Tag: senators
Senators Warn the Next US Bank Run Could Be Rigged
Senators reintroduce bill to protect personal data online
Senators aren’t giving up on a bill to safeguard your online data. Hawaii’s Brian Schatz and 18 other senators have reintroduced the 2018-era Data Care Act to set higher standards for sensitive info. Companies will need to “reasonably secure” identifying data, including prompt customer notifications for breaches. They also can’t use that data in harmful ways, and must ensure third-parties treat any shared data with the same amount of respect.
The measure gives the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) the authority to fine companies that violate the rules, including third parties. States could take their own civil actions, but the FTC could step in.
The senators largely consist of Democrats, including Big Tech critics like Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar. Independents Bernie Sanders and Angus King also back the potential legislation. The original Data Care Act had the support of 15 Democrats.
There’s no guarantee the revived Act will succeed. The original bill never came to a vote after its December 2018 introduction. And while Democrats control the Senate in 2023, the Republicans lead the House. If a vote on an equivalent bill is split along partisan lines in the House, it won’t reach the President’s desk for approval.
The conditions may be more favorable this time around, however. President Biden has been eager to rein in Big Tech, with a particular focus on limiting the collection and use of data. Meanwhile, both major parties in Congress are increasingly concerned about data privacy and security. The Data Care Act theoretically satisfies these politicians, if just by shifting more of the responsibility to businesses.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/senators-reintroduce-bill-to-protect-personal-data-online-222057399.html?src=rss
Senators Are Largely United in Desire to Rewrite Section 230
During a combative Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday, Senate lawmakers from both sides of the political aisle doubled down on calls to gut major provisions of the internet’s most important legal liability shield. The senators slammed tech companies for allegedly putting profits over user safety and…
Two more US senators hit out at TikTok over data concerns
Senators Warren and Marshall’s New Bill Would Extend Money Laundering Laws to Crypto
There’s a new bill coming to Congress to deal with crypto, and this one’s not pulling many punches on the entire crypto ecosystem.
Crypto: Feds said to investigate FTX’s SBF over possible crypto price manipulation, while senators want his testimony
US senators want anti-bot laws to be better enforced following Taylor Swift ticketing meltdown
Democratic senators ask FTC to investigate Elon Musk over his handling of Twitter
A group of Democratic senators have asked the FTC to investigate Elon Musk over his handling of users’ privacy and security in the wake of his takeover of Twitter. In a letter to FTC Chair Lina Khan, the senators cite Musk’s botched rollout of Twitter Blue’s paid verifications, as well as the departures of Twitter’s top privacy and security executives.
The letter, signed by seven senators, including Elizabeth Warren, Dianne Feinstein and Richard Blumenthal, follows a widely-publicized warning from a lawyer at Twitter that Musk could be exposing the company to billions of dollars in fines from the FTC.
“In recent weeks, Twitter’s new Chief Executive Officer, Elon Musk, has taken alarming steps that have undermined the safety and integrity of the platform,” the senators write, noting that his actions “could already represent a violation of the FTC’s consent decree.” Under the terms of a 2011 agreement with the FTC, Twitter is required to review new features for potential privacy issues and regularly send reports to the FTC. The recent departures of top pirivacy and security executives came just ahead of a deadline to send one of those reports, according toThe New York Times.
JUST IN: @SenBlumenthal and 6 (Dem) U.S. Senators send letter to head of the @FTC asking them “to investigate any breach of @Twitter’s consent decree or other violations of our consumer protection laws…” following its take-over by billionaire @elonmuskpic.twitter.com/McSyluQzRy
— newsbell (@newsbell) November 17, 2022
In their letter, the senators write that the FCC should investigate Musk and other executives’ actions. “We urge the Commission to vigorously oversee its consent decree with Twitter and to bring enforcement actions against any breached or business practices that are unfair or deceptive, including bringing civil penalties and imposing liability on individual Twitter executives where appropriate,” they write.
It’s unclear if the FTC plans to launch such an investigation, but an FTC spokesperson said last week that the agency was “tracking recent developments at Twitter with deep concern,” according toCNBC.
Senators Push To Reform Police’s Cellphone Tracking Tools
Sold by Virginia-based Fog Data Science LLC, Fog Reveal has been used since at least 2018 in criminal investigations ranging from the murder of a nurse in Arkansas to tracing the movements of a potential participant in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol. The tool is rarely, if ever, mentioned in court records, something that defense attorneys say makes it harder for them to properly defend their clients in cases in which the technology was used. Panelists and members of the public who took part in the FTC hearing also raised concerns about how data generated by popular apps is used for surveillance purposes, or “in some cases, being used to infer identity and cause direct harm to people in the real world, in the physical world and being repurposed for, as was mentioned earlier, law enforcement and national security purposes,” said Stacey Gray, a senior director for U.S. programs for the Future of Privacy Forum.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.