Access and Privacy Online

Access and Privacy Online


Louisiana files lawsuits alleging pharmaceutical giant CVS deceived customers in text messages

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Louisiana filed several lawsuits accusing pharmaceutical giant CVS of abusing customer information and using its dominant market position to drive up drug costs and unfairly undermine independent pharmacies, the state’s attorney general said Tuesday. Attorney General Liz Murrill began investigating CVS after the company sent out mass text messages to thousands […]

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Trump judicial nominee suggested ignoring court orders on deportations, whistleblower claims

WASHINGTON (AP) — A top Justice Department official suggested the Trump administration might have to ignore court orders as it prepared to deport Venezuelan migrants it accused of being gang members, a fired department lawyer alleged in a whistleblower complaint made public Tuesday. The whistleblower’s claims about Principal Assistant Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove come […]

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Mexican police in Chiapas unveil armed drones to combat cartels

TAPACHULA, Mexico (AP) — Police in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas unveiled a fleet of armed drones Tuesday that they say will better position them against the heavily armed drug cartels vying for control of their border with Guatemala. Frequently outgunned by cartels with heavy guns and increasingly with drones that drop improvised explosive […]

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Newly launched Access to Information review is flawed, transparency advocates say

A newly launched federal review of the Access to Information system is being greeted with deep skepticism by transparency advocates. The Treasury Board Secretariat announced the government review, which takes place every five years, in a news release late Friday. The release says officials will seek input from a broad range of Canadians, Indigenous groups, […]

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Commentary: Bill C-2 w/ Robert Diab

Canada’s federal C-2 Strong Borders Act is a sweeping and controversial bill that is currently moving through Parliament. The bill includes ‘lawful access’ provisions, unrelated to borders, that expand state powers to access personal information held by electronic service providers. This is not the first time that lawful access powers have been proposed, and privacy […]

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Commentary: Bill C-4 w/ Michael Geist

In this Commentary, we discuss Bill C-4, titled An Act respecting certain affordability measures for Canadians and another measure. That “other measure” is a series of amendments to the Canada Election Act creating serious impacts on people and their personal information. FIPA is conducting its first joint podcast with Michael Geist and The Law Bytes Podcast.  Join me, FIPA Executive Director […]

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Aflac finds suspicious activity on US network that may impact Social Security numbers, other data

Aflac says that it has identified suspicious activity on its network in the U.S. that may impact Social Security numbers and other personal information, calling the incident part of a cybercrime campaign against the insurance industry. The company said Friday that the intrusion was stopped within hours. “We continue to serve our customers as we […]

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Billions of login credentials have been leaked online, Cybernews researchers say

NEW YORK (AP) — Researchers at cybersecurity outlet Cybernews say that billions of login credentials have been leaked and compiled into datasets online, giving criminals “unprecedented access” to accounts consumers use each day. According to a report published this week, Cybernews researchers have recently discovered 30 exposed datasets that each contain a vast amount of […]

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Pope Leo XIV flags AI impact on kids’ intellectual and spiritual development

ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV warned Friday that artificial intelligence could negatively impact the intellectual, neurological and spiritual development of young people as he pressed one of the priorities of his young pontificate. History’s first American pope sent a message to a conference of AI and ethics, part of which was taking place in […]

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Hundreds of groups call on Ottawa to scrap border bill over privacy, rights concerns

More than 300 civil society organizations are calling on the Liberal government to withdraw its new border bill, saying the legislation threatens liberties, refugee and migrant rights and the privacy of all Canadians. Representatives of four major coalitions held a news conference today to ramp up pressure on Ottawa to scrap the proposed Strong Borders […]

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California senators demand Trump immigration officials stop using Medicaid data

WASHINGTON (AP) — California’s two U.S. senators demanded on Wednesday that the Trump administration stop using personal data of millions of Medicaid enrollees — including their immigration status — as part of its sweeping deportation campaign. In a letter to top administration officials, Democratic Sens. Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla expressed alarm over an Associated […]

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Lack of appropriate safeguards led to 23andMe data breach, joint investigation finds

Inadequate security measures opened the door to a data breach discovered two years ago at genetic testing company 23andMe, Canada’s privacy watchdog says. Privacy commissioner Philippe Dufresne and U.K. information commissioner John Edwards released the findings from their joint investigation of the breach, which affected almost seven million people, including nearly 320,000 in Canada. Dufresne […]

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