Tag: US

On Friday, July 25th, the German Government raised concerns over the current chapter on the controversial Investor-State Dispute Settlement (“ISDS”) included in the trade agreement between the EU and Canada – known as CETA – currently being discussed on both sides of the Atlantic. This announcement is indicative of the growing resistance to ISDS in trade agreements taking place in the European Union at the moment.

Access urges expedient passage of law to reform NSA surveillance, but warns that additional reforms are needed.

To help bridge the substantial differences in how user privacy is protected on the two sides of the Atlantic, the Safe Harbor was established to enable U.S. companies to lawfully transfer data without running afoul of EU data protection law. To make use of the Safe Harbor, companies voluntarily adhere to a set of principles, with oversight from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), though to date enforcement of corporate policies and practices has been limited.

USA FREEDOM Act likely to be considered on Senate floor. Here’s a re-cap of the path the bill has taken to get to this point.

On July 14th, the European Union and the United States kicked off the sixth round of negotiations of what could be the world’s largest trade pact — the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). The negotiations, which have been taking place for more than a year, are about opening markets on both sides of the Atlantic for exchange in goods, services, investment, and public procurement.

The Senate Subcommittee on Crime and Terror held a Hearing on Taking Down Botnets: Public and Private Efforts to Disrupt and Dismantle Cybercriminal Networks.

This week Access submitted comments to the FCC urging it to use its full authority to reclassify broadband internet access service as a telecommunications service under Title II of the Telecommunications Act — the only viable way the agency can safeguard the values that enabled the internet to become a global force for commerce, culture, free expression, and innovation.

On June 25, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced the Obama administration is seeking to extend to EU citizens several privacy protections in U.S. law, which today are only available to U.S. citizens and permanent residents. If the U.S. Congress follows through and passes legislation to this effect, Europeans will gain access to U.S. courts for certain privacy offences, for the first time.

Access and a coalition of digital rights groups, companies, and security experts submitted a letter to U.S. President Obama urging him to pledge to veto the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA), and any other bill that includes similar provisions that would hurt our basic right to privacy.

The U.S. passed an intelligence budget authorization law on Monday, continuing the troubling practice of keeping the intelligence budget classified, while offering modest transparency reform and whistleblower protections.