Since its 2019 decision in Salcedo v. Hanna, which held that a Telephone Consumer Protection Act plaintiff who received only a single unwanted text message lacked standing to sue because he had not suffered an actual injury, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has been out of step with the other federal […]
Category Archives: Privacy
“By listening to and recording users’ voices, voice assistants gather large amounts of personal data that technology companies can share with third parties. Technology experts expect the voice assistant market to continue growing, but there are few federal regulations that apply to voice-activated technology. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has provided recommendations to help […]
The Federal Trade Commission has taken its first enforcement action under its Health Breach Notification Rule, The action, filed against the telehealth and prescription drug discount provider GoodRx Holdings Inc., alleges that the company failed to notify consumers and others of its unauthorized disclosures of consumers’ personal health information to Facebook, Google, and other companies. […]
What are online tax preparation companies doing with customers’ data? Members of Congress sent a letter this week urging the IRS to investigate. A report published last fall in the publication, The Markup, disclosed that online tax filing services were sending taxpayers’ identities and financial information to Facebook through code called Pixel. Specifically, it found […]
The Washington Post reports that companies touting new tech products — including health wearables, smart TVs, autonomous vehicles, and other gadgets that rely on data from our bodies or homes — seldom directly address how they treat customer’s data after it’s collected or their approach to safety and security. The article is here.
Jonathan A. Obar of the Department of Communication Studies at York University and the Quello Center at Michigan State and Anne Oeldorf-Hirsch of the Department of Communication at Connecticut have written Older Adults and ‘The Biggest Lie on the Internet’: From Ignoring Social Media Policies to the Privacy Paradox, 16 International Journal of Communication 4779 […]
Aniket Kesari of NYU’s Information Law Institute has written Do Data Breach Notification Laws Work? Here’s the abstract: Over 2.8 million Americans have reported being victims identify theft in recent years, costing the U.S. economy at least $13 billion in 2020. In response to this growing problem, all 50 states have enacted some form of data […]
Christopher Lewis Peterson of Utah Law and Marshall Steinbaum of Utah's Department of Economics have written Coercive Rideshare Practices: At the Intersection of Antitrust and Consumer Protection Law in the Gig Economy, University of Chicago Law Review, Forthcoming. Here's the abstract: This article considers antitrust and consumer protection liability for coercive practices vis-à-vis drivers that are prevalent […]
by Jeff Sovern The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce has forwarded to the full committee a bipartisan bill (draft here, though perhaps not the version the subcommittee approved; section-by-section commentary here). The last I heard, Senator Cantwell, the Senate Commerce Committee chair, had not signed on, putting the bill's future […]