The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board will hold a forum on the USA Freedom Act and the Section 215 phone surveillance program at 10 a.m. May 31 in the Reagan Building. Panelists are National Security Institute Director Jamil Jaffer, Tufts University cybersecurity professor Susan Landau, Princeton University assistant professor of computer science Jonathan Mayer, Cato Institute Senior Fellow Julian Sanchez, Copper Hill Strategies founder Caroline Lynch and Eversheds Sutherland’s Global Cybersecurity and Privacy Practice partner Michael Bahar.
Twitter “inadvertently” collected and shared user iOS location data with an advertising partner without user consent, the platform blogged Monday. If a user was operating more than one Twitter account on iOS, the platform might have accidentally collected location data for all accounts associated with the device, if the user opted into tracking on at least one account, the company said. The data was stored for a “short time” on the ad partners’ systems before deletion, the company said.
An FCC webinar Wednesday will focus on consumer information for older adults, including on caller ID spoofing scams. Another topic in the 2 p.m. EDT program: "Keeping up with broadcast TV stations in transition." Outlets are moving channels in the post-incentive auction reshuffling.
Facebook’s co-founder called CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s power “unprecedented and un-American,” and said it's time to break up the company. In a 6,000-word New York Times opinion online Thursday, Chris Hughes, who left the company in 2007, called Zuckerberg’s influence controlling Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, “staggering, far beyond that of anyone else in the private sector or in government.” Government “must hold Mark accountable,” said Hughes, who called Zuckerberg’s “unilateral control over speech” the “most problematic aspect of Facebook’s power.” Government should break up Facebook just as it did such monopolies as Standard Oil and AT&T, said Hughes, co-chairman of the Economic Security Project and a senior adviser at the Roosevelt Institute. He called on Congress to create an agency to regulate tech companies that would protect privacy, guarantee basic interoperability across platforms and create guidelines for acceptable speech on social media. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., agreed that “in retrospect, the FTC should not have approved Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram & WhatsApp in 2012. I believe the way forward is to heavily scrutinize future mergers and to ensure no company has anti-competitive platform privileges,” he said in a statement. Vice President-Global Affairs Nick Clegg responded that Facebook acknowledges the need for accountability. He said that "you don’t enforce accountability by calling for the breakup of a successful American company. Accountability of tech companies can only be achieved through the painstaking introduction of new rules for the internet."
The FTC should investigate Amazon for Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act violations related to its Echo Dot Kids Edition, senators wrote the agency Thursday. Ed Markey, D-Mass.; Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.; Dick Durbin, D-Ill.; and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., cited alleged evidence Amazon is failing to meet COPPA’s notice standard and parental consent requirement and not allowing parents to properly delete children’s data. The FTC confirmed it received the letter. Nineteen consumer and public health organizations led by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and Center for Digital Democracy called for an investigation, in an FTC complaint. They cited a review by the CCFC and Institute for Public Representation at Georgetown Law. “Amazon retains children’s data even after parents believe they have deleted it,” they wrote, citing overly complicated privacy policies. Color of Change, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and Public Citizen were among others joining the complaint. FreeTime on Alexa and Echo Dot Kids Edition are compliant with COPPA, an Amazon spokesperson said Thursday, citing the company's privacy practices.
The California Assembly Appropriations Committee cleared three industry-backed bills to tweak the California Consumer Privacy Act, at a Wednesday hearing. Appropriators greenlit AB-846 to make exceptions for customer loyalty programs, AB-1146 to exempt vehicle data such as ownership information that’s shared between a dealer and automobile manufacturer in anticipation of a repair, and AB-1564 to change a CCPA requirement that businesses give consumers two or more ways to submit information requests. The Texas House voted 140-0 Tuesday for a state privacy bill, sending HB-4390 to the Senate. The Texas bill would allow businesses to process personal identifying information only with explicit consent or if required by law. Other provisions include requiring businesses to bolster data security, disclose their privacy practices, and give consumers a way to access and request deletion of personal data. It would be enforced by the attorney general and take effect Sept. 1.
Six Senate Intelligence Committee Democrats demanded specifics on NSA’s Section 215 phone surveillance program (see 1905060048) Tuesday. Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.; Mark Warner, D-Va.; Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.; Martin Heinrich, D-N.M.; Kamala Harris, D-Calif.; and Michael Bennet, D-Colo., signed the letter to NSA Director Paul Nakasone. They asked for a “public description, consistent with protection of sources and methods, of the current status of the call detail record (CDR) program under Title V” of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The lawmakers cited NSA’s unauthorized collection of CDRs in 2018, arguing public disclosure would clear up confusion and help inform potential reauthorization.
Fining Facebook for its data privacy violations is insufficient, Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., wrote the FTC Monday. They urged the commission to implement long-term structural remedies for the company, including limits on consumer data collection and advertising practices, data deletion requirements and stiff penalties for executives. The pair likened a potential $3 billion-$5 billion fine for Facebook to the FTC's handing out speeding tickets. They cited the company's $15 billion revenue in the last quarter and the agency’s ability to impose civil penalties of $42,000 per violation for “blatant and brazen” consent decree violations. The company didn’t comment. The agency confirmed it received the letter.
T-Mobile has stopped selling real-time location information to data aggregators. Wednesday, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel sought such from top carriers. (see 1905010167). As of Feb. 8, the company “terminated all service provider access to location data under the program, and T-Mobile’s location based services contracts with the Location Aggregators officially ended on March 9,” a spokesperson emailed.
ProSource needs to address change -- “you can’t stop change” -- CEO Dave Workman told members at the spring conference Wednesday in San Antonio, speaking of opportunities presented by changes in the consumer technology industry. Reaching millennials and Generation Z consumers has been a recent theme for the group, whose roots are in the baby boomer generation. Over the next 20-30 years, that generation will pass down what some estimates say will be more than $30 trillion to Generation X and millennials, “the consumers of tomorrow,” he said. Dealers have to market to millennials differently because they research and shop differently, Workman said. Millennials value the “experience” of shopping, part of the reason ProSource, along with sister buying group BrandSource, is emphasizing showroom upgrades. Key initiatives include a differentiated experience and ensuring the digital marketing message and in-store experience are equal. A 5G revolution also is coming, Workman said, with content driving “a tremendous amount of change.” As content “comes to the home differently tomorrow, there’s updates and changes that are going to have to come with the home,” he said. Murray Huppin, president of Huppin’s and OneCall, envisioned being able to "showroom" to customers on a smartphone how a product or system will fit into their home. Responding to our question on consumer concerns about data privacy in connected homes, Workman said it’s a topic that “probably needs a lot of attention. Everything gets hacked at some point, it seems.” A stopgap measure for dealers is a digital insurance policy to protect against a lawsuit over a network data breach, he said, but next steps are uncertain. Most integrators aren’t paying enough attention to cyberthreats and don’t have the internal systems needed to protect networked homes, said Listen Up President Walt Stinson. As a larger company, Listen Up has the resources to address that part of the business, but “most integrators struggle" with it,” he said. Huppin noted a security-focused presentation at a conference last year, which provided resources for dealers, but no ongoing program has been set up since, something both dealers said should be done.