Tag: Big Data

(Apr 3, 2020) Telecommunications companies across the world, including in Germany, Brazil and China, have granted their governments access to customers' cellphone data in an effort to help track COVID-19. Other countries are more cautious; the Dutch DPA called for emergency legislation before sharing occurs, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said a flat no, for now. In this episode of The Privacy Advisor Podcast, Heather Federman, CIPP/US, vice president of privacy and policy at BigID, discusses ... Read More

(Apr 3, 2020) Telecommunications companies across the world, including in Germany, Brazil and China, have granted their governments access to customers' cellphone data in an effort to help track COVID-19. In the U.S., government officials are consulting with big tech companies and public health professionals on the possibility of doing so, while authorities in the Netherlands have said emergency legislation must be enacted before sharing occur. In this episode of The Privacy Advisor Podcast, Heather Federman,... Read More

(Apr 3, 2020) ZDNet reports the Australian Privacy Foundation does not support the pending Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (International Production Orders) Bill 2020. APF described the bill as "deeply flawed" and "a manifestation of a drip by drip erosion of privacy protection in the absence of a justiciable constitutionally-enshrined right to privacy." The bill, a precondition to a proposed agreement with the U.S. Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act, seeks to amend existing Australian legisl... Read More

(Apr 3, 2020) Marriott has been hit with a class-action lawsuit a day after revealing a data breach involving more than 5 million customers, Law.com reports. Filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, the lawsuit alleges Marriott failed to implement appropriate measures to protect its customers' data. "The fact that this breach comes less than two years after the first one we know about is damning, and they must be held accountable," the plaintiffs' attorney said in a statement.Full Stor... Read More

(Apr 3, 2020) Politico reports attorneys general from several states are looking into Zoom's privacy practices. New York Attorney General Letitia James was the first to check in on the teleconference platform earlier in the week with other attorneys general now following suit. "We are alarmed by the Zoom-bombing incidents and are seeking more information from the company about its privacy and security measures in coordination with other state attorneys general," said Connecticut Attorney General William Tong,... Read More

(Apr 2, 2020) The Federal Court of Australia acknowledged a data breach involving the names of at least 400 asylum seekers, ABC News reports. The court's searchable database exposed the real names of protection visa applicants. Following notice about the breach, the court disabled the database after years of open access. A court spokesperson said the breach was a "major systemic failure."Full Story... Read More

(Apr 2, 2020) As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, here are the latest stories on how the outbreak has affected privacy in the Asia-Pacific region: The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of New Zealand wrote in a blog post how a code under the Privacy Act triggered by a national emergency declaration gives agencies the authority to collect, use or disclose personal information for purposes related to the emergency. The Guardian reports the Chinese government’s “health code” technology service, used to moni... Read More

(Apr 2, 2020) In the early 2000s, internet accessibility made risks of exposing individuals from population demographic data more likely than ever. So, the U.S. Census Bureau turned to an emerging privacy approach: synthetic data. In this piece for Privacy Tech, RedTail AI Ethics Journalist Kate Kaye writes about the Census Bureau's use of synthetic data, as well as how it is used by clinical researchers, autonomous vehicle system developers and banks.Full Story... Read More

(Apr 2, 2020) In the early 2000s, internet accessibility made risks of exposing individuals from population demographic data more likely than ever. So, the U.S. Census Bureau turned to an emerging privacy approach: synthetic data. Some argue the algorithmic techniques used to develop privacy-secure synthetic datasets go beyond traditional deidentification methods. Today, along with the Census Bureau, clinical researchers, autonomous vehicle system developers and banks use these fake datasets that mimic stati... Read More

(Apr 2, 2020) The European Commission announced a public consultation for its road map regarding the scope of its EU General Data Protection Regulation evaluation. The road map seeks to define the scope of the commission's evaluation, which is set to include "the issue of international transfer of personal data to third countries and the cooperation and consistency mechanism between national data protection authorities." The deadline for public comments is April 29. The commission recently delayed the release... Read More