A New Jersey federal court judge dismissed consumer fraud claims Tuesday in an amended complaint (in Pacer) that alleges Samsung and Sony smart TVs spied on the private viewing habits of their owners. U.S. District Judge Madeline Cox Arleo let the case go forward on allegations that the TV makers may have captured more than just "static identifiers" such as IP addresses and ZIP codes, in possible violation of the Wiretap Act. Plaintiffs "have adequately alleged that their 'content' was intercepted," said the judge. On the fraud claim, New Jersey plaintiff Patricia Cauley claimed she wouldn't have purchased her Samsung smart TV -- or would have paid substantially less for it -- if she had known the company would collect her personal and viewing data. The jurist said Cauley failed to demonstrate that her loss was “quantifiable or measurable,” and the claim was dismissed. The findings were similar for Florida resident Thomas White, who filed a consumer fraud claim under Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act over one Sony and two Samsung smart TVs. White alleged the smart TVs he bought had a tracking feature that “impaired the value of the televisions.” Plaintiffs must be able to calculate or quantify an ascertainable loss but did not do so, the judge wrote.
Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill (R) is participating in a bipartisan, multistate investigation of tech industry competition (see 1908200066), a spokesperson said Tuesday. Hill “wants to ensure that Indiana consumers are not subject to unfair competition or increased risk to data privacy as dependency on technology is rapidly evolving,” the representative said.
Some Facebook users will soon be able to review their external browsing data and disassociate that history from their accounts, the company announced Tuesday. Originally pitched as a tool for clearing browsing history, the Off-Facebook Activity tool will first be available to users in Ireland, South Korea and Spain. No timeline was offered for Americans. Users will be able to track what data third-party websites share with Facebook and opt out of activity tracking, but the data won’t be deleted.
When the FCC Consumer Advisory Committee next meets Sept. 16, it will consider a Critical Calls List/Robocall Blocking group recommendation related to an NPRM to cut down on illegal robocalls and call authentication. The committee meets at 9 a.m. in the Commission Meeting Room, said a Friday public notice.
Nearly 14 million smart home controllers will sell in the U.S. in 2024, doubling from about 7 million this year, reported Parks Associates Friday. “Device manufacturers are increasingly aware of the negative impact of security and privacy concerns on smart home industry growth, so major players including Google and Amazon are designing device features to restrict accessibility to consumer data.” Parks estimates only 37 percent of U.S. broadband homes “trust that companies with access to their data will keep it safe,” it said. The development of facial and fingerprint authentication “allows device manufacturers to establish a level of security stronger than voice but still convenient to the consumer,” said Parks. “Ultimately, voice technology will develop, where unique voices can be used for biometric authentication in and of itself, but current far-field voice recognition technology is not yet up to the security challenge.”
The American Civil Liberties Union-California is offering misleading information about accuracy of facial recognition technology, said Information Technology and Innovation Foundation Vice President Daniel Castro Wednesday. The ACLU scanned 26 California legislators, and claimed about one in five incorrectly matched with criminal mugshots. Independent federal government testing shows the top face-scanning technology is more accurate than humans at identifying faces, Castro said. This is the second time the ACLU used questionable testing methods (see 1807260037 and 1807300045), he said: “Claims that are not observable, testable, repeatable, and falsifiable are not science.” The ACLU didn't comment.
Apple’s “intentional recording of individuals’ confidential communications without their consent” using Siri voice-recognition software violates California privacy and unfair-competition laws, alleged a complaint Wednesday (in Pacer) in U.S. District Court in San Jose that seeks class-action status. A July 26 article in The Guardian reported Apple “has been recording individuals without consent and has been storing and sending those recordings to humans for review,” said the complaint. Siri devices continuously record consumers’ conversations, including when they fail “to utter a wake phrase,” it said. The complaint estimates the potential class to include all individuals who were recorded on a Siri device without their consent “from at least as early” as October 2011 to the present. It asks the court to order Apple to delete all recordings and to pay “nominal, statutory, and punitive” damages. Apple didn’t comment.
Federal privacy legislation with key provisions from laws in Europe and California “could cost the U.S. economy about $122 billion per year,” the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation reported Monday. That amount was calculated based on expenses for data protection officers, privacy audits, data infrastructure and other expected line items, ITIF said.
Facebook failed to detail exact plans for protecting data privacy for Libra users (see 1907180055), FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra and six privacy regulators wrote Monday. Joining Chopra were EU Data Protection Supervisor Giovanni Buttarelli, U.K. Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham, Privacy Commissioner of Canada Daniel Therrien, Australian Information and Privacy Commissioner Angelene Falk, Albanian Information and Data Protection Commissioner Besnik Dervishi and Burkina Faso Commission for Information Technology and Civil Liberties President Marguerite Ouedraogo Bonane. The group asked how the Libra Association plans to apply consistent privacy standards across its network, and specifics about data collection and sharing.
About three-quarters of U.S. adults worry that their financial and personal data will be hacked (74 percent), don’t want online data being used to make content and advertising more relevant (75 percent), or for commercial purposes (76 percent), according to Internet Innovation Alliance survey released Thursday. Additionally, 72 percent favor a single, nationwide online data privacy law, it said. The survey also found the views of millennials “remarkably aligned with older adults on data privacy issues,” said Rick Boucher, IIA honorary chairman. CivicScience did the survey of more than 8,000 consumers in April.