There are very few actions as immediately and obviously intrusive as having your mail read. No matter your age or place — or how much you still use physical mail — the right to private communications is an established social norm. Whether I send a letter, text, or email, I expect no one but the […]

This blog post is part of a series on communications policies Public Knowledge recommends in response to the pandemic. You can read more of our proposals here and view the full series here. Many observers in the era of coronavirus are advocating that in order for life to “go back to normal,” contact tracing applications will have to […]

I began working on privacy as a public policy issue in 2010 when Senator Al Franken started up the Privacy, Technology, and the Law Subcommittee on the Judiciary Committee. It was very difficult, because back in 2010, not many people cared about digital privacy. The questions back then focused heavily on “What is the harm?” […]

Today, Democrats across four key Senate committees (Commerce, Judiciary, Banking, HELP) released a Privacy and Data Protection Framework, a set of core principles that should serve as the baseline for any comprehensive federal privacy and data protection legislation. 

According to reports, the Federal Trade Commission plans to open a study into the technology industry’s data practices. Called a “6(b)” study, this type of study enables the agency to broadly review an industry practice and allows the agency to compel information from witnesses. Public Knowledge previously urged the FTC to conduct such a study and commends the move to shine a light on the competitive impacts of these data practices.

Today, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation goes into effect. The GDPR seeks to give European consumers control of their personal data in the digital era. It creates stringent rules for the collection, processing, and transfer of personal data of European residents. It also emphasizes the importance of explicit consent as a basis for data collection and processing, lists users’ rights, and encourages companies to adopt more privacy and security-oriented approaches to the collection and processing of personal data.

Today, Public Knowledge submitted a statement on the record for the Senate Judiciary and Senate Commerce Committees’ joint hearing on “Facebook, Social Media Privacy, and the Use and Abuse of Data.”

Last week I went to CES, the tech industry’s annual conference where they show off cool new products, prototypes, and ideas of what’s next in tech. (I also presented on a panel, “Should Big Tech Be Broken Up?,” which you can watch here.) I approached vendors with a policy advocate eye, and did a lot […]

On January 1, 2020, the nation’s strictest privacy law, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), will take effect. The law empowers consumers to (1) be informed about what personal information a company has collected about them; (2) delete that data; and (3) opt out of companies selling that data to third parties. On top of […]

Last year, Representative Suzan DelBene (D-WA) introduced a privacy bill, the Information Transparency & Personal Data Control Act (Data Control Act). Public Knowledge provided input to Rep. DelBene’s office on the development of its discussion draft. However, we were disappointed to see that, upon introduction, the substance of the bill had been watered down from […]