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A new report released today by the Center for Digital Democracy and the School of Communications at American University focuses on privacy and wearables. As a recent HHS report made clear, the data collected by most wearables is not regulated to the same degree as information you provide to your doctor. But several mechanisms have ensured that many health and fitness apps respect users’ data – the leading app platforms impose strong privacy requirements, barring sale of sensitive data and requiring enhanced notice.

Today, Senator Nelson’s office released a report outlining several privacy and security implications of “connected toys” that the office identified based on conversations with six major toy manufacturers. The report emphasizes the unique sensitivity of children’s personal information; urges toymakers to build privacy and security into their toys from the inception; and suggests that the FTC has authority to monitor and bring enforcement actions under Section 5 and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

Uber recently announced that its iOS app will require access to location data either “Always” or “Never.” Given some of the confusion about the change, we are writing to help consumers better understand what Uber modified and why.

Washington, DC – Today, in response to the Administration’s call-to-action on privacy protections related to drone operations, Future of Privacy Forum (FPF), Intel, and PrecisionHawk released Drones and Privacy by Design: Embedding Privacy Enhancing Technology in Unmanned Aircraft. The report highlights examples of privacy enhancing technologies and “Privacy-by-Design” applied to drones.

De-identification of personal information plays a central role in current privacy policy, law, and practice. Yet there are deep disagreements about the efficacy of de-identification to mitigate privacy risks. Some critics argue that it is impossible to eliminate privacy harms from publicly released data using de-identification because other available data sets will allow attackers to identify individuals through linkage attacks.

Yesterday, the Future of Privacy Forum filed comments with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) in response to NTIA’s inquiry into the Internet of Things (IoT). NTIA asked policy experts and other stakeholders to identify key issues affecting deployment the IoT – a broad category of devices, appliances, and objects that can be connected via the Internet.

FPF has been an early and eager participant in this discussion and was pleased to see the report’s appreciation for the potential of Big Data. In dealing with the risks of discrimination posed by realization of Big Data’s potential, FPF sees strong data ethics framework as a necessary and effective addition to the raw potential of technology.

Which Students Succeed and Why?   “Thoughtful use of education data has tremendous potential to improve and address inequities in America’s education system. Scientists better understand how the brain incorporates new information and skills. Educators have a more accurate sense of student progress and potential risk for dropping out. Students and teachers use more detailed […]

[…] set of privacy rules for all data. The Obama administration embraced this view when it proposed a broad based Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights, which would have promised protection for any online personal information collected about consumers. Globally, the trend towards comprehensive privacy regulation that started in Europe has spread throughout almost all of […]

In these final remaining days before Christmas, last-minute holiday shopping is in full swing. The window for online delivery is closing, and more shoppers this week will be doing their holiday shopping the old-fashioned way—in the store.