California takes bold step to reduce truck pollution

California Air Resources Board: [June 25, 2022], “the California Air Resources Board adopted a first-in-the-world rule requiring truck manufacturers to transition from diesel trucks and vans to electric zero-emission trucks beginning in 2024.  This bold and timely move sets a clean-truck standard for the nation and the world, and marks the Newsom administration’s most important air …

Subjects: Climate Change, Economy, Energy, Environmental Law, Health Care, Transportation

Okay, Google: To protect women, collect less data about everyone

Washington Post: “…This is a moment I’ve long worried would arrive. The way tens of millions of Americans use everyday Google products has suddenly become dangerous. Following the Supreme Court decision to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling, anything Google knows about you could be acquired by police in states where abortion is now …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Internet, Legal Research, Privacy, Search Engines

Free App Identifies Bird Species by Sound

Sci-News: “The BirdNET app is a free bird sound identification app for Android and iOS that includes over 3,000 bird species. Ornithologists hope this app will reduce barriers to citizen science and generate tens of millions of bird observations globally…” The ubiquity of smartphones combined with the power of new machine learning algorithms presents an …

Subjects: AI, Climate Change, Environmental Law

Protecting people’s privacy on health topics

Axios: “Google announced it will soon start deleting the “Location History” entry if a user who is signed in to a Google app — including Gmail or YouTube — visits a “particularly personal” medical facility. That includes counseling centers, domestic violence shelters, abortion clinics, fertility centers, addiction treatment facilities, weight loss clinics and cosmetic surgery …

Subjects: E-Mail, E-Records, Health Care, Internet, Legal Research, Medicine, Privacy, Search Engines

An Overview of Privacy Law in 2022

Solove, Daniel J. and Schwartz, Paul M., An Overview of Privacy Law in 2022 (April 1, 2022). Chapter 1 of PRIVACY LAW FUNDAMENTALS (6th Edition, IAPP 2022), GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2022-26, GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 2022-26, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4072205 “Chapter 1 of PRIVACY LAW FUNDAMENTALS (6th edition, …

Subjects: EU Data Protection, Government Documents, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Legislation, Privacy

Copyright Protections for Press Publishers

USPTO: “The Copyright Office has concluded a public study evaluating the effectiveness of current copyright protections for publishers in the United States, with a focus on press publishers. The Office’s report—Copyright Protections for Press Publishers—is linked on the right side of this page. In their letter requesting this study, six members of Congress pointed to …

Subjects: Copyright, Free Speech, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

FDA calls for fall boosters against BA.4/5 as subvariants take over US

Ars Technica: “On Thursday [June 30, 2022], the US Food and Drug Administration advised vaccine makers to reformulate COVID-19 booster shots for this fall. The boosters would target both the original strain of the pandemic coronavirus plus two new omicron subvariants—BA.4 and BA.5—which became the dominant versions of the virus circulating in the United States …

Subjects: Government Documents, Health Care, Medicine

Overview of the American Data Privacy and Protection Act

CRS Legal Sidebar, Overview of the American Data Privacy and Protection Act H.R. 8152, June 30, 2022: “On June 21, 2022, the House Energy and Commerce Committee introduced the American Data Privacy and Protection Act (ADPPA), H.R. 8152,which would create a comprehensive federal consumer privacy framework. Some commentators have noted the bill’s novel compromises on …

Subjects: Congress, E-Records, Legal Research, Legislation, Privacy