What's the Tea in L&E? Employee Devices: What is #NSFW?
Mobile App Series: Privacy by Design
Unique Privacy Concerns for Mobile Apps
I have the pleasure to present an advanced session on cybersecurity to tax preparers at the IRS’ National Tax Preparers Forum each year. The sessions are well attended, and I enjoy meeting attendees and talking about the...more
Where are you? Your exact location is a tidbit of information that can infringe on your privacy. Knowing your location all the time can help someone map your life....more
Google Play’s “data safety form” is now live. Developers can now submit the form for early review and feedback. Starting in April 2022, Google will require this label and a privacy policy for all new and existing apps. This...more
Apple has issued new guidelines for apps that let people create accounts. The guidelines will require these apps to give people a way to delete their accounts. This requirement is broader than CCPA and GDPR deletion rights,...more
Google recently announced that beginning next year it will require Android mobile apps to provide privacy disclosures. These disclosures will live in a new “safety section” in Google Play...more
As of this week, Apple’s requirements for apps to follow its AppTrackingTransparency are now in effect. These requirements went hand-in-hand with the iOS 14.5 launch, and impacts how an app can track users and access their...more
The FTC recently settled with Flo Health, Inc., a popular fertility-tracking app, based on promises made about how health data would be shared. In its complaint, the FTC alleged that while Flo promised to keep users’ health...more
Would you hand over your smartphone, including your call history, text messages, photos, GPS locations, and browser history to your employer? To your significant other? How about to a random stranger? I’m guessing your answer...more
I once again had the pleasure of presenting Cybersecurity for Tax Professionals at the IRS Nationwide Tax Forum today. The conference is designed for tax professionals in small- to medium-sized businesses....more
While we have been talking about the very important message of educating employees about data security, I find that giving employees tips about their personal data security keeps them interested and engaged during education...more
Last week’s Privacy Tip centered on how our cell phone geolocation data is being sold by the telephone companies Cell Phone Geolocation Data Being Sold. ...more
If you have bought a new cell phone recently, you will see that the technology of the newest smart phones is far more advanced than in the past, and have features on them that most people don’t understand or use....more
I have been watching several articles published by ZDNet with interest. First, ZDNet reported that “four of the largest cell giants in the US are selling your real-time location data to a company that you’ve probably never...more
This week’s Apple X announcement was not more than a few hours old, and the questions began to come in. Apple’s introduction of Face ID facial recognition on its new phone – although already available in some form on several...more
Whether it was for a one-time use, or repeated access, many of us have provided an email address to a website or application, only to find our inbox then flooded with emails. If you are not using the app or website, there is...more
When I train clients’ employees on data privacy and security, I always mention the microphone on smartphones. They are powerful and if you allow apps access to your microphone, they can listen to every one of your...more
California’s Attorney General, Kamala Harris, has required Houzz, a home décor information and e-commerce website and mobile app publisher, to hire a chief privacy officer (CPO), conduct a company-wide privacy assessment, and...more
Everyone loves their smartphone. Everyone loves the newest app. Angry Birds has lots of company now. But most people don’t know the back end of apps and how they are accessing, using and selling your data. Why? Because no one...more
Recently, the mobile platforms have played an important role in improving end-user privacy. Along these lines, Apple, in or around iOS version 6.0, created a new, unique identifier that could be used in place of the UDID and...more
In recent months, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) has been steadily ramping up its efforts to monitor, regulate, and provide best practice guidance in the rapidly expanding field of mobile applications. On September 10,...more
On August 1, 2014, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released a report entitled What’s the Deal? An FTC Study on Mobile Shopping Apps (the FTC Report). The FTC Report is based on a study the FTC conducted (the FTC Study) to...more
First we had social media platforms, but recently a variety of “anti-social” media platforms have emerged—well, anti-social in a sense. For years, social media platforms have encouraged (or even, in some cases, required) us...more
Here Today, Still Here Tomorrow: FTC Settles With Snapchat - Now you see it … and now it’s still there. Mobile messaging app Snapchat went with a catchier slogan, promising consumers that pictures and videos...more
The Federal Trade Commission has recently focused its consumer protection efforts on the mobile arena, and particularly video game companies operating in that arena. Early last year, the FTC issued several staff...more
Snapchat’s recent settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) generally provides a comprehensive but not groundbreaking roadmap to the FTC’s privacy and data security expectations in the mobile environment under...more