EPIC - Electronic Privacy Information Center

04/25/2026

Last week, EPIC Counsel Suzanne Bernstein spoke on a panel at the Global Age Assurance Standards Summit in Manchester, UK, about the legal and policy landscape for age assurance in the U.S.

Future of Privacy Forum Senior Technologist Jim Siegl, Policy Counsel Daniel Hales, and Privacy and Cybersecurity Attorney Katelyn Ringrose of McDermott Will & Schulte also joined the conversation.

Learn more about EPIC’s work on age assurance and platform accountability here: https://epic.org/issues/platform-accountability-governance/

04/24/2026

On Friday, EPIC and a group of technical experts and legal scholars filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court supporting the petitioner in Salazar v. Paramount Global.

This case concerns the Video Privacy Protection Act, and EPIC argues that the law should protect subscribers of a media website and prohibit companies from sending their video-viewing data to Meta and other third parties without their consent.

"Despite what Paramount might have you believe, there is nothing about the internet or digital advertising that requires a company to secretly hand your video viewing data to Meta," EPIC Deputy Director and Director of Enforcement John Davisson said. "Companies have plenty of ways to advertise effectively without violating consumers’ privacy, but if they want to disclose your data, they need your express consent first. That modest burden is exactly what Congress intended, yet Paramount still thinks that’s too much to ask.”

Read the brief in full here:

Washington, D.C. — On Friday, EPIC and a group of technical experts and legal scholars filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court supporting the petitioner in Salazar v. Paramount Global. This case concerns the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), and EPIC argues that the law should protect s...

04/24/2026

On Wednesday, EPIC Counsel Kara Williams testified in support of a Delaware House bill that would extend important new privacy protections to consumers in the state.

We commend Delaware’s lawmakers for drafting these important amendments and encourage them to further strengthen the bill in a few key ways, including by instituting meaningful data minimization provisions and prohibiting the sale of sensitive data.

The House Technology and Telecommunications Committee voted to advance the bill at the conclusion of the hearing; it will now move on to be considered by the House of Representatives.

Read more:

EPIC Counsel Kara Williams testified on Wednesday before the Delaware House Technology and Telecommunications Committee in support of a bill that would extend important new privacy protections to Delaware consumers. EPIC and Consumer Reports also submitted written testimony reflecting our joint reco...

04/23/2026

EPIC filed submitted comments this week urging HUD to abandon a proposed rule that would require all applicants for agency assistance to verify U.S. citizenship or eligible immigration status. The rule isn’t just “cartoonishly evil,” as our comments noted; it also violates federal privacy law.

Our comments largely focused on HUD’s plan to verify U.S. citizenship or eligible immigration status through the DHS’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system, which recently underwent a disaster of an overhaul that we’re already suing the Trump administration over.

The bottom line is this: the SAVE database was illegally constructed and is known to be unreliable, so HUD can’t use it to determine whether people are citizens to then determine whether they can receive benefits.

Read more:

On Tuesday, EPIC submitted comments urging the Department of Housing and Urban Development to rescind a proposed rule that would force all applicants and recipients of HUD assistance to verify their U.S. citizenship or eligible immigration status using DHS’s deeply flawed Systematic Alien Verifica...

04/23/2026

EPIC Counsel Tom McBrien testified Tuesday before the Colorado Senate Business, Labor & Technology Committee in support of a bill that would protect Coloradans from surveillance pricing and surveillance wage-setting practices.

Colorado’s bill is carefully tailored to stop this predatory, unfair, and privacy-invasive practice while still allowing for transparent and fair discount and loyalty offerings and human discretion in wage offerings.

EPIC Counsel  Tom McBrien testified Tuesday before the Colorado Senate Business, Labor & Technology Committee in support of a bill that would protect Coloradans from surveillance pricing and surveillance wage-setting practices.

04/23/2026

Last week, EPIC joined 15 other civil society organizations in a comment supporting the FTC’s efforts to better regulate negative option marketing, a predatory practice where consumers’ silence or inaction is interpreted as consent to be charged for goods or services.

We encourage the FTC to move swiftly toward proposing a robust click-to-cancel rule that mandates easy and hassle-free cancellation across industries.

Read more:

Last week, EPIC joined 15 other civil society organizations in a comment supporting the FTC’s efforts to modernize the Negative Option Rule and urging the Commission to move swiftly to crack down on harmful subscription practices.

04/23/2026

On Wednesday, the updated Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) Rule went into effect. The much-needed modernization of the COPPA Rule improves the Commission’s ability to protect kids online. After a nearly 7-year process, the COPPA Rule clarifies obligations for covered websites, requiring:

• enhanced data security and retention requirements,
• increased transparency obligations related to data collection and use, and
• strong limits on data sharing with external parties, including the advertising ecosystem.

Read more here: https://epic.org/updated-coppa-rule-finally-finalized-today/

Read EPIC’s comments in the COPPA rulemaking process here: https://epic.org/documents/comments-of-epic-to-the-ftc-on-amending-the-coppa-rule/

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) submits these comments in response to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)’s Request for Comment on proposed modifications to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA).[1] These modifications are a result of a years-long process to stren...

04/22/2026

Today, House Republicans unveiled two so-called "privacy" bills that play directly into the hands of Big Tech and outright fail to protect Americans’ personal data.

As EPIC Deputy Director and Policy Director Caitriona Fitzgerald noted, “a weak federal standard is worse than no standard at all.” That’s why we’re so concerned about this legislation.

Read EPIC’s statement on the SECURE Data Act and the GUARD Financial Data Act:

Washington, D.C. — Today, House Republicans unveiled two shoddily drafted privacy bills that play directly into the hands of Big Tech and outright fail to protect Americans’ personal data.

04/22/2026

Today, EPIC, the ACLU of Alaska, and the ACLU Voting Rights Project filed a lawsuit challenging the Alaska Division of Elections for unconstitutionally sharing Alaska’s unredacted Voter Registration List with the DOJ in December 2025.

Last year, the DOJ demanded full, unredacted voter rolls from almost every state to create an unauthorized national voter database. Alaska complied and put its residents’ identities and voting records at risk by agreeing to share constitutionally protected information — full names, dates of birth, residential address, state driver’s license numbers, and the last four digits of voters’ social security numbers — with the DOJ.

“Voters rightly expect public officials at all levels of government to safeguard their privacy. When Washington fails at that task, states must hold the line. We’re proud to help Alaskans hold the Division of Elections accountable and fight to protect our democracy,” said John Davisson, EPIC’s Deputy Director and Director of Enforcement.

Read more:

Washington, D.C. — Today, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Alaska and the ACLU Voting Rights Project, filed a lawsuit challenging the Alaska Division of Elections’ (DOE) unconstitutional actions when it shared Alaska’s unre...

04/21/2026

On Monday, EPIC filed an amicus brief arguing that the Virginia city of Norfolk’s use of Flock’s Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) system creates a warrantless mass surveillance program and constitutes an unreasonable search in violation of the Fourth Amendment.

The brief details how ALPRs expose the “privacies of life” of people going about their daily lives to law enforcement by amassing troves of sensitive information—without a warrant—and combining it with other data so that police can infer the identities and continuously monitor the habits of everyday people.

Learn more, and read the brief in full:

EPIC filed an amicus brief to the Fourth Circuit on April 20 in support of plaintiff-appellants in Schmidt v. City of Norfolk, who allege that the Virginia city of Norfolk’s use of Flock’s Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) system creates a warrantless mass surveillance program and constitute...

04/21/2026

The FTC’s Strategic Plan should serve as an instrument for accountability, transparency, and ambition in advancing the Commission’s mission of protecting the American people from corporate misconduct.

But the agency’s latest plan falls far short of that goal. The Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2026–2030 shows a serious decline in ambition when it comes to protecting consumers and represents yet another example of the FTC shying away from meaningful regulatory enforcement under Chair Ferguson’s tenure.

Learn more:

On April 3, the FTC published a new Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2026–2030 that falls far short of what is needed to effectively protect consumers. The FTC publishes a new strategic plan every five years, laying out the Commission’s high-level goals and operational agenda for the years a...

04/17/2026

Yesterday, EPIC Law Fellow Mayu Tobin-Miyaji spoke at the Puget Sound Symposium on AI & Privacy on a panel about the complex challenges that arise when AI can interpret, infer, or predict information from our bodies, brains, and digital archives. Learn more about the distinct vulnerabilities created when personal data become legible to AI systems: https://epic.org/issues/ai/