Information privacy

Tired of dealing with popups begging you to accept cookies? Blame the EU. In 2018, Europe unleashed a groundbreaking privacy law called the GDPR that, among a billion other things, makes websites ask permission before tracking you with cookies. A lot of companies switched their whole systems over rather than building special European versions of their websites. It’s a privacy improvement, but the downside is the web bombarding everyone on the planet with cookie popups. EU regulators know this sucks, but now they’ve got…

In what would be a legislative first for the country, a proposed law in Massachusetts promises to put a dent in the data brokerage industry by banning the sale of cellular location data. Suffice it to say, it would be really awesome if the bill passes.Teyonah Parris and John Boyega on Working With Jamie Foxx | io9 InterviewCurrently, data brokers can and do sell your cellular location data to whomever they wish. Firms often claimthis data is anonymized but it can easily be de-anonymized and there are firms that…

The European Union and the U.S. reached an agreement in its years-long discussion about international privacy laws on Monday, marking a major milestone for the two nations. The agreement, called the E.U.-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, opens the doorway for Europeans to file an appeal if they believe American intelligence agencies collected their personal information without their consent. The FTC Just Prescribed a Can of Whoop Ass on Health DataAn independent review body called the Data Protection Review Court, will hear…

The EU’s European Data Protection Board, or EDPB, is launching a task force to monitor ChatGPT, a move that indicates that the bloc’s privacy regulators are getting serious about looking into the LLM’spotential privacy violations. The FTC Just Prescribed a Can of Whoop Ass on Health DataThe EDPB announced its new initiative in a brief, two-sentence statement in a press release on Thursday, the same day the Spanish Data Protection Agency, known as the AEPD in Spanish, stated it was launching a preliminary investigation…

Italy, the first country in the world to ban ChatGPT, said OpenAI could restore access to the chatbot if it adopts a series of measures to protect data privacy, including allowing users to correct or delete the incorrect things ChatGPT says about them.The FTC Just Prescribed a Can of Whoop Ass on Health DataIn a news announcement on Wednesday, the Italian Data Protection Authority, known as the Garante, stressed that OpenAI needed to be more transparent about its data collection processes and inform users about their data…

ChatGPT is very simple to get started on. It’s free to sign up for, and you can either use your own email address or log in with your Google or Microsoft account. But you may have noticed that ChatGPT also asks for your phone number. Given all the concern over whether ChatGPT is safe to use, that may have thrown you for a loop, which begs the question — why does ChatGPT need your number after all? Hatice Baran / Unsplash Why ChatGPT requires a phone number Like many things you sign up for online, ChatGPT…

ChatGPT has been temporarily banned in Italy due to privacy concerns and faces a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) complaint in the U.S. that calls for new releases of ChatGPT to be halted. According to the Associated Press, the Italian Data Protection Authority will maintain the ban “until ChatGPT respects privacy.” The problem with user data being visible to others during ChatGPT’s March 20 outage was mentioned as the reason for this action. No details were shared about how this ban would be enforced or…

Photo: Pixels Hunter / Shutterstock.com (Shutterstock)A bill introduced Thursday in response to the reversal of Roe v. Wade would enshrine first-of-its kind protections for location data and health information. If it passes, it has the potential to be one of the most significant privacy laws in American history.The bill, called the Upholding Protections for Health and Online Location Data (UPHOLD) Privacy Act was introduced by three Democratic senators, citing digital privacy concerns in the wake ofthe Supreme Court…

Acxiom CEO Chad EngelgauPhoto: Courtesy of AcxiomChad Engelgau is the CEO of Acxiom, a data broker that operates one of the world’s biggest repositories of consumer information. The company claims to have granular details onmore than 2.5 billion people across 62 different countries. The chances that Acxiom knows a whole lot about you, reader, are good. In many respects, data brokering is a shadowy enterprise. The industry mostly operates in quiet business deals the public never hears about, especially smaller firms that…

Photo: Wachiwit (Shutterstock)In a sweeping settlement announced Monday, the Federal Trade Commission fined Epic Games a whopping $520 million after accusing the Fortnite-maker of a variety of unsavory business practices. The complaint touches on a range of issues from alleged violations of children’s privacyto tricking users into unintentional purchases, but there’s an overarching theme: deceptive design. Epic agreed to make a number of changes to its interfaces as part of the settlement, like adding friction in the…