Online privacy
FCC Deadlock Shields Wireless Companies From Privacy Penalties
Cellphone carriers facing roughly $200 million in fines for sharing their customers’ locations are for now shielded from paying by the Federal Communications Commission’s partisan deadlock. The FCC has four commissioners—two Democrats and two Republicans—and needs at least three votes to move forward with fines it proposed years ago on the biggest wireless-service providers.
Top FTC official warns companies on data
Samuel Levine, director of the Federal Trade Commission's bureau of consumer protection, said the agency won't hesitate to sue companies that play fast and loose with customers' data.
Good night, Alexa: Voice assistants face deep cuts
A decade after voice assistant technology captured the world's imagination, Alexa and Siri appear to be on the wane. Alexa's rise and fall show that for every winner in the tech industry's neverending game of "dominate the next platform," there are multiple money-incinerating losers.
Tax Filing Websites Have Been Sending Users’ Financial Information to Facebook
Major tax filing services such as H&R Block, TaxAct, and TaxSlayer have been quietly transmitting sensitive financial information to Facebook when Americans file their taxes online. The data, sent through a widely used code called the Meta Pixel, includes not only information like names and email addresses but often even more detailed information, including data on users’ income, filing status, refund amounts, and dependents’ college scholarship amounts. The information sent to Facebook can be used by the company to power its advertising algorithms and is gathered regardless of whether
Public Knowledge Files Comments Urging FTC To Create Comprehensive Rules for Data Privacy
Public Knowledge joined the Yale Law School Technology Accountability and Competition Project, a division of the Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic, in filing comments in the Federal Trade Commission’s proceeding on the prevalence of commercial surveillance and data security practices that harm consumers. Public Knowledge urges the agency to go beyond codifying the current failed notice and choice framework and build a data protection regime predicated on data minimization, data access rights for consumers, and protection of civil rights.
North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein Leads Bipartisan Coalition Calling for Stronger Online Data Protections
North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein and the Attorneys General of Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Oregon led a bipartisan group of 33 attorneys general calling on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to consider stronger surveillance and data security protections to prevent misconduct and promote transparency and accountability around online data collection.
Google Agrees to $392 Million Privacy Settlement With 40 States
Google agreed to a record $391.5 million privacy settlement with a 40-state coalition of attorneys general for charges that it misled users into thinking they had turned off location tracking in their account settings even as the company continued collecting that information. Under the settlement, Google will also make its location tracking disclosures clearer starting in 2023. The attorneys general said that the agreement was the biggest internet privacy settlement by US states.
Internal Documents Show How Close the FBI Came to Deploying Spyware
During a closed-door session with lawmakers, FBI Director Christopher Wray was asked whether the bureau had ever purchased and used Pegasus, the hacking tool that penetrates mobile phones and extracts their contents. Director Wray acknowledged that the FBI had bought a license for Pegasus, but only for research and development.
The Black Women’s Roundtable will host a virtual panel discussion on the discriminatory uses of personal data and how provisions of the American Data Privacy and Protection Act (ADPPA) would address digital civil rights violations.
Host
Melanie Campbell
President & CEO, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation
National Convenor, Black Women’s Roundtable
Moderator
Joycelyn Tate
Senior Technology Policy Advisor
Black Women’s Roundtable, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation
Silicon Valley's Rep Ro Khanna offers a midterm warning
Although Rep Ro Khanna (D-CA)'s district includes a wide swath of the tech industry's homes in towns like Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Santa Clara, and Fremont, he is an advocate for laws that would curb Big Tech's power. Among the restrictions Rep Khanna favors would expand privacy protections beyond California's existing law as well as a change in antitrust law that would shift the burden of proof in large deals, requiring the acquiring company to prove a deal won't hurt competition. Members of Congress have proposed new bills around privacy and antitrust and children's online safety, but so far