Some state governments and federal regulators were already moving to keep individuals’ reproductive health information private when a U.S. senator’s report last week offered a new jolt, describing how cellphone location data was used to send millions of anti-abortion ads to people who visited Planned Parenthood offices. Federal law bars medical providers from sharing health […]

This article was originally published on The Conversation, an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. Disclosure information is available on the original site. ___ Internet users — almost all of us — are growing used to seeing requests for consent to gather our information: “Do you accept cookies from […]

The U.S. Census Bureau is thinking about how to ask about sex. People have opinions. Dozens of health officials, civil rights groups, individuals and businesses have weighed in about how the statistical agency should ask about sexual orientation and gender identity for the first time on its most comprehensive survey of American life.  An Associated […]

President Joe Biden’s campaign is embracing TikTok to court younger voters ahead of the presidential elections, but U.S. adults have mixed views about whether the video-sharing app should even operate in the country.  A new poll by The Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds a three-way split when it comes to […]

NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s top court on Thursday struck down a controversial election funding system that allowed individuals and companies to send unlimited donations to political parties without the need to disclose donor identity, a system critics have long said is undemocratic and favored Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party. A five-judge constitution bench […]

A federal watchdog is urging the RCMP to do a better job of assessing the privacy implications of commercial surveillance and monitoring services before using them. In a report released Thursday, privacy commissioner Philippe Dufresne also recommends the Mounties be more transparent with Canadians about their collection of personal information from open-source intelligence gathering.  Dufresne […]

Government departments lacked adequate protections to fend off a “sophisticated and co-ordinated” cyberattack that compromised the sensitive information of tens of thousands of Canadians, the federal privacy watchdog has found. In a report tabled Thursday, privacy commissioner Philippe Dufresne describes how the lapse at the Canada Revenue Agency and Employment and Social Development Canada in […]

HOUSTON (AP) — A judge on Friday rejected Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton ’s attempts to throw out felony securities fraud charges that have shadowed the Republican for nearly a decade.  The decision by state District Judge Andrea Beall, an elected Democrat, keeps Paxton on track for an April 15 trial on charges that he […]

NEW YORK (AP) — The Biden administration eased some of the restrictions on banking giant Wells Fargo, saying the bank has sufficiently fixed its toxic culture after years of scandals.  The news sent Wells Fargo’s stock up sharply Thursday as investors speculated that the bank, which has been kept under a tight leash by regulators […]

NEW YORK (AP) — The National Rifle Association and its ex-CEO were caught “with their hands in the cookie jar,” a lawyer with the New York Attorney General’s Office said Thursday, at the conclusion of a civil trial accusing the gun rights group’s executives of wildly misspending millions of dollars on private flights, vacations and […]

The loosely knit collective that vocally opposed COVID-19 health measures has morphed into a movement waging a broader fight against “perceived government overreach,” says a newly released assessment from Canada’s spy agency. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service’s analytical brief traces the evolution of the “Freedom” movement that began to emerge following the early 2022 protests […]

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — The Australian government said on Tuesday it will outlaw doxxing — the malicious release online of personal or identifying information without the subject’s permission — after pro-Palestinian activists published personal details of hundreds of Jewish people in Australia. Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said the proposed laws, which have yet to be drafted, […]