In comments on the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, EPIC urged the Commissioner to ban police use of facial recognition. EPIC's comments respond to the Commissioner's recently published Draft Guidance on Facial Recognition for Police Agencies. The Draft Guidance is a set of non-binding recommendations that would govern how police agencies in Canada use facial recognition technology. EPIC's comments argue that police cannot be trusted with facial recognition, that the Draft Guidance would not prevent abuses of the technology, and that the only privacy-protective approach to facial recognition is a complete ban. EPIC has joined a number of coalitions urging a ban on facial recognition including: an international letter opposing the technology, a statement of concerns on police use of FR, and EPIC's Ban Face Surveillance campaign.
Last night, EPIC and the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) urged the FCC to demand more robust and explicit commitments from voice over internet protocol (VoIP) service providers to protect American consumers from unwanted robocalls. Callers launching robocall campaigns often rely upon VoIP networks to do so. The advocacy groups’ comment to the FCC outlines a series of specific actions the Commission should require VoIP providers to take, including detecting and responding to indicators of suspicious activity on their networks, and increasing transparency to consumers of potential robocall threats. EPIC routinely participates in regulatory and legislative processes concerning robocalls and files amicus briefs in robocall cases.
EPIC has filed comments with the Federal Trade Commission asking the agency to finalize a proposed Consent Order that would permanently ban SpyFone from the surveillance business and require the stalkerware company to delete the personal data that it stole. According to an FTC complaint, SpyFone sold surveillance tools that would allow purchasers to install software on another person’s device and surveil their victim surreptitiously. SpyFone also lied about its data security practices and its response to a 2018 data breach. Under a settlement announced by the FTC, SpyFone would be required to notify all affected users, delete any illegally collected personal information, and permanently refrain from selling, licensing, or marketing monitoring products in the future. In its comments, EPIC urged the FTC to finalize the proposed order and to impose similar requirements and bans in the future to protect consumer privacy. EPIC has frequently challenged the FTC over its failure to address consumer privacy harms and has long advocated for the creation of a U.S. Data Protection Agency. EPIC also published a report on the FTC’s unused statutory authorities, What the FTC Could Be Doing (But Isn't) to Protect Privacy, in June.
