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Consumer groups urge FTC to investigate Google over location tracking

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Consumer groups urge FTC to investigate Google over location tracking
The Hill
EMILY BIRNBAUM

A coalition of more than 75 consumer groups is urging the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate Google for allegedly “manipulating” Android users into having their location tracked at all times.

The Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD) in a letter Tuesday argued that Google “nudges” mobile phone users with Android operating systems to turn on their location services.

“Location data and history can reveal in detail an individual’s lifestyle, daily routines and interests,” the groups wrote. “Over time, the data can be used to infer highly sensitive information such as religious beliefs, political views and sexual orientation.”

The groups, which represent European and U.S. consumers, listed five ways they say Google “manipulates and nudges” users into turning on their location services.

They said Google does not properly disclose when location settings are enabled by default under “Web & App activity settings.” Google is also criticized for repeatedly pushing its users to turn on their location under “Location History” settings.

A spokeswoman for the FTC confirmed that the agency has received the letter but declined to comment on the matter.
Tuesday’s letter cited a new report from the Norwegian Consumer Council (NCC) that details the ways Google “continuously” tracks the location of its users.

Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/technology/418412-consumer-groups-urges-ftc-to-investigate-google-over-location-tracking

JUUL EXHALES AFTER DODGING FULL BAN ON FLAVORED E-CIGS

JUUL EXHALES AFTER DODGING FULL BAN ON FLAVORED E-CIGS
Wired
Nitasha Tiku

ON THURSDAY, FOOD and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb proposed new rules intended to reverse the epidemic of e-cigarette use among youth, including limiting in-person sales of flavored e-cigarettes to age-restricted areas, and adding stronger age verification for online sales.

Gottlieb called “kid-appealing” flavors, such as candy and fruit, “the core of the epidemic.” However, mint, menthol, and tobacco flavored e-cigarettes are exempt from the proposed changes to help adult smokers trying to quit cigarettes, he said.

The FDA’s proposal is similar to changes announced by Juul, the leading maker of e-cigarettes, earlier this week. On Tuesday, the company said it would suspend in-store sales of flavors like mango, fruit, creme, and cucumber, but might put them back on shelves if retailers imposed age restrictions. “I think Juul is breathing a big sigh of relief,” says Marc Scheineson, a former FDA associate commissioner and partner at the law firm Alston & Bird.

Read more: https://www.wired.com/story/juul-dodging-ban-flavored-e-cigs/

Facebook critics file FTC complaint over breach of 30 million accounts

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Facebook critics file FTC complaint over breach of 30 million accounts

The Verge
Colin Lecher

A coalition of Facebook critics has filed a complaint against the company with the Federal Trade Commission, asking the agency to investigate this year’s breach of 30 million user accounts.

In September, the company first announced that 50 million users had their accounts improperly accessed because of a flaw in a Facebook feature, but it later revised the figure down. The company said hackers accessed data ranging from basic contact information to more sensitive information, like demographics and recent searches.

The complaint was filed today by the Freedom From Facebook Coalition, which has pushed for the breakup of the company.

“Facebook, Inc. is a serial privacy violator that cannot be trusted,” the complaint reads. “It has grown too big and its products have become too integrated and too complex to manage. Not only can we no longer trust Facebook, Inc. to manage its system safely, the corporation no longer has the capacity to do so effectively.”

Read more: https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/15/18097226/facebook-ftc-complaint-data-breach

National Data Privacy Legislation Must Include Civil Rights Protections, Enhanced Punishments for Violations

National Data Privacy Legislation Must Include Civil Rights Protections, Enhanced Punishments for Violations

Nov. 13, 2018

Statement of Kristen Strader, Campaign Coordinator, Public Citizen’s Commercial Alert

Note: Today, 34 civil rights, consumer and privacy organizations released basic requirements that must be included in any relevant legislation.

The nation’s technology giants want to control the rules that govern how they handle consumers’ data, yet those very same companies have proven that they cannot protect that data and have built business models around improperly exploiting it. From the Equifax data breach to election interference and daily discrimination in advertising – for example, targeting low-income people with predatory payday loans – data companies have escaped accountability for far too long. That must change.

Any privacy legislation that the new Congress brings forward must put consumers first and be packaged with strong enforcement capabilities that punish companies when they put citizens’ privacy or civil rights at risk. And it must not, contrary to the aspirations of the Big Tech companies, pre-empt state efforts to afford greater protections to their citizens. The coalition principles should be considered a minimum standard toward comprehensive privacy legislation.

Originally posted: https://www.citizen.org/media/press-releases/national-data-privacy-legislation-must-include-civil-rights-protections.

Delay, Deny and Deflect: How Facebook’s Leaders Fought Through Crisis

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Delay, Deny and Deflect: How Facebook’s Leaders Fought Through Crisis
The New York Times
Sheera Frenkel, Nicholas Confessore, Cecilia Kang, Matthew Rosenberg and Jack Nicas

Sheryl Sandberg was seething.

Inside Facebook’s Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters, top executives gathered in the glass-walled conference room of its founder, Mark Zuckerberg. It was September 2017, more than a year after Facebook engineers discovered suspicious Russia-linked activity on its site, an early warning of the Kremlin campaign to disrupt the 2016 American election. Congressional and federal investigators were closing in on evidence that would implicate the company.

But it wasn’t the looming disaster at Facebook that angered Ms. Sandberg. It was the social network’s security chief, Alex Stamos, who had informed company board members the day before that Facebook had yet to contain the Russian infestation. Mr. Stamos’s briefing had prompted a humiliating boardroom interrogation of Ms. Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, and her billionaire boss. She appeared to regard the admission as a betrayal.

“You threw us under the bus!” she yelled at Mr. Stamos, according to people who were present.

The clash that day would set off a reckoning — for Mr. Zuckerberg, for Ms. Sandberg and for the business they had built together. In just over a decade, Facebook has connected more than 2.2 billion people, a global nation unto itself that reshaped political campaigns, the advertising business and daily life around the world. Along the way, Facebook accumulated one of the largest-ever repositories of personal data, a treasure trove of photos, messages and likes that propelled the company into the Fortune 500.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/14/technology/facebook-data-russia-election-racism.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes

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