The fallout from the Schrems II judgment continued with an announcement from Switzerland’s Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) that the Swiss-US Privacy Shield regime “does not provide an adequate level of protection for data transfer from Switzerland to the US pursuant to [Switzerland’s] Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP).”
In June, Apple announced iOS 14 updates that, among other changes, would require apps to ask users for permission to collect and share data with developers. As a result, Facebook has just announced it would no longer collect the identifier for advertisers (IDFA) on their own apps on iPhones.
Beginning in M86, Chrome will warn users when they try to complete forms on secure (HTTPS) pages that are submitted insecurely. These “mixed forms” (forms on HTTPS sites that do not submit on HTTPS) are a risk to users’ security and privacy. Information submitted on these forms can be visible to eavesdroppers, allowing malicious parties to read or change sensitive form data, says Google.
On Friday, August 14, 2020, the California Office of Administrative Law (OAL) approved the California Office of the Attorney General’s (OAG) final CCPA regulations and filed them with the California Secretary of State (SOS). The regulations were immediately effective. Notably, the final text of the regulations submitted to the SOS was modified from the one filed with the OAL. The OAG published an Addendum to the Final Statement of Reasons setting forth the changes. Many of the changes are stylistic and grammatical. However, some of the changes are substantive and will impact compliance efforts. The most notable changes are discussed below.
The Trump administration has enacted several measures to protect U.S. national security, citizens’ privacy, and the integrity of 5G infrastructure from "Beijing’s malign influence," announced US Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo.
The Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies Act of 2020 (EARN IT), aimed at protecting children from online predators, is facing scrutiny from those who believe it will undermine privacy, promote censorship and jeopardize the right to free speech.
Contact tracing for COVID-19 is critical to returning our nation to some semblance of normalcy, but we are far from a consensus on what effective, secure, cost-feasible and scalable contact tracing looks like. There are several documented, meaningful automated contact tracing efforts across the globe - not to mention more than 150 apps and initiatives in various stages of development. Getting contact tracing off the ground in the US is fraught with obstacles that are formidable, but not insurmountable. Among the thorniest is data privacy: if we can’t convince citizens that it’s safe and non-invasive to share information about who they’ve been in touch with, contact tracing will fail.
Google has admitted that its Home speakers recorded users at all times, even when they hadn't said "wake words" such as "OK Google," due to a security error earlier this year.
