Online privacy
The flow of data across the Atlantic continues to be at the center of economic, political, and diplomatic conversation between the United States and European Union. The U.S. recently adopted the CLOUD Act, which provides cross-border access to electronic evidence and allows international agreements governing such access. The EU is considering its negotiating position for such an agreement.
With each new data breach scandal and related increases in identify theft and online fraud, calls from both sides of the aisle grow louder for laws and regulations to protect consumers. But, often missing from these policy debates is agreement on what the details of such legislation and regulation should look like.
5 Ways Companies Use Your Cellphone Location Data
The smartphones at the center of consumers’ lives generate vast streams of data on where they live, work and travel, and how wireless carriers use that personal data and share it with other companies has come under increased scrutiny. The four major U.S.
How Wireless Carriers Get Permission to Share Your Whereabouts
Cellphone carriers usually ask for their customers’ blessing before listing their phone numbers, sharing their addresses or exposing them to promotional emails. But seeking permission to share one particularly sensitive piece of information—a cellphone’s current location—often falls to one of several dozen third-party companies like Securus Inc. and 3Cinteractive Corp. Carriers rely on those firms to vouch that they obtained users’ consent before handing over the data.
Facial recognition technology: The need for public regulation and corporate responsibility
Facial recognition technology raises issues that go to the heart of fundamental human rights protections like privacy and freedom of expression. These issues heighten responsibility for tech companies that create these products. In our view, they also call for thoughtful government regulation and for the development of norms around acceptable uses. In a democratic republic, there is no substitute for decision making by our elected representatives regarding the issues that require the balancing of public safety with the essence of our democratic freedoms.
Sens Markey, Bluemnthal Call for Investigation of Smart TV Industry Over Privacy Concerns
Sens Ed Markey (D-MA) and Richard Bluemthal (D-CT) have asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the business practices of smart-television manufacturers amid worries that companies are tracking consumers’ viewing behavior without their knowledge.
SEC Probes Why Facebook Didn’t Warn Sooner on Privacy Lapse
Apparently, the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating whether Facebook adequately warned investors that developers and other third parties may have obtained users’ data without their permission or in violation of Facebook’s policies. The Securities and Exchange Commission’s probe of the social-media company, first reported in early July 2018, follows revelations that Cambridge Analytica, a data-analytics firm that had ties to President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, got access to information on millions of Facebook users.
Why protecting privacy is a losing game today—and how to change the game
Recent congressional hearings and data breaches have prompted more legislators and business leaders to say the time for broad federal privacy legislation has come. Cameron Kerry presents the case for adoption of a baseline framework to protect consumer privacy in the US. Kerry explores a growing gap between existing laws and an information Big Bang that is eroding trust. He suggests that recent privacy bills have not been ambitious enough, and points to the Obama administration’s Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights as a blueprint for future legislation.
Russian company had access to Facebook user data through apps
Mail.Ru Group, a Russian internet company with links to the Kremlin, was among the firms to which Facebook gave an extension which allowed them to collect data on unknowing users of the social network after a policy change supposedly stopped such collection. Facebook said apps developed by Mail.Ru Group were being looked at as part of the company's wider investigation into the misuse of Facebook user data in light of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Mail.Ru Group developed hundreds of Facebook apps, some of which were test apps that were not made public.
Facebook Is Fined by British Agency Over Cambridge Analytica Data Leak
Facebook was hit with the maximum possible fine in Britain for allowing the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to harvest the information of millions of people without their consent, in what amounts to the social network’s first financial penalty since the data leak was revealed. The fine of 500,000 pounds, or about $660,000, represents a tiny sum for Facebook, which brings in billions of dollars in revenue every year.