U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Ed Markey, D-Mass., sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission asking for an investigation into automakers for allegedly providing law enforcement with location data collected from vehicles.
Reuters reports the American Bar Association had a class-action lawsuit dismissed over allegations related to a 2023 data breach affecting the personal information of approximately 1.5 million members.
The Council of the European Union adopted a protocol allowing for free data flows between the EU and Japan as part of an economic partnership agreement. The protocol is designed to prevent data localization measures and offers a predictable legal framework.Full story
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission announced fines totaling USD200 million to wireless carriers AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon over alleged nonconsensual geolocation data sharing, The Wall Street Journal reports.
France's data protection authority, the Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés, introduced a self-assessment tool for binding corporate rules. The tool allows companies that transfer personal data outside of the EU to "check the level of maturity of the project in relation to the requirements of the BCR standards adopted by the European Data Protection Board."Full story
The Global Cross-Border Privacy Rules Forum marked its second anniversary by announcing the appointment of accountability agents working in five jurisdictions tasked with certifying organizations' compliance with the Global CBPRs and Global Privacy Recognition for Processor Systems.
Finland's District Court of Western Uusimaa sentenced hacker Aleksanteri Kivimäki to six years in prison for a cyberattack that stole the data of 33,000 Vastaamo therapy patients, Yleisradio Oy reports. Kivimäki was also charged with aggravated blackmail after he threatened to "spread the sensitive patient data on the dark web" if the company did not pay him 370,000 euros in Bitcoin.Full story
The European Commission introduced two tools to anonymously report violations of the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act. The tools ensure that whistleblowers' data is encrypted, "guaranteeing the complete privacy of the whistleblower in all its communications with the Commission."Full story
The U.K. Information Commissioner's Office urged health care organizations to improve data protection efforts after individuals' HIV statuses were targeted in data breaches.
The U.S. Department of Commerce announced new draft guidelines from the National Institute of Standards and Technology related to President Joe Biden's executive order on safe and trustworthy artificial intelligence. The NIST draft guidance covers AI risk management, digital content transparency and risks posed by datasets used in generative AI systems. The comment deadline for all drafts is 29 July. Meanwhile, the White House announced U.S.