Briefing: Data Security, Infectious Disease Control + more
We’re now 75 days away from the US midterms, and the integrity of our elections is still under threat. In Data Security, we look at the latest on state voter data and mail-in voting rights. We have coverage of fresh attempts to undermine vaccine access from Infectious Disease Control, retrogressive destruction and heroic repair efforts in Archives & History, and a small update from Trans Healthcare.
Data Security
The Data Security team added 16 new items to our timeline this week. Trump’s executive order seeking to restrict voting by mail is now blocked nationwide, though the ruling is under appeal. The administration is hoping to get its way via the Supreme Court (or maybe Congress) because they’re otherwise failing in the courts: Yet another judge just ruled against a demand for state voter data. This Minnesota ruling is the twenty-third loss in a row.
Elsewhere, the Department of Transportation made a grab for 17 million commercial drivers’ personal data and ICE continues paying millions to LexisNexis for information that it cannot legally acquire directly from other agencies. We’re seeing predictably authoritarian responses to people resisting the data hunters, too. DHS is surveilling Minnesota observers after the murder of Alex Pretti, and law enforcement agencies are collaborating to track anti-Flock social media accounts. Flock has responded to growing public disapproval by announcing that it will keep fewer license plate photos available for searches.
Infectious Disease Control & Prevention
The Infectious Disease Control team added 10 entries to our timeline. The FDA has approved Moderna’s mRNA flu vaccine for older adults, which might make the coming flu season a little less dire. Unfortunately, we also got a new executive order agitating for weaker childhood vaccine protections and a corresponding press conference bursting with health misinformation. The order defies medical consensus and ignores previous court rulings. In global health news, the Bundibugyo ebolavirus has already killed thousands. With no end in sight, it is expected to become the deadliest Ebola outbreak on record.
Archives & History
The Archives & History team added 2 new entries to our timeline. The Treasury announced that it has deleted most entries in a database of business ownership created under the Corporate Transparency Act. Gutting this archive will make it more difficult to track the ownership of shell companies and easier to hide financial crimes like money laundering. But data rescue groups are also working tirelessly to preserve access to critical information on many fronts. This week, for example, AidData republished a large collection of USAID evaluation reports, restoring decades of evidence about the efficacy of foreign aid programs, previously lost in the shutdown of USAID.
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