Zoom must implement a “comprehensive security program” and adhere to biennial independent third-party privacy assessments, the FTC announced Monday in a finalized deal (see 2011100024). The company must “review any software updates for security flaws prior to release and ensure the updates will not hamper third-party security features,” the agency said. Commissioners voted 3-2, with the two Democrats dissenting, as they did in the initial vote. Acting Chair Rebecca Kelly Slaughter noted “widespread opposition” comments. The decision is “particularly troubling in light of" DOJ recently charging a “Zoom employee with allegedly participating in a scheme to surveil, disclose, and censor political and religious speech of individuals” worldwide at the direction of Chinese leadership, she said. The agency “must think beyond its status quo approach of simply requiring more paperwork, rather than real accountability relying on a thorough investigation,” said Commissioner Rohit Chopra. Commissioner Christine Wilson noted the inclusion of “targeted fencing in relief that provides privacy protections to consumers.” Provisions address the type of conduct seen with the DOJ charges, she said. “Advancements we have made to our platform are well-documented, and we are continuously improving our privacy and security programs,” a company spokesperson emailed. “We remain committed to fulfilling the expectations of the millions of people who trust and rely on our platform.”
Karl Herchenroeder
Karl Herchenroeder, Associate Editor, is a technology policy journalist for publications including Communications Daily. Born in Rockville, Maryland, he joined the Warren Communications News staff in 2018. He began his journalism career in 2012 at the Aspen Times in Aspen, Colorado, where he covered city government. After that, he covered the nuclear industry for ExchangeMonitor in Washington. You can follow Herchenroeder on Twitter: @karlherk
John Kennedy, R-La., plans legislation that could require social media users use legal identities, he told us Thursday. He and several other senators had differing reactions to Facebook’s oversight board, which released its first content moderation decisions Thursday, overturning four of five Facebook post removals.
Expect increased agency oversight and a concerted effort to update antitrust laws in 2021, said Senate Antitrust Subcommittee Chair Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Wednesday at a Public Knowledge virtual event. Facebook Oversight Board Member Jamal Greene said to expect the board’s first content moderation decisions “within days,” on a panel at the State of the Net (SoTN) virtual conference.
Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., will reintroduce her privacy legislation (see 1912060035) sometime this quarter, an aide told us Friday. Observers said in interviews that this is the best chance Congress has had in recent years to pass a comprehensive privacy bill, in light of President Joe Biden’s election and a Democratic House and Senate.
Flo Health, developer of a popular women’s fertility-tracking app, misled users and improperly shared users' sensitive health data with third-parties including Facebook and Google, the FTC alleged in a 5-0 settlement announced Wednesday. Despite promises to keep the data private, Flo “disclosed health data from millions of users of its Flo Period & Ovulation Tracker app to third parties that provided marketing and analytics services to the app, including Facebook’s analytics division, Google’s analytics division, Google’s Fabric service, AppsFlyer, and Flurry,” the FTC said. Commissioners Rohit Chopra and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter dissented in part, saying the agency should have charged the company with violating the Health Breach Notification Rule, for which the agency has never brought action. Commissioner Noah Phillips disagreed with the Democrats: “We have never applied the Rule to a health app such as Flo in the past, in part because the language of the Rule is not so plain. And I do not support announcing such a novel interpretation of the Rule here, in the context of an enforcement action.” The company faces civil penalties of up to $43,792 for any future violations. Flo didn’t share usernames, addresses or birthdays, a spokesperson emailed, noting the settlement included no admission of wrongdoing: “We do not currently, and will not, share any information about our users’ health with any company unless we get their permission. We have a comprehensive privacy framework with a robust set of policies and procedures to safeguard our users’ data.” The consent order includes a company compliance review, the spokesperson added.
Congress will revisit the possibility of a federal moratorium on face-scanning technology in the upcoming session, House Oversight Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., told us. Industry representatives expect the Biden administration to push for tighter face-scanning regulation. Reps from CTA, BSA|The Software Alliance and the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) said President Donald Trump’s most important artificial intelligence contribution will be his regulatory guidance to agencies.
Facebook, AT&T, Google, Microsoft, Intel and Airbnb said they’re limiting political contributions after Wednesday’s deadly riot at the Capitol. Also Monday, Amazon Web Services was hit with an antitrust lawsuit from Parler after AWS stopped hosting the social media service, which is popular with conservatives. The Computer & Communication Industry Association supported platforms’ right to suspend certain accounts involved “in the incitement of violence,” including President Donald Trump's. See here for our news bulletin on Twitter permanently yanking Trump's account Friday.
Facebook extended its ban of President Donald Trump’s accounts on the platform and Instagram “indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks,” until Joe Biden takes office, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced. Also Thursday, congressional critics and others in the telecom and tech spheres slammed Trump over his encouraging protesters to go to the Capitol, where several were reported by authorities to have been killed. See here and here for our reports. (Our reporter, who was trapped for several hours, was later able to safely leave, as were other journalists.)
The FTC’s recent inquiry into social media company data collection practices could likely result in enforcement action, much like the agency’s 6(b) study that led to its antitrust case against Facebook, an ex-official and attorneys said in interviews. Some said to expect the social media companies to negotiate with the agency over the scope of the latest 6(b) study, which seeks details on how data practices affect younger users and others (see 2012150005).
Senate Intellectual Property Subcommittee Chairman Thom Tillis, R-N.C., will release a discussion draft Friday for updating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (see 2010050061), he said at a hearing Tuesday. It will have “revolutionary” concepts for preventing online piracy and protecting individual users, he said.