Privacy newsletter - March 31, 2020

Welcome to your latest edition of Osano's Privacy Insider Newsletter! Each week, we send you the latest information you need to know from the world of data privacy. 

This week, Coronavirus-related content will continue to feature heavily in this newsletter as countries continue to weigh the tradeoff between privacy and public safety. Two more data breaches were discovered this week, one of which is believed to originated from the US Census Bureau. Apple is re-weighing the tradeoff between privacy and convenience for its credit card holders.

Here are the top stories from last week that you might have missed:

Coronavirus-Related Stories:

Coronavirus Is Forcing A Trade-Off Between Privacy And Public Health - Governments in many countries are engaging major telecommunications providers to access users' smartphone geolocation data. Data privacy protections are being eased globally while attempting to curtail the spread of Coronavirus. This development is being widely reported in the US, UK, and Germany.

COVID-19: Commissioner Of Education Relaxes Portion Of Student Data Privacy Law During School Closure - The Commissioner of Education highlighted “temporary flexibilities” in the student data privacy laws and provided guidance to schools in their use of internet-based tools during the school closure to minimize privacy risk.

Apps Checking Covid-19 Symptoms Pose Data Collection Risks - Insurers and health tech companies developing mobile apps to let patients track COVID-19 symptoms and connect with doctors need to be mindful that their data storage practices don’t run afoul of federal and state privacy laws. Some federal privacy rules have been waived, but they still need to consider state privacy laws and a host of other regulations.

Working From Home? Here Are 12 Steps To Reduce Data Privacy And Security Risk - As businesses institute widespread remote work policies and procedures to facilitate social distancing and “flatten the curve,” they should be mindful of increased data privacy and security risks. This article includes a checklist of simple measures businesses and employees should implement to reduce risks associated with working remotely.

Other Data Privacy News:

Data Breach Exposes 200 Million Americans - Researchers have noticed that detailed personal information of more than 200 million Americans was exposed in a data breach. The source of the data is unknown, but experts suspect it came from the US Census Bureau.

Slickwraps Slapped With Class Action Lawsuit After Data Breach - Slickwraps, maker of customizable skins for phones, tablets, computers, and other devices, was breached last month by a security researcher. In the researcher's attempts to notify the company about its security issues, a database of Slickwraps customer information became public, and now Slickwraps is facing a class action lawsuit for security negligence.

Apple Card Gets Updated Privacy Policy On New Data Sharing And More Transaction Detail - Apple is updating its privacy policy for their Apple Card to enable sharing more anonymized data with Goldman Sachs, its financial partner. Apple’s reasoning here is that this will make it able to do a better job of assigning credit to new customers. The data is aggregate and anonymized, and there is an opt-out.

New York's SHIELD Act Could Change Companies’ Security Practices Nationwide - The Stop Hacks and Improve Electronic Data Security Act, otherwise known as the SHIELD Act, is a New York State bill signed into law last July. One key provision in the legislation that could significantly change security practices across the country is slated to go into effect March 21, possibly inducing companies big and small to change the way they secure and transmit not only New Yorkers' private data but all consumers' sensitive information.