Another day, another giant privacy fine: the Federal Trade Commission announced that Equifax will pay at least $575 million for its 2017 data breach affecting 147 million people. Seems like a lot until you calculate it’s less than $4 per name. We also hear rumors of a Google settlement over YouTube’s handling of children’s data but no word on the size of the fine.
Stories about the dreadful state of data security are so common that I rarely share them. But this survey from security company CyberArk was especially shocking: 41% of respondents said their company would rather pay fines than change security policies after a successful cyber attack. Much more here about how little most organizations do to protect their data.
Item 3: Last week’s Prime Day promotions from Amazon included a $10 credit to customers who would install a comparison shopping tool that tracks their visits to competitive sites and tries to underbid them. No word on response. Given how much data people give away for free, $10 is both exceptionally generous and insultingly low.
Salesforce has reversed course on its bid to acquire data management and integration platform Informatica a source has told Reuters. Informatica itself said that it is not in talks to be acquired. Salesforce stocks rose on this latest news while Informatica’s fell.