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“The Department of Homeland Security (DHS or Department) Privacy Office is the first statutorily created privacy office in any federal agency, as set forth in Section 222 of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, as amended. The mission of the Privacy Office is to protect all individuals by embedding and enforcing privacy protections and transparency in …
Alexa O’Brien – Based on a work at alexaobrien.com – “I had an opportunity to attend a presentation by a retired technical director at the NSA, William Binney, which provided context for some of the published documents released by former NSA contractor, Edward Snowden. Because of the public value of Binney’s expertise on the subject, I decided to publish his presentation …
Bennett, Mark W., Confronting Cognitive ‘Anchoring Effect’ and ‘Blind Spot’ Biases in Federal Sentencing: A Modest Solution for Reforming a Fundamental Flaw (July 5, 2014). Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, Vol. 104, No. 3, p. 489, 2014. Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2503423 “Cognitive “anchoring effect” bias, especially related to numbers, like sentencing guidelines ranges, …
AFGHANISTAN EQUIPMENT DRAWDOWN: Progress Made, but Improved Controls in Decision Making Could Reduce Risk of Unnecessary Expenditures, GAO-14-768: Published: Sep 30, 2014. Publicly Released: Sep 30, 2014. BUREAU OF PRISONS: Information on Efforts and Potential Options to Save Costs, GAO-14-821: Published: Sep 30, 2014. Publicly Released: Sep 30, 2014. ELECTIONS: Observations on Wait Times for Voters on Election Day 2012, GAO-14-850: Published: Sep …
“The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in United States v. Dreyer that an agent for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service violated Defense Department regulations and the Posse Comitatus Act when he conducted a surveillance operation in Washington state to identify civilians who might be sharing illegal files. The 1878 Act prevents the U.S. …
“This report is submitted by the Program Manager for the Information Sharing Environment (PM-ISE) on behalf of the President, as required by Section 1016 (h) (2) of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act (IRTPA) of 2004, as amended. Accompanying, but distinct from this report, are substantial performance data and links to best practices, lessons learned, …
Born Suspect – NAACP – September 2014: “For more than a century the NAACP has been engaged in the fight for a more fair and effective system of policing in America. Indeed, the first case the Association took on after its inception in 1910 involved defending a sharecropper from an illegal police raid on his …
UNESCO Database: “The library contains about 1,000 documents including: Member States’ constitutions, laws, decrees as well as educational programmes and plans. You can search the library by selecting a country region, type of document and/or language.”
News release: “As part of its continuing efforts to improve the federal sector complaint process, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today released a new report, Preserving Access to the Legal System: Common Errors by Federal Agencies in Dismissing Complaints of Discrimination on Procedural Grounds. In the equal employment opportunity (EEO) process for federal employees and …
ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS: The Corps Needs to Take Steps to Identify All Projects and Studies Eligible for Deauthorization, GAO-14-699: Published: Aug 21, 2014. Publicly Released: Sep 22, 2014. BUREAU OF PRISONS: Management of New Prison Activations Can Be Improved, GAO-14-709: Published: Aug 22, 2014. Publicly Released: Sep 22, 2014. CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION BUREAU:Some Privacy and Security Procedures for Data Collections …
Open Society Foundations: “The Mapping Digital Media project examines the global opportunities and risks created by new and digital media. Covering 56 countries, the project assesses how these changes affect the core democratic service that any media system should provide—news about political, economic, and social affairs—and how they can help advance open society values. Is a …
“The FBI announced that the Next Generation Identification system, one of the largest biometric databases in the world, has reached “full operational capability.” In 2013, EPIC filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit about the NGI program. EPIC obtained documents that revealed an acceptance of a 20% error rate in facial recognition searches. Earlier this year, EPIC joined a coalition of …
