While €8 million would be a big fine for most companies, it’s small potatoes for Apple. However, France’s data protection authority CNIL just levied that fine against Apple as a reminder that keeping one’s promises is important. In this case, Apple, which claims to pay close attention to keeping user data private, in fact was found to handle user data carelessly by collecting iPhone user data for targeted ads without obtaining consent.
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.
Virtually all those helpful apps that make kids’ and parents’ lives easier after school – for homework, study skills, virtual classrooms, connecting with teachers, and the school community – are helping themselves to your family’s data, thank you very much! A recent survey of edtech apps in US schools from Internet Safety Labs, which conducts software product safety testing, found 96% of school apps were sharing data with 3rd parties and especially with Google (68%), which dominates the edtech space as a supplier of both hardware and software.
The past year has been tough for all kinds of tech investments. This LUMA report offers an overview of martech, adtech, and content tech financial activity in public markets, private financing, and mergers and acquisitions. To summarize a mixed picture: the bleeding has stopped but growth has not yet resumed.