Briefing: Data Security + more
We have a briefing on Data Security this week, covering a slew of election interference and voter data maneuvers, more attempts to exploit private medical records, and yet more mass surveillance. Also: Very quick updates on Infectious Disease Control, Archives & History, and Trans Healthcare.
Data Security
We added 23 items to the Data Security timeline, and many are about the administration’s full-court press to wrest control of voter data (and election administration) from states. The federal government continues to file appeals in cases it has already lost to states that object to sharing voter rolls, including Arizona, California, Michigan, Oregon, and Rhode Island. It’s also pushing for the US Postal Service to interfere with voting by mail. The Postal Service’s proposed rule for tracking and monitoring ballots is open for public comment until July 2, and it includes a provision that USPS will refuse to deliver ballots for states that don’t hand over their unredacted voter rolls. And DHS finalized a plan to implement President Trump’s mail-voting executive order by “verifying” citizenship using federal databases known to be unreliable and unfit for this purpose.
On the medical privacy side, HHS is seeking supportive evidence for vaccine safety myths in Americans’ private medical records, and Mt. Sinai Health told parents it will share trans children’s medical records with the federal government in response to a subpoena. As part of the ongoing assembly of a full-on surveillance state, DHS has awarded a $25 million no-bid contract for iris-scanning software and ICE is giving local police access to facial recognition and federal database-matching tools. In low-tech resistance news, more communities are removing Flock cameras from their streets, and when they can’t take them down quickly enough, covering them with garbage bags. We have a new link to a resource listing cities that have cancelled contracts or deactivated cameras in our Tracker tracker.
Infectious Disease Control & Prevention
The Infectious Disease Control team added 12 new entries to our timeline. The administration is launching renewed efforts to change the vaccine schedule (this time legally), including a new ACIP charter and an executive order that encourages reducing childhood vaccination. We did get a welcome recommendation for the fall COVID variant vaccine target, though. We also have multiple updates on the Bundibugyo ebolavirus situation. Despite orders against it from the Kenyan High Court, construction continues on a US-backed quarantine facility in Kenya; three men have been killed in ongoing protests.
Archives & History
The Archives & History team added 6 new entries to our timeline. The administration continues to throttle information flowing into the official record: ICE is no longer reporting deaths of newly released detainees. In 2021, the agency was forced to begin reporting deaths up to 30 days post release, after it was caught releasing critically ill detainees just to avoid accountability. Bipartisan support to finally build the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum collapsed after Republicans added language to exclude even the mention of trans women. The Office of Management and Budget is also trying to force the Smithsonian Institution as a whole to spend its funding according to Trump’s priorities, rather than as Congress approved. And in records-going-missing news, Trump’s presidential library says it just can’t find the President’s old Twitter DMs.
Transgender Healthcare
The Trans Healthcare team added 4 new events to our timeline. Last week’s Unbreaking briefing focused on the administration’s proposal to seize control of government grants. We want to note that these changes would specifically empower political appointees to end funding for grants that acknowledge gender as separable from sex. The DOJ continues to pressure individual health care providers into making financial and legal deals to limit access to gender-affirming care. A recent deal with the Cleveland Clinic is largely theater, as providing gender-affirming care to minors is already illegal in Ohio. And in response to the DOJ’s subpoenas for trans youths’ private medical records, a federal judge ruled that states can challenge both the subpoenas and the underlying executive orders. The ruling holds the line against attempts to enact national policies through internal memos.
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