Electronic Privacy Information Center
Encyclopedia
Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) is a public interest research group in Washington, D.C.
It was established in 1994 to focus public attention on emerging civil liberties
issues and to protect privacy
, the First Amendment
, and constitutional values in the information age. EPIC pursues a wide range of activities, including privacy research, public education, conferences, litigation, publications, and advocacy.
EPIC maintains web sites (epic.org and privacy.org) and publishes the online EPIC Alert every two weeks with information about emerging privacy and civil liberties issues. EPIC also publishes Privacy and Human Rights, Litigation Under the Federal Open Government Laws, The Public Voice WSIS Sourcebook, The Privacy Law Sourcebook, and The Consumer Law Sourcebook. EPIC litigates high-profile privacy, First Amendment
, and Freedom of Information Act cases. EPIC advocates for strong privacy safeguards.
In addition to maintaining privacy.org, EPIC also coordinates the Public Voice coalition, and the Privacy Coalition. EPIC also established the National Committee on Voting Integrity.
EPIC was founded in 1994 by David Banisar, Marc Rotenberg
, and David Sobel
, as a joint project of the Fund for Constitutional Government and Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
. Early on, the organization focused on government surveillance and cryptography issues, such as the Clipper Chip
and the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act
, or CALEA. After becoming an independent non-profit organization in November 2000, EPIC has continued to work on governmental issues: surveillance; transparency, using the Freedom of Information Act to publicize documents; and the security, verifiability, and privacy of electronic voting
. It has also taken up the growing number of consumer privacy issues, such as identity theft, phone record security, medical record privacy, and commercial data mining
.
quoted a member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation
as saying that EPIC "made everybody else at the table look moderate. It's the old good-cop-bad-cop routine."
EPIC maintains and publishes its newsletter, the EPIC Alert, every two weeks.
EPIC also publishes several books on privacy and open government, including Privacy and Human Rights, Litigation Under the Federal Open Government Laws, Filters and Freedom, The Public Voice WSIS Sourcebook, The Privacy Law Sourcebook, and The Consumer Law Sourcebook.
Other publications include reports on internet privacy for web surfers, an analysis of industry self-regulation, and how Internet filtering software can block innocuous sites.
EPIC also maintains privacy.org, and the Privacy Coalition. In addition, EPIC coordinates the Public Voice coalition, launched in 1996 to promote public and NGO participation in decisions concerning the future of the Internet, as well as the National Committee for Voting Integrity, which was established to promote voter-verified balloting and to preserve privacy protections for elections in the United States.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
It was established in 1994 to focus public attention on emerging civil liberties
Civil liberties
Civil liberties are rights and freedoms that provide an individual specific rights such as the freedom from slavery and forced labour, freedom from torture and death, the right to liberty and security, right to a fair trial, the right to defend one's self, the right to own and bear arms, the right...
issues and to protect privacy
Privacy
Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively...
, the First Amendment
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
, and constitutional values in the information age. EPIC pursues a wide range of activities, including privacy research, public education, conferences, litigation, publications, and advocacy.
EPIC maintains web sites (epic.org and privacy.org) and publishes the online EPIC Alert every two weeks with information about emerging privacy and civil liberties issues. EPIC also publishes Privacy and Human Rights, Litigation Under the Federal Open Government Laws, The Public Voice WSIS Sourcebook, The Privacy Law Sourcebook, and The Consumer Law Sourcebook. EPIC litigates high-profile privacy, First Amendment
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
, and Freedom of Information Act cases. EPIC advocates for strong privacy safeguards.
In addition to maintaining privacy.org, EPIC also coordinates the Public Voice coalition, and the Privacy Coalition. EPIC also established the National Committee on Voting Integrity.
Background
Marc Rotenberg
Marc Rotenberg is President and Executive Director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, DC. He teaches Information Privacy Law at Georgetown University Law Center, and testifies frequently before Congress on emerging privacy and civil liberties issues, such as access to...
, and David Sobel
David Sobel
David Sobel is an education writer who has helped in developing the philosophy of place-based education. He has written extensively on the topic in books and numerous articles. He is currently a Core Faculty member and Director of Certificate Programs at Antioch University New England.-...
, as a joint project of the Fund for Constitutional Government and Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility is a global organization promoting the responsible use of computer technology. in 1983 . It educates policymakers and the public on a wide range of issues...
. Early on, the organization focused on government surveillance and cryptography issues, such as the Clipper Chip
Clipper chip
The Clipper chip was a chipset that was developed and promoted by the U.S. National Security Agency as an encryption device to be adopted by telecommunications companies for voice transmission...
and the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act
Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act
The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act is a United States wiretapping law passed in 1994, during the presidency of Bill Clinton...
, or CALEA. After becoming an independent non-profit organization in November 2000, EPIC has continued to work on governmental issues: surveillance; transparency, using the Freedom of Information Act to publicize documents; and the security, verifiability, and privacy of electronic voting
Electronic voting
Electronic voting is a term encompassing several different types of voting, embracing both electronic means of casting a vote and electronic means of counting votes....
. It has also taken up the growing number of consumer privacy issues, such as identity theft, phone record security, medical record privacy, and commercial data mining
Data mining
Data mining , a relatively young and interdisciplinary field of computer science is the process of discovering new patterns from large data sets involving methods at the intersection of artificial intelligence, machine learning, statistics and database systems...
.
Organizational structure
EPIC is registered as a non-profit Public Charity, and receives most of its funding from organizational and individual contributors, as well as through grants and the sale of its publications.Criticisms
EPIC has been criticized by both opponents and supporters for what are seen as its extreme positions on privacy issues. The June 1995 issue of WiredWired (magazine)
Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
quoted a member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation
Electronic Frontier Foundation
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is an international non-profit digital rights advocacy and legal organization based in the United States...
as saying that EPIC "made everybody else at the table look moderate. It's the old good-cop-bad-cop routine."
Publications
EPIC also publishes several books on privacy and open government, including Privacy and Human Rights, Litigation Under the Federal Open Government Laws, Filters and Freedom, The Public Voice WSIS Sourcebook, The Privacy Law Sourcebook, and The Consumer Law Sourcebook.
Other publications include reports on internet privacy for web surfers, an analysis of industry self-regulation, and how Internet filtering software can block innocuous sites.
EPIC also maintains privacy.org, and the Privacy Coalition. In addition, EPIC coordinates the Public Voice coalition, launched in 1996 to promote public and NGO participation in decisions concerning the future of the Internet, as well as the National Committee for Voting Integrity, which was established to promote voter-verified balloting and to preserve privacy protections for elections in the United States.
Historical timeline
- March 2009: EPIC filed a complaint with the Federal Trade CommissionFederal Trade CommissionThe Federal Trade Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1914 by the Federal Trade Commission Act...
asking it to examine the privacy protections in GoogleGoogleGoogle Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
's cloud computingCloud computingCloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over a network ....
applications including PicasaPicasaPicasa is an image organizer and image viewer for organizing and editing digital photos, plus an integrated photo-sharing website, originally created by Idealab in 2002 and owned by Google since 2004. "Picasa" is a blend of the name of Spanish painter Pablo Picasso, the phrase mi casa for "my...
, Google Docs and GmailGmailGmail is a free, advertising-supported email service provided by Google. Users may access Gmail as secure webmail, as well via POP3 or IMAP protocols. Gmail was launched as an invitation-only beta release on April 1, 2004 and it became available to the general public on February 7, 2007, though...
after an error exposed users' documents publicly without permission. - April 2007: EPIC, along with the Center for Digital Democracy and U.S. PIRG, filed a complaint with the Federal Trade CommissionFederal Trade CommissionThe Federal Trade Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1914 by the Federal Trade Commission Act...
, urging the Commission to open an investigation into the proposed acquisition of DoubleClick by Google. The groups urged the FTC to assess the ability of Google to record, analyze, track, and profile the activities of Internet users with data that is both personally identifiable and data that is not personally identifiable. The groups further urged the FTC to require Google to publicly present a plan to comply with well-established government and industry privacy standards such as the OECD Privacy Guidelines. Pending the resolution of these and other issues, EPIC encouraged the FTC to halt the acquisition. - April 2007: In response to a petition filed by EPIC, the Federal Communications CommissionFederal Communications CommissionThe Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
issued rules to protect the privacy of consumers' telephone records. - March 2007: In testimony before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, EPIC Executive Director Marc Rotenberg expressed support for H.R. 936, the Prevention of Fraudulent Access to Phone Records Act.
- February 2007: In testimony before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, EPIC staff counsel Allison Knight testified in support of the Truth in Caller ID Act of 2007.
- November 2006: EPIC joined with other organizations in urging the Supreme Court to review Gilmore v. GonzalesGilmore v. GonzalesGilmore v. Gonzales, , was a lawsuit filed by John Gilmore against various United States executive and independent agencies and departments, and United Airlines...
. The case concerns a secret rule that allows airport personnel to require travelers in the United States to produce identification. EPIC's brief said that the secret agency rule "offends the Constitution and implicates the rights of millions of American travelers who are presently subject to arbitrary and unaccountable governmental authority." - May 2006: EPIC Executive Director Marc Rotenberg testified at a hearing before the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet on the Truth in Caller ID Act of 2006, a bill that would outlaw "spoofing" telephone calls.
- April 2006: EPIC filed a friend of the court brief in Peterson v. NTIA supporting the rights of .US domain name holders not to publish their personal information on the Internet. In 2005, the Department of Commerce, which administers the .US domain, banned users from using proxy services that would protect privacy.
- February 2006: In testimony before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, EPIC Executive Director Marc Rotenberg called for a ban on the sale of communications records, as well as a ban on "pretexting," the practice of using false pretenses to trick a company into releasing personal information.
- February 2006: In a Freedom of Information Act complaint filed in federal court, EPIC sought the release of National Security AgencyNational Security AgencyThe National Security Agency/Central Security Service is a cryptologic intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the collection and analysis of foreign communications and foreign signals intelligence, as well as protecting U.S...
documents detailing the Administration's warrantless domestic surveillance program. - February 2006: EPIC Executive Director Marc Rotenberg testified before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on the sale of personal phone records. EPIC called for laws that would ban pretexting (a technique used by data brokers to obtain personal information), as well as enhanced security procedures, and restrictions on the collection of customer data.
- January 2006: The Federal Trade CommissionFederal Trade CommissionThe Federal Trade Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1914 by the Federal Trade Commission Act...
announced a settlement with data broker ChoicepointChoicePointChoicePoint was a data aggregation company based in Alpharetta, near Atlanta, Georgia, United States, that acted as a private intelligence service to government and industry...
, under which the company had to pay $10 million to the Commission and $5 million to redress consumer harms. It was the largest civil penalty in FTC history. EPIC had filed a complaint with the Federal Trade CommissionFederal Trade CommissionThe Federal Trade Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1914 by the Federal Trade Commission Act...
in December 2004 urging the agency to investigate the compilation and sale of personal dossiers by data brokers such as ChoicePoint. - January 2006: EPIC filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Justice DepartmentUnited States Department of JusticeThe United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
, asking a federal court to order the disclosure of information about the Administration's warrantless domestic surveillance program within 20 days. - January 2006: EPIC filed suit in federal court against the Justice Department for reports of possible misconduct submitted by the FBI to the Intelligence Oversight Board.
- November 2005: EPIC testified before the House Homeland Security Committee and warned that the new plan for passenger screening was still flawed. EPIC recommended that the program not go forward until its problems were fixed.
- November 2005: Judge Gladys KesslerGladys KesslerGladys Kessler is an American jurist who sits on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. She was nominated to the court by President Bill Clinton, and confirmed in July 1994....
ordered the FBI to publicly release or account for 1,500 pages responsive to EPIC's Freedom of Information Act request every fifteen days. - October 2005: Documents obtained by EPIC under the Freedom of Information Act described thirteen cases of possible FBI misconduct in intelligence investigations.
- October 2005: EPIC and Patient Privacy Rights launched a joint campaign to strengthen protections for patients' medical information.
- October 2005: EPIC filed an amicus brief in a federal case that raised the question of whether the police may coerce a person to provide a DNA sample. EPIC's brief, which provided detailed information on the many problems with DNA dragnets, argued that very clear guidelines must be established before the police may engage in this practice.
- October 2005: EPIC led a campaign of more than 100 organizations that urged Secretary of Defense Donald RumsfeldDonald RumsfeldDonald Henry Rumsfeld is an American politician and businessman. Rumsfeld served as the 13th Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, and as the 21st Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. He is both the youngest and the oldest person to...
to end the "Joint Advertising and Market Research Studies" Recruiting Database. - August 2005: EPIC petitioned the Federal Communications CommissionFederal Communications CommissionThe Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
to initiate a rulemaking to enhance security safeguards for individuals' calling records. The petition follows a complaint concerning the illegal sale of personal information obtained from telephone carriers, and an updated filing where EPIC identified 40 websites that openly offer to obtain calling records without the knowledge and consent of the account holder. - August 2005: EPIC and a coalition of open government organizations filed an amicus brief in Gonzales v. Doe, a lawsuit concerning the FBI's authority to issue national security letters without judicial approval and under a permanent gag order that bans the recipient from telling anyone about the demand.
- July 2005: EPIC testified before the House Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection. EPIC urged Congress to pass strong data security legislation that includes privacy protections for use of personal information.
- July 2005: EPIC testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in opposition to the ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime. EPIC urged the Senate to oppose ratification because of the convention's sweeping expansion of law enforcement authority, the lack of legal safeguards, and the impact on U.S. Constitutional rights.
- May 2005: EPIC testified before the House Judiciary Committee on one of several proposals before Congress to impose new employment verification requirements on those wishing to work within the U.S. The legislation would require all workers to obtain a Social Security NumberSocial Security numberIn the United States, a Social Security number is a nine-digit number issued to U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and temporary residents under section 205 of the Social Security Act, codified as . The number is issued to an individual by the Social Security Administration, an independent...
card that would be machine-readable, and would also empower the Department of Homeland Security to determine employment eligibility of those seeking employment. EPIC opposed the creation of this new employment verification system. - April 2005: EPIC filed a complaint asking a federal court to force the FBI to disclose information about its use of expanded investigative authority granted by sunsetting provisions of the USA PATRIOT ActUSA PATRIOT ActThe USA PATRIOT Act is an Act of the U.S. Congress that was signed into law by President George W. Bush on October 26, 2001...
. The agency had agreed to quickly process EPIC's Freedom of Information Act request for the data, but had not complied with the timeline for even a standard FOIA request. - March 2005: EPIC urged lawmakers to regulate ChoicepointChoicePointChoicePoint was a data aggregation company based in Alpharetta, near Atlanta, Georgia, United States, that acted as a private intelligence service to government and industry...
and other data brokers in testimony before the House Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection. EPIC testified that there is too much secrecy and too little accountability in the business dealings of data brokers, and that Choicepoint's selling of customer information to identity thieves underscored the need for federal regulation of the information broker industry. - January 2005: EPIC learned through Freedom of Information Act litigation that the FBI had obtained 257.5 million Passenger Name RecordPassenger Name RecordIn the travel industry, a passenger name record is a record in the database of a computer reservation system that contains the itinerary for a passenger, or a group of passengers traveling together...
s following 9/11, and that the Bureau has permanently incorporated the travel details of tens of millions of innocent people into its law enforcement databases.