In-brief: the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has the authority to punish firms for failing to protect their customers data, a U.S. Federal appeals court ruled on Monday, in a clear victory for the Commission as it seeks to regulate information security practices within private sector firms.
Court of Appeals
Metadata Matters: EFF To Argue Collection Violates Constitution
Lawyers from The Electronic Frontier Foundation will argue on Tuesday that the U.S. government’s bulk collection of phone records and other “metadata” is a violation of the Constitution’s protection against unlawful searches. In a blog post on Monday, EFF said that it plans to make oral arguments before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday and will argue that the call records collected by the government constitute “intimate portraits of the lives of millions of Americans” that are protected under the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment. The EFF is presenting in the Klayman vs. Obama, a 2013 case filed by Larry Klayman, conservative activist, in the immediate aftermath of the publication of data leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. EFF and the ACLU filed an amicus brief in that case in August. The government’s argument is that the bulk collection of phone records is legal under a precedent called “third party doctrine,” which […]
