Last week, EPIC's scholar-in-residence Justin Sherman posted a blog about which data brokers are selling U.S. data to foreign actors, according to California's registry. Then something strange happened.

EPIC Deputy Director Caitriona Fitzgerald spoke today at the @iapp.bsky.social Global Summit on a panel entitled “Less Is More: Why Data Minimization Matters to Privacy Laws.”

On Thursday, EPIC Counsel Kara Williams testified before Maryland's Senate Finance Committee, urging legislators to amend a bill that seeks to regulate companion chatbots. While EPIC supports the bill's goals, the legislation would require significant amendments to achieve them.

EPIC's expert team is hard at work in service of a huge goal: stopping the surveillance state. We've been tracking the government's surveillance machine, developing new litigation strategies, pushing for federal legislation, and much more. And we need your support. Will you join the fight?

EPIC Senior Counsel Sara Geoghegan testified on March 23 before D.C. City Council's Committee on Health in support of the Personal Health Data Security Amendment Act of 2025. Learn more about the bill and watch the hearing here:

🚨SOCIAL MEDIA COMPANIES HAVE BEEN NEGLIGENT, JURY FINDS IN LANDMARK PRODUCT LIABILITY CASE🚨 In a monumental win for social media safety advocates like EPIC, a California jury just found Meta and Google liable for designing their platforms to addict child users. Read more:

On Monday at 11:45 a.m., EPIC Deputy Director Caitriona Fitzgerald will speak at @iapp.bsky.social's Global Summit on a panel entitled “Less Is More: Why Data Minimization Matters to Privacy Laws.” Learn more and register to attend the conference here:

During a House Financial Services Committee hearing on Tuesday, EPIC filed a statement for the record outlining key ways in which the Committee can advance financial privacy for American consumers.

We've nearly reached the end of #SunshineWeek, ☀️ an annual celebration of some of our favorite things here at EPIC: public records, open government, and freedom of information. (1/7)

The Trump Administration’s newly released recommendations for a national policy framework on AI protects corporate interests, not public interests. The American people deserve better.

In a letter to OpenAI on Wednesday, EPIC and a diverse coalition of civil society groups and child safety advocates urged the company to withdraw its AI safety ballot initiative in California.

EPIC is proud to endorse the bipartisan Government Surveillance Reform Act. Sens. Ron Wyden and Mike Lee and Reps. Warren Davidson and Zoe Lofgren introduced the bill this week to protect Americans’ rights and tamp down on warrantless government surveillance.

EPIC, @digitaldemoc.bsky.social, and @fairplayforkids.bsky.social sent a letter to the FTC today urging the agency to revise its enforcement policy statement on age verification under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and develop stronger, privacy-protective age assurance standards.

Senators @markey.senate.gov, @merkley.senate.gov, and @wyden.senate.gov are demanding answers on Meta's plans to roll out facial rec in its 'smart' glasses, following a recent report from @nytimes.com and a series of letters by @epic.org calling on regulators to step in: epic.org/senators-dem...

EPIC Senior Counsel Calli Schroeder testified last Thursday before the Colorado House Business and Labor Committee in support of a bill that would protect Coloradans from algorithms exploiting their personal data to set individual prices on goods & services or wage amounts.

Last week, EPIC and a coalition of plaintiffs led by the League of Women Voters urged the court to enter summary judgement in their lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s unlawful consolidation and misuse of citizenship data by DHS and SSA. (1/5)

The Ninth Circuit ruled Thursday that a negligence and products liability lawsuit against Amazon for its role in selling (and promoting) toxic chemicals and related products to teenagers may proceed beyond the motion-to-dismiss stage. (1/2)

EPIC Counsel Kara Williams testified Thursday in front of the Maryland Senate Finance Committee in support of legislation that would put important safeguards in place to protect Marylanders from chatbot harms. The bill is based on EPIC’s People-First Chatbot Bill.

Happy #SunshineWeek! Sunshine takes many forms. One of them is the system of records notice (SORN)—a dry but powerful set of disclosures that federal agencies must publish before establishing or modifying a system of personal data. They're required by the Privacy Act of 1974. A thread:

On Thursday, the Ninth Circuit dealt another blow to Big Tech’s campaign for broad immunity from regulation, allowing parts of California’s Age-Appropriate Design Code to take effect after years of litigation. The court concluded that NetChoice failed to:

The DOJ is demanding states hand over their voter registration rolls. EPIC's latest analysis dives into how the Department says it'll protect this highly sensitive data. TL;DR: Their plan is so bad it might be illegal. epic.org/doj-wants-se...

At EPIC, we don’t take any government funding or corporate sponsorships. That means your support is what enables us to hold the government and surveillance technology companies accountable. Join our fight to stop the surveillance state here: epic.org/stop-the-sur...

EPIC and a group of law and tech scholars have filed an amicus brief defending California’s regulation of addictive feeds against the tech industry's latest lawsuits. Big Tech says using minors' data to behaviorally profile them is protected speech. Here's why it's not:

EPIC led a 17-organization coalition last week in submitting comments to the U.S. Department of the Treasury objecting to the creation of yet another illegal national data bank known as the Financial Assistance Programs system.

EPIC applauds the Maine Senate for passing a comprehensive privacy bill that will expand essential privacy protections for Mainers. The bill includes strong data minimization requirements, enhanced protections for sensitive data, and civil rights protections prohibiting data-driven discrimination.

EPIC Counsel Suzanne Bernstein testified last week in support of the Michigan Kids Code, part of a package of bills under consideration by a Michigan Senate committee that would provide expanded privacy and online safety protections for kids.

EPIC has stood against the U.S.'s ever-growing surveillance state for more than 30 years. We don't take government funding or corporate sponsorships. When we fight, we fight for you. And we need your support. Join our Stop the Surveillance State Campaign and help us raise $1,000,000 by June 2026.

In a comment submitted to HHS last week, EPIC urged the Agency to prioritize privacy in the adoption of all technologies used in clinical settings.

Last week, EPIC Counsel Kara Williams testified in support of a series of tech policy bills in Maryland that would put commonsense safeguards on chatbots, prohibit surveillance pricing in grocery stores, and establish a data broker registry. Learn more about the bills here:

EPIC's Abigail Kunkler and Mayu Tobin-Miyaji will participate in a virtual roundtable titled "Resisting surveillance union busting: global strategies for collective worker power” during this year’s RightsCon, an annual international human rights and technology conference. epic.org/events/right...

EPIC filed an amicus brief in Chatrie v. United States — set to be the Supreme Court's first landmark Fourth Amendment case in 7 years. The case will clarify whether geofence searches are constitutional. 🧵

Today, EPIC sent a letter to Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger urging her to sign a bill banning the sale of precise geolocation data. The bill would put a stop to some of the most harmful abuses of our personal data happening today. epic.org/epic-urges-v...

EPIC Advisory Board members @hartzog.bsky.social and Neil Richards make a strong case for the Massachusetts Legislature to pass the Massachusetts Consumer Data Privacy Act in WBUR's Cognoscenti today. www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/...

Happy National Consumer Protection Week! 🎉 Consumer Privacy is one of our top priorities here at EPIC, and we’ve played a leading role in developing the FTC’s authority to address emerging privacy issues. Here's a sampling of what we've been up to in the consumer privacy space recently ⬇️

EPIC Senior Counsel Sara Geoghegan will speak Wednesday at noon as part of “Increased Surveillance, Decreased Access to Reproductive Care,” a panel convened by the George Washington University Law School’s Reproductive Data Privacy Initiative. Register for the event here: epic.org/events/georg...

Connecticut’s AG released a memorandum this week detailing how existing state laws can be applied to govern the development and use of artificial intelligence. It includes guidance on civil rights, privacy and data security, trade, and antitrust laws.

📬 February’s edition of The Alert is live! Our monthly newsletter is the best way to stay up to date on all things EPIC, from lawsuits to legislation. Didn't receive The Alert in your inbox this morning? Take a look at this month's issue here:

As the FTC holds a workshop today on consumer injuries, EPIC and @newamerica.org’s Open Technology Institute are calling on the Commission “to take a more comprehensive view of consumer harm in the data-driven economy.” 🧵(1/6)

This week, EPIC joined a group of national consumer protection and privacy groups to urge the FTC to crack down on hidden surveillance pricing by requiring companies to tell consumers when they are using the invasive practice.

This month, Kentucky joined the growing list of states that have introduced legislation based on EPIC’s Model Age-Appropriate Design Code. The Kentucky Kids Code focuses on protecting kids from companies’ harmful design choices and promoting safer and more privacy-protective platform design.

Join GW Law’s RDPI for “Increased Surveillance, Reduced Access to Reproductive Care.” Mar 4 | 12pm | SCC — with Andrew Ferguson, Sara Geoghegan (@epic.org), Briana Torres (@nhelp.bsky.social), Ashley Kurzweil (@npwf.bsky.social), and RDPI Co-Lead Riya Chhabra. Lunch provided!

Earlier this month, EPIC called on the Department of Housing and Urban Development to withdraw its proposed rule to eliminate a crucial HUD regulation meant to combat discrimination as automated decision-making tools continue to proliferate in the housing sector.

🗣️ CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS: EPIC wants to hear from workers! EPIC and the National Institute for Workers’ Rights are investigating how employers use workplace monitoring tools to disrupt or prevent worker organizing. Want to share your story? Learn more about the project here:

EPIC Deputy Director Caitriona Fitzgerald testified today before a Virginia House of Delegates committee in support of S.B. 338, a bill to ban the sale of precise geolocation data. EPIC urges the Virginia House of Delegates to pass this vital legislation this session.

EPIC Counsel Suzanne Bernstein testified yesterday in support of New Jersey’s Age-Appropriate Design Code, a crucial bill that would help protect kids online. We applaud the state's Assembly Committee on Science, Innovation and Technology for advancing the legislation. Learn more here:

The Washington Supreme Court took a step in the right direction on Thursday in Scott v. Amazon.com, a tragic case alleging that Amazon enabled teen suicides by promoting and selling toxic chemicals on its platform. The Court ruled that the wrongful death lawsuit against the company may proceed.

This week, @trahan.house.gov published “Privacy, Trust, and Effective Government: A Bipartisan Blueprint for Modernizing the Privacy Act,” a new report outlining 10 ways to strengthen the crucial but outdated Privacy Act of 1974. EPIC applauds Congresswoman Trahan's recommendations.

You deserve to know if a business is using the invasive practice of surveillance pricing to charge you differently than other customers. That’s why this week, we continued fighting to defend and strengthen your rights as a consumer. (1/4)

EPIC submitted comments yesterday urging the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to withdraw a recently proposed rule that would effectively ban gender affirming care for minors by prohibiting Medicare and Medicaid funding for any hospital that provides such services.

🚨ICYMI🚨 Meta is trying to embed facial recognition technology into its smart glasses as soon as this year, according to reporting from @nytimes.com. The implications of this feature are dire. EPIC urges the FTC and the states to investigate and block Meta’s plan. Read more here: