CDP Institute

The anti-disinformation code to protect against false information has been released by the EU Commission. It is designed to protect against the social media and search engine algorithms that amplify click-bait messaging and proliferate false beliefs. Hopes were high this EU rule would force Facebook, Google, Microsoft and others to rein in the dangerous practice, but NewsGuard, which researches veracity of sites, and other privacy advocates fear that compliance is optional. The concern is many companies can’t be trusted to place the public good over their own profit.  NewsGuard noted that so far Microsoft is the only major player that has committed to the measure.

The Markup found that one-third of Newsweek’s Top 100 hospitals let Meta’s Pixel tracking tool collect patient data on their web sites, likely violating HIPAA privacy protection of medical data. Tracked clicks of doctor appointment scheduling shared doctors’ names, service search information, drop-down selects and patient identifiers.

Canada’s government introduced the Digital Charter Implementation Act, a multipronged law intended to give individuals more control over how data is used, provide strict rules on use of AI, and boost enforcement of violations. Critics note it doesn’t limit user data collection, other than for minors. The law would, however, provide Canada’s Privacy Commissioner with broader powers to stop a company’s data collecting, and issue large fines for non-compliance, so hopefully it can be strengthened on its way to passage.

Apple, which has been held up as a company leading the way in privacy transparency, is being questioned again about whether its efforts also rig the system in its own favor by limiting information access to outside developers. In this case, Germany’s competition regulator, Bundeskartellamt, is looking into whether a recently added privacy setting that requires developers to get user consent to access “Identifier for Advertisers” on an app-by-app basis gives Apple unfair advantage, since it can access information directly as first-party data.

Privacy Affairs’ annual Dark Web Price Index shows more vendors selling data, more types of items available, and cost for private data going down. Email dump volume is also up and cost is down.

The California Age-Appropriate Design Code bill, modeled on the UK’s AADC, and the state’s Social Media Duty Not to Addict Act passed the State House unanimously and are headed to the State Senate. On the federal level, The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which would require companies to create tools for parents to monitor or curtail screen time, and two more bills, the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act and the Protecting the Information of our Vulnerable Children and Youth Act look to broaden protections covered by COPPA.  While... Read More >