It complicates things, but not that much.

https://www.wcvb.com/article/dog-found-safe-after-more-than-a-week-in-the-bitter-col1/46520921

Ring changes how police can access your door camera video

Ring will stop allowing police departments to request doorbell camera footage from users, marking an end to a feature that has drawn criticism from privacy advocates.

Ring said it will sunset the "Request for Assistance" tool, which allows police departments and other public safety agencies to request and receive video captured by the doorbell cameras through Ring’s Neighbors app.

… WCVB legal analyst Greg Henning says the new policy could slow down some investigations.

"They'll need to go to those houses, knock on the doors and determine if they have Ring cameras with their own eyes," Henning said.

"They can still go knock on doors," Henning said. "But they cannot use the app to find and locate and contact immediately and directly the users that have ring cameras."

I had not considered this. Are any answers provided (eg filling out a subscription form) private information?

https://www.pogowasright.org/are-test-answers-personal-data/

Are Test Answers Personal Data?

Odia Kagan of FoxRothschild writes:

Are test questions and answers personal data that needs to be provided pursuant to an access request?

A German court recently weighed in, providing some good insight regarding both GDPR and U.S. state data privacy laws.

Some key takeaways:

• Answers given by a student in a test could be considered personal data. Test questions, however, cannot be considered personal data.

• The argument the test questions are strictly linked to the answers given by the plaintiff was also not accepted by the court, which held that the questions do not reveal anything about the level of knowledge of the plaintiff and thus do not constitute personal data.

• Access requests under Article 15 GDPR serve the purpose of making data subjects aware of the processing of their personal data and to verify the legality of processing. It is therefore irrelevant that the plaintiff needed access to the test questions for the purpose of interpreting the test result because he does not have a right to access under the GDPR for such purpose.

• Test questions may constitute trade secrets.

That ruling makes sense. Entities have a legitimate interest in protecting the security of test questions. But could there come at time when — or has it come already — when test questions might contain personal information on a student?

Is there an antidote? Should all social media be banned?

https://www.axios.com/2024/01/24/new-york-city-social-media-environmental-toxin

NYC first to designate social media as environmental toxin

New York City declared Wednesday that it's the first city to issue an advisory officially designating social media as an environmental toxin.

Driving the news: In response to the danger social media poses to the mental health of young people, the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene issued an advisory identifying unrestricted access to and use of social media as a public health hazard.