CDP Institute

The acceleration of digital due to COVID-19 has taken many forms, and a major area of cyber concern is the intricate interconnection of traditional Internet Cloud data with many new “Smart” devices, grids, operations and overall systems. This includes input from many sectors – healthcare, industry, food & other supply chains, and many forms of infrastructure. Holistically, they are referred to as the Extended IoT (XIoT). A report from industrial cybersecurity firm, Claroty, looks at the rapidly evolving situation, key vulnerabilities, and why hackers’ ability to bypass the need for user action has opened the door for unauthenticated attackers to gain a network foothold and then move laterally—and quietly through a network to launch ransomware or perform other harms.

The Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU – a children’s safety program of the US Better Business Bureau) reports that TickTalk Tech failed to meet COPPA requirements, as it didn’t provide clear, non-confusing notice of information it collects on children and it doesn’t notify parents of practices as required by COPPA.

The suit filed late 2020 on behalf of a 12-year-old, accuses TikTok of processing children’s data unlawfully. It seeks damages on behalf of millions of children and the claimant is being sponsored by the former Children’s Commissioner for England, Anne Longfield.

noyb (a.k.a The Center for Digital Rights – and short for “none of your business”), the NGO led by Max Schrems, sent 270 complaints to websites that used cookie banners deemed non-compliant with GDPR. This is after the group alerted sites and gave a 60-day grace period to change banners before making public complaints. This is the same group that in 2021 got regulators in Austria & France to declare Google Analytics’ data transfers illegal.

Meta & Google seem shocked that Australia thinks Australians would prefer to protect their personal information and risk losing benefits provided by ad-supported apps. What can the government be thinking with regard to plans for the Australian Privacy Law? Meta argues these protections will hurt small business, as it did when Apple conceived of stricter on-device privacy controls (which have proved enormously popular with consumers)…while Google raised a geolocation technicality – stating that restricting addresses would be onerous, and perhaps blocking just postcodes would be sufficient. For whom, one might... Read More >

The Philippines’ controversial new SIM Card Registration Bill may soon be challenged in court. The law requires purchasers of SIM cards to register with name, ID and phone number before purchasing a SIM card, and disallows use of fictitious identities in social media accounts. Activists have claimed this robs users, including celebrities and political activists, of the right to anonymity in communication.

A survey of more than 3,000 consumers conducted by customer data platform provider Zeotap serves as a call to action to brands to lead with privacy, or suffer consumer distrust and desertion. Consumers know their data is worth a lot and 62% are prepared to buy from brands who guarantee not to share their personal information. Plus, 58% say they would recommend those brands to friends and family. So, while brands fear fines from regulation, Zeotap says the bigger cost is the loss of consumer loyalty.

Disinformation is B-A-D, according to 69% – and 40% report they now avoid watching the news. Imagine that!

The analysis, conducted by Pixalate’s team on the last day of Q4 2021 (December 31st), found that out of 379,000 child-directed apps on Google & Apple app stores:  63% are from unknown countries 40% access personal information 22% have no detected privacy policy

“We must hold social media platforms accountable for the national experiment they’re conducting on our children for profit,” Biden said. “It’s time to strengthen privacy protections, ban targeted advertising to children, demand tech companies stop collecting personal data on our children.” –US State of the Union

Researchers at VPN company, PrivacyCo, have found that terms and conditions – particularly those tied to free versions of the game – often include a host of third-party trackers.

The suit brought by California residents claimed Google violated their right to privacy under California law through implementation of an exposure notification system that made sensitive data accessible to other apps via a system log.