Privacy Law Update: February 7, 2023

Stay up to date with this weekly release covering key developments on data privacy laws, technology, and other hot privacy topics!

Newsworthy Updates

A View From DC? If You Can’t Beat Social Media, ban it?

One of the most consistent points of consensus among policymakers in the past few rounds of the privacy debate has been the need to better protect young people online. After high-profile hearings revealed unique harms and risks minors can face when using digital services, especially social media, lawmakers got to work on new ideas for enhancing responsibility and accountability over online platforms that serve this demographic.

A new bill would ban anyone under 16 from using social media

A growing number of U.S. policymakers and federal officials are angling to keep children and young teenagers off social media entirely, citing mounting concerns that the platforms may harm their well-being and mental health. It’s a notable escalation in the rhetoric around keeping kids safe online, which has largely focused on setting new digital protections.

NY Lawmaker Urges Sanctions For Knicks Owner Over Facial Recognition

He writes that the technology “poses grave privacy concerns,” adding that the information that fuels the software is often collected without people’s consent, and is vulnerable to security breaches because it can’t be encrypted.

Data clean rooms: An adtech privacy solution?

Business goals and competition are pushing advertisers, publishers, and retailers to get creative with user outreach and engagement. Personal data collection and user tracking are paramount to these efforts, but doing so with regulatory compliance and user trust is proving more difficult as time goes on.

Pen Testing your privacy program: Steps to test your privacy compliance before the onset of litigation or enforcement actions

Privacy litigation and regulatory enforcement actions are booming. There has been a sharp increase in plaintiff’s firms and consumer groups scanning through company websites, mobile apps, and other features in search of privacy compliance issues with cookies, pixels, tags, software development kits, and other technologies. Similarly, whether in response to individual complaints, media stories, or on their own initiative, privacy regulatory authorities have increasingly undertaken market reviews on these issues. And, litigation and regulatory investigations are expected to follow in the ordinary course after a company notifies of a data breach.

Privacy Legislation

IAPP 2023 Global Legislative Predictions, preview an unexpectedly busy year ahead for privacy professionals across Europe. Legislators and supervisory authorities carry various priorities into this year that could bring implications for EU organizations’ approaches to compliance. Join the IAPP Feb. 8 on LinkedIn Live as IAPP country leaders from Ireland, Italy and the DACH region discuss what is possibly in store for EU data protection and how companies can respond to the potential challenges the agenda poses.

US senator calls on Apple, Google to remove TikTok from app stores: U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., called on Apple and Google to “immediately” remove TikTok from their application stores in letters sent to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Reuters reports. In his letter, Bennet claimed TikTok poses a national security risk, and said, “No company subject to … (Chinese Communist Party) dictates should have the power to accumulate such extensive data on the American people or curate content to nearly a third of our population.” Bills introduced in the House of Representatives and Senate propose blocking TikTok in the U.S.

• IAPP State Privacy Law Tracker
• IAPP Federal Law Tracker
• IAPP Chart Compares US Privacy Legislation Proposals

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