CDP Institute

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and EU regulators are eyeing Twitter with increasing alarm as new owner Elon Musk slashed global staff by 50% last week and top privacy and security officers quit in protest. Now, his employees fear they’ll be liable if (when?) laws are broken. Musk’s lawyer said there’s no need to worry about going to jail…. But now a Bloomberg News story based on a previously undisclosed FTC hearing document, quotes Twitter’s ex-head of cybersecurity saying it is a “ticking bomb of security vulnerabilities.” Also, FTC... Read More >

Forty US State Attorneys General have just won a years-long lawsuit against Google for deceiving users by secretly tracking location data while leading the same users to believe location tracking was turned off. The resulting $391.5 million privacy settlement is one of the largest in history and follows another from Arizona that Google settled for $85 million over the same issue. Even worse for the company, it is facing similar suits in Washington, D.C., Indiana and Texas.

Argentina, which has had privacy legislation in place for more than twenty years, published a draft bill to update the country’s Personal Data Protection Act. The Argentinian data protection authority (AAIP) draft includes modification to the existing legislation and incorporates four new articles that strengthen protection for personal data and puts the onus on controllers to provide justification for processing data.

Apple, which promises in its privacy statement it won’t harvest user data, is accused of doing just that in a California class action that stems from findings of two independent researchers at software company, Mysk. The researchers found Apple’s App store gathered a bushel of information on iPhone users via Apple’s suite of iPhone apps, including iPhone Analytics, Apple Music, Apple TV, Books and Stocks. The information collected in real time includes what users tap on, search for, what ads they see, how the app is discovered, and how long... Read More >

Six months ago, Google Play introduced its data safety section to require developers to declare how they collect data and what they do with it. Now, an Incogni report reveals what the top 1,000 apps (500 free, and 500 paid) are doing with that data. The analysis found that more than half the apps share data with third parties, that apps with more than 500,000 downloads share on average more than 6x more data points than less popular apps, and that more than 13% of apps in the study share... Read More >

The French government has announced creation of a Children Online Protection Laboratory with the goal of improving kids’ online safety globally. This continues a key priority of French President Emmanuel Macron, who made online protection of minors a key plank of his re-election campaign. The charter for the Children Online Protection Laboratory states it will explore, promote, develop and evaluate solutions to improve safety in the digital environment, and it will respect the fundamental rights that are enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Plans are... Read More >

An Amsterdam court ruled a Dutch civil class action led by rights groups Take Back Your Privacy (TBYP) and Consumentenbond against TikTok can proceed. Claims are that the Chinese company violated the privacy of 1.5 million children because it illegally collects their personal data – so the suit looks to obtain a minimum of €1,000 per child.

Many of the most engaging and affordable ones are made in China and have AI built in. Remember, that country’s laws require companies to give the government access to their data through national security audits.