Google has revised its privacy policy, explicitly stating its stance on using all online content for training its AI models. The increasing popularity and utilization of generative AI models have raised complex questions concerning copyright, content ownership, and artistic freedom. With its recent update, Google is set to contribute to this ongoing controversy. Google’s privacy
According to a study of nearly 10,000 companies, data privacy security company CYTRIO reports the marjority of companies have still not taken proactive measures to comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). CCPA and the enhanced CPRA becomes fully enforceable on January 1, 2023 and includes employees’ rights to their personal data. “Companies should
I know I’m not the first to point this out, but tracking by websites is out of control. After an hour of being online today, all at mainstream websites, I somehow managed to accumulate more than 8,000 trackers. After clearing it, a journey to a news website, a Google search, and a visit to an
The Biden Administration took aim at tech companies with a new Executive Order. It urges 12 different federal agencies to aggressively regulate big business, including the FTC and Justice Department which have broad antitrust enforcement powers. “The Order includes 72 initiatives by more than a dozen federal agencies to promptly tackle some of the most
Google’s cookieless future needs a little more time. The plan by Google to block third-party cookies in Chrome has been put on hold. For now. “While there’s considerable progress with this initiative, it’s become clear that more time is needed across the ecosystem to get this right,” Vinay Goel, Google Privacy Engineering Director announced via
It may be the largest data leak of passwords of all time. According to Cyber News, the leak may have exposed more than 8.4 billion passwords. The person posting the leaked passwords on a hacker forum claimed originally to have access to 82 billion passwords. “The compilation itself has been dubbed ‘RockYou2021’ by the forum
For years, many in the advertising community have maintained that consumers want targeted marketing with relevant advertising. It appears, however, that as consumers get an increased say in how they are targeted, that idea isn’t holding up. When Apple updated its iOS operating system for iPhones and iPads, it came with an opt-in component. That
iOS 14.5 is out and it’s a big deal when it comes to privacy. Apple’s App Tracking Transparency Apple’s app tracking transparency has been the target of public outcry from the folks at Facebook, saying this makes it harder for small businesses to track customers and will drive up digital ad prices. Privacy advocates applauded
New research revealed the amount of information grocery stores really have on you. The study has shown that grocery stores know all about your physical attributes, what you enjoy and what your purchases say about your domestic situation. 53% of Americans participate in a loyalty program because of ease of use, allowing stores to track their purchases. So,
A new report by Uswitch has revealed which countries have been the worst hit by data breaches and the US ranks first with nearly 19 million data records stolen. That’s more than 4X the next closest country (South Korea). Canada, the UK, and Australia rounded out the top five. China and India aren’t listed anywhere in
The folks at Clario have put together a fascinating chart that breaks down which online platforms and brands collect the most data and what they know about us. I thought it was worth sharing. Facebook and Instagram top the list (no surprise). We all do it – click ‘accept’ on a cookie pop-up without reading
We’re in for some big changes when it comes to tracking and advertising. While government regulators are making noise about taking action against major tech companies, the industry has not-so-quietly been making a couple of key changes that could lead to a cookie-less future. Cookies are those things websites use to track you as you
It’s amazing how slowly government works some times. The California Consumer Privacy Act was passed in 2018. With more than a year warning for companies to comply, it went into effect in January 2020. Enforcement was held off were the regulations were being finalized. There have been many changes, including a redefinition of what classifies
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
SOURCE: News Release U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), chairman of the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation and the Internet, and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), ranking member of the subcommittee, in introducing the Platform Accountability and Consumer Transparency (PACT) Act, new bipartisan legislation to update Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The PACT Act would
A new bill working its way through the NY state legislatures wants to tax companies that sell or make money from the use of consumer data. Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato wants to create a mutual fund from taxes that would pay a yearly dividend. New York State Assembly Bill A9112: Requires a five percent tax
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
January 2020 brings a new year and a new decade. It also brings new privacy laws for business. Have you made the changes you need to avoid being out of compliance? CCPA California’s CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) is one of the strictest laws in the U.S. and goes into effect in January 2020. Businesses
You’ve probably never heard of it, but a new protocol called DOH could be a game-changer for online privacy. DOH stands for DNS-over-HTTPS. It would encrypt DNS traffic within your browser and hide requests and responses. When you enter a website’s URL into a web browser, it’s sent to the internet as a DNS request.
Nearly 90 organizations and experts from 30 countries are calling for a moratorium on further deployment of facial recognition technology. In making a public declaration, the group says that the tech has evolved from a collection of niche systems to a “powerful integrated network capable of mass surveillance and political control.” “Unlike other forms of
You’re right in the middle of an online battle when suddenly someone starts threatening you. It goes way outside the bounds of any acceptable behavior. The harasser might target your ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or religion. They might spew hate speech or start rambling about extreme views. If you’ve done any multiplayer online gaming, no
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
Facebook’s gotten a lot of attention lately by legislators and regulators, but now the attention is shifting towards Google. The Justice Department is focusing on advertising and search, but the exact focus is unclear according to the Washington Post. CNBC reports that investigation is about whether the tech company violated laws to ensure fair competition
Consumers overwhelming say privacy concerns are starting to have them rethinking rethink how they interact online. At the same time, however, their actions are telling a slightly less convincing story. People say one thing to researchers, but their actions demonstrate something else. A third of those surveyed think digital is having a “negative effect on
“I understand that many people don’t think Facebook can or would even want to build this kind of privacy-focused platform — because frankly we don’t currently have a strong reputation for building privacy protective services and we’ve historically focused on tools for more open sharing,” wrote Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “But we’ve repeatedly shown that
The Electronic Privacy Information Center and a host of advocacy groups have written to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that it’s time to seriously consider breaking up Facebook. “The companies should be reestablished as independent entities and Facebook should be required to disgorge the personal data unlawfully acquired from those firms. This will also help
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
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
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
Here we go again. 773 million email address and passwords have been leaked. Security expert Troy Hunt dropped this bombshell this week on his blog. What he calls “Collection #1” is a set of email addresses and passwords that’s being shared on the dark web. Spanning different providers, nearly three-quarters of a billion user names