privacy News

DOJ Drops Claims That TikTok Misled US Consumers in Lawsuit

The US Justice Department is dropping one of two proposed claims against ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok, planning to focus a consumer protection lawsuit later this year on children’s privacy instead of allegations the video-sharing platform misled consumers about their data security. …

Michigan Supreme Court Rules Against Couple in Drone Surveillance Case

The Michigan Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor of a local government Friday in a dispute over sending a drone to take pictures of a rural salvage yard without permission. Liberal and conservative groups closely watched the case, even joining …

Ring in California Paying $5.6M to Customers as Part of Privacy Settlement

The Federal Trade Commission is sending more than $5.6 million in refunds to consumers as part of a settlement with Amazon-owned Ring, which was charged with failing to protect private video footage from outside access. In a 2023 complaint, the …

FTC Asks Congress for Authority Over Its Own Consumer Cases

The US Federal Trade Commission is asking Congress to change the law so it can handle its own privacy settlements and other consumer protection cases that it’s currently forced to refer to the Justice Department. The DOJ has been slow-walking …

Ring Will No Longer Allow Police to Request Users’ Doorbell Camera Footage

Amazon-owned Ring will stop allowing police departments to request doorbell camera footage from users, marking an end to a feature that has drawn criticism from privacy advocates. In a blog post on Wednesday, Ring said it will sunset the “Request …

Majority of Underwriters Predict Cyber Risks Grow ‘Greatly’ in 2024: Survey

Underwriters who thought the growing cyber risk landscape of the past several years would level off soon might want to think again. Woodruff Sawyer’s annual survey of cyber insurance carriers found all underwriters surveyed believe cyber risk will increase in …

Google Settles $5 Billion Consumer Privacy Lawsuit

Alphabet’s Google has agreed to settle a lawsuit claiming it secretly tracked the internet use of millions of people who thought they were doing their browsing privately. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, put a scheduled Feb. …

Rite Aid Banned From AI Facial Recognition by FTC After Misuse

Rite Aid Corp. must stop using facial recognition for the next five years as part of a privacy settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission, which said the pharmacy chain misused the technology to mistakenly tag consumers as shoplifters. In …

Ex-First Republic Engineer in California Gets Prison for Cloud Hack

A former First Republic Bank cloud engineer in San Francisco was sentenced to two years in prison for vandalizing the company’s computer network after he was fired in 2020. Miklos Daniel Brody logged into the bank’s network without authorization, using …

How Cybercriminals Are Using Wyoming Shell Companies for Global Hacks

Somali reporter Abdalle Ahmed Mumin was doubly distressed when he heard that a colleague had been abducted by masked gunmen at the University of Mogadishu on the morning of Aug. 17. A fellow journalist was missing and Mumin – the …