The U.K. Information Commissioner's Office issued a letter to the North Ayrshire Council with concerns the use of facial recognition technology in nine school canteens may have violated the U.K. General Data Protection Regulation. "New technologies such as FRT can offer benefits and efficiencies, but their use is not without risk from a data protection point of view.
A patented solution by new advertising technology company FullThrottle intends to collect 10 times more data than browsing cookies, Gizmodo reports. Chief Product Officer Amol Waishampayan said the technology helps companies gather data on their own customers, when they willingly consent to being tracked.
European organizations can run into problems when assessing whether artificial intelligence systems unintentionally discriminate based on ethnicity. Such sensitive data use is a violation of the EU General Data Protection Regulation, but the European Commission's proposed AI Act includes a provision allowing organizations to use sensitive data for AI audits.
A study released by the European Commission on the impact of developments in digital advertising highlights "a strong case to reform digital advertising" as the "status quo is unsustainable for individuals, publishers and advertisers." The study points to a "need to improve transparency and accountability, increase individuals' control over how their personal data is used for digital advertising and address a number of obstacles that make it harder for advertisers and publishers to 'know their audience.'"
Sweden's data protection authority, the Integritetsskyddsmyndigheten, released "Data Protection in Practice," a privacy operations management survey of more than 800 Swedish data protection officers. Four in 10 respondents said their companies work "continually and systematically with data protection" and half of all respondents said company management is receptive and understanding of data protection matters.
Slovenia's Personal Data Protection Act is now in force. The law, adopted Dec. 15, 2022, includes "transmission of personal data in the public and private sector," regulation of biometrics, "personal data processing for research, archival and statistical purposes," and more.
Fledge, a Google cookie replacement retargeting solution is gaining supporters after being introduced for testing in the advertising technology industry, Adweek reports.
The U.K. Investigatory Powers Tribunal found MI5 agents “unlawfully retained people's intercepted data,” from 2014-2019, Reuters reports. A presiding judge said the Home Office “failed to make ‘adequate inquiries’" when it approved surveillance warrants from 2016-2019.
The largest companies across the technology sector were hit by tens of thousands of layoffs in recent months. Unable to maintain major growth experienced during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies look to cut back — and privacy professionals have not been immune. Layoffs.fyi reports tech companies cut a total of 154,843 employees in 2022 and 38,815 thus far in 2023.
The “Balkanisation” of efforts to curb the societal abuses of Big Tech’s surveillance-based advertising is preventing meaningful reforms, Harvard Business School professor emerita Shoshana Zuboff said in an interview with Financial Times. "We have fantastic scholars, researchers, advocates who are focused on privacy, others who are focused on disinformation, others who are focused on the nexus with democracy,” but these disparate parties are not pinpointing the “actual source of harm” for users, she said.