Author archives

FACE Recognition Technology: FBI Should Better Ensure Privacy and Accuracy

FACE Recognition Technology: FBI Should Better Ensure Privacy and Accuracy [Reissued on August 3, 2016] GAO-16-267: Published: May 16, 2016. Publicly Released: Jun 15, 2016. “The Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) operates the Next Generation Identification-Interstate Photo System (NGI-IPS)— a face recognition service that allows law enforcement agencies to search a …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Cybersecurity, Government Documents, ID Theft, Privacy

DATA Act: Initial Observations on Technical Implementation

DATA Act: Initial Observations on Technical Implementation, GAO-16-824R: Published: Aug 3, 2016. Publicly Released: Aug 3, 2016. “This is the latest work in response to a mandate for GAO to assess DATA Act implementation efforts to improve the transparency and accuracy of data on the approximately $3.7 trillion spent annually by the federal government. A …

Subjects: Congress, Government Documents, Internet, Knowledge Management

New Freedom of Information Act Request Documents Released by ODNI

August 3, 2016 – Read the full “Proactive Disclosure” press release at DOJ.gov. “The Office of the Director of National Intelligence is one of seven federal agencies participating in a pilot program to make records requested via the Freedom of Information Act more readily available to the public, as reflected in the recently released Third …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, E-Records, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research

New Commitments to Accelerate the Safe Integration of Unmanned Aircraft Systems

White House Fact Sheet, August 2, 2016: “Since President Obama took office in 2009, developments in aviation, sensing, and software technology have powered a revolution in unmanned flight. In the next decade, the burgeoning commercial drone industry is projected to generate more than $82 billion for the U.S. economy and, by 2025, could support as …

Subjects: Government Documents, Legal Research, Transportation

New initiative from Privacy International tracks the global surveillance industry

“A new initiative launched today by Privacy International aims to track the growth and scale of the global surveillance industry, a shadowy sector consisting of companies selling a wide range of electronic surveillance technology to government agencies across the world. Made available today is the world’s largest publicly available educational resource of data and documents …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, E-Mail, E-Records, Free Speech, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Privacy

The Robustness of EU Financial Crimes Legislation

Herlin-Karnell, Ester and Ryder, Nicholas, The Robustness of EU Financial Crimes Legislation: A Critical Review of the EU and UK Anti-Fraud and Money Laundering Scheme (May 2016). European Business Law Review, 2017, Forthcoming. Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2816980 “The paper investigates the European Union’s (EU) fight against crime as partly one of establishing the …

Subjects: Economy, Financial System, Government Documents, Legal Research

Cognitive Emotion and the Law

Lloyd, Harold Anthony, Cognitive Emotion and the Law (August 1, 2016). Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2817201 “Many wrongly believe that emotion plays little or no role in legal reasoning. Unfortunately, Langdell and his “scientific” case method encourage this error. A careful review of analysis in the real world, however, belies this common belief. Emotion …

Subjects: Education, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

Regulated Institutions to Submit Self-Assessments of Diversity Policies and Practices

“The federal banking agencies today provided information on how the financial institutions they regulate may begin to submit self-assessments of their diversity policies and practices as of year-end 2015, and issued Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about the process. Financial institutions are strongly encouraged to disclose on their websites their diversity policies and practices, as well …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Government Documents, Legal Research, Legislation

Interest Costs in The Long-Term Budget Outlook

“Earlier this month, the Congressional Budget Office published The 2016 Long-Term Budget Outlook, describing the agency’s projections of federal spending, revenues, deficits, and debt over the next 30 years. Yesterday we highlighted key factors underlying the projected growth in spending for Social Security and the major health care programs. Today we’ll focus on interest costs. …

Subjects: Economy, Financial System, Government Documents

Options to Improve the Financial Condition of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s Multiemployer Program

“The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) is a government-owned corporation responsible for insuring the benefits of 41 million people who participate in defined benefit pension plans provided by private employers. About 10 million of those participants are covered by plans offered by groups of employers; such plans are insured by PBGC’s multiemployer program. That program …

Subjects: Economy, Financial System, Government Documents