This past week revealed positive signs surrounding the federal government’s focus on the privacy rights movement. Not only was federal privacy legislation re-introduced to Congress, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling squarely behind efforts to protect against the collection and mis-use of personal data as well.

Senator Renews Push To Create New Federal Agency Focused On Data Privacy, The Daily Dot- June 17, 2021.

The focus on consumer’s privacy rights needs strong leadership, particularly at the federal level.  Perhaps that person is Democratic Senator from New York, Kirsten Gillibrand, who reintroduced the Data Protection Act to “protect Americans’ data, safeguard their privacy, and ensure data practices are fair and transparent.” The privacy community is eagerly awaiting federal privacy legislation. Stay tuned!

U.S. Supreme Court Revives LinkedIn Bid To Shield Personal Data, Reuters- June 14, 2021

LinkedIn filed a lawsuit under the “Computer Fraud and Abuse Act” against rival hiQ Labs to stop them from collecting personal data on the LinkedIn platform. Despite losses at lower courts, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that LinkedIn is permitted to continue its litigation against hiQ. It is encouraging that the Supreme Court is emerging as an important advocate for privacy rights.

While the federal government’s efforts to focus on privacy rights evolves, industry and consumer advocates continue to wrangle over consequences resulting from various privacy practices. The mobile marketing industry is anxious about the “death of the cookie” is just one example. On the flip side, consumer advocates are disturbed about the divulgence of data leaked to the government and Twitter’s questionable practices of sharing data with advertisers.

Data Privacy Is The Main Barrier To Mobile Marketing Growth, WARC- June 17th, 2021.

Leaders in the mobile marketing industry believe that addressing data privacy is the “main barrier” to growth.  First, 62% of marketer’s are concerned about the impact of the “death of the cookie.” Further, 35% of these industry executives, up from 25% a year ago, believe that consumer’s concerns about privacy rights must be addressed to stimulate growth in the industry. We will keep a keen focus on how the mobile marketing industry reacts to these concerns.

How To Keep Some Of Your Twitter Data Away From Advertisers, The Verge- June 15th, 2021

As technology companies continue to be investigated, it was revealed in April 2020, that Twitter began feeding consumer data to advertisers by cryptically announcing that “your ability to control mobile app advertising … has been removed.”  What can be done to protect your data from being mis-used by Twitter? Fortunately, there are some solutions including the ability to disable ad sharing from Twitter’s “Personalization and data page.” Still, the surreptitious announcement from Twitter about their data privacy practices is disturbing to say the least.

Big Tech Needs To Be Stopped From Giving Your Data To The Government, Yahoo Finance- June 16th, 2021.

It has come to light that Apple and Microsoft disclosed user data to the Trump administration to assist in various media link investigations. Consumers, advocates, and others concerned about privacy rights are “up in arms” about the revelations of these disclosures.  When it comes to privacy rights, trust is everything. Despite assurances from tech companies that they are focused on privacy rights, people do not believe them. The only action that will begin to restore faith in the system is clear and robust federal legislation.