Yesterday, Senate Commerce Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS), with co-sponsors Sens. John Thune (R-SD), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and Deb Fischer (R-NE), introduced a comprehensive federal privacy bill, “Setting an American Framework to Ensure Data Access, Transparency, and Accountability Act’’ (SAFE DATA Act).

As workplaces begin to reopen, one question seems top of mind: How do I ensure that my employees aren’t sick? In a rush to answer this question, tech companies claiming to have the answer have begun marketing surveillance measures to track an employee’s risk for coronavirus infection. Unfortunately, it’s uncertain how effective these unproven technologies […]

A discussion about why consent doesn’t protect consumers & other frameworks that could be used in federal privacy legislation.

Today, Judge Lance Walker in the U.S. District Court of Maine rejected arguments from ISPs that the Federal Communications Commission’s repeal of net neutrality rules, and Congress’s disapproval of FCC broadband privacy rules, preempt states from asserting authority over broadband

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 […]

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. 

Today, the Federal Trade Commission released details of its $5 billion settlement with Facebook over the company’s repeated violations of a 2012 consent decree, which includes privacy violations such as the Cambridge Analytica incident.

Today, Public Knowledge and the Roosevelt Institute launched “The Case for the Digital Platform Act,” a new e-book by Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld with a foreword by former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler. The e-book operates as a guide for addressing the challenges posed by the power of digital platforms.

Facebook announced yesterday that it expects to pay a fine up to $5 billion dollars over accusations that the company violated its 2011 consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission over consumer privacy on the social media platform. The company also said there can be no assurances as to the terms of resolution of the investigation.