FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr asserted that TikTok poses an “unacceptable national security risk” in a letter to the CEOs of Google and Apple urging the companies to remove the app from their mobile app stores. According to Carr, TikTok’s history of “surreptitious access of private and sensitive U.S. user data by persons located in Beijing
Google Analytics Runs Afoul of GDPR
Recent reports from several European Data Protection Authorities (DPAs), the bodies empowered to regulate consumer privacy under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), have ruled that Google Analytics violates the law. DPAs in Austria, France, and Italy have found that the tool, which allows website owners to track and analyze traffic to their sites, impermissibly
“Well frens, it happened to me;” Actor’s Stolen NFTs Highlight Uncertainties for NFT Artwork
Actor and comedian Seth Green, best known for creating Robot Chicken and portraying Dr. Evil’s son in the Austin Powers franchise, announced on Twitter last month that phishers stole his four “Bored Ape” NFTs. Let’s break down that mouthful: NFTs are a blockchain technology that creates indisputable ownership records that the art world has embraced
Draft CPRA Regulations Aim to Streamline Opt-Out Processes
On Friday, the newly created California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) issued its first proposed regulations under the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA).
The proposed rules have drawn criticism for requiring companies to treat browser-based “Do Not Track” signals as consumers asserting their opt-out rights. This rule came as a surprise to many observers because, as
You Might Want to Rethink That New Meditation App
Researchers from the Mozilla Foundation reviewed the privacy policies of 32 mental health apps ranging from guided meditation to telehealth counseling services and flagged 28 of them as having “Privacy Not Included.” In addition, the report sorts the apps from “Not creepy!” to “Super creepy!” (The rankings are each accompanied by a delightful emoji face
Last Week Tonight Host Pokes at Congress Over Data Brokering Regulation
John Oliver, comedian and host of HBO’s Last Week Tonight, called on Congress to issue broad data privacy legislation by making it elegantly personal – he bought their data. Following a 25-minute segment on the ubiquity of third-party trackers and data brokering, the late night host revealed that his staff had created an advertiser’s
FTC Chair Signals Crackdown on Confusing Privacy Policies
At the International Association of Privacy Professionals Global Privacy Summit earlier this week, Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan rounded out her first year on the job by calling out “overwhelming” consumer privacy policies. While nearly every company online must post a privacy policy, many of these policies are written in dense legal jargon that
Hackers Target Russia in Support Of Ukraine
The world has rallied around Ukraine since Russian forces invaded this past week, including, it seems, hackers. The hacktivist collective Anonymous, which gained prominence between 2008 and 2014 with a series of high-profile politically motivated cyber-attacks against such disparate groups as the Church of Scientology and PayPal, has come out of the woodwork once again
MoviePass Will Track Users’ Eye Movements to Ensure Ad Views
MoviePass, a service formerly known for offering moviegoers unlimited movie tickets for ten dollars a month, is returning from bankruptcy with a new business model: trading ad views for “credits” used to redeem tickets. In an industry first, the platform will require users to enable the app to use their phone’s biometric facial recognition feature
Proposed EARN IT Act Sparks Controversy
Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Lindsay Graham (R-SC) have reintroduced the EARN IT Act for congressional consideration. The proposed bill, titled in full the “Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies Act of 2022,” seeks to crack down on the proliferation of child sexual abuse material online. The Act would establish a bipartisan National