To paraphrase Willie Sutton, ‘That’s where the data’s at!’
Microsoft received almost 25,000 requests for consumer data from law enforcement over the past six months
Richard Speed reports:
Microsoft has had a busy six months if its latest biannual digital trust report is anything to go by as law enforcement agencies crept closer to making 25,000 legal requests.
Requests for consumer data reached 24,798 during the second half of 2020, up from 24,093 during the previous six-month period, and quite a jump from the 21,781 for the same period in 2019.
“Non-content data” requests, which require a subpoena (or local equivalent), accounted for just over half of disclosures and were slightly down on the same period in 2019. Microsoft rejected 25.81 per cent of requests in the last six months of 2020, up on the 20.14 per cent of the same period in 2019.
Read more on The Register.
Should “We don’t protect the data you designate as ‘Public’” be part of the ToS?
Clubhouse Joins Facebook and LinkedIn as Target of Data Scraping; Cumulative One Billion User Profiles Have Been Leaked
Hot on the heels of high-profile data scraping incidents at Facebook and LinkedIn that compromised hundreds of millions of accounts, the personal information of about 1.3 million users of social media darling Clubhouse has been found posted to a hacker forum.
Clubhouse is taking an interesting tack, essentially defending the scrapers by saying that it was a permissible use of the API and that the company does not have a serious objection to the publicly-available information of its users being harvested in this way. The incident highlights the fact that while scraping is not strictly illegal in most of the world, it is generally prohibited by platform terms of service in the interest of user privacy and keeping the information away from controversial projects such as Clearview AI’s facial recognition database.
Keeping up is getting harder.
Florida Legislature Considering Comprehensive Privacy Law
Florida may be next state to join the growing number of states with a consumer privacy law, as both chambers of Florida’s legislature are currently considering comprehensive state privacy legislation. Both HB 969 and SB 1734 resemble the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”), though they contain some notable differences.
(Related)
Big Tech Is Pushing States to Pass Privacy Laws, and Yes, You Should Be Suspicious
Todd Feathers reports:
Concerned about growing momentum behind efforts to regulate the commercial use of personal data, Big Tech has begun seeding watered-down “privacy” legislation in states with the goal of preempting greater protections, experts say.
The swift passage in March of a consumer data privacy law in Virginia, which Protocol reported was originally authored by Amazon with input from Microsoft, is emblematic of an industry-driven, lobbying-fueled approach taking hold across the country. The Markup reviewed existing and proposed legislation, committee testimony, and lobbying records in more than 20 states and identified 14 states with privacy bills built upon the same industry-backed framework as Virginia’s, or with weaker models. The bills are backed by a who’s who of Big Tech–funded interest groups and are being shepherded through statehouses by waves of company lobbyists.
Read more on The Markup.
Has the cost of doing business in NY just gone up?
Cuomo Signs New York Bill Requiring Low-Cost Broadband Access
Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill on Friday requiring all Internet service providers in New York to offer affordable high-speed access for low-income families.
The providers can charge those families no more than $15 a month, Cuomo said during a briefing Friday at the Northland Workforce Training Center in Buffalo. He was joined by Eric Schmidt, former chief executive officer of Alphabet Inc., who chairs a 15-member state commission focusing on using technology to help the state reopen better than it was before the virus.
Tools. I use Feedly myself, it too is free.
https://www.makeuseof.com/unique-rss-reader-apps-to-stay-updated-on-news-feeds/
5 Unique RSS Reader Apps to Stay Updated on News Feeds
Any news or update on the internet can be turned into an RSS feed. Never miss out on information with these free RSS reader apps with unique features you won't find elsewhere.
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Free is good! 10 free Kindle books.
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