CDP Institute

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) accused anti-virus software company, Avast of harvesting and selling the data of millions of customers. The company which promised to protect customer data, instead sold it – and now will pay a $16.5 million fine. The data was sold via company subsidiary, Jumpshot, to more than 100 third parties. Exposure included financial and location data as well as health and religious search information.

President Biden is expected to issue an order to prevent data brokers from selling sensitive data on Americans to ‘hostile foreign countries,’ including China, Russia and Iran. The move comes as the US still has not passed federal privacy legislation and concern has grown that advances in AI will make sensitive data, including geolocation, biometric and genomic data easier to analyze and to use for spying or blackmail.

A Colorado Privacy Act amendment to add biometric protections advances to the State Senate. The amendment expands the definition of ‘sensitive data’ to include data about individual biological, genetic and neural properties. This reflects growing concern about new technologies, such as Elon Musk’s Neuralink brain chip implant and evolving technologies from Meta, Apple and others for reading brainwaves.

New York City, with the largest school district in the country, has just announced a lawsuit against the companies that run Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and other major social media sites frequented by kids and teens. The claim is that the sites are “addictive and dangerous” for young people, and costly for the city which spends more than $100 million/year on youth mental health.

Google Gemini has gotten rave reviews as many users like it better than ChatGPT. But a closer look at Google’s privacy policy for Gemini warns not to give it personal information you don’t want shared, since they may keep the data for up to three years, even if you try to delete it. Google workers can also review and annotate the data, and exploratory questions are also saved for AI tool training.

The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) will soon determine if Meta should be allowed to continue to allow Instagram and Facebook users to pay an annual privacy fee of €251/yr. (US $270) to not be tracked. If the EDPB decides the “Pay” or “Okay” (to track) option is legitimate, many other companies are expected to follow Meta’s lead. This is being challenged by Max Schremms’ noyb and 27 other NGOs.

A California appeals court ruled new state privacy regulations can proceed immediately rather than at the end of March, so companies should move quickly if they’re not already prepared to comply. Here are 7 steps to proceed.

Customer engagement is a fine dance and companies that lead by knowing their customers’ evolving preferences can make sure they don’t misstep. Marigold, the relationship marketing company, released their annual research poll results of 10,000 consumers from around the world, showing which interactions and offers are most and least welcome.

Tech industry group NetChoice has succeeded in getting a temporary block on an Ohio law meant to protect children. The law, which a federal judge has ruled unconstitutional, would require social media companies to get parental consent when children under age 16 wanted to create a new social media accounts. This is similar to blocks on laws in Arkansas and California.