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I’m unable to resist pointing out the profound bias built into everything Silicon Valley does these days. Google, it turns out, is planning to tell enterprise users of its word processor that words like “motherboard” and “landlord” are insufficiently inclusive for use in polite company. We won’t actually be forbidden to use those words.…

Among the many problems with the current social media enthusiasm for deplatforming is this question: What do you do with all the data generated by people you deplatformed?

Facebook’s answer, as you’d expect, is that Facebook can do what it wants with the data, which mostly means deleting it. Even if it’s evidence of…

In this episode, Dave Aitel and I dig into the new criminal law the House intelligence committee has proposed for workers at intelligence agencies. The proposal is driven by the bad decisions of three intel agency alumni who worked for the UAE, doing phone hacking and other intrusions under the sobriquet of Project…

We begin the episode with Michael Ellis taking a close look at the takedown of the ransomware gang. It’s a good story for the good guys, as REvil seems to have been brought down by the same tactic it used against so many of its victims – malware that lingered in the backups…

Our interview is with, Brandon Wales, acting head of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and Jen Daskal, Deputy General Counsel for Cyber and Technology Law at DHS. We dig deep into the latest Executive Order on cybersecurity. There’s a lot to say. The EO is focused largely…

This is my favorite story of the episode. David Kris covers a report from the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board on the enormous value that European governments get in fighting terrorism from the same American surveillance programs that European institutions have been fighting for twenty years to shut down.  It’s a delightful takedown…

In this episode, Jamil Jaffer, Bruce Schneier, and I mull over the Treasury announcement that really raises the stakes even higher for ransomware victim.  The message from Treasury seems to be that if the ransomware gang is the subject of OFAC sanctions, as many are, the victim needs to call Treasury…

Our news roundup is dominated by the seemingly endless ways that the US and China can find to quarrel over tech policy.  The Commerce Department’s plan to use an executive order to cut TikTok and WeChat out of the US market have now been enjoined. But the $50 Nick Weaver bet me that TikTok…

In our 327th episode of the Cyberlaw Podcast, Stewart is joined by Nick Weaver (@ncweaver), David Kris (@DavidKris), and Dave Aitel (@daveaitel). We are back from hiatus, with a one-hour news roundup to cover the big stories of the last month.  Pride of place goes to the WeChat/Tiktok mess, which just gets messier…

In our 326th episode of the Cyberlaw Podcast, Stewart Baker interviews Lauren Willard, who serves as Counselor to the Attorney General. Stewart is also joined Nick Weaver (@ncweaver), David Kris (@DavidKris), and Paul Rosenzweig (@RosenzweigP).

Our interview this week focuses on section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and features Lauren Willard,…