CDP Institute

A new 36-state plus DC suit filed against Google in California continues the antitrust fight against Big Tech, despite a DC court’s recent Facebook suit dismissal. This challenges Google’s plan to force app developers who use Google Play Store to pay a high commission on sales. It also follows two other multi-state suits filed last October and December against Google.

Nine Android apps and their developers were kicked off Google Play after tricking Android users into using their Facebook credentials to log into a Facebook form that had been populated with malware.

South Africa’s Personal Protection of Information Act (POPIA) came into effect July 1st. The law provides South African citizens with the right to access, correct and delete their personal data held by businesses. Organizations are required to obtain appropriate consent and comply with the law or they may face fines up to R10M (U.S. $764,000). Read More – South Africa Legislation

The Colorado Privacy Act (CPA) was signed into law, making it the third state to pass a privacy law following California and Virginia. Consumers there can now ask companies not to sell their data. They also have rights to have data deleted, and companies will be required to request consent when they want to collect sensitive data, such as Social Security numbers and drivers’ license numbers. Read More – Colorado Legislation

Stating Big Tech platforms gather too much personal information, President Biden wants the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to set new rules on surveillance and accumulation of data.

In what Mozilla calls the “largest-ever crowdsourced investigation,” more than 37,000 YouTube users volunteered to find the extent of harms YouTube’s recommendation algorithm imposed on people via its recommendations. The algorithm, which drives 70% of watch time on the second-most-visited website in the world, was shown to be spreading misinformation and offensive content, and politicizing issues in 3,362 videos identified as “regrettable” coming from 91 countries.

AnyVision, an Israeli company that has garnered controversy for its technology that transforms passive cameras into active security systems to surveil and monitor crowds, adds a big funding round to the approximately $116M previously raised. The system, which is used by hospitals, schools and retailers including Macy’s and BP, uses AI and biometrics to identify individuals and assess behavior. It also has an ability to assess elevated temperature, which could be used for COVID-19 or other illness risk.

Lawyers intend to amend and refile on behalf of users ages 13-16 (which, apparently, would be allowed).

The consent and preference platform helps enterprises, including Rakuten, Orange and Adevinta, manage user consent choices and run analytics.

The company provides a toolset for helping companies mitigate fraud and money laundering risks.  The round values the Unit21at $300M.

The platform uses natural language understanding (NLU) to analyze signals to understand the context of communications.