CDP Institute

Online sales are skyrocketing, but cyberattacks are too. Cybersquatting, in which minor changes are made to a domain or it is otherwise co-opted to gain access to consumer passwords or payment data, is a particular area of concern. Key targets, according to Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42, have been Paypal, Apple, Netflix and LinkedIn. But small banks and other institutions are also a focus because they are viewed as less able to fend off attack.

Osano Manages Cookie Consent and Access Requests

Can consumers trust your brand? The Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) and the Brand Safety Institute (BSI) have just announced the TAG Brand Safety Certified Seal, a global certification program to vet brands that adhere to their Brand Safety Principles and minimize the risk of ad placement alongside inappropriate content. Further, they have said that direct buyers, sellers and/or intermediaries “must ensure that 100% of monetizable transactions are reviewed by one or more independently validated Content Verification services as defined in its digital advertising agreements.”

Facebook sues the Irish Data Protection Commission In an effort to fight losing EU data as a result of this summer’s Schrems II ruling, Facebook’s lawyers have applied to Irish judges for a judicial review. Facebook’s hope is to have regulators take a modulated approach until a new more favorable solution can be reached.

BIGtoken launches TotalOptOut  BIGtoken, whose primary business is to give consumers ways to monetize their data by filling out surveys, doing social referrals, and watching ads for pay, has launched TotalOptOut. The new site helps consumers by bringing together links to such places as Oracle Opt-Out, YourAdChoices, and the National Do Not Call Phone Registry to block unwanted ads.

“Regulating Biometrics: Global Approaches and Urgent Questions,” from the AI Now Institute says there’s a growing sense among regulation advocates that a biometric surveillance state is not inevitable.

Brazil’s General Data Protection Law (LGPD) is set to go into effect September 16th. Their Senate decided to reject further delays.  Unless vetoed by Brazil’s President, the law which has an extraterritorial effect, will proceed. The Senate also approved creation of a new data authority for enforcement, the ANDP.

CDP Institute’s 2020 member survey found 28% of companies treat privacy as a selling point; 58% just try to comply with regulations; and 14% take few steps to comply.

PopID users’ faces are key to payment & entry  California start-up PopID has just launched a face-based payments network and a facial ID tool, called PopEntry, to verify people at businesses and universities. The company anticipates 3,000 installations in U.S. states by the end of 2020. People enrolled with PopID can use their face as ID for a range of applications, including for keys, key cards, facilities access, payments and loyalty programs.

Facebook’s Opacus tool, offers new approach  Facebook wants to make it easier for engineers to use differential privacy in AI, with a new tool that limits impact on the primary dataset. Opacus, which trains PyTorch models with differential privacy, uses an algorithm that centers instead on intervening with parameter gradients. This follows recent announcements from Google to open source the differential privacy library, and Microsoft, which released WhiteNoise for Azure and GitHub.

Help is on the way for those despairing of fending off random news alerts, ads, and trick emails in the form of a new service from Edison that lets you choose who can get into your inbox. The new release, now in public beta, includes a proprietary Permission Control feature that allows you to accept or block senders before mail gets in your box. It also blocks ad targeters trying to monitor your email behavior and lets you set a custom domain for use on multiple platforms.  Free and professional plans are available.

New Zealand’s 2020 Privacy Act goes into effect December 1. A key provision is the requirement  for mandatory notification of harmful privacy breaches and a $10,000 fine for violation.