YouTube Reportedly will Pay More than $150 Million to Settle FTC Allegations of COPPA Violations

A majority of the FTC’s panel of commissioners reportedly approved a settlement with YouTube who the FTC accused of violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The FTC alleges that YouTube knowingly collected personal information of children under the age of 13 without parental consent and used it for online advertising aimed at children.

The FTC’s enforcement against YouTube ...

GDPR Updates: New Guidelines, Code of Practice, Regulatory Decision and CJEU Judgment

Guidelines on Video Devices. The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) has issued draft guidelines for public comment on the data protection issues arising from the use of video devices and video surveillance. The guidelines explain that controllers operating video systems must establish the legal ground for video processing, the most likely ground being a compelling legitimate interest of the ...

Ninth Circuit Certifies Privacy Class Action against Facebook’s Photo Tag Suggestion Tool

A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit unanimously rejected Facebook’s attempt to dismiss a privacy class-action alleging that it violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) by not securing user consent before recording users’ facial biometrics.

The lawsuit revolves around Facebook’s Tag Suggestion feature, launched in 2010. With Tag Suggestions, Facebook uses facial-recognition technology ...

Amazon Held Liable for Defective Product Sold by a Merchant

A consumer from Pennsylvania purchased a dog leash on Amazon, that when put to use, broke, recoiled back and hit the consumer’s face and eyeglasses, turning her permanently blind in her left eye. She sued Amazon for strict product liability. Her claims were dismissed by the United States federal district court on summary judgment, finding that the third-party merchant rather ...

FTC Hits Facebook With an Unprecedented Fine for Privacy Violations and a Rigorous Order on Privacy Governance

Facebook was hit with a $5 billion fine, the largest penalty ever imposed on any company for violating consumer privacy, almost 20 times greater than the largest privacy or data security penalty ever imposed worldwide to date and one of the largest penalties ever assessed by the U.S. government for any violation.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) alleged that ...

GDPR Updates: First Fine in Sweden and UK Guidance on the Interplay between the GDPR and Artificial Intelligence

First GDPR Fine in Sweden. The Data Protection Authority of Sweden has issued its first GDPR fine – a penalty of 200,000 Swedish Krona (approximately $20,000) – for the unlawful use of facial recognition technology to monitor student attendance at a local high-school in Sweden. The Swedish regulator held that the local school board had violated the GDPR in ...

Israel: Full Scale Enforcement of the Data Security Regulations Commences

Following the first anniversary of the new Israeli Protection of Privacy Regulations (Data Security), the Israeli privacy regulator – the Protection of Privacy Authority – published a report summarizing its enforcement activities relating to data breaches. According to the report, the regulator carried out 146 instances of administrative enforcement action against organizations in relation to data breaches classified as ‘severe’. ...

New State Laws in the U.S. Aimed at Strengthening Consumer Privacy and Data Security

The New York State legislature has passed updates to the state’s breach notification law, expanding the scope of “private information” protected under the law to include biometric information, email addresses, and their corresponding passwords or security questions and answers, and protected health information. It broadens the definition of a notifiable data breach to include unauthorized access to private information and ...