CDP Institute

Amazon has acquired iRobot, the company whose Roomba vacuum revolutionized dust bunny clean up and holds a whopping 56.7% market share. It’s being called “the most dangerous, threatening acquisition” in Amazon’s history. No mean feat, given that just last week the company rocked the medical world with a $3.9B offer for One Medical and got called out a couple weeks before for its Ring security doorbell sharing doorstep data with police departments.

It’s August, and social media sites like Facebook and Instagram are getting a bit of a holiday as regulators spar over how to proceed with Ireland’s draft decision to block EU to US data transfers via standard contractual clauses (SCCs). Problem is that Ireland’s decision is still being reviewed and debated by other country DPOs – and if delays go long enough, Meta and others might be able to keep their data transfers going under a new data transfer deal that goes into effect early 2023.

In data transfer news from farther east, China’s Security Assessment Measures of Cross-Border Transfer rules have been updated and will go into effect September 1. Companies whose cumulative data transfer volumes apply must register with the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) to avoid significant fines.

The Global Study on Information Literacy conducted by the Poynter Institute for Media Studies found, of 9,700 respondents world-wide, there is widespread concern over misinformation across all age groups. Nigeria, the US, UK and Brazil ranked highest in comparison with India (24%), Germany (20%) and Japan (20%). Gen Z, Millennials and Gen X were more concerned than older generations.

Major ed tech vendor, Illuminate Ed, just become the first company to be stripped of its Student Privacy Pledge ethical data designation following discovery that it didn’t encrypt all student data that it claimed. The Student Privacy Pledge program was created by the Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) to recognize and ensure ethical data practice for students. Illuminate Ed has also been referred by the FPF to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and to states’ attorneys general in California and New York for further action.

The real-time data solutions company’s objective is to maximize consumer privacy in the face of mixed laws and requirements at federal, state and local levels.

Just launched in Beta, this new carrier currently available for Android, offers their “Pretty Good Phone Privacy” (PGPP) domestic and international mobile data service that decouples user identity from the way devices connect to networks via cell towers. In this model, the system is designed to be blind and achieves that by assigning users multiple unique identifiers that can be changed over the course of a month, so while a tower might know a number belongs to you, it won’t know which of several you’re currently using. Plans are to... Read More >

Not a bad idea…it’s just that people are so overwhelmed by persistent privacy threats, data breaches, and being at the mercy of companies so enormous its nearly impossible to enact enough regulation or penalty to effect change. We might benefit more from top down advice from the FTC and swift action.