A recent Qonsent poll of 1,000 US consumers and more than 100 marketers found that 94% of consumers want control of data they share with companies, and 66% ranked this as very important. The privacy and consent platform company also found that 78% of marketers believe impending privacy laws will lead to less engagement.
The US Department of Health & Human Services Office for Civil Rights (HHS OCR) published privacy guidelines to address HIPAA compliance concerns following the Dobbs abortion decision. It clarifies that providers are not required to disclose protected private medical information to third parties, and it addresses when HIPAA, which protects medical information, allows for disclosure. This comes at a time when a number of states are considering passing abortion legislation. President Biden is said to be planning to formally ask the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to act to help protect women's abortion rights.
Routine malware checks conducted by Avast Security uncovered malware being propagated on Discord, the popular teen community chat app. The research team was surprised to learn that the activity was coming from teens, and identified the activity as part of a relatively recent trend called “malware-as-a-service,” in which people are given plug-and-play capabilities to be able to hack without the need for technical skills. In this case, it was being done by minors between the ages of 11-16.
It’s tough to get brand safety right, but the industry keeps trying. IPG Mediabrands announced a new set of tools to find and block inappropriate ad placements, while IAS expanded its suitability measurements to include standards from the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM). Meanwhile, DoubleVerify admitted a mistake made brand safety on X/Twitter look worse than it really was in October 2023 and March 2024.