Online privacy

Sponsor: 

Black Women’s Roundtable 

Date: 
Thu, 10/20/2022 - 12:00 to 13:30

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

South Korea “Sender Pays” Is a Warning, Not a Model, or Why (Almost) Everyone Keeps Telling the EU This Is a VERY Bad Idea

Many telecommunications companies are reviving the idea of having content companies pay for last-mile network connections because of the profit it would generate. South Korea serves as a useful predictor of how the bad consequences of this idea play out in real-time. Back in 2016, South Korea adopted a new interconnection rule based on a long-standing telco compensation rule called “sending party network pays” (SPNP).

How Democrats' big plans for Big Tech shrunk to tiny steps

Pledges to tackle data surveillance practices, harm to children's mental health, and tech giants' power over wide swaths of the economy haven't yet translated into passing new laws, and the clock is running out. High-profile bills that would heap new regulations on the tech industry have advanced, but they've yet to cross the finish line into law. On antitrust, the House of Representatives passed a bill in September 2022 that will raise filing fees for large mergers, using the proceeds to fund antitrust enforcement efforts.

Privacy Advocates Say New York City's Fix for the Digital Divide Is a Hyper-Surveillance Mess

Millions of dollars later, LinkNYC still hasn’t fixed the city’s stubborn digital divide or the privacy issues raised half a decade ago. LinkNYC, unveiled in 2014, was an ambitious plan to replace the city’s dated pay phones with “information kiosks” providing free public Wi-Fi, phone calls, device charging, and a tablet for access to city services, maps, and directions.

President Biden Signs Executive Order to Implement the European Union-U.S. Data Privacy Framework

President Biden signed an Executive Order on Enhancing Safeguards for United States Signals Intelligence Activities (E.O.) directing the steps that the United States will take to implement the US commitments under the European Union-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (EU-US DPF) introduced by President Biden and European Commission President von der Leyen in March of 2022. Transatlantic data flows are critical to enabling the $7.1 trillion EU-US economic relationship. The Executive Order bolsters an already rigorous array of privacy and civil liberties safeguards for U.S.

California abortion-info law ups stakes in online war between states

California's unprecedented new law to bolster protections for abortion-related personal information held by tech companies marks a new phase in the deepening legal fight between red and blue states over digital regulations. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) signed into law an abortion rights bill with a provision that protects reproductive digital information housed by companies headquartered or incorporated in the state.

Color Of Change Launches Black Tech Agenda as a Roadmap for Racial Equity in Tech Policy

Color Of Change, the nation’s largest online racial justice organization, launched the “Black Tech Agenda." The agenda sets an affirmative vision for how to create tech policy that centers on racial justice and ensures bias and discrimination are rooted out of the digital lives of Black people and everyone. The agenda has 6 pillars that outline real policy solutions for Congress to advance racial equity in Tech:

Principles for Enhancing Competition and Tech Platform Accountability

The White House convened a listening session with experts and practitioners on the harms that tech platforms cause and the need for greater accountability. The Biden-Harris Administration announced the following core principles for reform:

What tech competition means to Capitol Hill

The word "competition" has a different meaning in Washington (DC) and other centers of regulation around the globe than it does in Silicon Valley. Industry leaders view acquiring startups, keeping customers inside their existing ecosystems, and trying to dominate new platforms as part of the natural process of business competition.

Charter: Third Parties Don't Get Subscribers' Geolocation Information, Period

Charter's Spectrum Mobile service only uses geolocation information to optimize its service and does not sell to or share it with third parties, including advertisers, the company told the Federal Communications Commission. Charter assured Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel that the company has been, and will continue to be, completely transparent about its privacy practices, and explicitly requests permission to collect customer geolocation data—which Charter limits to data that will "optimize service." 

Chairwoman Rosenworcel Shares Mobile Carrier Responses to Data Privacy Probe

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel shared the responses from the nation’s 15 top mobile carriers following a request for information about their data retention and data privacy policies and practices. Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said:

Meta Signs $37.5 Million Deal Over Facebook Location Tracking

Meta Platforms signed a $37.5 million class settlement with Facebook users who say the platform continued tracking their locations after they turned off location services on their devices, according to a filing in San Francisco federal court. The settlement by the US District Court for the Northern District of California covered about 70 million US residents who used Facebook between Jan. 30, 2015 and April 18, 2018 and who turned off the location services setting for the Facebook application on their iOS or Android devices.

Big Tech is facing a data privacy squeeze

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC)'s major move towards crafting data privacy rules is the latest signal of a potential end to Big Tech's expansive use of online data. As people grow warier of the online trails of digital data they leave behind, the lack of data privacy protections in the US has increasingly become a glaring source of concern for many. The FTC voted 3-2 along party lines to seek comment on the harms of "commercial surveillance" and whether privacy rules are needed.

FTC Launches Effort to Expand Online Privacy Protections

The Federal Trade Commission will consider new federal rules to expand online privacy protections by targeting online surveillance and lax data-security practices by technology companies. The FTC will examine a range of concerns about the online environment, including the widespread use of algorithms to manipulate and leverage data, security practices that leave data vulnerable to hackers, and the growing evidence that some platforms might be “addictive to children and lead to a wide variety of mental health and social harms.” The FTC also will examine possible discrim

Federal Trade Commission Expected to Launch Effort to Expand Online Privacy Protection

Apparently, the Federal Trade Commission is expected to begin writing federal rules to expand online privacy protections as soon as August 11. If adopted, the rules could impose significant new responsibilities on businesses that handle consumer data, including potentially barring certain kinds of data collection practices. The new FTC rules could take years to enact, and the commission could follow several different paths. One option would be to declare certain data collection practices unfair or deceptive, using its authority to police such conduct.

Commerce Committee Approves 2 Bills and 4 Nominations, including Bipartisan Children’s Online Privacy Legislation and OSTP Nomination

The Senate Commerce Committee approved two bipartisan bills to protect children online, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director nominee, Dr. Arati Prabhakar, the Transportation Security Administration Administrator nominee, David Pekoske, the Assistant Secretary of Commerce nominee, Susie Feliz, and Donald R. Cravins, the nominee to be Undersecretary of Commerce for Minority Business Development. Led by Sens.

House Commerce Committee Passes Consumer Protection Bills

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce passed six consumer protection bills during a full Committee markup on July 20, 2022. Among these are:

Chairwoman Roseworcel Probes Top Mobile Carriers On Data Privacy Practices

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel wrote to the top 15 mobile providers requesting information about their data retention and data privacy policies and general practices. In the letters of inquiry, Chairwoman Rosenworcel asks about their policies around geolocation data, such as how long geolocation data is retained and why and what the current safeguards are to protect this sensitive information.

FCC Begins Proceeding on Supporting Survivors of Domestic Violence

The Federal Communications Commission opened an inquiry to evaluate how FCC programs might help survivors of domestic violence and other harmful abuse get access to connectivity services. The Notice of Inquiry seeks comment on whether the Lifeline and Affordable Connectivity Programs can be modified to support the connectivity needs of survivors.

Lawmakers Urge FTC Chair Khan to investigate Apple and Google for engaging in deceptive practices by enabling the collection and sale of consumer data

Sens Ron Wyden (D-OR), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Rep Sara Jacobs (D-CA) wrote to Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan requesting the agency investigate Apple and Google for engaging in unfair and deceptive practices by enabling the collection and sale of hundreds of millions of mobile phone users’ personal data. "The FTC should investigate Apple and Google’s role in transforming online advertising into an intense system of surveillance that incentivizes and facilitates the unrestrained collection and constant sale of Americans’ personal data," says the letter.

Senators Call on Mental Health Apps to Provide Answers on Data Privacy and Sharing Practices

Sens Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Ron Wyden (D-OR) sent letters to BetterHelp and Talkspace, two leading mental health apps, expressing deep concerns about the companies’ use of patients’ personal health data and requesting more information about their data sharing and privacy practices. Their letter follows reports that mental health apps are collecting, mining, and disseminating private client information to third parties, including data brokers and Big Tech companies like Google and Facebook.

Sen Cantwell casts doubt on prospect of major data privacy bill

Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell (D-WA), whose panel controls the fate of any data privacy bill, stated she’s not close to supporting a major proposal recently unveiled by Democratic and Republican leaders in the House and Senate. In addition, she said Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) has said he will not bring the current bill up for a vote in the upper chamber, signaling roadblocks for the push.

Antitrust enforcement is key to online privacy

Antitrust action is desperately needed to reel in the practices of Big Tech companies, especially around privacy, according to Google's former head of advertising. Competition in tech is needed to ensure people are able to have private online experiences, because large companies like Google will never truly care about user privacy, Sridhar Ramaswamy said. Ramaswamy spent 15 years running Google's lucrative advertising business before launching Neeva, a subscription-based search engine.