Security News
Consumers and employees are finally becoming more sensitive to the privacy of their data. Before US presidential news and the COVID-19 coronavirus took over the press, privacy was one of the major topics, with frequent questions around how much data the large social media companies should have, and what uses were appropriate for those data.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., is proposing the creation of a new federal agency dedicated to protecting online privacy, taking that task away from the Federal Trade Commission. In November, two Democratic members of the U.S. House, Anna Eshoo and Zoe Lofgren, proposed similar legislation, The Online Privacy Act, which would create a digital privacy agency that would have the ability to hire up to 1,600 employees and the authority to impose fines for privacy violations.
As the number of smart devices in private households increases, so do the opportunities for cyber criminals to attack, TÜV Rheinland reveals. Smart speakers, fitness trackers, smart watches, thermostats, energy meters, smart home security cameras, smart locks and lights are the best-known examples of the seemingly unstoppable democratization of the "Internet of many Things".
A new federal bureaucracy, the Data Protection Agency, has been proposed to completely revamp how the U.S. government regulates data collection and misuse by big tech companies. While privacy experts call the agency a "Good first step," they remain skeptical about how effective it would be once enforced.
62 percent of employees are unsure if their organization has to comply with the recently-enacted CCPA, which gives California residents enhanced consumer data privacy rights, according to a survey of more than 1,000 employees conducted by Osterman Research. "To adequately protect consumer data, companies must quickly transform employees from bystanders into security advocates, and that begins with awareness programs that engage employees and reinforce behaviors that align with security and compliance goals."
Challenges firms are facing in adopting the framework;. Why NIST is considering additional guidance for small business;.
The lawsuit - one of more than 400 filed against tech companies big and small in the past five years, by one law firm's count - alleges that Facebook broke Illinois' strict biometric privacy law that allows people to sue companies that fail to get consent before harvesting consumers' data, including through facial and fingerprint scanning. "We're going to see a lot of constituents saying, 'Why not me?'" said Jay Edelson, a Chicago attorney whose firm first sued Facebook for allegedly breaking Illinois' law.
Last month, engineers at Google published a very curious privacy bug in Apple's Safari web browser. Apple's Intelligent Tracking Prevention, a feature designed to reduce user tracking, has vulnerabilities that themselves allow user tracking.
Canada's privacy commissioner is taking Facebook to court to try to force the social network to make changes to its privacy practices. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada has filed an application asking a federal court to declare that Facebook violated the country's privacy law over the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Learn how to keep your iOS devices-and your data-secure with these iOS 13 privacy settings and Apple resources. How to access the Privacy page in your iOS 13 Settings app.