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Ad-blocking browser Brave says Google is breaking EU privacy law
Ad-blocking browser Brave has hit Google and other adtech companies with a formal complaint that could set an important privacy precedent for search engines and digital advertising firms. Mozilla co-founder Brendan Eich and his company want to leverage the new GDPR rules to open an EU-wide investigation against these companies, examining the way the platforms are using people's data. According to Brave, Google and other adtech businesses are broadcasting users' browsing habits to hundreds of companies in order for them to place ads.
Apple and Google will testify to Senate on data privacy September 26th
More tech companies are about to face congressional scrutiny. Leaders from Amazon, Apple, AT&T, Charter and Google are scheduled to testify before a US Senate panel at a data privacy hearing on September 26th. Senators will grill the companies on their existing approaches to privacy, how Congress can press for "clear privacy expectations" and how firms will adapt to stricter requirements like the European Union's GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act.
A date with my Tinder data
I was on Tinder for almost four years. I'm no longer single, but Tinder and its parent company, Match, still have data on me. I didn't delete my profile -- I didn't even think to -- so using GDPR to request what information they had on me was more exciting, or at least more personal, than doing so for other tech companies and services. On the dating apps, I swear I'd tried to keep it classy. I didn't succeed. According to other writers' requests, asking for your data from Tinder leads to varied results, but with FOI requests and GDPR a persistent issue for all tech companies, the dating app thankfully packages everything into a pretty easy to understand and navigable HTML file.
How a data request turned into a data breach
The process was smooth enough, with the right safeguards apparently in place. I emailed the dating app Coffee Meets Bagel to request personal data. Within 24 hours the company asked for a selfie of me holding an ID card and a piece of paper with the words "Coffee Meets Bagel" scrawled on it. Exactly one month later I received an email from Stephen Brandon, the company's data protection officer.
My digital shadow looks nothing like me
I have a shadow. There's the Dan Cooper writing these words right now, standing at his desk in an attic in Norwich, England. There is also the Dan Cooper who has the same name and address but who only exists inside a computer sitting on a shelf. I had never heard of this man until a couple of months ago, but now I am intimately familiar with who he is, his contradictions and the terrible truth he may reflect upon me.
Who controls your data?
The average American, one study tell us, touches their phone 2,600 times per day. By the end of a given year, that's nearly a million touches, rising to two million if you're a power user. Each one of those taps, swipes and pulls is a potential proxy for our most intimate behaviors. Our phones are not only tools that help us organize our day but also sophisticated monitoring devices that we voluntarily feed with interactions we think are private. The questions we ask Google, for instance, can be more honest than the ones we ask our loved ones -- a "digital truth serum," as ex-Googler and author Seth Stephens-Davidowitz writes in Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are. Hoover up these data points and combine them with all of our other devices -- smart TVs, fitness trackers, cookies that stalk us across the web -- and there exists an ambient, ongoing accumulation of our habits to the tune of about 2.5 quintillion (that's a million trillion) bytes of data per day.
Google clarifies how it tracks users even with Location History off
After the Associated Press reported that certain Google apps still track you even if you turned off location history, Google has changed its help pages and tried to clarify the issue. "We have been updating the explanatory language about Location History to make it more consistent and clear across our platforms and help centers," Google told the AP in a statement.
Major US news sites are still blocking Europeans due to GDPR
Months after GDPR privacy rules went into effect, over a thousand US news sites still aren't available in Europe. That includes outlets like WGN, the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune and publishers including Tronc, Lee Enterprises and GateHouse Media. All told, about a third of the 100 largest US newspapers have blocked European visitors to their sites rather than complying with the new law, reports NiemanLab.
Instapaper is back in the EU following temporary GDPR shutdown
Back in May, Instapaper temporarily shut down operations in the EU because it was not compliant with GDPR. Today, the company announced that it is once again operational for users in the EU. Those who are curious about the changes made can see different versions of Instapaper's privacy policy over at Github.
White House reportedly working on federal data privacy policy
The Trump administration is working on a set of data privacy protections, the Washington Post reports, and according to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, officials have held 22 meetings with more than 80 companies and groups since last month. Companies like Facebook, Google, AT&T and Comcast have been involved, according to four Washington Post sources familiar with the matter. The short-term goal is to deliver a data privacy proposal -- including how data should be collected and handled and what rights consumers have regarding that data -- which could serve as a guide for lawmakers as they consider legislation.
Facebook lost one million monthly active users to GDPR
The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation had a tangible impact on Facebook's user base -- if only just. While discussing its second quarter earnings, the social network revealed that it lost about 1 million monthly active users in Europe due to the implementation of GDPR. That's a drop in the bucket next to Facebook's 376 million European users and 2.2 billion total users, but such a decline is extremely rare for a company that has almost always seen growth, even if it has been slowing over time.
Twitter is having a hard time enforcing its age policy
Once Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) went into effect in May, Twitter began enforcing its age policy more aggressively, and unfortunately for some users, that meant having their accounts locked even if they were currently of age. GDPR doesn't allow those under the age of 13 to sign user agreements, but a problem arises when current users who are now older than 13 signed up for an account when they were younger than 13. A source at Twitter told The Guardian in May that since the company can't selectively remove a user's content that was posted when they were underage, it was instead suspending those users altogether. But while the company was reportedly working on a more long-term solution, weeks later, the problem persists.
California bill could be a major boost to personal data privacy
California legislators have introduced a bill that would give the state's residents more control over their online data and notably, would take the place of a proposed ballot measure that has been rigorously opposed by tech companies like Amazon and Microsoft. The bill was introduced by Assemblyman Ed Chau (D) and state Senator Robert Hertzberg (D) and is the result of a deal stuck between lawmakers, stakeholders and Alastair Mactaggart -- the California real estate developer and chair of Californians for Consumer Privacy who introduced the ballot initiative. "This legislation, like the initiative, would provide simple, powerful rights to Californians: tell me what you know about me. Stop selling it. Keep it safe," he said in a statement.
White House reportedly considers GDPR-like data protections
Online data privacy is a hot topic right now for a number of reasons. US residents and elected officials alike still have their eyes on Facebook as concerns continue to circulate over the policies that led to the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Further, more recent reports have revealed that the company shared data with a number of mobile device makers, sparking unease over what that means for consumers as well as national security. On the other side of the issue, Europe has now instituted its General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the most rigorous set of privacy laws to date. Now, it looks like US officials are interested in exploring some regulations of their own.
Facebook wants to help small businesses protect your privacy
Data privacy is a continually growing concern in the wake of news of election tampering and Cambridge Analytica scandals. As the EU's General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) take full effect, it's not only big corporations that need to be wary of protecting their users' privacy. Facebook is now partnering with TeachPrivacy in the US for community events held to train small and medium businesses on ten specific things they need to know about customer data protection. Sessions will be held in Baltimore, New Orleans, San Diego, Palo Alto and Edison, New Jersey. Facebook is working with the Promontory consulting group to train folks in the EU, as well.
Twitter promises a fix for its age-limit account lockouts
Those who recently got locked out of their Twitter accounts for being younger than 13-years-old when they're actually much older may want to keep an eye out for a follow-up email. In a series of tweets, the social network has explained that its system "became aware of accounts that were set up by people when they were younger than 13" after it implemented product changes to comply with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Those accounts were automatically locked, even if it has been years ago since they were created, and Twitter says it didn't expect that to happen at all. Now, the social network has promised to help people affected by the issue get their accounts back.
Spanish soccer league app spied on fans to catch pirate broadcasts
Is your phone listening to you? After all, there has to be a reason why so many apps ask to access your device's microphone. App makers and websites have long dismissed creepily relevant adverts as merely "targeted advertising", but now one app has revealed the unnerving potential of this permission. Spanish soccer league app, La Liga, has admitted to spying on users, and in doing so it's turning sports fans into unknowing snitches.
How GDPR is affecting the games you love
The tech world has been bracing for a new set of European privacy rules that go into effect: the General Data Protection Regulation, better known as GDPR. Companies will have either changed how they handle their EU users' personal data or face serious fines. The regulations are intentionally broad, which has led them to affect industries that aren't typically thought of as trafficking in user information -- like gaming. That means gamers are protected by GDPR while playing online or posting in forums. But in complying with the EU regulations, gaming companies are nervous that they'll inadvertently run afoul of the new law's vaguely written rules.
Instapaper temporarily shuts down in Europe to comply with GDPR
Every company that does business in the EU is sending out notifications of their compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) rules that reach their final compliance date March 25th. Instapaper, however, is taking different approach, notifying its customers in the UK that its service would be temporarily unavailable for European residents.
Facebook is rolling out its GDPR privacy rules to the world
At first, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg only agreed with the European Union's General Data Protection Rules (GDPR) "in spirit." Now, following Zuckerberg's appearance before EU parliament, the social network is applying GDPR's framework to accounts across the globe. "People have told us they want clearer explanations of what information we collect and how we use it," chief privacy officer Erin Egan writes. Egan explains that within the next few weeks, when you log in, you'll have a notification so you can review details about advertising, face recognition and information you've chosen to share on your profile.
