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Russia is seeking a fine from Facebook totaling 5-10% of its annual turnover in the country. In 2020 Russia passed legislation that allows regulators to fine internet providers if they repeatedly fail to delete content when requested. While Russia said Facebook had complied with demands to delete some of the requested content, it announced it would seek the fine because Facebook had not taken down all of the content it had requested. It is estimated that the fine could be between 12 and 39 billion roubles, equal roughly to $165 million to $538 million. (Link)

The European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs adopted the committee’s recommendations on the Digital Services Act. While these are recommendations and not binding on the final outcome, the committee called for limiting liability exemptions for internet companies that perform basic functions of content moderation and content curation, the right to use and pay for digital services anonymously, a ban on behavioral tracking and advertising and a stricter time limit of 72 hours for deciding on reported content. The Digital Services Act regulates online internet intermediaries and digital platforms with the goal of better protecting consumers and establishing greater transparency. If adopted by the Internal Market Committee, the recommendations would be a notable change in the liability exception for internet platforms. The Internal Market Committee will meet on November 8^th to vote on the recommendations. (Link) (Link)

In “Vaccine – Educated Decision Assoc.” v. City Kinds Inc., a case recently decided in Israel, an anti-vaccination group alleged that the requirement to show proof of vaccination at a kindergarten was an infringement of privacy. The lower court in Israel rejected their claims and held asking for proof of vaccination is not illegal. (Link)

A lower court has asked the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) to rule on whether the collection and retention of publicly available data by a credit agency violates the General Data Protection Regulation’s (GDPR) sections on lawfulness and storage limitation principles. The case comes as part of an increase of cases posed by national courts to the CJEU regarding how the GDPR should be interpreted and applied in practice. (Link)

Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen filed eight complaints with the Securities and Exchange Commission. She accused the company of making material misstatements and omissions in statements to investor and prospective investors through past filings, testimony to Congress, online statements and media stories. She also accused Facebook of misrepresenting the scale and its awareness of problems with its products. (Link) (Link)

(Compiled by Student Fellow Caolinn Mejza)

The “Facebook Files,” a series of articles about internal Facebook research reports that were revealed recently to the Wall Street Journal, has provided a window into Facebook’s understanding of many of the flaws on its platform. Notable revelations include that Facebook is aware of Instagram use being harmful to a “sizable percentage” of teenage girls (a finding which led Facebook to delay the introduction of Instagram for Kids), that tweaks to the News Feed algorithm made in 2018 resulted in more engagement but also led to more hate speech and increased anger, and that Mark Zuckerberg’s personally directed efforts to curb vaccination misinformation on the platform were largely a failure. Facebook faces a difficult “Snowden revelation” scenario in responding to the leaks, where it needs to decide whether to release more information about these issues (to show the WSJ’s data is incomplete) or to refuse to (leading to accusations of hypocrisy). (Link, Podcast, Facebook rebuttal)

The Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing about consumer privacy. The main decision points appear to be whether to handle privacy by expanding FTC authority over the field (including by possibly creating a new bureau within the FTC and/or increasing its funding), and/or whether to enact a federal privacy law along the lines of California’s or Colorado’s. (Link, Source)

Amazon released a surveillance robot that is capable of moving autonomously around a house taking pictures and video from a security camera. The robot is designed to look friendly, but privacy advocates have been quick to point out troubling implications for anyone who can afford the $999 sticker price. (Link, Link)

YouTube has updated its internal policies regarding misinformation, specifically becoming more stringent on medical and vaccine misinformation. They will be more proactive on removing content that “falsely alleges that approved vaccines are dangerous and cause chronic health effects, claims that vaccines do not reduce transmission or contraction of disease, or contains misinformation on the substances contained in vaccines.” (Link)

The UK is considering removing or amending Article 22 of the GDPR, which protects people from automated processing by providing a right of human review for automated decisions. This comes after some mixed empirical evidence about the success of human review within the GDPR framework. (Link)

An article highlighted the use of refugees and displaced people to train machine learning datasets, often by labeling videos, transcribing audio, or similar “clickwork.” Major firms, like Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, and Tesla, rely substantially on this labor. This appears to be an important and concrete instance where machine learning is causing real-world harm. (Link)

ICE recently signed a $3.9 million contract for a “rapid” AI-powered facial recognition tool for use at migrant detention facilities. So far, the agency has released the bare minimum of details on how this will be used, with the contract suggesting only that it will be deployed for “rapid alternatives to detention enrollments through facial confirmation application.” (Link, Link)

(compiled by Student Fellow Andrew Mather)

Upcoming Events

Guarini Colloquium: Regulating Global Digital Corporations – Monday September 27, 2021, 17:20 – 18:20 In this NYU Law School colloquium, participants will read and discuss a recent paper by Elettra Bietti on digital platform regulation. (link)

News Items 

China passed the Personal Information Privacy Law (PIPL) at the end of August 2021. The PIPL covers all businesses, including those doing business outside of China, that interact with, store, share, collect, or otherwise use personal information from people within China. The PIPL regulates the ways in which “personal information handlers” can handle personal data and includes data transfer restrictions. Violation of the PIPL can result in fines, notice on China’s social credit system, or being prohibited from future business in China. It will go into effect on November 1, 2021. (link, link)

The Cyberspace Administration of China passed the The Regulation on Management of Automobile Data Security (Trial), which will impact many sectors, including automakers, software suppliers, distributors, maintenance organizations, and ride hailing platforms. Through this, “important data” such as geographic information, video and images, and personal data, will need to be stored within China. Any data transfers outside of China will need to undergo a security assessment. (link)

China’s Data Security Law went into effect on September 1. The Data Security Law outlines how companies active in China should classify and manage data. (link)

Apple released iOS 15 on September 20. While Apple had previously announced a plan to introduce technology to scan user devices for images of child sex abuse material (CSAM), that plan has been delayed after criticism from privacy, policy, and rights groups, as well as thousands of individuals. (link) Additionally, new privacy controls are available in iOS 15, but will not be available in all countries or may require a subscription fee. (link)

Zoom made a $14.7 billion proposal to acquire Five9. The deal is currently being reviewed by the Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the United States Telecommunications Service Sector for national security concerns, due to Five9 having operations in Russia. Zoom already has research and development staff located in China. (link)

Facebook is making changes to its news feed, adding “junk code” to HTML features used for accessibility, In addition to impacting technology like screen readers, which blind and visually impaired people may implement to help use a computer, these changed affect ad blockers and prevent automated data collection, impacting Facebook users and researchers using automated data collection. (link)

As voting begins in Russia, Facebook and Google removed a smartphone app that tells users what opposition candidates are likely to defeat candidates backed by Russian authorities. (link)

The Illinois Appellate Court issued an opinion on how the statute of limitations applied to the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). The court suggested a one year limit on claims about “unlawful profit or disclosure” and a five year limit on claims of “data retention policy disclosure, informed consent, and safeguarding.” (link)

(compiled by Student Fellow Molly de Blanc)

President Biden nominated Alvaro Bedoya for a seat on the Federal Trade Commission.  Bedoya, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center, is a well-known privacy advocate.  He has a research background in privacy lapses on online platforms, the consequences of facial recognition technology, and oversight on electronic and biometric tracking. (link)

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission has opened two inquiries into TikTok on the processing of children’s personal data and the transfer of personal data to China.  The Data Protection Commission, which is considered a leading EU regulator, is allowed to impose fines of up to 4% of global revenue. (link)

Facebook’s Oversight Board affirmed Facebook’s decision to restore a news post about a threat of violence from the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian group Hamas.  Facebook originally removed the content under the Dangerous Individuals and Organizations Community Standard and restored it after the Board selected this case for review. The Board concluded that removing the content did not reduce offline harm and restricted freedom of expression on an issue of public interest. (link)

Facebook has built a system—known as XCheck—in which high-profile users, including politicians and celebrities, are exempted from some or all of its rules.  This is contrary to the platform’s public position, which is that its three billion users may all speak on equal footing.  (link)

The Wall Street Journal acquired internal documents from Facebook showing that the company knew that Instagram was causing profound harm to teen girls’ mental health.  According to internal company studies, the social media platform fosters body-image concerns, eating disorders, among other effects.  The company also downplayed these negative effects and has not made its internal research public.  (link)

China has forbidden under-18-year-olds from playing video games for more than three hours a week.  Gaming companies will be barred form providing services to minors in any form outside of 8:00pm to 9:00pm on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.  (link)

(compiled by Student Fellow Coordinator Justin Lee)

The Israeli government attempted to transfer information to local authorities that would enable them to track the identity of people who have not received a COVID-19 vaccine. These health data transfers from the Health Ministry to local governments were approved by the Knesset last month, but last Tuesday, the High Court of Justice ruled them unconstitutional. The court held that the data transfer laws harmed constitutional right to privacy and issued a temporary injunction barring further data transfers. (link)

Google announced that will roll out Federated Learning of Cohorts as an replacement to 3rd party cookies. The announcement has generated a lot of Github arguments about how the new online activity tracking system may look like, and how it should look like. (link, link, link)

New York is expanding the use of its vaccine passport, the Excelsior Pass. Art venues will be able to use the pass to monitor whether visitors have been vaccinated and get authorization to open at increased capacity. STOP has reached out to the NY government regarding the Excelsior Pass’s privacy policy but has not received a response yet.

Verkada, a security camera startup, has been reported to possess a super admin view of their private customer cameras. The super admin view allows them to watch live footage from any of their tens of thousands of cameras. The news caused a security camera scandal. (link)

(compiled by student fellow Kevin Kuate Fodouop)

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen dropped a Trump Administration proposal to reform global digital tax rules to include a “safe harbor” provision that would have allowed tech companies to opt out of a global tax regime. Even if a global deal is not reached, there may be a European-wide one.

Israel’s parliament passed new legislation that allows the Israeli Health Ministry to share personal information of those who declined the COVID vaccine with local and national authorities.
Mason Marks: Facebook is considering adding facial recognition to its augmented reality glasses. Also, Mason is moderating a March 17 panel on “Privatizing Public Health” at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School.

A US Treasury Department watchdog report says that the IRS might violate the Fourth Amendment when it uses cellphone location data without a warrant. Also, S.T.O.P. and the Yale Privacy Lab are hosting a March 6 symposium on how remote proctoring software promotes bias, undermines privacy, and creates barriers to accessibility.

Federal District Judge Lucy Koh, who is presiding over the Google private browsing class action, said she was “deeply disturbed” that Google tracks visitors to the Northern District of California’s court website.

In Italy, Facebook was again fined for failing to comply with an earlier order related to its failure to inform users about the commercial use it makes of their data.

On March 30, TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez will be argued at the Supreme Court. It raises the question of whether F.R.C.P. Rule 23 permits a damages class action even when the majority of the class has suffered no actual injury. While the case is about the Fair Credit Reporting Act, it will likely have broad ramifications going forward.

(compiled by student fellow Jacob Apkon)

The International Network of Civil Liberties Organisations released a report on facial recognition technologies across the world. It uses stories from 13 member organizations to highlight discrimination and the impact on rights.

The UK Supreme Court ruled that Uber drivers must be treated as workers. Uber had argued that they were self-employed contractors instead.

Under legislation proposed by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, tech giants would need to pay for news content on their sites.

China is developing its Digital Currency/Electronic Payment system through the People’s Bank of China. It is the digital version of the yuan.

The Swedish Police Authority has used Clearview AI facial recognition to identify individuals, and the way it processed personal data violated the Swedish Criminal Data Act. After an investigation by the Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection, the Police Authority was fined SEK 2,500,000, which is about 300,000 USD.

Twitter’s Birdwatch is a tool that allows users to identify potentially misleading information in tweets and add notes with context. However, the newsletter Factually recently reported that more than 10% of Birdwatch’s notes are generated by the five most active Birdwatchers.

Virginia is likely to become the second state with a comprehensive consumer privacy bill, after both houses of the Virginia General Assembly passed the Consumer Data Protection Act.

The New York City Police Department released the Cryptocurrency Analysis Tools: Impact & Use Policy for public comment. 

(compiled by student fellow Emmett Weiss)

Clubhouse, the audio-based social networking app, has faced a host of privacy issues. Clubhouse is facing regulatory/legal issues in Germany, apparently linked to its collection of contact information and its GDPR compliance. Part of the issue seems to be linked to its creation of shadow profiles for people for who have not joined the app but whose personal information was contained in the contacts uploaded by others.

Clubhouse also briefly went unblocked by the Chinese firewall, facilitating some open dialog before it was eventually shut down by censors.

An in-depth Kate Klonick New Yorker article describes the efforts to form Facebook’s new “Supreme Court,” which will ultimately have responsibility for the company’s content moderation decisions.

A recent Wired article discussed a study where researchers trained an algorithm to read x-rays and correlated it with patient reports of pain from injuries/illnesses. It outperformed radiologists in predicting the level of pain patients actually reported, particularly with Black patients.

Microsoft endorsed an Australian proposal to require gatekeepers like Facebook and Google (along with its own Bing search engine) to share revenues with local news organizations, not long after Google and Facebook threatened to scale back their services in the country if the proposal were to take effect.

(compiled by student fellow Andrew Mather)

Global Privacy Control is a global internet browser opt out that sends a general signal for users wanting as little data collection and sharing as possible. The GPC standard will let users signal that they don’t want services to share their data with third-party data brokers, and will give users a way to protect their data after it’s been collected and ensure personal information doesn’t travel too far.

Planned legislation to establish new business areas in Nevada would allow technology companies to effectively form separate local governments.

The Cyberlaw Clinic filed an amicus brief last week in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division, on behalf of Upturn, Inc., a nonprofit organization that advocates for equity and justice in the design, governance, and use of technology. The brief supports the defendant-movant, Corey Pickett, in an appeal seeking source code access to TrueAllele, a DNA analysis software developed by Cybergenetics.

Klobuchar on Thursday introduced the Competition and Antitrust Law Enforcement Reform Act, which would make it harder for big companies to get mergers approved and would give enforcers like the Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department sharper teeth.

Facial recognition technology amplifies racist policing, threatens the right to protest and should be banned globally, Amnesty International said as it urged New York City to pass a ban on its use in mass surveillance by law enforcement.

Exposing.ai, unveiled in January, lets you know whether photos you’ve posted to image-sharing site Flickr have been used to advance this controversial application of artificial intelligence by allowing you to search more than 3.6 million photos in six facial-recognition image datasets.

(compiled by student fellow Jacob Golan)

Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) investigation into Amazon Ring doorbell reveals egregiously lax privacy policies and civil rights protections. Lawmaker found Ring has no evidentiary standards for law enforcement to request video footage, no compliance mechanisms to ensure footage of children isn’t collected

The hot new COVID tech is wearable and constantly tracks you. Sports leagues, large employers and colleges are turning to devices that could usher in more invasive forms of surveillance.

Stop COVID with NOVID: NOVID is a next-generation mobile application with Pre-Exposure Notifications which allow users to proactively make decisions based on their risk of infection. We are the only mobile solution with:

Amazon launches Amazon Pharmacy, a delivery service for prescription medications. Poses several privacy concerns.

Microsoft announces it will challenge every government request for public sector or enterprise customer data and it will provide monetary compensation to users if it discloses their data in response to a government request in violation of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

The United Nations issues a joint Statement on Data Protection and Privacy in the COVID-19 Response

Tim Berners Lee’s startup Inrupt releases Solid privacy platform for enterprises

The Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, Navdeep Bains, proposed legislation in Parliament that aims to overhaul Canada’s data privacy law. Bill C-11 will create new data privacy obligations and new enforcement mechanisms for these obligations if it becomes law.

(compiled by Student Fellow Jacob Golan)