Category «Government Documents»

H&R Block, Meta, and Google Slapped With RICO Suit

Gizmodo: “Anyone who has used H&R Block’s tax return preparation services in recent years may have unintentionally helped line Meta and Google’s pockets. That’s according to a new class action lawsuit which alleges the three companies “jointly schemed” to install trackers on the H&R Block site to scan and transmit tax data back to the …

Subjects: AI, Congress, E-Records, Financial System, Government Documents, Legal Research, Privacy

OIG Report – Material Loss Review of Silicon Valley Bank

“The Office of Inspector General for the Federal Reserve System and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released Evaluation Report 2023-SR-B-013, Material Loss Review of Silicon Valley Bank, September 25, 2023, a review of the Federal Reserve Board’s supervision of Silicon Valley Bank. In a letter responding to the OIG’s report, the Federal Reserve Board’s …

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

Supreme Corporate Tax Giveaway: Who Would Benefit from the Roberts Court Striking Down the Mandatory Repatriation Tax?

Roosevelt Institute and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP): Executive Summary – “Later this year, the Supreme Court will hear what could become the most important tax case in a century. In Moore v. US, ostensibly about the tax liability of an American family with minority shares in an Indian farming firm, the …

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

Is Amazon Alexa spying on you?

Proton VPN Blog: “Amazon and third parties (including advertising and tracking services) collect smart speaker interaction data. We find that Amazon processes voice data to infer user interests and uses it to serve targeted ads on-platform (Echo devices) as well as off-platform (web). Smart speaker interaction leads to as much as 30X higher ad bids …

Subjects: E-Records, Government Documents, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Privacy

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, September 23, 2023

Via LLRX – Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, September 23, 2023 – Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the …

Subjects: Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, E-Records, Government Documents, Internet, Legal Research, Legislation, Privacy, Search Engines

Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool

Council on Environmental Quality: “Explore the map – Census tracts that are overburdened and underserved are highlighted as being disadvantaged on the map. Federally Recognized Tribes, including Alaska Native Villages, are also considered disadvantaged communities. Zooming in and selecting shows information about each census tract.”  Search for an address, city, state or zipcode.

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Climate Change, E-Government, Environmental Law, Government Documents, Legal Research, Search Engines

TikTok’s Rules Deter Researchers From Crunching Data on Users, Misinformation

Bloomberg Law via Yahoo Finance: “As TikTok gets more popular, researchers at leading academic institutions want to study what users are doing there. Publicly, the company says it’s open to this, and is partnering with academics. But researchers said so far, the video app’s rules about data are too burdensome. TikTok is in the process …

Subjects: Congress, Education, Government Documents, Legal Research, Social Media

CDC punts on COVID 19 Public Health Data

CDC archives and ends the site Excess Deaths Associated with COVID-19 [why as the virus and deaths continue?] – and replaces it with this: “Welcome to CDC WONDER — Wide-ranging ONline Data for Epidemiologic Research — an easy-to-use, menu-driven system that makes the information resources of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) available …

Subjects: E-Government, Government Documents, Health Care, Internet

USPTO new cloud-based trademark search system with basic and advanced search options

“As we recently noted, we are improving our search tools frequently used by patent and trademark filers and web visitors to provide a more multi-faceted, reliable search experience. To that end, we are excited to announce the launch of the beta version of our new trademark search system.    This new, cloud-based search system will replace …

Subjects: E-Government, Government Documents, Legal Research, Patent and Trademark

Meet the Law Geeks Exposing Google’s Secretive Antitrust Trial

Wired – “A historic antitrust trial sees Google accused of unlawfully monopolizing search. A handful of antitrust activists are trying to make sure the world sees all the action.Google logo sign outside of a building on the Months out of law school, Yosef Weitzman already has a huge courtroom role in the biggest antitrust trial …

Subjects: Courts, Government Documents, Internet, Legal Research, Search Engines, Social Media

Facility Level Information on Greenhouse Gases Tool

Via Jeremy Singer-Vine, Data is Plural: The EPA’s Facility Level Information on Greenhouse Gases Tool “gives you access to greenhouse gas data reported to EPA by large emitters, facilities that inject CO2 underground, and suppliers of products that result in GHG emissions when used in the United States.” The information comes from the agency’s Greenhouse …

Subjects: Climate Change, E-Government, Environmental Law, Government Documents