Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., a long-time advocate for stronger data privacy rules and current sponsor of the Information Transparency and Personal Data Control Act, said today it’s unlikely that Congress will take action on this issue this year. […]
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Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., on July 31, introduced a bill to combat illegal robocalls. […]
Credit reporting agency Equifax said today it has agreed to pay $671 million to settle government investigations and legal actions related to a 2017 data breach that exposed information on about 147 million U.S. consumers. […]
Data privacy and online child protection experts at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing today called for multi-layered approaches to online data monitoring, policies, and enforcement to safeguard children from sexual exploitation and exposure to inappropriate content online. […]
The House Appropriations Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) Subcommittee proposed a total of $24.5 billion for FSGG discretionary budget authority in fiscal year 2020, which includes funding for election security, modernizing the Internal Revenue Services (IRS), and protecting consumer data. […]
The Justice Department (DoJ) is preparing a potential antitrust investigation of Google to examine the tech giant’s internal practices and search rankings, according to the Wall Street Journal. […]
Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee released a draft of the fiscal year 2020 Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) funding bill that would see the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) get a bump in their funding. […]
Congress must take action to ensure that consumer data is being adequately protected at consumer reporting agencies (CRAs), witnesses said at Tuesday’s House Committee on Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy hearing. […]
Panelists representing small businesses advocated for Federal uniformity and preempt over state data privacy laws and against data protection regulations that would disproportionately burden smaller companies at a Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee Subcommittee on Manufacturing, Trade, and Consumer Protection hearing today. […]
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recapped a busy year in enforcement actions the agency undertook in 2018 in its newly issued privacy and data security update. […]
In written testimony before the Senate Homeland Security Subcommittee on Investigations, Alicia Puente, director of Financial Market and Community Investment at the Government Accountability Office (GAO), suggested that increased authorities for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) could enhance privacy enforcement and consumer protection online. […]
A report released today by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) finds that passage of an internet privacy law plus expanded authorities could help the Federal government better protect consumer privacy, adding ammo to the recent push for a national data privacy law. […]
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) needs to conduct speedier investigations into wireless carriers’ handling of customer location data, according to comments made Friday by FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks. […]
Two senior House leaders with jurisdiction over major tech-sector issues drew familiar battle lines today over the issue of net neutrality – or how providers of Internet service should or should not have their service offerings and operations regulated by the Federal government. […]
Yesterday, 13 Democratic Senators signed and sent a letter to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Joe Simons expressing their concerns over the FTC’s ability to monitor and respond to phone spam and robocalls during the partial government shutdown. […]
Apple CEO Tim Cook yesterday called for the Federal Trade Commission to take a larger role in protecting online consumer data by creating and overseeing a data-broker clearinghouse under which all brokers would have to register so that consumers could track how their data has been sold or deleted. […]
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) came to an updated agreement continuing efforts to stop fraudulent practices that target U.S. service members, veterans and dependents who use military education benefits. […]
Some of the largest federal agencies saw increases in scores for the 2018 Best Places to Work in the Federal Government, released by the Partnership for Public Service, which measures employee engagement. […]
A group of 15 Democratic senators introduced a new piece of data privacy legislation on Wednesday. The legislation, named the Data Care Act, will, according to the bill’s lead sponsor Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, “require websites, apps, and other online providers to take responsible steps to safeguard personal information and stop the misuse of users’ data.” […]
During Tuesday’s Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation subcommittee hearing, Federal Trade Commissioners were unanimous in their call for Congress to explore Federal data privacy legislation. […]
Tech giant Intel today unveiled its proposal for a national data privacy law that aims to strengthen personal data privacy rules as a necessary ingredient for wide public acceptance of artificial intelligence and other emerging data technologies down the road. […]
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., long a champion for tighter regulations on government surveillance and expanded data privacy rights for citizens, on Thursday unveiled a “discussion draft” of data privacy legislation that he said would create “radical transparency” into how large corporations use and share consumer data, and impose prison terms and monetary fines on executives whose companies misuse consumer data. […]
The Federal Trade Commission has scheduled hearings for this December, and February 2019, to examine the agency’s authority “to deter unfair and deceptive conduct in data security and privacy matters.” […]
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, chairman of the Senate Republican High-Tech Task Force, asked Federal Trade Commission Chairman Joseph Simons to take a fresh look at the competitive impacts of Google’s search and digital advertising practices. […]
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and 12 other members of Congress asked Federal Trade Commission Chairman Joseph Simons in an Aug. 24 letter to investigate whether Verizon Communications violated Federal law when it allegedly “throttled” the data service speeds of the Santa Clara, Calif., Fire Department earlier this month […]
The Federal Trade Commission has issued a warning about a new scam that targets men by claiming to know a personal secret about them and demanding a ransom in bitcoin. […]
Welcome to MeriTalk News Briefs, where we bring you all the day’s action that didn’t quite make the headlines. No need to shout about ‘em, but we do feel that they merit talk. […]
Email is a core network application for both the private sector the and government, and has become an essential business communication tool. Since email is nearly ubiquitous and often poorly secured, it also has become a vector for fraud and data theft. Phishing emails can compromise not only Federal networks and databases, but also trust in government communications. […]
Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., introduced the Balancing the Rights of Web Surfers Equally and Responsibly (BROWSER) Act of 2017, which requires Internet service providers to get permission to sell users’ data. […]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai outlined a proposal to reverse the net neutrality rules. The proposal would reverse the classification of broadband from a Title II service to a Title I service, which would give the Federal Trade Commission the authority to oversee the Internet once again. […]