By Patrick W. Dunne

California residents will vote Tuesday on a divisive privacy initiative: Prop 24, also known as the California Privacy Rights and Enforcement Act.

Alastair Mactaggart, the San Francisco developer, wrote and financed Prop 24 to enhance or adjust provisions of his previous initiative, the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA).

Prop 24 would require businesses to provide customers with an opt-out regarding the collection of their private data and would limit how that information is used and stored.

“Prop 24 aims to give California privacy-first protection like Europe has under the General Data Protection Regulation since 2016,” Mactaggart told Digital Privacy News.

Continue reading “Experts Split on Calif.’s Prop 24” →

By Jackson Chen

Big Tech CEOs again are testifying before Congress — this time on Wednesday — about how they run their companies, but now they are in front of a Republican-led panel of the U.S. Senate.

CEOs from Twitter, Google and Facebook will be questioned by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation on the liability shield that companies operate under, as well as its content-moderation practices and effect on consumer privacy.

Specifically, the session will discuss how Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act offers online platforms immunity from the content that’s published by its users and if it has allowed tech giants to enable unintended behavior. 

Continue reading “CEOs Queried Again Amid Rift in Bipartisan Moves to Control Big Tech” →

By Rachel Looker

The 2020 presidential election is a week away — and with it comes the chance for each candidate to determine the direction of data-privacy issues for the next four years.

From regulating social media platforms to enacting stronger privacy legislation, either Republican President Donald Trump or former Democratic Vice President Joe Biden may get the chance to shape the future of digital privacy if re-elected or elected to office.

“When we’re sitting here in January 2021, we will continue to see both the new Congress and the next administration discuss data privacy in some way,” Jennifer Huddleston, director of technology and innovation policy at the American Action Forum (AAF), told Digital Privacy News. 

Continue reading “Where the 2020 Presidential Candidates Stand on Privacy” →

By Rob Sabo

Photography’s shift from film to digital has brought about an unprecedented explosion of images taken.

In 2000, for instance, Kodak reported that consumers snapped a record 80 billion film photos. But this year, consumers are expected to capture 1.4 trillion digital images via smartphones, webcams, GoPros, drones and DSLR cameras.

Digital now rules the photography realm, but the power of the printed image hasn’t dissipated.

Photo-printing apps — Snapfish and Shutterfly, along with Costco, Walmart, Walgreens and other retailers — allow customers to upload and print digital images from smartphones or other devices.

Continue reading “Photo Apps Convenient But Rife With Privacy, Security Risks” →

Experts: Google Lawsuit Shows US Failure to Protect Consumer Privacy

By Jackson Chen

The U.S. Justice Department’s antitrust lawsuit against Google illustrates how federal regulators failed to protect consumer privacy as technology companies exploded to dominate — if not control — nearly every aspect of American life, experts told Digital Privacy News.

“What you’re seeing is the result of years and years of the Federal Trade Commission’s failure to take privacy into consideration,” said Caitriona Fitzgerald of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC).

“When you’re looking at a big company like Google or Facebook, so much of the way it is now is because they want so much of that personal data they hold.”

Continue reading “‘Finally, We Have One’” →

By Nora Macaluso

When you register to vote in any election, you may be giving out more information than you think. And, depending on where you live, that data may be readily available to anyone who wants it — no questions asked. 

For his 2012 reelection campaign, Democratic President Barack Obama’s team pioneered the use of big data for political use, amassing a huge database of potential voters to target with ads and get-out-the-vote efforts.

Republicans followed suit — and now both parties have access to troves of data they can manipulate to target specific voter groups. 

Campaigns use big data to “track voter participation and build their parties,” Connie Uthoff, of the George Washington University’s College of Professional Studies, told Digital Privacy News.

The problem is “state law varies about voter information, and states mandate how it can be used,” she said.

Continue reading “Your Voter Data Is Not Private — And Almost Anyone Can Get It” →

Tech Giant Reaches Settlement for Breaching Ill. Biometric Privacy Laws

By Patrick W. Dunne

Facebook may owe you as much as $400.

The social media giant recently settled a class-action lawsuit and agreed to pay out $650 million to Illinois residents for violating the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), one of the strictest laws of its kind. 

Known as Patel vs. Facebook, the case initially was brought by a group of plaintiffs in the Northern District of California in San Francisco, alleging the company had violated BIPA, which was enacted in 2008.

In August 2019, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, also in San Francisco, affirmed the district court’s recognition of Facebook’s harm, stating that the company could not violate privacy rights.

The settlement was reached in July.

Continue reading “Want $400 From Facebook?” →

By Robert Bateman

The European Commission has extended its deadline for a decision on Google’s $2.1 billion acquisition of fitness-tracking company Fitbit, despite Google last week tweaking its concessions aimed at allaying European Union antitrust concerns, according to news reports.

The commission, which acts as the EU’s competition regulator, is investigating the privacy and antitrust implications of the deal. 

As a precondition of the takeover, Google has pledged that it will not use Fitbit customers’ health data to personalize online ads for 10 years. It also said it would open up its Android application processing interface (API) to competitors.

But Google last week revised the package after the commission received feedback from rivals and consumers, Reuters reports, citing “people familiar with the matter” and declining to provide further details.

Continue reading “Despite Concessions, Experts Warn $2.1B Google-Fitbit Deal Risks Privacy, Competition” →

Dealing With a Digital Divide in the Same Household

Beth and John Shulman-Ment agree about most things, except online privacy.

By Sue Treiman

After 40 years together, Beth and John Shulman-Ment of Westchester County, N.Y., agree about most things — except online privacy.

“I refuse to be a commodity that sites like Google sell to third parties,” John, 67, a lifelong computer scientist, told Digital Privacy News.

Beth, 65, a homecare nurse, however, accepts the risk.

“When I weigh John’s privacy concerns against staying in touch, it feels worth the tradeoff,” she said.

“And besides,” Beth added, “I have nothing to hide.”

Given rising concerns about personal data and more enforced time at home because of COVID-19, the number of spouses, partners, roommates and colleagues who share WIFI connections without sharing equal faith in online privacy safeguards is bound to increase.

Are some relationships bound to be affected?

Continue reading “‘I Refuse to Be a Commodity’” →

Employees Suing Over COVID Disclosures in the Workplace

By Tammy Joyner

A showdown is brewing between workers and employers.

As COVID-19 rages on, more employees are contracting the virus yet are being forced to keep quiet about outbreaks on the job, experts told Digital Privacy News.

Companies are using privacy laws to keep workers from alerting others about the life-threatening virus, they said.

Undeterred, workers are fighting back with complaints and lawsuits.

Continue reading “‘That’s the Reality’” →

By Andy Arnold

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced a data breach seven weeks after it occurred in July, affecting the personal information of 46,000 veterans and as many as 17,000 community-care providers that administer health services to veterans.

But while agency officials said the lag was necessary to follow federal government protocols and to inform the affected vets, experts told Digital Privacy News that the notification was quick work on the VA’s part.

Rebecca Herold, CEO of the Privacy Professor consultancy in Des Moines, Iowa, called the seven weeks “reasonable.”

Continue reading “VA Did Not Disclose Huge Data Breach for 7 Weeks” →

By Mary Pieper

Women who use apps to track ovulation, menstrual cycles and pregnancy could be revealing intimate information about themselves not only to advertisers, but also to insurers and employers, privacy experts and lawmakers told Digital Privacy News.

“You have no idea” who has your data, said New York State Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal, D-Manhattan. “This is a very in-depth invasion of your privacy if you stop to think about it.”

Allegations disclosed in recent news reports that the fertility app Premom was sharing user data without permission to Chinese advertising companies was just the latest instance of femtech apps coming under fire.

Last month, seven bipartisan U.S. senators wrote Federal Trade Commission Chairman Joseph Simons, calling for an investigation of the allegations.

The report, in The Washington Post, was based on research by the nonprofit International Digital Accountability Council (IDAC).

Continue reading “Femtech Apps Under Fire for Broad Sharing of Sensitive Data” →

By Nora Macaluso

It’s common knowledge that the costs, in time and in money, associated with having one’s personal information stolen can be devastating.

Perhaps what’s surprising is how little that information brings when it’s sold: in many cases, next to nothing, according to companies that track prices on the dark web.

Researchers from the website Privacy Affairs searched the dark web to see what kinds of information was available and how much it costs, compiling the average prices into an index released in July.

Continue reading “Stolen Data Not Fetching Much Cash on Dark Web, Reports Show” →

By Robert Bateman

Facebook has said it is “not clear” how it will continue to provide Facebook and Instagram in the European Union if it is forced to comply with a recent legal ruling.

The company’s associate general counsel made the comments in a Sept. 10 filing with the Irish High Court. Facebook, based in Menlo Park, Calif., has been ordered to suspend data transfers from the E.U. to the U.S., following a landmark legal case known as “Schrems II.”

But some legal experts told Digital Privacy News that Facebook was quite capable of complying with the E.U.’s rules, while others considered the comments to be a “bluff.”

Continue reading “Facebook Claim on EU Service After Ruling Seen as ‘Bluff’” →