CDP Institute

Kid data is the low hanging fruit for the digital ad industry and for Big Tech that want to vacuum up mass amounts of data. That’s because it’s largely available and often untended. In fact, estimates are that on average by the time a person is 13 years old, companies can have collected more than 72 million data points about them. Like many of us, security firm Disconnect has a problem with that, and their brand new Do Not Track Kids app is designed to stop it easily, efficiently and... Read More >

In more good news for protecting children’s data, fraud protection company Pixalate has published the first of what will be a monthly index that benchmarks sellers based on the percentage of ads they sell on apps that are likely child-directed, according to Pixalate’s child audience risk assessment.

Its client list, which ranges from mid-market up to global enterprise companies, includes Salesforce, New Balance, Instacart, Skillshare and MyFitnessPal.

This includes more than 500,000 locations deemed privacy-sensitive, including women’s health centers, religious locations, and those tied to education, children’s, and social services.

The IAB Privacy’s Multi-State Privacy Agreement (MSPA) and IAB Tech Lab’s US State Signals initiative have been released as part of the organization’s Global Privacy Platform (GPP).

This year’s survey lists 364 privacy technology vendors, but indicators are that the privacy vendor market is trending toward more consolidation and more specialized solutions.

Just weeks after Optus reported the records of 10 million Australian customers had been compromised in a breach, its parent company Singtel confirmed a 2020 breach and has found the data available on a data leak forum that also threatened to release Optus’ stolen data.

Arizona’s Attorney General sued Google in 2020 for use of “dark patterns” to manipulate user behavior. The state also accused Google of using location tracking services even when companies had tried to turn off that capability. This settlement is to resolve the location tracking claims and, while very high, is still tiny for a company whose 2021 ad revenue was close to $200 billion.

Nigeria’s government is expediting passage of a National Data Processing Bill. The head of the country’s Senate Committee on Information Communication Technology (ICT) intends to get the bill to the President’s desk this month with plans for passage by the end of the year.

In fact, Policygenius’ annual Home & Auto Insurance Technology survey found a 10% rise in 2021 over last year of consumers who reported they would decline a discount. Sixty-eight percent said they wouldn’t install an app that records driving behavior, although 67% of that group would change their mind if the rate was dropped by more than half. And 65% felt no discount was worth installing a smart home device that shared data with insurance companies.

Florida leads in the “privacy-denying-just-because-we-can” arena and is unique in requiring students to provide detailed medical history to qualify for sports participation. Now, multiple school districts are upping the game by asking female student athletes to digitally report menstrual data on Aktivate, a sports management platform. This has alarmed privacy advocates because the company’s privacy policy states data can be shared with third parties, and that upon request it will grant data access to law enforcement and other government agencies. Given that the state already bans trans students from participating... Read More >

The company, which has been landing seven- and eight-figure contracts, plans to double its 370-person workforce in the coming year.