Pennsylvania tightened robocall restrictions. Gov. Tom Wolf (D) Friday signed HB-318 to amend the Telemarketer Registration Act to require numbers on the do-not-call list to be maintained permanently so consumers don’t have to reregister every five years, allow businesses to register on the do-not-call list, require robocalls to include an opt-out mechanism, and prohibit telemarketing on legal holidays, his office said. Legislators unanimously supported the measure (see 1909240056).
Facebook should expand end-to-end encryption across its messaging services, despite pushback from Attorney General William Barr and colleagues in Australia and the UK (see 1910030058), more than 50 tech and privacy groups wrote the platform Thursday. Access Now, the American Civil Liberties Union, Center for Democracy & Technology, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Electronic Privacy Information Center, Engine, Free Press, Internet Society, New America’s Open Technology Institute and TechFreedom signed. “Each day that platforms do not support strong end-to-end security is another day that this data can be breached, mishandled, or otherwise obtained by powerful entities or rogue actors to exploit it,” they wrote. The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation separately asked DOJ not to undermine encryption. The department “is clearly attempting to reboot its failed arguments on encryption by reframing the debate as one needed to protect children,” Vice President Daniel Castro wrote, citing better alternatives like “tracking meta-data about user behavior, infiltrating networks of bad actors, and screening images before they are uploaded.” The department didn’t comment Friday.
About 80 percent of U.S. adults have adjusted their social media privacy settings or decreased their social media usage, DuckDuckGo reported Thursday. Nearly a quarter of survey participants “deleted or deactivated a social media profile due to privacy concerns,” the platform reported. It surveyed about 1,100 American adults in August.
YouTube users will soon be able to automatically delete their search and viewing histories, Google announced Wednesday. The company rolled out some sweeping privacy-related changes for various Google platforms, including Maps, which will now allow users to operate in an incognito mode similar to a Chrome feature. Assistant users will soon be able to delete voice recording data, as well.
Website users must give specific consent to storage of their cookies, the European Court of Justice ruled Tuesday. The decision arose from a challenge by the Federation of German Consumer Organizations to a pre-ticked checkbox, used by Planet49 in connection with online promotional games, by which users looking to participate consented to such storage. The cookies were used to collect information to advertise Planet49's partner products. ECJ ruled that under previous EU privacy law and the current general data protection regulation, consent required isn't valid if storage of information or access to information already stored in a user's terminal equipment is permitted via a pre-checked box which the user must deselect to refuse consent. That decision isn't affected by whether the information shared or accessed is personal data, because EU law seeks to protect users from any interference with their private life, such as from hidden identifiers and similar devices that enter users' terminals without their knowledge. "Consent or be tracked is not an option," said European Digital Rights Policy Head of Policy Diego Naranjo. EU governments should now move ahead with legislating on the practice and finalize the e-privacy regulation that complements GDPR, he said. Planet49 didn't comment.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., plans to visit Silicon Valley and meet with companies to better understand their algorithms and operations, she told C-SPAN's The Communicators to have been televised Saturday. Her office declined to provide specifics when we asked Friday. Congress should protect important provisions in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act for smaller companies and new entrants, she said, but the tech industry’s content liability shield deserves a review from Congress. Whether large platforms like Facebook and Google deserve to keep those protections should be part of the broader discussion, she said. Blackburn suggested ISPs would be “well-served” to scrutinize unmoderated platforms like 8chan and review the information originating from those outlets. The 50 state attorneys general investigating Google and nine states probing Facebook reflect the frustration from consumers and small businesses within their states, she said: “They feel as if they have the right to move forward, and indeed they do.” Competition is a topic the Senate Judiciary Committee Task Force, which the legislator leads, will address early next year, Blackburn said. She’s heard anecdotal evidence that smaller companies like Yelp are stifled by incumbents like Google. The task force learned there’s agreement Congress needs to get a privacy law with one set of rules and one regulator, she said. It’s important to establish a basic, simple standard for privacy, and Congress can add and amend as needed, she said: Consumers need to know their privacy rights are protected.
The author of the California privacy ballot initiative that spawned the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) pitched another ballot vote. Since the 2018 law, “some of the world’s largest companies have actively and explicitly prioritized weakening the CCPA,” and “technological tools have evolved in ways that exploit a consumer’s data,” Californians for Consumer Privacy’s Alastair Mactaggart said Wednesday. The proposal would address use and sale of sensitive personal information including health and financial information, racial or ethnic origin and precise geolocation, triple CCPA fines for violating children’s privacy laws and require opt-in consent to collect data from kids under 16 and require transparency about “automated decision-making and profiling.” It would establish the California Privacy Protection Agency, with a $5 million budget. Lawmakers made minor CCPA tweaks in their session ended this month, rejecting significant changes proposed (see 1909200030). In 2018, Mactaggart had enough signatures to get a ballot initiative but pulled it when legislators agreed to pass CCPA. He would need signatures from 623,212 registered voters to get his new proposal on 2020’s ballot.
Several House committee leaders said Friday they're optimistic about Facebook's willingness to cooperate in the chamber's ongoing probes involving the top social media platform, after meetings with CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Those talking with Zuckerberg Friday included House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and House Judiciary Committee leaders. Zuckerberg met with President Donald Trump and several senators Thursday (see 1909190072). Zuckerberg continued to decline to talk to reporters Friday. House Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman David Cicilline, D-R.I., told reporters Zuckerberg “made a commitment to cooperate with” the House Judiciary Committee's probe of tech sector antitrust (see 1906110072). Cicilline had criticized Facebook, Google and Amazon executives for being unprepared or evasive in answering questions during a July House Antitrust hearing (see 1907230055). “I look forward to [Zuckerberg's] cooperation," Cicilline said. “I take him at his word.” House Judiciary's investigation will include “document requests, requests for information, participation in a number of different ways,” Cicilline said. House Judiciary ranking member Doug Collins, R-Ga., was also optimistic about Zuckerberg's willingness to help, after an earlier meeting that also included McCarthy and House Commerce Committee ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore. Zuckerberg was “appreciative” of some House Judiciary members' aim of gathering information instead of “coming at it from an angle of 'Here's what we have to solve,'” Collins said. “He wants to have his company be in business and do the things that they want to do, but he's also very sensitive to the notions of privacy and bias and other things that people have concerns about.” Schiff told reporters his meeting with Zuckerberg focused on election interference on Facebook. Zuckerberg “appreciates the gravity” of lawmakers' concerns about deep fakes, or false and misleading material like altered videos of politicians and others (see 1906130048), Schiff said. “I wanted to raise my profound concern about the issue of deepfake technology and how it might be used to disrupt” the 2020 presidential election. Facebook is “very aware of the threat that it poses,” Schiff said. “They are in the process of developing what I hope will be very strong policies on this.”
The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau sought comment Thursday on Yodel Technologies petition for a declaratory ruling or retroactive waiver that calls made using soundboard technology aren’t subject to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (see 1909130061). Comments are due Oct. 21, replies Nov. 4, in docket 02-278. Soundboard is a computer program, web application or device that catalogs and plays short sound bites and audio clips.
An effort appears underway to “reduce the final number of consumers who receive cash awards” from the FTC’s Equifax settlement, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., wrote the agency Thursday. The 2020 presidential race contender cited reports that “consumers who opted to receive a $125 payment as a part of the Equifax breach settlement are now receiving suspicious-looking emails forcing them to complete additional, complicated steps in order to receive payments.” She questioned the agency’s role in “what appears to be a new effort to reduce the final number of consumers who receive cash awards from the settlement.” The agency confirmed receiving the letter, and company didn’t comment.