Palantir exec defends company’s immigration surveillance work

Palantir exec defends company’s immigration surveillance work

One of the founders of startup accelerator Y Combinator offered unsparing criticism this weekend of the controversial data analytics company Palantir, leading a company executive to offer an extensive defense of Palantir’s work. The back-and-forth came after federal filings showed that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — tasked with carrying out the Trump administration’s…

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Florida draft law mandating encryption backdoors for social media accounts billed ‘dangerous and dumb’

Florida draft law mandating encryption backdoors for social media accounts billed ‘dangerous and dumb’

A Florida draft bill that would require social media companies to provide encryption backdoors for law enforcement officials to access user accounts has cleared a key legislative hurdle and will now advance to the state’s Senate floor for a vote. Florida lawmakers unanimously approved pushing the bill through committee, per Florida Politics.  The “Social Media…

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Senator puts hold on Trump’s nominee for CISA director, citing telco security ‘cover up’

Senator puts hold on Trump’s nominee for CISA director, citing telco security ‘cover up’

Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden has put a hold on the Trump administration’s nomination of Sean Plankey to head the federal government’s top cybersecurity agency, citing a “multi-year cover up” of security flaws at U.S. telecommunication companies. Wyden said in remarks, seen by TechCrunch and confirmed by the senator’s spokesperson, that he will block the nomination…

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