Data privacy concerns in the U.S. and Europe

A selection from many news stories that touch on data privacy concerns (in the U.S. about Tiktok, in Europe about Facebook...and about DNA):

From the NYT:

Driver’s Licenses, Addresses, Photos: Inside How TikTok Shares User Data. Employees of the Chinese-owned video app have regularly posted user information on a messaging and collaboration tool called Lark, according to internal documents.  By Sapna Maheshwari and Ryan Mac

"Alex Stamos, the director of Stanford University’s Internet Observatory and Facebook’s former chief information security officer, said securing user data across an organization was “the hardest technical project” for a social media company’s security team. TikTok’s problems, he added, are compounded by ByteDance’s ownership.

“Lark shows you that all the back-end processes are overseen by ByteDance,” he said. “TikTok is a thin veneer on ByteDance.”

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From the WSJ:

Former ByteDance Executive Claims Chinese Communist Party Accessed TikTok’s Hong Kong User Data. Allegation is made in suit against TikTok parent company; ByteDance says it vigorously opposes the claim. By Georgia Wells

"A former executive at ByteDance, the parent company of the hit video-sharing app TikTok, alleges in a legal filing that a committee of China’s Communist Party members accessed the data of TikTok users in Hong Kong in 2018—a contention the company denies. 

"The former executive claims the committee members focused on civil rights activists and protesters in Hong Kong during that time and accessed TikTok data that included their network information, SIM card identifications and IP addresses, in an effort to identify and locate the users. The former executive of the Beijing-based company said the data also included the users’ communications on TikTok.

From the Guardian:

Revealed: the contentious tool US immigration uses to get your data from tech firms. Documents show Ice has sent Google, Meta and Twitter at least 500 administrative subpoenas for information on their users.  by Johana Bhuiyan

"The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (Ice) sent tech giants including Google, Twitter and Meta at least 500 administrative subpoenas demanding sensitive personal information of users, documents reviewed by the Guardian show.

"The practice highlights the vast amount of information Ice is trying to obtain without first showing probable cause. Administrative subpoenas are typically not court-certified, which means companies are not legally required to comply or respond until and unless a judge compels them to. The documents showed the firms handing over user information in some cases, although the full extent to which the companies complied is unclear."

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From the WSJ:

Meta Fined $1.3 Billion Over Data Transfers to U.S.  Decision places pressure on Washington to implement surveillance changes for Europe to allow Meta to keep the data spigot open.  By Sam Schechner

"Meta’s top privacy regulator in the EU said in its decision Monday that Facebook has for years illegally stored data about European users on its servers in the U.S., where it contends the information could be accessed by American spy agencies without sufficient means for users to appeal."

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From the Guardian:

NHS data breach: trusts shared patient details with Facebook without consent. Observer investigation reveals Meta Pixel tool passed on private details of web browsing on medical sites."by Shanti Das

"Records of information sent to the firm by NHS websites reveal it includes data which – when linked to an individual – could reveal personal medical details.

"It was collected from patients who visited hundreds of NHS webpages about HIV, self-harm, gender identity services, sexual health, cancer, children’s treatment and more.

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"In one case, Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS trust shared when a user viewed a patient handbook for HIV medication. The name of the drug and the NHS trust were sent to the company along with the user’s IP address and details of their Facebook user ID."

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From the NYT:

Your DNA Can Now Be Pulled From Thin Air. Privacy Experts Are Worried. Environmental DNA research has aided conservation, but scientists say its ability to glean information about human populations and individuals poses dangers.  By Elizabeth Anne Brown

"Forensic ethicists and legal scholars say the Florida team’s findings increase the urgency for comprehensive genetic privacy regulations. For researchers, it also highlights an imbalance in rules around such techniques in the United States — that it’s easier for law enforcement officials to deploy a half-baked new technology than it is for scientific researchers to get approval for studies to confirm that the system even works."

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From the LA Times:

Microsoft will pay $20 million to settle U.S. charges of illegally collecting children’s data

"Microsoft will pay a fine of $20 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it illegally collected and retained the data of children who signed up to use its Xbox video game console.

"The agency charged that Microsoft gathered the data without notifying parents or obtaining their consent, and that it also illegally held on to the data. Those actions violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, the FTC stated."