First, thanks to those of you who email to say hello or that you’re enjoying the newsletter. It’s always great to hear from you! I sometimes wish we could all sit around sipping coffee and digesting the week’s news together. We could have politely heated debates on whether the U.S. is ever actually going to stop talking about passing a federal privacy law and just do it. Or whether Lina Khan’s appointment to the FTC is as big a deal as everyone’s making it out to be. But we all live in different places. I’m slowly dying in the sweltering heat of the DC Beltway, and you are hopefully island hopping on a blissful holiday. So there’s just no way we can have coffee and chat.
Or is there?
Last week, we tried something called “Twitter Spaces.” It’s a way for us to chat together in a virtual “room” about the privacy stories that matter to us. If you've listened to a podcast, you know the energy and connection that the human voice brings to an interaction. While reading the Privacy Insider is (hopefully) an important part of your due diligence as a professional in the privacy, cybersecurity, tech or developer space, Spaces is a way for us to talk about why these stories matter, share our perspectives and grow a community.
If you’re on Twitter, I’d love it if you wanted to join us tomorrow, June 23, at 1:30 p.m. Eastern at @Osano's space for a casual chat. You can passively listen if you like, or you can join in as a speaker if the mood strikes. Note: You have to be on a mobile phone to join; it won’t work on your desktop.
I hope you can make it! If it works and it’s fun, we’ll keep it up.
Enjoy reading, and I'll see you next week!
Khan’s appointment to FTC chair could shake up Big Tech
Last week, Lina Khan was appointed chair of the Federal Trade Commission. That’s a big deal because the FTC is the proverbial “cop on the beat” when it comes to data privacy and antitrust, and Khan’s been a vocal critic of Big Tech’s grip on U.S. consumers. She’s well known for publishing a paper during her time at Yale Law School titled “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox,” accusing it of “predatory pricing” and evading government scrutiny, Insider reports.
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2. EU privacy regulators call for full-stop ban on facial recognition
EU privacy regulators have called for a complete ban on deploying facial recognition technology in public spaces, Fortune reports. Recently, the European Commission proposed a regulation that would restrict the use of facial recognition, banning law enforcement from deploying it. But this week, the European Data Protection Board and the European Data Protection Supervisor said the proposal doesn’t go far enough, calling for an outright ban “in any context.”
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3. Senator’s bill would create a federal Data Protection Agency
Sen. Kristen Gillibrand, D-NY, has introduced a second draft of her Data Protection Act, which would establish a new regulatory agency to enforce federal privacy laws, Recode reports. While federally, the U.S. has only sectoral privacy laws on the books, a comprehensive law is anticipated (well, it has been for years, but here’s hoping). The agency would also review the potential privacy implications of any merger involving the transfer of at least 50,000 users’ data. Gillibrand introduced a previous version of the bill in 2020.
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4. Data privacy laws 2021: What you need to know
While the U.S. has yet to see a federal privacy law, the states aren’t waiting around for that. Colorado is the most recent to pass privacy legislation, and Virginia just before it. In this post, learn what you need to know about international, federal and state laws as of today. We’ll update the list as others emerge.
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5. Legislation would create federal rules for breach-notification
U.S. lawmakers are planning to introduce legislation that would create new rules for public and private entities on cybersecurity breaches, CNN reports. The bill would require entities to report a breach to the government within 24 hours. It responds to an uptick in ransomware attacks recently. Currently, there’s no federal rule on breach notification. Meanwhile, the EU plans to present a plan to establish a “Joint Cyber Unit” to allow national capitals hit by cyberattacks to ask other countries for help in real-time.
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6. Apple’s new email privacy feature helps it box out rivals
While consumer advocates appreciate Apple’s new email privacy protection feature, it serves the company just as much as it does the user, Bloomberg reports. The “Mail Privacy Protection” tool protects users by preventing marketers’ ability to gather information about their location and other details gleaned by email. But it also “positions Apple as a gatekeeper to your inbox” and helps “protect Apple’s $220 billion hardware business against the incursions of its rivals,” the report states.
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