Yup, continuing in the spirit of FTC Friday, I’ve been keeping track of all of the litigious goings-ons this week. Last week’s post was more broad and far reaching. But this week’s focus seems to be more narrowly focused on the broad array of violations that Facebook is now paying the piper (is that even still a saying) for.
But, of course there are also a few notable other privacy regulations going on.
First – In the, ‘just because you can, why do you do’ vein – “Facebook Agrees To $90 Million Settlement Over ‘Like’ Button Tracking.” The point of including this in the ‘FTC Friday’ content is that although this is Facebook’s problem from over a decade ago, it is time for them to pay the piper.
You should really read the whole article. But if you want an eye-rolling snippet:
“Facebook responded by saying a “bug” allowed the company to receive data about logged-out users. The company also promised to fix the bug, and said it never retained data that tied users’ IDs to the sites they visited. (Facebook subsequently changed its policies, which now allow for some data collection from logged-out users.).”
Hilarious use of the word bug as the following paragraph states:
“A group of Facebook users led by Perrin Aikens Davis subsequently brought a class-action complaint against the company. Among other claims, the complaint alleged that Facebook violated the federal wiretap law. That law prohibits companies from intercepting communications without the consent of at least one party.”
Wiretap law. Hmm. More uncharted murky legal territory. And federal, not just at a state level.
Second – In the wtf, the Texas AG knows what faceprints are….Texas AG Claims Facebook Violated Biometric Privacy Law. Again, another decade old lawsuit that the dust is being blown off. You should really read the whole article. But a quick excerpt:
“Facebook will no longer take advantage of people and their children with the intent to turn a profit at the expense of one’s safety and well-being,” Paxton stated Monday.
A Meta spokesperson said Monday: “These claims are without merit and we will defend ourselves vigorously.”
The lawsuit comes four months after Facebook said it would stop using facial recognition technology.”
Also, not for nothing (what a great saying), this is Paxton’s third time this year that Paxton has filed suit against Facebook. You know it’s only February, right.
Third – and in the, ‘what is real money anymore – I guess any currency that doesn’t just go directly into Mark Zuckerberg’s pocket’ category – Consumers Want To Earn Real Money In The Metaverse, Most Against Meta Owning Data. Yes. I know this is a stretch from the FTC Friday theme – but it does speak to data ownership and the value of personal data. Should currency own the data – or should data be the currency (a heady topic for another day).
So in other (intentionally) vague news:
UK CMA Accepts Google’s Post-Cookie Proposals, But Will ‘Closely Monitor’ Plan. Seems important as it is effective immediately. Although I don’t know what it actually means. I get that FLoC is (perhaps) dead and the Topics is the new thing. But I just don’t know what the commitments are.
This seems bad, ‘Adobe Issues Security Updates To Fight A ‘Critical’ Vulnerability’ – I wonder if it is very bad or only slightly bad.
