Welcome to the latest edition of the Privacy Insider Newsletter. Each week we send you the latest and smartest news in the world of data privacy.
Here are the top stories from last week you might have missed:
- 2/3 of US states are sharing positive COVID test data with first responders. Many legislators and activists were caught off-guard by this revelation, worrying it will be used for purposes other than public health. Proponents of the practice argue that it isn't illegal and law enforcement has a history of handling sensitive personal data. Link
- Whistleblower calls out Apple for listening to Siri recordings. Apple’s reputation for being a privacy-friendly company took a blow this week when a former contractor spoke to The Guardian about his experience listening to audio recordings from phones when Siri wasn't activated. Link
- Widespread face mask wearing puts a wrinkle in facial recognition efforts. London police consider pause in rollout of facial recognition cameras due to face masks - Link. Meanwhile, facial recognition systems are already getting trained on face mask selfies - Link
- Osano wrote a simple explainer on the California Privacy Rights Act (“CPRA”). A lot of news stories mention the latest developments of "CCPA 2.0", but we couldn’t find a well done piece explaining what it was all about. Our latest article does just that. Link
- This week in data breaches…easyJet. Chinese hackers are suspected in the attack of the discount European airline. The hack was disclosed last week, but they suspect it actually occurred in January. The attack yielded 9 million email addresses and travel details - Link. A new hacking group called ShinyHunters has been attracting attention by recently breaching a dozen companies - Link
- 97% of businesses are planning increasing spend on data privacy this year. Nearly 1/3 are planning on doubling spend. It turns out, Osano is in a growing category. Link
- The New York Times is phasing out all 3rd party ad data. This is part of a broader push by the company to create a more “privacy-friendly experience.” It will be interesting to see how widespread this becomes. The NY Times has scale and capital to justify 50 people working on an initiative like this, but most media outlets don’t. Link