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The King County Council Committee of the Whole is considering on ordinance 2021-0091, banning governmental use of facial recognition – including by law enforcement.   Update, June 2: King County Council passed the ordinance unanimously, 9-0! Thanks to all the activists and researchers who have laid the groundwork for this over the years, all the…

Links, and occasional tweets, from around the web curated from The Nexus Today – an intermittent series Update, November 2021: most of the semi-regular “tech news roundups” I did in early 2021 are now hidden.  This top story on this one, though, relates to the the Washington privacy battle so I decided to leave it…

From the May 5 King County Council “Committee of the Whole” meeting. I’m Jon Pincus, a technologist, entrepreneur, and long-time Bellevue resident. Following up on my comments from two weeks ago, I’d like to highlight a key difference between the proposed King County Ordinance 2021-0091 and the statewide facial recognition legislation SB 6280 that comes…

Twitter poll, Friday April 16 Last updated: April 21 There’s less a week left in the Washington state legislative session.   A few months ago, the Bad Washington Privacy Act (SB 5062) seemed like it was sure to pass. Sen. Reuven Carlyle’s weak, industry-backed bill had sailed through the Senate 48-1 – and House Civil…

The Washington state legislature is about to vote on the Bad Washington Privacy Act (SB 5062).  Defenders of this bill would like us believe that this bill is a “gold standard” with “strong protections” and “unambiguous rights”.  In reality, the current version of the bill codifies the status quo.  It protects tech industry’s rights, but…

This is the testimony I actually wound up giving at the hearing.  It was better live because I made air quotes around the spin that lobbyists were saying 🙂   You can see my longer written testimony here. Madame Chair, Mr. Ranking Member, and members of the committee, I’m Jon Pincus from Bellevue, a technologist…

This was the expanded written version of the testimony I planned to give at the House Appropriations hearing on SB 5062.  Plans changed and I wound up discussing something different, but I still filed it as written testimony. Mr. Chair, Ranking Member, and members of the Appropriations committee, I’m Jon Pincus from Bellevue, a technologist…

The Washington state Senate’s about to vote on a couple of key privacy-related bills: SB 5010, which originally would have prohibited insurers from using credit scores to set rates but now is “watered down to the point where its impact would be quite minimal” thanks to an  amendment written by the insurance industry that ‘gutted’…

Links from around the web … Disclosures of NYPD Surveillance Technologies Raise More Questions Than Answers By Joël Carter on Tech Policy Press (techpolicy.press) The POST Act requires NYPD to release information on its surveillance systems. But the first tranche of disclosures prompt serious concerns. TikTok is being tapped by brands like Grammarly, which have…

A roundup of links from around the web … How One State Managed to Actually Write Rules on Facial Recognition By Kashmir Hill on NYTimes (nytimes.com) Massachusetts is one of the first states to put legislative guardrails around the use of facial recognition technology in criminal investigations. India Targets Climate Activists With the Help of…

Update, November 2021: most of the semi-regular “tech news roundups” I did in early 2021 are now hidden.  This top story on this one, though, relates to the the Washington privacy battle so I decided to leave it up.   ‘This is bigger than just Timnit’: How Google tried to silence a critic and ignited…

It’s been a busy few weeks in the Washington state legislature!   But before we get to the update, here are three actions you can take right now if you’re a if you’re a Washingtonian who wants to protect our privacy. Pass The People’s Privacy Act Ask Ways & Means to add a private right…

I testified at the February 8 House Ways & Means hearing on SB 5062.  So did quite a few other people, so we only had a minute each!   The video is available on TVW; SB 5062 was the first bill discussed in the session, and my testimony starts at 23:15.   Here’s an expanded…

Last updated: March 11. It’s not actually a spiral. It’s an optical illusion. The weak, industry-backed Bad Washington Privacy Act (SB 5062) has passed the Senate, and is heading on to the House.   SB 5062’s January Senate hearing featured plenty of sharp criticism, including examples of how it would not help people and communities…

Last week’s The stakes are high: Washington state privacy, facial recognition, and automated decision making legislation 2021 discussed several bills backed by the Tech Equity Coalition, a group of civil liberties and civil rights-focused organizations and individuals working to hold technology companies accountable – as well as one bill we oppose. The Washington legislative season’s…

Most recent update: January 29 SB 5062’s official title is Concerning the management, oversight, and use of data.  It’s generally referred to as the “Washington Privacy Act,” but as Jennifer Lee of ACLU of Washington said in her testimony at the January 14 hearing, it gives the illusion of privacy.   Susan Grant of Consumer…

Most recent update: January 30. Washington is justifiably looked to as a tech-savvy state, and legislation that gets passed here will influence other states and the national debate.   It’s a challenging time to be doing state legislative work, but the mostly-remote session kicked off as scheduled on January 11 and things are off to…

Apologies for missing a few days!  Yesterday I testified at a state Senate hearing on SB 5062, the Bad Washington Privacy Act, and let things slide here as I prepared.  As you can probably tell I’m still working on getting the right rhythm for the newsletter! Here’s the tweetstream from the hearing.  I’ll have a…

The Nexus Today is a news aggregator, highlighting interesting links from around the web on a variety of topics.   Unlike Google News, Reddit, and other popular news aggregators, it’s designed with an explicit focus on accessibility, privacy, diversity and justice.   You can read more about it here – or check it out at…