Federal privacy legislation progresses, but concerns about data brokers loom

The latest version of the legislation still leaves loopholes for abuses of data including reproductive health data.

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Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade reversal sparks calls for strengthening privacy

Data collected by tech companies could be used to prosecute abortion seekers, they warn.

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Lawmakers want to restrict user data sales to nations like China, Russia

The bill tasks the Department of Commerce with creating new export rules.

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Brokers’ sales of U.S. military personnel data overseas stir national security fears

Data brokers selling information about U.S military personnel could pose a national security risk.

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DIA uses purchased phone location data without warrants

The Defense Intelligence Agency has been using smartphone location data purchased from commercially available databases, according to an intelligence memo obtained by CyberScoop. The DIA, which primarily provides intelligence to support U.S. military operations, has been gathering the location data on both Americans and non-U.S. citizens dating back two-and-a-half years, according to the memo, which was drafted by the DIA for the offices of Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., states. The DIA has sought to access Americans’ data and their past movements a total of five times in that time period, according to the memo. The memo did not state the number of times non-citizens’ data was queried. While the agency did not describe what the searches encompassed, the memo makes clear that the agency is obtaining sensitive location data without a warrant. The Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement previously suggested in a legal memo that government officials […]

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Lawmakers call for FTC investigation of data brokers enabled by online ad industry

A group of 10 U.S. lawmakers on Friday asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate companies that sell Americans’ personal data by exploiting online advertising, calling for any lawbreaking firms to be shut down. The lawmakers, including Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Bill Cassidy, R-La., decried the data-selling practices as an “outrageous privacy violation,” citing reports that Mobilewalla, a data broker, compiled data from Black Lives Matter protestors for marketing purposes. The broader market for consumers’ personal data is lucrative, and includes a bidding process for online ads that include code for gobbling up information on users’ locations and personal devices. The lawmakers want the FTC to use its investigative power to determine if data brokers have broken a federal law that prohibits “unfair and deceptive” business practices. An FTC spokesperson declined to comment. “[T]here is no effective way to control these tools absent intervention by regulators and Congress,” the lawmakers wrote to FTC Chairman Joseph Simons. “Technological […]

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Apps are sharing more of your data with ad industry than you may think

Apps like Grindr, Tinder and Happn are (over-)sharing data about sexuality, religion, and location with a shadowy network of data brokers. And it’s not just dating apps that are doing it… Continue reading Apps are sharing more of your data with ad industry than you may think

U.K. fines company that collected data from new moms, then sold it to Equifax

Bounty UK, a pregnancy and parenting club, has been hit with the equivalent of a $524,000 fine for illegally sharing personal information belonging to more than 14 million people with credit reference and marketing agencies, Britain’s data protection authority announced Friday. The U.K. Information Commissioner’s Office fined Bounty UK £400,000 for collecting personal information “directly from new mothers at hospital bedsides,” through merchandise claim cards, its website and mobile app. The company collected information from new mothers, mothers-to-be, as well as the birth dates and genders of young children, according to the ICO. Bounty UK then would supply that data, some 34.4 million records, to 39 third party services including Equifax and other data brokers that in the past have failed to protect customer information. The fine was enforced for violations of the U.K.’s Data Protection Act, which requires firm to be transparent in their data collection practices, and involves […]

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