CDP Institute

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and EU's Competition Commission are investigating whether Facebook is misusing ad data to gain unfair advantage over competitors. They plan to coordinate efforts and look into use of data for classified ads and online dating. This heightens the risk for Facebook.

Maryland and Montana are first in the U.S. to restrict police use of DNA matching. The new laws are consistent with increasing privacy concerns about use of consumer genetic data. Maryland’s new law will require a judge’s sign-off before DNA markers from a crime scene can be matched against genealogy data. Montana will require investigators to have a search warrant before being allowed to use a consumer DNA database – unless the individual’s right to privacy has been waived.

Users have been alerted to privacy policy changes that indicate TikTok plans to collect more personal data from U.S. users, including voiceprints and faceprints. This may also include object recognition (identifying scenery and images within photos), and location identification. While TikTok hasn’t commented how it plans to use this material, it may be partly in response to new state privacy laws in the U.S.

Investment will go into marketing and new product offerings.

Unredacted documents in a lawsuit showed that corporate executives and engineers knew about and even facilitated the issue by pressuring phone manufacturers into hiding settings to keep them inaccessible to users.

Based on trends, they estimate 3 times more records are stolen each year.

Apple’s IDFA changes have prompted mobile game marketers to experiment with and increase ad campaigns. Android saw a 120% increase in cost per install (CPI), and iOS increased by 47% CPI, according to Liftoff’s report on the Casual Gaming industry. This, coupled with the impact of the pandemic where many more users were playing and spending money on Casual Games, resulted in a 45.2% increase in CPIs overall in the past year. Playable ads saw the most growth with a 113% rise.

Cybersecurity, data breach and compliance are driving privacy software spending, according to TrustArc’s 2021 Global Privacy Benchmark Report. Of the more than 1,600 senior executives and privacy officers surveyed, 82% had a dedicated privacy office, 28% planned to spend $1M or more annually on privacy, and 73% believed their company needed to do more. Nearly half favored using privacy management or GRC software over other alternatives.

In a 500-page document, NOYB says 81% of companies had no “reject” option on the first page, 73% used deceptive colors to get users to “accept,” and 90% gave no easy ways to withdraw consent.

Imperva’s new Imperva Data Privacy tool is designed to speed data compliance processing. Recognizing that managing data subject access requests (DSAR) is time-consuming and extremely costly, Imperva has streamlined the process of locating where a company’s data is stored and minimizing the processes it takes to comply.

NOYB, co-founded by privacy activist and lawyer Max Schrems, is one of four privacy organizations pressing for investigation into Clearview’s practice of scraping facial images and selling them to government agencies and companies. They are appealing for a coordinated response from data protection authorities.

Ad-security company, Confiant, has expanded its platform to protect against the big increase malicious native ads. These contextual ads, which have been shown to be far more appealing to consumers than display and banner ads, have come under increased attack in the past two years.