EPIC - Electronic Privacy Information Center

11/13/2025

BREAKING: Today, EPIC and partner organizations filed an amicus brief in Slaughter v. Trump, a case challenging the President’s attempted firing of Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter. The brief supports Commissioner Slaughter’s reinstatement to the FTC and urges the Supreme Court to uphold nearly a century of precedent protecting members of independent agencies like the FTC from at-will presidential removal without cause.

“For nearly a century, Congress, the Court, the President, and the public at large have all accepted the wisdom and legality of protecting key agencies from undue political interference,” said EPIC Director of Litigation John Davisson. “Yet this administration is engaged in a radical attempt to rewrite settled constitutional law and grant itself unchecked administrative power. The Court should reject this cynical maneuver and reaffirm Congress’s authority to establish independent agencies. President Trump’s order claiming to fire Commissioner Slaughter is as illegal today as it was eight months ago.”

Federal agencies serve vital roles in American society, including regulating the economy, protecting Americans from corporate exploitation, and making sure consumer products are safe to use. The President’s attempted firing of Commissioner Slaughter represents the expansion and consolidation of executive power at a time of already rampant executive abuses, which threatens the American economy and enables political corruption.

Congress designed the FTC as an independent commission to resist political pressure. That’s not a bug—it’s a critical feature. SCOTUS must reject Trump’s illegal attempts to undo a century of law and protect the FTC.

The brief is led by , Federation of America, and Progress Education Fund, who are represented by counsel from the .C. Berkeley Center for Consumer Law and Economic Justice and Berger Montague.

https://buff.ly/nuwP9Bn

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Today, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and 39 other consumer protection, data privacy, and competition groups from 10 states and the District of Columbia submitted an amicus brief in Slaughter v. Trump, a case challenging the President’s attempted firing of Fed...

11/12/2025

Last week EPIC filed comments to the California Department of Justice on its upcoming rulemaking to implement protections in SB 976, the Protecting Our Kids From Social Media Addiction Act. SB 976 regulates engagement-maximizing algorithms that select and organize media for users by surveilling users’ online behavior. EPIC recommended that the California DOJ prioritize privacy- and speech-protective age assurance methods and standards in the rulemaking.

EPIC regularly advocates for privacy for minors online, including by supporting SB 976 and filing amicus briefs supporting the law in federal court.

https://buff.ly/SlTqxQE

EPIC recommended that the California DOJ prioritize privacy- and speech-protective age assurance methods and standards in the rulemaking.

11/12/2025

Tune in to The People's Oversight Hearing now! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av6Ks0gZplc

EPIC Director of Litigation John Davisson will serve as a questioner for the Federal Trade Commission hearing (11-12:30 p.m. ET), which will feature Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter as a witness. The hearing will discuss how corporate consolidation and harmful practices are going unchecked, weakening protections for consumers and small businesses.

Come join the conversation as we chart a course to restore agency accountability and ensure the government serves the public interest.

The federal agencies responsible for protecting the public interest in the technology, telecommunications, and financial sectors are drifting from their core...

11/12/2025

Tune in to The People's Oversight Hearing now! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av6Ks0gZplc

EPIC Director of Litigation John Davisson will serve as a questioner for the Federal Trade Commission hearing (11-12:30 p.m. ET), which will feature Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter as a witness. The hearing will discuss how corporate consolidation and harmful practices are going unchecked, weakening protections for consumers and small businesses.

Come join the conversation as we chart a course to restore agency accountability and ensure the government serves the public interest.

The federal agencies responsible for protecting the public interest in the technology, telecommunications, and financial sectors are drifting from their core...

11/11/2025

We are 10 months into the 119th session of Congress, and we have yet to see an oversight hearing for independent agencies — so we’ve decided to host our own. Join EPIC and Knowledge tomorrow for an all-day event featuring lawmakers, former agency officials, and civil society leaders as we shine light on regulatory failures and Congress’s abdication of oversight responsibility.

A livestream will also be available. Register today:

All Day event

11/10/2025

About one in three teen users of AI chatbots report feeling uncomfortable with something an AI chatbot has included in an output. To the children and teens using them, these technologies are not an experiment, even if companies still treat them like one. To combat harms from chatbots, EPIC teamed up with former enforcers to co-author “How Existing Laws Apply to AI Chatbots for Kids and Teens,” a guide outlining how existing legal frameworks can address emerging risks associated with chatbots used by or directed toward minors.

“Companies shouldn’t get a free pass to ignore the law just because they call something ‘AI,’” said Kara Williams, Counsel at EPIC. “The same consumer protection and privacy laws that have existed for years also apply to chatbots, and enforcers can and should use these laws to address the harms that come from tech companies putting out dangerous technologies.”

The guide underscores a key point: There is no AI exemption in the law. Federal and state consumer protection, data privacy, and data security statutes continue to apply, even as new technologies reshape how harms manifest in our lives.

Read the reference guide to learn more about how application of existing laws may mitigate harms to minors and teens:

Recognizing the urgency of these issues, we’ve come together – a team of privacy experts and former enforcers – to outline how existing laws can meet emerging AI risks to kids and teens. The “How Existing Laws Apply to AI Chatbots for Kids and Teens” reference guide offers a practical over...

11/07/2025

ICYMI: We recently published a whitepaper deep diving on what data mining is, its technical limitations, and its implications for privacy and civil rights when used by the government.

“Data mining could easily enable a supercharged surveillance apparatus that, in government hands, risks violating our rights, overstepping the government’s power, and perpetuating dangerous chilling effects,” explains EPIC’s Abigail Kunkler.

Read our latest whitepaper, Closing the Data Mines: Repairing Oversight, Preserving Rights here:

For decades, law enforcement and intelligence have used data mining—the process of extracting patterns from data to inform decision-making—to route resources, attempt to identify suspects, and predict illegal behavior. Those use cases raise significant concerns. 

11/06/2025

📢📬DELIVERY: EPIC’s latest whitepaper, Closing the Data Mines: Repairing Oversight, Preserving Rights, is out now! https://epic.org/data-mining-whitepaper/

Federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies have tried for decades to root out criminal and terrorist activity using data mining. There’s just one problem: Data mining is vulnerable to useless, biased, and inaccurate results and could easily violate your rights. We have a law in place to counter these concerns, but the nearly two decades since its enactment have revealed the law's weaknesses. Under an administration that treats privacy as an obstacle rather than a right, we need more than a peek under the hood to protect our fundamental rights.

In Closing the Data Mines, Law Fellow Abigail Kunkler explains (1) what data mining is, (2) why it is dangerous in government hands, and (3) how we get the accountability we deserve.

For decades, law enforcement and intelligence have used data mining—the process of extracting patterns from data to inform decision-making—to route resources, attempt to identify suspects, and predict illegal behavior. Those use cases raise significant concerns. 

11/05/2025

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11/04/2025

In addition to the government shutdown hindering access to SNAP benefits for millions of Americans, the government’s demand for the sensitive personal information of recipients of such programs is also troubling.

Speaking to Vermont Public, EPIC Director of Litigation John Davisson said the USDA’s order for SNAP data is part of a broader attempt by the Trump administration to amass a “piggy bank of personal information that it can use to dismantle the social safety net and carry out attacks on immigrants.”

“This indiscriminate demand for the data of SNAP recipients is illegal,” Davisson said in an interview Friday. “I think this really underscores the importance of the states that are a part of this suit fighting back.”

A ruling this week in a multistate lawsuit that Vermont declined to join is fueling renewed criticism of Republican Gov. Phil Scott’s decision to hand over the sensitive personal information of low-income Vermonters to the Trump administration.

11/03/2025

What happens when even telecom giants like AT&T and Verizon fall victim to cyberattacks? EPIC’s Global Encryption Day webinar on Salt Typhoon — described by cybersecurity leaders as one of the most significant cyber incidents in U.S. history — raised urgent questions about national infrastructure, security and encryption. Dr. David Mussington, CISSP DDN.QTE, Professor of the Practice at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, joined us for this timely discussion.

Watch the full webinar to hear expert insights here: https://epic.org/events/global-encryption-day-the-ultimate-hack-how-salt-typhoon-broke-phone-security-and-what-it-means-for-cyber-policy/

10/31/2025

New analysis: Explore the data behind EPIC's recently published five-year retrospective report on State Attorneys General privacy enforcement: https://epic.org/state-ag-privacy-enforcement/

Beyond the valuable analysis provided within the report, the compilation of data on State AG privacy enforcement actions is a meaningful contribution on its own, in service of those ready to make progress in protecting our privacy and autonomy from powerful corporate interests. https://epic.org/epics-insights-from-a-five-year-retrospective-on-state-attorneys-general-privacy-enforcement-and-tools-for-the-work-ahead/

Dive into a publicly accessible and sortable database of the enforcement actions included in the report, including PDF files of legal documents where available: https://airtable.com/app4cvxMFPTwk9IYt/shrpI3QqsgG7ooqFS