Democratic U.S. senators and civil rights lawyers are calling for the creation of a law to restrict law enforcement’s ability to buy cellphone tracking data, The Associated Press reports. Technologies such as “Fog Reveal” from Virginia-based Fog Data Science, which can trace movements of cellular users as far back as several years, were purchased by police departments to trace suspects' whereabouts.
Eleven large financial institutions will pay more than a collective $1.8 billion in penalties to settle regulatory investigations related to employees’ use of messaging applications that violated record-keeping rules, The Wall Street Journal reports. The firms include the brokerage divisions of Bank of America, Barclays and Citigroup. The fines are imposed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which asserted it discovered “pervasive off-channel communications” by bank employees over Apple iMessage and WhatsApp.
U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to publish an executive order concerning a new agreement on EU-U.S. data flows as early as Oct. 3, Politico reports. According to individuals involved in negotiations, the order will cover new legal protections over personal data access and use by U.S. national security entities. Principles for necessity and proportionality in relation to government surveillance activities are included in the order.
In an op-ed for The San Francisco Chronicle, California Privacy Protection Agency Board Chair Jennifer Urban reiterated the agency's position on how the proposed American Data Privacy and Protection Act would "undermine" Californians' privacy rights and businesses' "ability to confidently invest in more privacy-protective practices." Urban said companies "may be understandably confused about how to invest if Congress overturns this existing guidance" under the California
The Wall Street Journal reports on Sephora's $1.2 million California Consumer Privacy Act settlement serving as a compliance reality check for businesses across sectors. In addition to reassuring CCPA compliance shouldn't be taken lightly, the first-ever enforcement action also shines a light on preparing for new requirements with the California Privacy Rights Act taking effect Jan. 1, 2023, which also marks the sunset on the CCPA's 30-day cure period.
Members of Nigeria's National Assembly indicated the country's draft bill establishing the Data Protection Commission will be passed into law within 30 days of introduction by the Federal Executive Council, Voice of Nigeria reports. Senate Committee on Information Communication Technology and Cybercrime Chair Yakubu Useni said the bill "will see the light of the day" after it was not moved to the president's desk in 2019.
Australian civil society groups are pushing the government to adopt a law that would better govern the use of facial recognition technology, ABC News reports. Model legislation was drafted by the Human Technology Institute and would impose new rules on facial recognition manufacturers and entities that purchase the technology, such as law enforcement and businesses.
The World Privacy Forum drafted a report outlining ways U.S. President Joe Biden and the executive branch can revise implementation of the Privacy Act of 1974 to increase protections for women's reproductive health care data held by federal agencies. The report recommended three actions that could "restrict and more carefully administer some disclosures of reproductive health information by federal agencies to federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies." WPF also suggests the broader risks stemming from the U.S.
A California startup asked the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to investigate its larger rivals in the data broker industry, arguing they compile the payroll records of “most Americans,” Reuters reports. In a letter to the FTC, Certree CEO Pavan Kochar claimed data brokers Equifax and Experian reward employers with “financial incentives” to grant exclusive access to their payroll data, which she asserted was an “anticompetitive” practice.