CDP Institute

A new Surfshark study shows a big year-over-year decrease in data breaches in 2022 as compared with 2021. According to the report, 310,855,487 accounts were leaked worldwide last year, which is down from 959,327,963 in 2021. Russia had the highest breach density at 104.8 million Russian accounts leaked, 3x the number they had in 2021.

Firefox’s survey of parents in the US, Canada, UK, France, and Germany found that while parents are largely comfortable with the amount of time their children spend on the internet, more than half are concerned about data tracking and the role of big tech. US parents expressed the greatest concern about data tracking (69%) and came in highest, at 51%, in using parental controls, as compared with France, which came in at 39%. When asked if they “somewhat to strongly agree tech companies have their children’s best Interests in mind,”... Read More >

The company has been accused of misleading its users into thinking they were publicly anonymous when according to the suit, a flaw in the application interface exposed names, phone numbers and email addresses.

France’s regulator, CNIL gave a wrist-slap fine of €5 million to TikTok as a reprimand reminder not to manipulate consent against user interest. The fine is relatively small, likely owing to the fact that TikTok added a “Refuse all” button to its website last February to make opting out easy for site visitors.

A majority of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) moved to ratify the protocol and establish a legal basis for cross-border disclosure of electronic information as part of law enforcement operations. Liberal groups had opposed the move due to concern EU citizen data could then be given to countries with less stringent rules for privacy protection.

The United States has over a dozen state privacy laws pending for 2023. Eight states are considering consumer privacy bills. New Jersey, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia are considering children’s privacy bills; Maryland and Mississippi have filed biometric privacy bills; and New York, Virginia, and Washington are considering health privacy bills.

Privacy by design is raised to a new level by Cap_able, an Italian fashion startup that has just debuted its Manifesto collection, containing clothing capable of cloaking your biometric identity. Its use of AI algorithms can make you look to a scan camera like a giraffe, zebra, dog, or other animal to keep your identity on the Q.T.

Meta has just announced planned changes to give teens more control over ads and their privacy on Facebook & Instragram. Beginning next month, teens can choose types of ads they’d rather not see, and advertisers will no longer see user gender to use for ad targeting. The company will also provide information to teens about which ads they see, and teens will also be given the ability to hide any or all ads from a specific advertiser. Certainly, steps in the right direction.

Looking a bit scary there based on reports that the country’s chief prosecutor will not allow the Hellenic Authority for Communication Security and Privacy (ADAE) privacy regulator, to audit telecom companies to ensure that the Greek secret service is not conducting undue surveillance.

The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) has imposed a fine of $411 million on Meta for serving behavioral ads based on personal data without providing an opt-in option for users. The ruling issued by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission stated this is a requirement under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and rejected Meta’s claim its practice was covered by contractual law requirements.

It took twelve years to strike the deal, but Google just agreed to pay $23 million, almost three times its original offer, to settle a class action claiming its search engine leaked personally identifiable data by transmitting queries to publishers and third parties. The case alleged the company violated the Stored Communications Act which governs access to records held by internet providers, as well as California laws.

Spain’s new Real Decreto 933/2021 legislation sets stage for extensive data collection on travelers – and raises alarms about privacy overreach. Beginning with a five-month adoption period that kicked off January 2nd, accommodation and car rental providers, which had been collecting no more than 8 personal data points on travelers, will now be expected to collect more than 30.