If you are not paying for a service on the Internet, you are the product being sold to paying customers. But if you are paying for the service, can you be the product too? Of course....more
4/22/2022
/ Amazon ,
Credit Karma ,
Data Collection ,
Data-Sharing ,
E-Commerce ,
Facebook ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Google ,
H&R Block ,
Internet ,
Internet Marketing ,
Personal Data ,
Privacy Laws ,
Subscription Services ,
TurboTax
Why don’t our new privacy laws really protect our privacy? Are we going about this the wrong way?
The topic was raised in the recent Capital Forum of state and federal enforcement agencies by FTC Chair Lena Kahn, who...more
12/15/2021
/ Analytics ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Big Tech ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
EU ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Mobile Devices ,
Notice and Comment ,
Personal Data ,
Personal Information ,
Privacy Laws ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Sensitive Personal Information ,
Smart Devices ,
Surveillance
We have all heard of targeted advertising, but what about advertising that targets your dreams. US companies have begun programs to insert their products into your sleep cycle - to set the agenda of your dreams....more
AI is hungry for data.
Training and testing the machine-learning tools to perform desired tasks consumes huge lakes of data. More data often means better AI....more
Columbia University Law Professor Tim Wu has written profoundly and persuasively for decades about anti-competitive behavior in the U.S. tech industry - from Western Union’s telegraph monopoly in the 1860s forward toward the...more
7/9/2021
/ Amazon ,
Anti-Competitive ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Apple ,
Biden Administration ,
Big Tech ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Facebook ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Google ,
Microsoft ,
Monopolization ,
Presidential Appointments ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Sherman Act
When I was in college, I attended an old fashioned tent revival show. My roommate was taking a comparative religion class and I accompanied him to a number of spiritually-focused events outside the frame of most college...more
I have written recently about the crashing tsunami of change in legal attitudes toward the largest U.S. data, technology and internet companies, especially in the antitrust realm. As we consider whether GAFA critic Tim Wu...more
Hard on the heels of the muckle of anti-trust filings against the huge U.S. technology companies in the past few months, the United States Senate indicates that clamping down on Big Tech will be a priority for the new...more
Tim Wu, the bard of big tech, has written multiple books about the rise and coming fall of technology monopolies, oligopolies, and empires. In The Master Switch, Wu tells the story of how, in the 19th Century, the existing...more
12/15/2020
/ Acquisitions ,
Anticompetitive Behavior ,
Antitrust Investigations ,
Big Tech ,
Competition ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
European Commission ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Innovation ,
Monopolization ,
State Attorneys General ,
Technology Sector
The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) conducted an investigation into Zoom Video Communications, Inc.’s (“Zoom”) privacy and security practices and announced a settlement agreement on November 9, 2020. As a part of the...more
One of the EU’s chief complaints against US privacy practices is the lack of enforcement of the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework (Privacy Shield). Last week we saw a US enforcement action that may allay this concern. The US...more
Who can track your location through your smartphone? The phone companies have the ability to do so, and until recently, have been selling your location data to private companies so that bounty hunters and creditors could...more
2/26/2019
/ Bounty Hunters ,
Cell Phones ,
Data Collection ,
Debt Collection ,
FCC ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Geolocation ,
GPS ,
Location Data ,
Privacy Concerns ,
Smartphones ,
Tracking Systems
A European privacy regulator has spoken on a key facet in its General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) interpretation. The UK’s enforcement office apparently believes that an EU data subject cannot give consent to a...more
Companies have a responsibility to protect the sensitive employee and consumer data they hold, but we do not know how much of their revenues must be spent on this effort before it is considered enough. We do not know what...more
A consumer’s television or computer may be emitting silent signals that her smartphone can hear, recognize and answer back, but the consumer can’t sense them at all. These signals are telling retailers about their customer’s...more
5/25/2017
/ App Developers ,
Cross-Device ,
Data Security ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Notice Requirements ,
Personal Data ,
Privacy Policy ,
Retailers ,
Transparency ,
Warning Letters ,
Web Tracking
U.S companies are expected to explain how consumers are being tracked across devices, so that the company knows a consumer accessing its website from smartphone, tablet, television, laptop or other devices. Until now, U.S....more
As more consumer devices connect to the Internet, regulators take a more aggressive stance requiring security promises be met.
On January 5, 2017, the FTC filed a complaint against computer networking equipment...more
On October 25, 2016, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released its nonbinding “Data Breach Response” guide with an accompanying blog post and video, all directed to help businesses prepare a data breach response plan. The...more
After months of uncertainty, the U.S. again has a framework of rules to follow that will govern U.S. business’ use of EU residents’ data. The European Commission approved the text of the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield (the “Privacy...more
7/14/2016
/ EU ,
EU-US Privacy Shield ,
European Commission ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
International Data Transfers ,
Ombudsman ,
Opt-Outs ,
Personal Data ,
Schrems I & Schrems II ,
Surveillance ,
Third-Party Agents ,
U.S. Commerce Department ,
US-EU Safe Harbor Framework
European privacy law is a bold new world for U.S. businesses doing business in Europe. An October Court of Justice ruling struck down the Safe Harbor arrangement which had governed E.U.-U.S. data transfer transactions for...more
6/8/2016
/ Binding Corporate Rules ,
EU ,
EU Data Protection Laws ,
EU-US Privacy Shield ,
European Commission ,
European Court of Justice (ECJ) ,
Facebook ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Google ,
International Data Transfers ,
Personal Data ,
Right to Be Forgotten ,
Schrems I & Schrems II ,
Standard Contractual Clauses ,
Surveillance ,
U.S. Commerce Department ,
US-EU Safe Harbor Framework
United States and European Union officials have reached a last-minute agreement in an attempt to salvage the US-EU Data Transfer Safe Harbor, nearly four months after the European Court of Justice issued an opinion...more
2/4/2016
/ Data Protection Authority ,
EU ,
EU-US Privacy Shield ,
European Commission ,
European Court of Justice (ECJ) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
International Data Transfers ,
Schrems I & Schrems II ,
Surveillance ,
U.S. Commerce Department ,
US-EU Safe Harbor Framework