Privacy News Round-Up #73 🌏️


• Bid to revive UK privacy damages suit against Google DeepMind fails to show class (Bid to revive UK privacy damages suit against Google DeepMind fails to show class | TechCrunch): Another attempt to get a class action-style privacy damages case to stick against Google has failed in the U.K. after the Court of Appeal refused to overturn an earlier dismissal.

• FTC Says Data Brokers Unlawfully Tracked Protesters and US Military Personnel (FTC Says Data Brokers Unlawfully Tracked Protesters and US Military Personnel | WIRED): The FTC is targeting data brokers that monitored people’s movements during protests and around US military installations. But signs suggest the Trump administration will be far more lenient.

• Apple hit with $1.2B lawsuit after killing controversial CSAM-detecting tool (Apple hit with $1.2B lawsuit after killing controversial CSAM-detecting tool - Ars Technica): The proposed class action comes after Apple scrapped a controversial CSAM-scanning tool last fall that was supposed to significantly reduce CSAM spreading in its products. Apple defended its decision to kill the tool after dozens of digital rights groups raised concerns that the government could seek to use the functionality to illegally surveil Apple users for other reasons.

• Top US Consumer Watchdog Has a Plan to Fight Predatory Data Brokers (Top US Consumer Watchdog Has a Plan to Fight Predatory Data Brokers | WIRED): A new proposal by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau would use a 54-year-old privacy law to impose new oversight of the data broker industry. But first, the agency must survive Elon Musk. [paywalled]

• FTC bans two data brokers from collecting and selling Americans’ sensitive location data (FTC bans two data brokers from collecting and selling Americans' sensitive location data | TechCrunch): Two U.S. data brokers have agreed not to collect private location data on Americans as part of a pair of settlements with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which accused the companies of unlawfully tracking millions of people near to sensitive locations like healthcare facilities and military bases.