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Congress Invites Industry Advocates to Hearings. Industry Talking Points Ensue. In back-to-back hearings last week, the House and the Senate discussed what, if anything, Congress should do about online privacy. Sounds fine—until you see who they invited . Congress should be seeking out multiple, diverse perspectives. But last week, both chambers largely invited industry advocates , eager to do the bidding of large tech companies, to the table. The testimony and responses from the industry representatives were predictable: lip service to the idea of strong federal consumer privacy legislation, but few specifics on what those protections should actually look like. These witnesses also continue to advocate for unwritten, vague federal preemption of existing state laws like California’s Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) or Illinois’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). However, there were a few bright spots. In the House Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chair, Rep. Jan Schakows...

Work with EFF this Summer! Apply to be a 2019 Google Public Policy Fellow Are you passionate about emerging Internet and technology policy issues? Come work with EFF this summer as a Google Public Policy Fellow ! This 10-week fellowship gives undergraduate and graduate students a paid opportunity to work alongside EFF’s International team on projects advancing debate on key public policy issues. EFF is looking for someone who shares our passion for the free and open Internet. You’ll have the opportunity to work on a variety of issues, including censorship and global surveillance. Applicants must have strong research and writing skills, the ability to produce thoughtful and original policy analysis, a talent for communicating with many different types of audiences, and be independently driven. More specific information can be found here . This year’s program will run from early June through early August, with regular programming throughout the summer. If selected, you can work w...

Bird Rides Inc. Demands Takedown of News Report on Lawful Re-use of Scooters Every now and then we have to remind someone that it’s not illegal for people to report facts that they dislike. This time, the offender is electric scooter rental company Bird Rides, Inc. Electric scooters have swamped a number of cities across the US, many of the scooters carelessly discarded in public spaces. Bird, though, has pioneered a new way to pollute the commons by sending a meritless takedown letter to a journalist covering the issue. The company cites the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and implies that even writing about the issue could be illegal. It’s not. Bird sent a “ Notice of Claimed Infringement ” over this article on Boing Boing, one of the Internet’s leading sources of news and commentary on social, educational, political, artistic and scientific development in popular culture. The article reports on the fact that large numbers of Bird scooters are winding up in impound l...