Facebook Threatens to Stop Allowing News Sharing over Pending Legislation in Australia

Facebook is publicly ramping up the battle with the Australian government over pending legislation that would force it to pay royalties for use of copyrighted news content.  It’s a battle being watched closely in both media and tech circles because the implications go farther than just what’s happening in Australia. The tech giants likely fear

California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA): First Warning Letters Are Being Sent

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) went into effect on January 1st, but enforcement efforts were put on hold until July 1, 2020.  Now that the deadline has passed, CA AG Xavier Becerra has issued warning letters to companies over alleged violations as reported by MediaPost. It’s the toughest law enacted in the U.S. so

Data Privacy: What Defines “Personal Information”

Weeks before new privacy rules go into effect, California AG is asking for significant changes to CCPA California’s Attorney General Xavier Becerra has proposed revisions to the regulations implementing the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). The law itself went into effect on January 1, 2020 with an enforcement deadline of July 1st. As in any piece

Facebook Being Investigated by 47 Attorneys General

47 Attorneys General are now investigating Facebook for possible antitrust violations. When the probe was first announced in September, 8 states were behind the effort.  45 states have now signed on along with AGs in the District of Columbia and Guam.  The AGs say it is a bi-partisan effort. “After continued bipartisan conversations with attorneys

GDPR vs CCPA: How Privacy Regulations Affect Businesses

New privacy laws on the world stage are impacting businesses that have any online presence and capture personally-identifiable data. GDPR The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has already had a significant effect on companies doing business in the EU or doing business with EU residents.  It’s affected most U.S. based companies that have any

Can public officials block citizens on social media? Nope.

The law is playing catch-up with many facets of digital technology and social media.  The latest battle has been over whether government officials can block people on Facebook. The 4th US Circuit Court of Appeal has upheld a lower court ruling that said it was unconstitutional for publicly elected officials to block citizens from their

Google wins, Facebook loses in lawsuits over use of Facial Recognition

Two different ruling in privacy cases over use of biometric data called “faceprints.” A federal judge threw out the lawsuit against Google.  The judge ruled that the Illinois consumers that sued were unable to prove any damages.  Lindabeth Rivera and Jospeh Weiss were the named plaintiffs in a class action suit that claimed Google violated

French regulators hit Google with $57 million fine for violations of GDPR

Google has been hit with a $57 million fine for violations of the EU’s GDRP privacy regulations.  CNIL (French data protection regulators) concluded that Google had failed to comply with the law. Lack of Transparency When setting up Android phones, the regulators said Google did not disclose “essential information” to users.  This includes things like

Is Facebook facing record fines for violating its FTC privacy agreement?

The Federal Trade Commission is looking at what could be record-setting fines against Facebook, according to the Washington Post. It has to do with the binding agreement the social media company signed in 2011 to protect personal data. The fine would be for violating that agreement. The biggest fine to date for violating an FTC