Privacy

The purpose of the board will be to advise the city and council on best practices to protect the safety, privacy and civil rights of residents in connection with use of surveillance technology by local government.

2021 was a banner year for bills on some big topics, including bans on discriminatory tech, protecting biometric data, regulating facial recognition technology and the use of drones. Here is a look at where they are now.

The Jeffersonville, Ind., City Council recently approved the city's police department to purchase the Flock Safety System for $75,000. The automated license plate readers will be used in criminal investigations.

Gov. Ned Lamont said he is becoming more confident in the state's ability to defend against cyber attacks. His comments come as the state waits for more than $90 million in federal funding to bolster cyber defenses.

A Romanian hacker will go before a Texas jury after stealing and selling millions of credit card numbers through malware. The hacker was extradited from his home country to Texas on March 3.

Although Mon Health System indicates that it discovered a data breach in the middle of December, it learned of potential data theft about two weeks after the hack. Patients, employees and companies were affected.

The Anchorage Police Department is still a long way from outfitting all of its officers with body cameras — a move supported by voters through their passage of a $1.8 million annual levy last year.

Michigan Medicine has warned nearly 3,000 patients that some of their personal information may have been leaked due to a data breach that occurred in December. The hackers compromised an email account.

Washington state is getting ready to roll out the ID.me facial recognition system dropped by the IRS over privacy and equity concerns, while human rights activists are asking state government officials to ban the system.

Responding to lessons learned from the implementation of a 2015 student privacy law, Maryland lawmakers want new measures to redefine protected information and require oversight of technology used by students.

The Internal Revenue Service announced Monday it will continue to use its face recognition software deemed controversial for being required to verify the identities of taxpayers to log on to its website.

The Legislative Analyst's Office is urging state lawmakers to re-examine the use of ID.me, an identity verification network, in the fight against unemployment insurance fraud. The LAO also noted successes with the system.

West Virginia's House Judiciary committee has approved bills related to autonomous delivery robots, the posting of unauthorized nude images online and surveillance technology in medical marijuana facilities.

The debate over the form and scope of a U.S. privacy law is still underway, and experts are divided when it comes to enforcement. Some believe a standalone agency would best enforce any new rules.

Los Alamitos is the latest city to join a surveillance network that captures license plates in Orange County, Calif. Critics have raised concerns about how agencies uphold people's rights while using such tech.

Concerns about spreading infections during the pandemic have led to an explosion of QR codes. The codes might be convenient, but criminals are now devising ways to steal information through them.

An AirTag, an Apple device intended to help people find lost items, can be used for "unwanted tracking," according to a handful of reports about how bad actors are using the product.

As part of a legal settlement, the Baltimore Police Department and Persistent Surveillance Systems, the company that supported the department's spy plane program, will delete all spy data unless it involves an open case.