The U.S. is facing “creeping authoritarianism,” Thor Benson writes for Wired. Experts advocated for policymaking that fundamentally ingrains privacy in law so those mechanisms could not be abused by a future autocratic leader. He said some experts claim the American Data Privacy and Protection Act does not establish strong enough privacy protections for individuals.
Austrian consumer advocacy group NOYB filed a complaint to France’s data protection authority, the Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés, over Google allegedly violating an EU court order, Reuters reports. The complaint alleged Google sent unsolicited advertising emails directly to its European Gmail users. If the CNIL were to rule against Google, the decision would only apply to French Gmail users; however, such a ruling could force Google to reevaluate its practices across the EU.
The Wall Street Journal reports the whistleblower allegations against Twitter's lax cybersecurity practices have begun drawing scrutiny from members of U.S. Congress. U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said the claims "may show dangerous data privacy and security risks" and the committee may "take further steps as needed to get to the bottom of these alarming allegations." Sens.
Two years removed from the Court of Justice of the European Union’s invalidation of Privacy Shield, a legal framework for lawful EU-U.S. data transfers is still in the works. While negotiations move forward, discussions are happening among EU policymakers about a potential shift toward data localization to help preserve digital sovereignty. Journalist Luca Bertuzzi reports on the reasons behind the data localization push.Full Story
The Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union released its latest compromise text for the proposed Data Act, Euractiv reports. The latest text offers changes to conditions for allowing public entities to demand access to privately held data. The proposal frees most EU institutions from requirements under the law and adds provisions to allow public sector bodies to use data from a private company in exceptional cases.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission asked for additional public comments on how digital advertising affects minors. The second call comes after the commission sought initial comments following its announcement of a virtual event Oct.
Brazil's National Consumer Secretariat, the Senacon, announced a 6.6 million real fine against Meta's Facebook related to the 443,000 Brazilians swept up in the 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal. The Senacon said it overturned the case regarding "failures to inform about privacy settings" in July, but decided to bring the fine after Facebook did not recognize any wrongdoing.
A Paris-based startup may have developed the bridge between personal privacy and data protection, TechCrunch reports. Ravel Technologies built a tool that utilizes homomorphic encryption, which allows a company’s data to remain encrypted while the company works with third parties to process the data for their own purposes.
The New York Times reports a U.S. parent's Google account was suspended after they photographed infections in the private areas of their child for their health care provider to assess. Google's artificial intelligence system for detecting child sexual abuse imagery is used to track down and prevent sharing as such images, but accidental cases as this may be more common, Electronic Frontier Foundation technologist Jon Callas said.