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This week in Japan, the world’s first fully-autonomous ship navigation system deployed a car ferry during a demonstration test. The demonstration took place using a 15,500 gross ton Ro-Pax ferry, spanning 730 feet, that traveled approximately 150 miles between Shinmoji and Iyonada in a 7-hour period. The vessel’s operating speed reached about 26 knots during…

In 20 years, could it be possible that 50 percent of all domestic ships on Japan’s coastal waters will be piloting themselves? Absolutely. A public interest organization in Japan, the Nippon Foundation, seeks to accomplish just that. The Foundation is backing Japan’s development of autonomous ships with the goal of making up 50 percent of…

Singapore analytics and acoustic solutions company H3 Zoom.AI’s founder, Shaun Koo, began using drones for building inspection and facilities management after realizing that the city’s highly urban landscape was “overdue for digital technology disruption.” For example, traditional building facade inspection involves workers tethered to ropes or on gondola lifts, scaling high and/or remote areas to…

The U.S. government continues to be wary of cryptocurrency, and presently, no cryptocurrency exchange is protected by the FDIC. When you put your money in a FDIC-insured bank, if the bank becomes insolvent customers will not lose their deposits, usually up to a maximum of $250,000 per depositor per insured bank. But if you deposit…

We all remember Kronos—the malicious malware that was sold by Russian underground forums in 2014 for $7,000. If you bought it, you were promised updates and development of new modules.

The Kronos developers recently released a new update (dubbed Osiris), which is presently attacking individuals in Germany, Japan, and Poland, with the U.S. in the…

The U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT)is warning companies in the U.S. about a new ransomware dubbed “Bad Rabbit.” US-CERT stated that it has received multiple reports of infections by Bad Rabbit in countries around the world.

According to security researchers, Bad Rabbit poses as an Adobe update and when the user clicks on the…

Japan and the European Union announced an agreement in principle on major components of a substantial free trade deal on the eve of the recent G20 summit in Hamburg. This free trade deal rivals NAFTA in scope and impact, as it will impact 40 percent of the world’s trade. Once finalized, this free trade pact…

This week (May 8-12, 2017) is Privacy Awareness Week—an annual initiative of the Asia Pacific Privacy Authorities Forum (APPA) that concentrates on sharing information about privacy practices and rules.

The APPA is an interesting group made up of privacy regulators from Australia, British Columbia, Canada, Colombia, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Macao, Mexico, New South Wales,…

Privacy laws in Asia-Pacific countries such as Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore restrict the export of personal information except when the exporter meets certain qualifying conditions. One qualifying condition is if the exporter is in compliance with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation’s Cross-Border Privacy Rules System (CBPR). Under the CBPR, the exporting company would have its data privacy policy and practices reviewed and certified by a third party to confirm the policy and practices are consistent with the applicable domestic law. For example, if an exporting company desired to export personal information of Japanese citizens, its privacy policy and practices would need to be consistent with Japanese law in order for the third party to certify the exporter was CBPR compliant. A company promoting compliance with CBPR on its website would be representing, directly or indirectly, expressly or by implication, that it was certified by a third party to participate in APEC’s CBPR system.

The U.S.’s data protection scheme does not require a third party to review a company’s privacy practices and policy prior to its export of personal information from the U.S. However, the U.S. scheme does prohibit a company from making false statements about its privacy practices and policy. Acting Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Maureen K. Ohlhausen recently reinforced the importance of this U.S. requirement, stating that companies “must live up to the promises they make to protect consumer data.”…
Continue Reading FTC Resolves Allegations Against Three U.S. Based Companies Involving Misrepresentations of International Privacy Program Certifications