Could a US data privacy bill be on the horizon?

Happy Thursday everybody! This week’s Privacy Insider intro is brought to you by our Customer Experience Manager, Skye McCullough. Remember the way we used to interact with the internet in the early 2000s/late-90s? Skye’s intro highlights just how drastically things have changed.

Growing up, I was a stereotypical “good kid.” I was polite and respectful, was relatively civil with my brother (or as civil as children can be), and always brought home good grades. “She’s such a good kid,” my teachers would tell my parents, and gosh, was I proud of my goody-two-shoes image. So, as you can imagine, being grounded for the first and only time in my childhood is an event that has traumatized me to this day.

The memory is still clear in my mind. My best friend (who did not prescribe to the goody-two-shoes lifestyle) was over, and we were doing what pre-teen girls did on the internet in the early 2000s: writing self-insert fanfiction on LiveJournal, watching JibJab videos, and messing around on AOL Instant Messenger (AIM).

So there we were, two pre-teen girls running amok in a Harry Potter chatroom, when another user reached out and asked if we’d like to chat privately. We were young, and the internet was new, so of course, we wanted to make a new friend despite all the time our teachers and parents spent hammering “stranger danger” into our heads in the early 2000s.    

Conversation flowed, a virtual friendship was formed, and before I could think twice, my best friend had given out my home address to a stranger on AIM. Being the self-proclaimed good kid that I was, the guilt started eating away at me within moments, and I tattled to my parents pretty much immediately. Internet privileges were revoked, my friend was sent home, and I was grounded for a week for my efforts because, “You can’t be giving out information like that to people you don’t know!”   

Looking back, it’s easy to shrug your shoulders and say it was the early days of the internet. But this just shines a light on how laissez-faire we all were with our personal information at the inception of the world-wide web — and often still are. 

And despite my newly acquired caution when sharing personal info with people I’ve just met and despite my mother's warning, here I am, decades later, still giving my home address away for free to strangers on the internet just so I can enter a chance to win a 50% off coupon.  

Bipartisan draft bill breaks stalemate on federal data privacy negotiations

The American Data Privacy and Protection Act, released last week, is in debate in the US Senate. The draft bill presents a compromise between Democrat and Republican priorities, but it is uncertain whether the bill will be finalized before the end of the year, given Congress’s August recess and the upcoming midterm elections. While the bill enjoys bipartisan support, critics claim it features significant loopholes.

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CNIL publishes guidance on data processing roles under EU GDPR

France’s data protection authority, the Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés (CNIL), has published guidance on what constitutes a “controller,” “subcontractor,” and “joint principal” under the GDPR. The guidance includes information on the legal criteria for each role, the different qualifications that may apply depending on the nature of processing, and the consequences of these definitions when drafting contractual agreements.

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EU consumer protection authorities unsatisfied with WhatsApp response to privacy query

After reviewing WhatsApp’s response to a prior inquiry, the EU’s Consumer Protection Cooperation (CPC) Network determined that the messaging application’s response was unsatisfactory. These consumer agencies had asked WhatsApp to clearly inform customers regarding the company’s personal data practices and privacy policy updates, but were unconvinced that the company had taken sufficient action. WhatsApp now has until July 2022 to provide further information in response to the CPC Network’s second letter.

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Osano’s Feature in Inc. Magazine 

This week Arlo Gilbert, Osano’s CEO and Co-Founder, spoke with Inc. Magazine about our philosophy when it comes to health insurance benefits for our team. Our focus on offering benefits like 100% fully paid healthcare premiums and generous parental leave landed us on Inc.’s Best Workplaces for 2022. Read the full interview here.

If Osano sounds like an environment where you could thrive, why not check out our Careers page? We might have the perfect opportunity for you.