September Updates from Peter Swire, Alston & Bird LLP

Hello friends and colleagues:

This email updates you on a variety of work Peter Swire has done in recent months on privacy, security and related topics. Swire continues in his role as Senior Counsel with Alston & Bird in the privacy and cybersecurity practices, consistent with his role as the Huang Professor of Law and Ethics at Georgia Tech’s Scheller College of Business.

1. You are invited to attend Alston & Bird’s live briefing and webinar starting at noon on September 24 on “National Security, Cyber Espionage and ‘Bulk PII’ Breaches.” Along with discussion from Alston & Bird partners Jim Harvey and Kim Peretti, Swire will be on a panel with Luke Dembowsky, Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the National Security Division, and Erez Lieberman, Senior Regulatory Counsel for Prudential. Click here for more information.
   
   
2. Research project this year on MLATs, Encryption and Lawful Access. The major academic/policy research effort this year will be on the topic of mutual legal assistance treaties (MLATs) and related issues, including encryption and lawful access. This work will build on the draft paper with Justin Hemmings, presented at the Privacy Law Scholars Conference, Harvard and NYU earlier this summer. If you are interested in participating, contact Peter Swire at  peter.swire@alston.com.
   
   
3. Senate Judiciary Committee testimony on “Going Dark: Encryption, Technology, and the Balance Between Public Safety and Privacy.” In this hearing, which also included FBI Director James Comey and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, Swire set forth the negative effects on national security, civil liberties, privacy and U.S. technological leadership from possible new restrictions on the uses of effective encryption. Click here for more information. The Slate version of the testimony is here.
   
   
4. “The Declining Half Life of Secrets and the Future of Signals Intelligence.” The New America Foundation has published this paper, which grew out of the President’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technology. It explains the information technology reasons why intelligence agencies (and others) should expect many of their secrets to be revealed far sooner than historically was true, and what to do about that. Click here for more information. The Just Security version is here.
   
   
5. Testimony before the Federal Communications Commission on broadband consumer privacy.  As part of the Open Internet proceeding (net neutrality), the privacy provisions in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 apply to broadband Internet access services. Among other issues, the testimony examined the importance of areas where consumer opt-out is not generally appropriate: anti-fraud, cybersecurity and research on network usage. Click here for more information.
   
   
6. The USA FREEDOM Act.  Here are two short articles explaining the NSA reforms in the USA FREEDOM Act and the links to the Review Group’s recommendations:
   To view “USA FREEDOM Act Is Biggest Intel Reform in 40 Years,” click here. 
   To view “A Historical Primer for This Week’s Judicial and Congressional Actions on Section 215 Bulk Collection,” click here.
   
   
7. Wall Street Journal coverage of Swire work on de-identification. The Wall Street Journal quoted Swire on the subject of privacy controls protecting against re-identification of Yodlee’s financial database product. To read more, click here. To read the company's response, click here.
   
   
8. Two podcast interviews:
   Stewart Baker interview with Swire and Annie Antón on cybersecurity: Click here.
   New America/Christian Science Monitor interview on declining half-life of secrets: Click here.
   
   
9. Selected upcoming speaking events: 
   IAPP Privacy Academy: panel on medical privacy, Oct. 1, Las Vegas. 
   Privacy & Security Forum: two panels, Oct. 23, Washington, D.C.  
   Privacy XChange Forum, speech on “The Second Wave of Global Privacy Protection,” Oct. 26, Phoenix. 
   IAPP Europe Data Protection Congress, keynote panel with Paul Nemitz, Dec. 3, Brussels.
   Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection, panel on MLATs, Jan. 27-29, Brussels.

For additional updates, please be sure to visit our blog at www.alstonprivacy.com.

This email, as well as any articles or other content linked to or otherwise cited by or attached to it, is not intended
to constitute and should not be relied upon as or construed to be legal advice.

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