Alan Butler

TIME CHANGE: Protecting the Virtual You: Safeguarding Americans' Online Data | United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary

Listen to EPIC Executive Director Alan Butler's (@alanindc.bsky.social's) full testimony: www.judiciary.senate.gov/committee-ac...

#DataPrivacy #DataProtection #Congress

TIME CHANGE: Protecting the Virtual You: Safeguarding Americans' Online Data | United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary

This afternoon, EPIC Executive Director Alan Butler (@alanindc.bsky.social) will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on the importance of strong federal data regulations to protect the privacy of American consumers.

➡️ Tune in at 2:30 pm ET: www.judiciary.senate.gov/committee-ac...

The Senate just passed my bill by UC to release this report to the public, to end this cover-up by CISA. Now the House needs to pass my bill so the public can see how shockingly insecure our phone system is. Then the government must hold phone companies accountable for failing cybersecurity 101.

Interested in the First Amendment, the FCC, and telecom law? The new edition of Jerry Kang's, @alanindc.bsky.social's, and my Communications Law and Policy casebook is freely available. It's aimed at students, but may be of interest to practitioners, profs, journalists, and others too!

lifetime suspects without any basis of suspicion

Remembering Brandi Collins-Dexter Brandi Collins-Dexter was a force of nature who spent her entire career serving others.

Brandi Collins-Dexter, an intellectual and an activist, will be missed first and foremost by her family and friends, but also by overlapping communities of scholars and advocates. Her work was brilliant, sharp, funny, empathetic, prescient. I regret that we won't benefit from more of it.

There must be zero compliance with this. Patient confidentiality is the heart and soul of care. Care without confidentiality isn’t care at all. No “but our hands are tied, we need federal funding.” There must be a brick wall. Confidentiality is a no-compromise zone.

🗓️⚠️ Happening TODAY, join us here: epic.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Our latest “Digital Authoritarianism” in @uchilrev.bsky.social Online. @ariezra.bsky.social and I explore the two-step destructive dance to silence and terrorize critics. We need to see this damage to democracy for what it is. lawreview.uchicago.edu/online-archi...

This Senate proposal advanced by Sen Cruz would cancel new and existing State laws on any aspect of tech use including civil rights, consumer protection, privacy, fraud, safety for kids, accessibility, and more. In short, we’d lose the few laws we have that ensure responsible AI use. #killthebill

Police secretly monitored New Orleans with facial recognition cameras Following records requests from The Post, officials paused the first known, widespread live facial recognition program used by police in the United States.

After records requests from The Washington Post, officials paused the first known, widespread live facial recognition program used by U.S. police.
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

Important investigative work by @douglasmac.bsky.social & @aaronschaffer.com:

Kohls v. Bonta

Yesterday, EPIC—represented by Harvard's Cyberlaw Clinic—filed an amicus brief in Kohls v. Bonta, a case about an important issue: How to balance free speech with regulating misleading elections-focused deepfakes that threaten election integrity? 🧵

epic.org/documents/ko...

No, you really don't "have to ask yourself" this.

The right to criticize the government, even for *lawful* policies (let alone what Trump is trying to do), is not just central to the First Amendment's protection of free speech; it is one of the most critically important features of *any* democracy.

“A couple days later, on March 6, I was working from home at around 11:30 when I got a notice that my VPN had gone down,” he says. “I didn’t think much about it. It can cut out from time to time. About 10 minutes later, I got a knock at the door.” Two men were outside Jackson’s door, dressed in slacks and polos. They were not wearing badges. “I first thought they were going to try to sell me something. But as soon as I opened the door they said, ‘Are you Clayton Jackson?’ I think I shook my head or said ‘yeah,’ and then I heard, ‘We have information that you are obstructing an ongoing immigration investigation.’” Jackson says alarms went off in his head. “My first instinct was to want to know what this was about. That it must be a misunderstanding. So I started to tell them about how I’ve been involved in some pro bono work. Then this voice in my head kicked in and just said, you need to shut the fuck up — don’t say anything.” The officers never identified themselves. They did ask if they could come inside. “I said absolutely not,” Jackson says. “I asked for their names and badge numbers. They said they didn’t have to provide that information at this time. So I told them I’d be calling my lawyer and I shut the door behind me.” Jackson says his mind started racing. “I needed to know who they were, what agency they were with. Then I remembered that I have the Ring camera. Maybe I could watch the video of the incident and figure out who they were from that.” There was no video. “That’s when I learned why my VPN had gone down. It wasn’t the VPN. Someone had shut off my Wifi.” About 15 minutes after the interaction at his front door, Jackson’s Wifi was up and running again.

It's a high bar, but this from @radleybalko.bsky.social might be one of the most fucked up things I've read in the new Trump era. For context, this TX lawyer had just had an informal conversation with a family caught up in ICE raids.

Seriously. Read this. radleybalko.substack.com/p/the-courag...

RFK Jr.'s autism study to amass medical records of many Americans The autism study is planning to link confidential data "with broad coverage in the U.S. population" in one place for the first time.

Can’t fully express what a nightmare scenario it is that eugenicists are creating a centralized database of people’s health info.

Hours ago, @politico.com revealed that DOGE is working with DHS on automating mass deportation efforts — likely explaining why many US citizens, green card holders, and even a Canadian (in Canada) got threatening emails last night terminating “your parole” and telling them to leave the US in 7 days.

Inside the DHS task force scouring foreign students' social media A critic called the review a return to “McCarthyism,” a reference to tactics used to identify alleged communists during the Cold War.

Would appreciate some intrepid journalists finding out and publishing the names of every tech company involved in any part of this www.nbcnews.com/politics/nat...

Right, so two things will happen as a result of this: Americans who have been the victims of identity theft will be declared dead (this is extremely inconvenient), and immigrants will start using other people's SSNs in order to survive.

Now, the administration is taking drastic steps to pressure some of those immigrants and others who had legal status to “self-deport” by effectively canceling the Social Security numbers they had lawfully obtained, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times and interviews with six people familiar with the plans. The goal is to cut those people off from using crucial financial services like bank accounts and credit cards, along with their access to government benefits. The effort hinges on a surprising new tactic: repurposing Social Security’s “death master file,” which for years has been used to track dead people who should no longer receive benefits, to include the names of living people who the government believes should be treated as if they are dead. As a result, they would be blacklisted from a coveted form of identity that allows them to make and spend money.

The Trump administration is now canceling people's Social Security Numbers, treating them as if they are legally dead. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/10/u...

@motherjones.com shared the most comprehensive investigation to date on #ClearviewAI's surveillance tech used in federal immigration enforcement. The investigation cited government records obtained in EPIC’s #FOIA suit. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

In 2023, FTC alleged that Amazon Alexa kept recordings of little kids’ voices *forever.* Even when parents asked it to delete them, Amazon *still* kept the transcripts. FTC sued and stopped that. What happens to these cases when tech CEOs have unlimited power in our government?

One of the best explanations I’ve seen of the stakes of the disregard of data laws intended to prevent wholesale surveillance of the US public by its govt. The DOGE one-two punch is to disregard or dissolve the data regulations that protect us and then use AI to consolidate info about each of us.

RS’s head properly sums up the story: An unconfirmed Trump lackey is threatening to shut down Social Security and impoverish millions in a tantrum over a judge’s ruling.

Bloomberg went with, “Social Security Says DOGE Ruling Could Force Agency to Shut Down,” as if it’s an unintended consequence.

I am a commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission. Earlier today, the president attempted to illegally fire me. This is corruption, plain and simple. I will see the president in court. My full statement:

Exclusive: Trump fires both Democratic commissioners at FTC, sources say President Donald Trump fired the two Democratic commissioners at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday, two sources familiar with the situation said, in another major test of the independence of regulatory agencies.

Just so we’re all clear, the Supreme Court *expressly ruled* that the president cannot fire FTC commissioners without cause in 1935’s Humphrey’s Executor. Trump’s action here is brazenly illegal under any interpretation of the law as it stands. www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

Because these funds come solely from DC taxpayers, this action doesn't bring any cost savings to the federal budget. This is not an act of fiscal responsibility. This is a purely political, punitive action with no impact on the federal budget, but will have a detrimental impact on people's lives.

Republicans control the House.

Republicans control the Senate.

Republicans control the White House (sort of).

If the government shuts down it is 100% on them.

Ignore the any media that claims otherwise.

🚨 Everyone needs to call their Dem Senator right now. They are starting to cave.

Tell them:
1. Vote NO on Cloture
AND
2. Vote NO on the Republican spending bill.

Don’t let them pivot to reconciliation. GOP doesn’t need Dem votes on that and they know it.

TODAY is the showdown.
🤳🏽: (202) 224-3121

What congressional Republicans are trying to do to the DC budget perfectly illustrates why DC statehood is essential.

DC has a balanced budget. It is half way through its current fiscal year. These are its own (& not the federal government’s) tax dollars - and yet its budget is about to be gutted.