Apple hit the news today when it issued an urgent security patch to block a flaw that was being exploited by spyware company NSO. But marketers may be more interested in new options for managing push notifications in IOS 15. Users will be able to block personal messages while at work, and work messages when away from the office. We’ll see how many actually do that.
The other big news was credit bureau TransUnion’s deal to buy consumer data collector Neustar for $3.1 billion. The price is just modestly above the $2.9 billion that Golden Gate Capital paid for Neustar in 2017, and roughly 5x Neustar’s $575 million revenue. Apparently, the data business isn’t as attractive as it once seemed.
Italy’s privacy watchdog, Garante has asked Ireland’s data protection commissioner to investigate Facebook’s plans to protect people who are filmed, and particularly the data of children collected by the glasses Facebook is producing in partnership with Ray-Ban maker.
The U.S. Senate has passed a bill that could potentially ban TikTok in the U.S. if its Chinese owner, ByteDance, does not sell its holdings within a year. The bill now goes to the President Biden, who has said he will sign it. Court challenges are likely to follow.