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

In an effort to promote the development of new financial technology (fintech) products, Mick Mulvaney, Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), announced last week the creation of the Office of Innovation. Mulvaney said the new division, to be run by Paul Watkins under the umbrella of the CFPB, is designed to foster

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

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) announced that on May 9, it will release selected data purported to be leaked or stolen from the internal records of the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.  ICIJ plans to release this selected data in a searchable database.  The release is expected to cover 200,000 companies and other