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Section 702 is dangerous to our liberties and our democracy, and it should not be renewed for any length of time without robust debate.
- Joint letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer
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Welcome to Snippets—Section 702, which permits the government to wiretap foreigners located outside the US, has been a point of contention and discussion throughout 2023. And as the senate looks to temporarily extend the program by attaching it to other "must pass" legislation, civil rights groups are speaking out.
Plus, an Irish study found that data brokers are collecting and selling more personal information than previously believed, Signal is beta testing a username feature, UK regulator Ofcom released new guidelines on tackling illegal content online, and more.
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Privacy advocates urge Senate to reconsider Section 702 extension
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CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES
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Twenty of the United States’ largest civil liberties groups have written a joint letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, arguing against an extension of the controversial federal surveillance program Section 702.
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- The letter argues that extending the program “would demonstrate blatant disregard for the civil rights of the American people.”
- Section 702 is set to expire on December 31, but the Senate is planning to temporarily reauthorize the program by attaching it to a “must-pass” bill.
- Senator Ron Wyden, who has stated he won’t support a reauthorization without meaningful reforms, said: “The administration should listen to the overwhelming bipartisan coalition that supports common sense protections for Americans’ privacy.”
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Transcend now available in the AWS Marketplace
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AWS customers can now access Transcend's platform directly through the AWS Marketplace—accelerating time-to-value in compliance initiatives.
Privacy, Risk & Compliance, Developer, and Security teams can quickly test, buy, and deploy Transcend to automate the discovery and governance of personal data throughout their organization, across any system.
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Browsing data being sold in intimate detail
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Bloomberg
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A study by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has concluded that data brokers are collecting more personal information than previously believed, raising concerns over exploitation and abuse by bad actors.
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- While brokers have historically organized users into categories like profession, the investigation revealed worrisome high-profile segments, including judges, government officials, and national security personnel.
- Though the data is anonymized before being sold to advertisers, privacy advocates fear that independent data points could be combined to construct identities.
- Carissa Veliz, a professor of digital ethics at Oxford University, said: “Identifying sensitive jobs opens those people up to harms like extortion or blackmail, which can impact democracy."
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Signal beta tests username feature
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Signal
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After several rounds of internal testing, private messaging app Signal has invited its community members to test a feature that will allow them to swap their phone number for a username when connecting with other users.
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- In a post on the Signal Community, members were encouraged to create usernames on the staging app, share the links with other users, and report crashes and bugs.
- This feature is meant to give users more control over when they share personal information, while minimizing the digital surfaces that makes a device more vulnerable to hackers.
- The community trial will be the final testing phase before a public rollout, which is slated for early 2024.
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- Layoffs have paved the way for trust and safety as a service.
- Microsoft temporarily blocked ChatGPT for its employees.
- Google was fined—this time for refusing to store personal data.
- Meta Pixels, cookie opt-out, and the latest in US privacy litigation.
- AI companies could run out of quality training data by 2026.
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How a Seattle ruling will impact drivers’ privacy
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Frank Duenzl/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images
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After a federal judge struck down a lawsuit against automakers for intercepting drivers’ texts and call logs through onboard infotainment systems, David Choffnes, a Northeastern University privacy and cybersecurity professor, dissected the ruling’s impact on drivers’ privacy.
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- Likening apps like CarPlay and Android Auto to streaming, Choffnes called them ‘rolling sensors’ that capture every activity that happens inside a car.
- Drawing a line between legality and morality, Choffnes called for an examination of carmakers’ disclosure and consent provisions, as deception would violate FTC Section 5.
- Choffnes argued that targets wouldn’t be limited to car owners alone, saying: “Maybe they figure out who you are texting and they start directing ads toward them.”
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Ofcom releases draft guidelines to tackle illegal content
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Sally Anscombe / Getty Images
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Two weeks after the Online Safety Act became law, the UK’s communications regulator, Ofcom, released the first round of draft codes. Heavily focused on child protection, the draft outlines guidelines for platforms to appropriately respond to illegal content.
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- Recommendations included preventing unconnected accounts from messaging a child, as well as keeping kids’ location hidden from other users.
- Platforms were also asked to not present children with friend suggestions, to keep their profiles out of other connection lists, and to hide their connection lists from others.
- ‘Large’ services (defined as platforms with over 7 million monthly users) face unique content moderation requirements, including hash matching to detect child sexual abuse materials (CSAM) and blocking CSAM URLs.
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A CTO's reflections from OpenAI’s DevDay
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"I am convinced we’re in a moment in time where technology can appear indistinguishable from magic, reminiscent of the awe-inspiring moment when the first iPhone was unveiled."
Check out Transcend CTO and co-founder Mike Farrell's top five takeaways from OpenAI’s DevDay. Plus, his take on the incredible developments in AI and technology that are actively reshaping the future.
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Snippets is delivered to your inbox every Thursday morning by Transcend. We're the platform that helps companies put privacy on autopilot by making it easy to encode privacy across an entire tech stack. Learn more.
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