"creepy talking doorball spy" | The Cat Herder, Volume 4, Issue 24
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People in Massachusetts and Costa Rica are surprised to be reminded their pocket computers ultimately belong to the operating system owner. Guidance on vaccination status, guidance for estate agents. Doorbells.
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Surprised to see Google using its LinkNYC surveillance towers to divulge its corporate strategy. pic.twitter.com/GyDsKAkVkG
— Mark Hurst (@markhurst) June 23, 2021
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Massachusetts launched a COVID tracking app, and uh, it was automatically installed?!
The move sparked fears about big tech and government surveillance and fueled conspiracy theories.
To do this once may be regarded as a misfortune; to do it twice looks like carelessness. Or worse.
On Monday the Irish Times reported “90% of businesses want guidance on worker vaccination data”. Later in the week the DPC published the guidance these businesses wanted.
Of interest in the Irish Times article was the following
Personal data can only be processed with a lawful basis. Wishes and likes ascertained through a survey are not lawful bases.
More
Lewis Silkin: ‘Ireland - Collecting Employee Vaccine Data – Latest Guidance’
The Journal: ‘No clear legal basis’ for processing information around employee vaccine status, DPC says
A “broad coalition of consumer rights organizations, civil rights groups, NGOs, and academics” published an open letter to lawmakers on both sides of the Atlantic calling for them to consider a ban of surveillance-based advertising. [direct link to PDF]
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The Dutch Consumentenbond and the Take Back Your Privacy Foundation have demanded TikTok pay damages to children whose personal data it unlawfully processed.
TikTok must pay Dutch children damages for the unlawful processing of their personal data. The company must also delete the illegally collected personal data, and comply with the law going forward. This is what the Consumentenbond and Take Back Your Privacy Foundation demand from TikTok.
The DPC published ‘Guidance on the Collection of Personal Data Prior to Viewing a Property’. It’s fairly unambiguous: “The DPC does not consider there can be any justification (COVID-19 related restrictions included) for the extensive collection of personal data such as financial statements, proof of funds, utility bills, PPS numbers etc. from prospective purchasers at the initial stages of advertising or hosting viewings of a property.”
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In Luxembourg the CNPD imposed an €18,000 fine on an organisation for failing to provide adequate resources to its DPO, failing to adequately involve the DPO “in informing and advising on obligations under the GDPR and other EU law” and not sufficiently involving the DPO at an operational level.
- “A thing like Ring belongs on the entire spectrum of Amazon’s move towards surveillance and control – not only of workers, but also of consumers, and of space in general,” he says. “The intent is to create a massive web of surveillance in an attempt to try to shape the way people live their lives. It’s an attempt to replace a real sense of community with a notion of community that’s mediated by Amazon.” From ‘I spy: are smart doorbells creating a global surveillance network?’ by Sam Wollaston for the Guardian.
- “The idealism of Silicon Valley requires believing that technology companies can best solve the world’s problems, one line of code at a time. That line of thinking also glosses over an uncomfortable truth: To achieve cheap or even free services requires justifying a range of behavior that often isn’t in the best interests of consumers … Technology companies’ blithe disregard for consumer desires is an outgrowth of decades of permissive or nonexistent government oversight. Regulators ought to consider how Big Tech’s monopoly power further empowers the companies to ignore their own customers, in part by gobbling up competitors that offer more consumer-friendly services. Whatever the outcome of the Arizona case, if Google and others are willing to continue offering users choices, they should also be willing to respect them.” From ‘Google’s Privacy Backpedal Shows Why It’s So Hard Not to Be Evil’ by Greg Bensinger for the New York Times.
- “Colleges and universities should abandon remote proctoring software, and apply the lessons from this failed experiment to their other existing or potential future uses of surveillance technologies and automated decision-making systems that threaten students’ privacy, access to important life opportunities, and intellectual freedom … Remote proctoring software also provides a stark example of the inadequacy of consent as a privacy safeguard, as students have negligible choice around their useof the software, and the consent they provide cannot serve as a meaningful exercise of agency.” From ‘Rejecting Test Surveillance in Higher Education’ by Lindsay Barrett.
Endnotes & Credits
- The elegant Latin bon mot “Futuendi Gratia” is courtesy of Effin’ Birds.
- As always, a huge thank you to Regina Doherty for giving the world the phrase “mandatory but not compulsory”.
- The image used in the header is by Krystian Tambur on Unsplash.
- Any quotes from the Oireachtas we use are sourced from KildareStreet.com. They’re good people providing a great service. If you can afford to then donate to keep the site running.
- Digital Rights Ireland have a storied history of successfully fighting for individuals’ data privacy rights. You should support them if you can.
Find us on the web at myprivacykit.com and on Twitter at @PrivacyKit. Of course we’re not on Facebook or LinkedIn.
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