The FTC again delayed when comments are due on the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act rule, now by two days to Wednesday. Monday's announcement came as Regulations.gov was offline. Our queries for more details on that website netted no new information. In the evening, the website appeared to be working. Previously, the commission delayed the COPPA review comments by about a month and a half, to Dec. 9.
Letting AmeriCredit Financial Services call customers under its "doing business as" name, GM Financial, will help avoid confusion, the FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau said in a docket 02-278 order in Friday's Daily Digest. It issued limited waiver of Telephone Consumer Protection Act caller identification requirements (see 1905240015).
Cambridge Analytica “engaged in deceptive practices to harvest personal information from tens of millions of Facebook users for voter profiling and targeting,” the FTC said in a 5-0 opinion Friday. The bankrupt consulting firm engaged in deceptive practices involving EU-U.S. Privacy Shield participation. The company is barred from misrepresenting itself again, the agency said. A July complaint alleged Cambridge Analytica and then-CEO Alexander Nix and app developer Aleksandr Kogan deceived consumers. The individuals agreed to settle, while the company didn't respond, the commission said now. The company didn't respond to request for comment.
Be transparent when using facial recognition technology, specifically in collecting and using data, said the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Thursday. Other recommendations include: protect privacy and personal data; promote beneficial uses while mitigating risks; risk-based regulation; and establish a national regulatory framework.
More connected devices in households and online services make people more aware of how their personal data is being collected and sold, Deloitte reported Wednesday. Over 90 percent say they should be able to see and delete data that companies collect about them. Eighty-four percent want companies that profit from their data to pay them. Fifty-eight percent of consumers are “very” or “extremely” concerned about their smartphone data; 59 percent about its security, said the consulting firm. That goes up with risks from smart speakers and home automation devices, with 73 percent “very” or “extremely” concerned about the privacy and security of smart speakers, 72 percent about the privacy of home automation devices. “If data is the new oil, consumers are awakening to the fact that each of them is an oil well: They want to regulate what is pumped out, and they want royalty checks,” said the report. The average household has 11 connected devices, including seven smart screens for viewing content; 28 percent of consumers use smart home devices such as connected thermostats, cameras and lighting and want more control over the data they create when using devices and online services. The company canvassed a nationally representative sample of 2,000 U.S. consumers online in September.
The Senate Judiciary Committee scheduled a hearing on encryption, lawful access and the risks to public safety and privacy at 10 a.m. Tuesday in 226 Dirksen.
Many consumers “are familiar with the most blatant privacy-invasive potential of their devices,” reported the Electronic Frontier Foundation Monday. “Every smartphone is a pocket-sized GPS tracker, constantly broadcasting its location to parties unknown.” But these better known “surveillance channels” aren't “the most threatening to our privacy,” said EFF. “The unsettling truth is that although Facebook doesn’t listen to you through your phone, that’s just because it doesn’t need to. The most prevalent threat to our privacy is the slow, steady, relentless accumulation of relatively mundane data points about how we live our lives.” Trackers can “assemble data about our clicks, impressions, taps, and movement” and convert them “into sprawling behavioral profiles,” said EFF.
Lifetime Entertainment withdrew its 2015 FCC petition for a declaratory ruling clarifying Telephone Consumer Protection Act restrictions on calls made to cable TV subscribers, per a docket 02-278 posting Monday. Lifetime had sought clarification TCPA restrictions didn't cover calls providing information about cable TV programing intended to reach the cable operator's subscribers who can watch that programming without having to pay any additional charges. It had called those calls "purely informational," not commercial or advertising.
To comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act, web and app publishers should display a green CCPA icon and hyperlink reading “CA Do Not Sell My Info” or similar to California users, the Digital Advertising Alliance recommended Monday. “Clicking on the link will direct users to publisher information and options, including access to the CCPA Opt-Out Tool if third parties collect and sell data from the property.”
A bill introduced Friday would create a DOJ Office of Digital Law Enforcement to facilitate police investigation access to tech company data. The Technology in Criminal Justice Act was introduced by Reps. Val Demings, D-Fla.; Conor Lamb, D-Pa.; Brian Babin, R-Texas; and John Rutherford, R-Fla. It would help “law enforcement agencies train and support personnel on how to handle digital evidence,” Demings said. It would create a Center of Excellence for Digital Forensics to “centralize training programs, technical expertise, and legal assistance related to digital evidence.”