Latest Data Privacy Headlines
All the headlines from our Data Privacy Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Facebook Broke Data Privacy Rules, so Self-Regulation Must End: UK Lawmakers
Feb 19 2019 // Facebook intentionally breached data privacy and competition law and should, along with other big tech companies, be subject to a new regulator to protect democracy and citizens’ rights, British lawmakers said on...
Microsoft’s Home State’s Facial Recognition Privacy Bill Could Be Model for Others
Feb 8 2019 // Two months after calling for laws to regulate facial-recognition software, Microsoft Corp. is lobbying on behalf of a first-of-its-kind bill in its home state of Washington. The question is whether cross-town rival...
Irish Data Regulator Probes Twitter over Privacy Rules Breach
Jan 28 2019 // Twitter’s lead regulator in the European Union, the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (DPC), said on Friday it was investigating the company for a breach notification received from the social networking...
U.S. Privacy Regulation Tested by Facebook Scandals
Jan 24 2019 // Facebook Inc.’s repeated privacy scandals have infuriated users, lawmakers and data-security advocates who are clamoring for a forceful government response. That job mainly falls to Joe Simons, who is under pressure...
France Fines Google $57M for Breaching EU’s Data Privacy Rules Under GDPR
Jan 23 2019 // France’s data protection watchdog fined Alphabet’s Google 50 million euros ($57 million) on Monday [Jan. 21] for breaching European Union online privacy rules, the biggest such penalty levied against a U.S....
States Surprised with Burst of Insurance Fraud-Related Legislation in 2018
Jan 7 2019 // Lawmakers Debated More Than 100 Fraud-Related Bills and Passed 33 into Law The introduction of new bills slows down during years when legislators tend to be more concerned with reelection. That’s why 2018 was such a...
Judge Dismisses Privacy Suit Against Google Over Facial Recognition Technology
Dec 31 2018 // A lawsuit filed against Google by users who said the world’s largest search engine violated their privacy by using facial recognition technology was dismissed by a judge on Saturday. U.S. District Judge Edmond E....
Federal Cyber Privacy Bill Calls for Fines, Prison for Executives’ Violations
Nov 2 2018 // A senior Democratic U.S. senator on Thursday unveiled draft legislation that would allow hefty fines and as much as 20-year prison terms for executives who violate privacy and cybersecurity standards. Senator Ron Wyden...
Apple CEO Calls for U.S. Privacy Law to Protect User Data
Oct 24 2018 // Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said on Wednesday customer data was being “weaponised with military efficiency” by companies to increase profit. Cook, speaking at the International Conference of Data Protection...
UK Privacy Lawsuit Filed Against Google by IPhone Users Is Dismissed
Oct 8 2018 // A U.K. lawsuit filed against Google by millions of iPhone users over data-collection claims was thrown out by a London judge. The group, known as Google You Owe Us, were seeking as much as 3.2 billion pounds ($4.2...
A U.S. Privacy Law Could Be Good for Google, but Bad for You
Oct 3 2018 // U.S. Congress is taking the first steps toward setting national rules governing how companies use consumers data – although one of its goals might be to prevent states from enacting stronger privacy protections of...
Tech Giants, Chamber Offer Views on National Consumer Privacy Rules
Sep 14 2018 // Two technology trade groups on Wednesday released proposals for national consumer privacy regulations, adding to the chorus of businesses seeking to influence the growing momentum for stricter rules on how companies handle...
Mississippi Supreme Court Says Privacy Suit Against Google Can Continue
Sep 3 2018 // Mississippi’s Supreme Court says a state lawsuit against Google alleging violations of student privacy should stay in a northeast Mississippi court. The court voted 6-2 Aug. 9 to deny an appeal by the unit of...
Mississippi Supreme Court Allows Privacy Suit Against Google to Move Forward
Aug 16 2018 // Mississippi’s Supreme Court says a state lawsuit against Google alleging violations of student privacy should stay in a northeast Mississippi court. The court voted 6-2 Aug. 9 to deny an appeal by the unit of...
Five Takeaways from California’s Watershed Privacy Law
Aug 6 2018 // California recently enacted a sweeping new privacy law, the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, which is likely to have broad implications for organizations providing services to, or collecting data from, California...
Concerns Mount over Data Privacy Guidelines Set by Genetic-Testing Companies
Aug 3 2018 // Genetic-testing companies that have decoded the DNA of millions just introduced new guidelines to protect data privacy. But those best practices failed to address a major concern: what happens to customers’ data that...
India Weighs Comprehensive Data Privacy Bill, Similar to EU’s GDPR
Jul 31 2018 // A draft of a sweeping data privacy bill has been submitted to India’s government that, if enacted, will restrict the transfer and storage of information on more than 1 billion people by global technology corporations...
Five Key Takeaways from California’s Watershed Privacy Law
Jul 27 2018 // California recently enacted a sweeping new privacy law, the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, which is likely to have broad implications for organizations providing services to, or collecting data from, California...
Facebook Faces £500,000 Fine in UK over Cambridge Analytica Data Privacy Violations
Jul 11 2018 // Facebook Inc. could be fined a symbolic 500,000 pounds ($664,000) by the U.K.’s privacy regulator after the social network giant failed to prevent key user data falling into the hands of a political consultancy that...
Facebook in Australia Faces Potential Class Action Suit over Data Privacy Breaches
Jul 10 2018 // Litigation funder IMF Bentham Ltd is preparing to potentially sue social media giant Facebook Inc in Australia over its sharing of users’ data with political consultancy Cambridge Analytica. The world’s largest...