CDP Institute

Android users in California won a class action suit against Google after the company ran up users’ smartphone costs by sending and receiving unwanted data while the devices weren’t in use. The fine of $314.6 million, which Google plans to appeal, could be followed by a larger one, since Android users in the 49 other states have filed a federal class action.

The state attorneys general of California and 19 other states claim the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) violated federal privacy laws, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) when it released private medical data of enrollees without their consent to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The government wants the data to track immigrant use of the system.

Morocco’s National Commission for the Control of the Protection of Personal Data (CNDP) has begun notifying businesses in healthcare, law and other sectors they must comply with Law 09.08, which oversees collection and processing of personal data, or they’ll face penalties.

Search engines, including Google and Microsoft, will now have to verify the age of Australian users to prevent young people having access to content deemed inappropriate, including high-impact violent material and pornography. An under-16 social media ban is also anticipated to go into effect around the same time.

A new Minnesota law prohibits parents from being able to monetize videos of their children under age 13 and from making money off teenage children without paying them. The law also empowers children who have been recorded to demand video be taken down within 30 days.

This includes photos, messages, and location data.

No, not really, when it comes to the latest – asking you to agree to unfettered cloud access to your camera roll to help Meta AI be more creative. While it’s only a test, clicking “Allow” will give access to photos (including facial features), to be analyzed for AI (and who knows what all else).

Commercial websites with more than a third of content deemed sexually explicit are still required to verify users from Texas are over age 18, since the Supreme Court ruled in favor of continuing H. B. 1181, which was enacted in 2023. Similar to laws in 20+ other states, Texas’ law got conservative majority support, while liberal justices dissented because the decision was inconsistent with how the court ruled in a previous federal case. Privacy concerns are that adults will be wary of sharing their personal information and possibly risking exposure... Read More >

Mobile Fortify, an app to rapidly identify people, is being used by US Immigration and Customs (ICE) agents to identify unknown subjects in the field, according to emails seen by 404 Media. Information collected is then cross-referenced with data from the Department of Homeland Security. This is in keeping with other aggressive data collection, including a reported intent to access to US state data.

Japan introduced the Active Cyber Defense Law to amp up cybersecurity and pre-emptively tamp down digital threats “before they materialize.” The intent is to “equal or exceed” cyber capabilities of the EU and US and address increased frequency of threats.

Think Meta and Google are protecting your collected data? Not much, shows a new survey from data cleaning company Incogni – and businesses should be concerned. Both companies scored at the bottom and were shown to collect sensitive data and share with unknown third parties. One reason this happens is employees don’t realize generative AI tools can allow proprietary data to factor into data training sets.