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As we watch television, television watches us.
— The Center for Digital Democracy
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Happy Thursday 👋 And welcome back to Snippets, your TL;DR for the latest in privacy and tech.
- TikTok's troubles in the U.S. continue, as 13 states and the District of Columbia file lawsuits against the app.
- Meta was ordered to curb data collection for the purpose of targeted advertising in the EU.
- Google is still wading through the quagmire of how users will be tracked on the Chrome browser.
- And more!
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TikTok faces a string of lawsuits from state AGs
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Rozette Rago
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TikTok was hit with lawsuits from 13 states and the District of Columbia, all of which allege the company deliberately designed the app to be addictive to children and teens while also making false claims about user safety.
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- The bipartisan group of attorneys general claim the company maximized ad revenue at the expense of American teenagers’ mental health—using livestreams and features like 24/7 notifications to prompt compulsive use of the app.
- With over 50% of young girls reporting they don’t like the way they look without digital enhancements, the suits also cite the damaging effects of beauty filters on self-esteem.
- Nebraska’s filing is of particular note, highlighting TikTok's internal documents that state “the younger the user, the better the performance,” while acknowledging the algorithm has a “slot machine's effect” on young people.
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Field Notes Vol. 1: A Whirlwind Week in Sunny L.A. ☀️
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Follow along for a week in the life of Transcend's Field Chief Privacy Officer, Ron De Jesus, as he...
- Leads an expert panel at IAPP P.S.R.
- Attends the IAB Privacy Compliance Salon
- Films the next episode of Field Trips (with a special guest you won't want to miss)
- Gives an interview for a documentary film
- And more!
Get Ron's first-ever Field Notes in the link below.
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EU court orders Meta to limit data collection for ads
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Getty Images
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The Court of Justice for the European Union (CJEU) has directed Meta to minimize personal data collection for the purposes of targeted advertising.
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- The court ruled in favor of plaintiff Max Schrems, founder of the Austrian privacy rights non-profit NOYB, following his complaint that Facebook targeted him based on his sexual orientation—despite him never having shared it on the platform.
- In a statement on the ruling, the court noted that social media platforms “cannot use all of the personal data obtained for the purposes of targeted advertising, without restriction as to time and without distinction as to type of data.”
- Experts feel the ruling could significantly impact Meta’s business model, as well as invite similar limits on data used for targeted advertising in other regions throughout Europe.
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The privacy implications of Google’s cookie U-turn
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Picture Alliance: Getty Images
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After scrapping controversial plans to phase out third-party cookies, Google continues to face public backlash—with many raising questions about how tracking will work on Chrome going forward and what it means for user privacy.
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- Dismissing the backtrack narrative, Google has positioned its new plan as “elevating user choice,” as it’s giving users the power to allow or decline tracking.
- However, some argue that despite cookies’ declining importance in ad tech, Google's ad revenue apparatus remains supported by the vast amounts of data collected across its full product suite.
- Though Google claims it will give users clear and adjustable tracking options, some experts believe consumer privacy is still at risk—pointing to the tech giant's dominant market position.
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- Old California privacy laws trigger a string of lawsuits.
- Exploring the paradox of convenience vs. privacy.
- A case for redefining the meaning of privacy.
- Have users tapped out in the privacy war?
- Privacy on Anonym, explained.
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A VPN that acts as an "anti-AI machine"
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Shutterstock / Valery Brozhinsky
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With research showing that metadata can expose a person’s identity and activities online, Claudia Diaz, Chief Scientist at Nym Technologies, explains how the company’s new VPN safeguards metadata to better protect user privacy.
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- Most end-to-end encrypted messaging services protect the content of messages, but can still expose the IP addresses, locations, and phone numbers of people in the chat.
- Meanwhile, traditional VPNs conceal IP address and location data, but don’t shield users from traffic analysis—a method in which the content of encrypted messages is inferred by studying communicative patterns.
- Using a Mixnet infrastructure, NymVPN routes data packets through five different servers, shuffling and burying them under network noise to make communications undecodable.
- NymVPN also uses data scrambling and fake traffic to confuse AI models that perform advanced pattern analysis—operating on a decentralized network to minimize effects on internet speed.
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The expansive surveillance of connected TVs
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Caroline Purser/Getty Images
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A new report by the Center for Digital Democracy has concluded that AI-powered connected TVs (CTV) are facilitating widespread intrusions into viewer privacy.
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- The report highlights Tubi (a streaming platform that recently settled for $19.99 million for sharing user data without consent), with the authors attributing the platform’s growth to a business model that relies on sharing viewer data with advertisers.
- Though CTV users receive personalized recommendations based on their viewing history, they also face mounting subscription rates, mass in-program ads, and “unprecedented surveillance and manipulation.”
- The report recommends that the FTC and FCC investigate the CTV industry’s data collection practices and pushes for stronger privacy protections embedded into existing laws.
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Montana's Consumer Data Privacy Act: Your Compliance Checklist
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The Montana Consumer Data Privacy Act (MCDPA) is now in effect! With enforcement risks accruing, it's crucial that businesses affected by the law take immediate action to ensure compliance.
Read our comprehensive guide to learn who’s subject to Montana’s privacy law, what the law requires of businesses under its scope, and how it differs from other state laws. You’ll find a 7 step compliance checklist at the end.
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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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