Terrible Right of Publicity Law
In what now appears to be an annual ritual, a bad right of publicity law is being rushed through at the end of the legislative session in New York. Assembly Bill 8155-B (and its counterpart Senate Bill 5857-B) would dramatically expand New York’s right of publicity, making it...
Following Copyright Law Should Be Enough—Even When Payment Processors Say it Isn’t
Imagine running an online business for 17 years, only to have your ability to collect payments suddenly turned off. No real explanation. It’s happened to Roz and Nir Arbel now—twice.The Arbels run an online community called Soulseek. Originally intended to be a dating service, Soulseek today consists of various chat...
While the Net Neutrality Fight Continues, AT&T and Verizon are Opening a New Attack on ISP Competition
In 1996, Congress passed the Telecommunications Act in order to inject competition into the telephone market and set the stage for a nascent commercial Internet. Last month, US Telecom, the trade association of AT&T and Verizon, filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to repeal one of...
How Good Are Google's New AI Ethics Principles?
Today Google released a new set of AI ethics principles, which were prompted, at least in part, by the controversy over the company's work on the US military's Project Maven. This post contains some quick preliminary analysis on the strengths and weaknesses of those principles.On many fronts, the...
