Recommended:
Law, Tech and Policy
CISA update: Lawmakers Have Snuck CISA Into a Bill That Is Guaranteed to Become a Law – MotherBoard. See also: OmniCISA Pits DHS Against the FCC and FTC on User Privacy – Jennifer Granick at JustSecurity. And previously: Cyberlaw Professors Oppose CISA
Do Not Track: FCC Says It Will Not Require Websites to Honor ‘Do Not Track’ – Covington’s InsidePrivacy. Reaction: The FCC’s DNT Decision: The Right Call, For Now – EFF. See also: How ‘Do Not Track’ Ended Up Going Nowhere – Re/Code; Understanding ‘Do Not Track’: Truth and Consequences – Jason Kint at Re/Code; and Court Says Tracking Web Histories Can Violate Wiretap Act – Wired
CFAA: Court (2nd Circuit): Breaking Your Employer’s Computer Policy Isn’t a Crime – EFF; See also The CFAA Meets the ‘Cannibal Cop’ in the Second Circuit and Maybe Beyond – Orin Kerr at the Washington Post
European Developments: European Court of Human Rights says Blanket Surveillance is a Violation – ArsTechnica, and Did the European Court of Human Rights Just Outlaw ‘Massive Monitoring of Communications’ in Europe? – CDT. Also: European Parliament Rejects Amendments Protecting Net Neutrality – Verge, and The European Parliament Just Dealt a Major Blow to Net Neutrality – Business Insider
National Security Letters: See for Yourself for the First Time What User Data the FBI Demanded in a National Security Letter – Reason; and Scope of National Security Inquiry is Revealed – New York Times
Privacy:
The Growing Problems with the Sectoral Approach to Privacy Law – Daniel Solve at the Privacy+Security Blog
Key 2015 Privacy Papers Selected as ‘Must Reads’ for Policymakers – TAP
Predictive Policing: Microsoft is Building an App that can Predict Criminal Behavior – Business Insider. See also: The Constitution Can’t Defend You From Predictive Policing and Here’s Why – .Mic
Consumer Reviews: Senate Commerce Committee Approves Consumer Review Freedom Act – Technology & Marketing Law Blog. The Act was subsequently approved by the Senate.
Cybersecurity:
Your Unhashable Fingerprints Secure Nothing – Hackaday
Let’s Encrypt has begun issuing free HTTPS certificates in its public beta
General Interest
Her Code Got Humans on the Moon and Invented Software Itself – Wired profile of Margaret Hamilton
26 Charts and Maps that Show the World is Getting Much, Much Better – Vox
Write Like You Talk – Paul Graham
The Interactive, Annotated Edition of ‘Bartleby, the Scrivener’ You Always Wanted – Slate
The Entire Season: An Elegy for Charlie Trotter – Matthew Gavin Frank writing at Electric Literature
“At least twice in human history, individual people decided to avoid global nuclear war: [one], [two]” – Jeffrey Paul (@sneakdotberlin): October 26, 2015. See also: Newly Declassified Documents Reveal How America Missed a Major Nuclear War Scare – The Week