CDP Institute

Civil rights group, NOYB (abbr. for “none of your business”), founded by activist Max Schrems, filed complaints in Berlin against Germany’s major political parties claiming violation of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) during the 2021 election campaign. The goal is to stop the microtargeting of online political advertising and its processing, a practice that has become widespread, including in the UK and US. GDPR does protect the data of people’s political views. This follows a vote last month by the European Parliament to ban political microtargeting on online platforms.

Australia has been the target of major data breaches in recent months and now a massive records hack has been announced by consumer finance group, Latitude Group Holdings.  Included are numbers from nearly 8 million Australian and New Zealand driver’s licenses, 53,000 passport numbers, and more than 6 million customer records. This ranks as one of Australia’s biggest data thefts, after Singapore Telecommunications’, Optus’ and Medibank’s.

The French National Assembly has proposed a controversial law critics worry will cross a new frontier in video surveillance. Article 7 of the “Bill relating to the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games” has been condemned by human rights organizations for permitting algorithmic AI video surveillance to be used at major events, possibly as soon as the Rugby World Cup in September, and subsequently at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.  Algorithmic video surveillance is a new area of machine technology that utilizes AI to monitor, learn from and assess behavior and movement over time, so for example in this scenario, to anticipate crowd movement and predict and alert about “risky” behavior, based on AI estimation.

A survey of 1,670+ consumers conducted for Razorfish’s Data Privacy Paradox study found a big disconnect between the hyper-targeting and personalization companies offer, and what consumers prioritize – which is respect for privacy and transparency and to not have their data shared without consent. So, while 81% liked personalized experiences, only 17% were willing to give up data for them; and more than 50% reported they stop buying from companies that share their data without consent.

Over objections, Utah’s governor has signed The Social Media Regulation Act (SB 152), with the intent of protecting the mental health of teens by put the onus on parents to grant permission for social media use and requiring social media companies to verify ages of users. Opponents, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, believe the legislation encroaches on children’s right to information and their privacy.

Yet another technology to know us better – very possibly better than most of us will want. Not content just checking our cardiovascular, respiratory, digestive and reproductive systems, Big Tech is rapidly developing brain-tracking devices to learn what we think, feel and remember, purportedly yes, to help with health diagnoses and management.  It also crosses our last personal, private frontier.