Blog Posts Tagged with Privacy and Security

Natives and fans heartily agree that “Cleveland Rocks!” That’s why the Federal Trade Commission and its Ohio partners are ready to roll with the next installment of Green Lights & Red Flags: FTC Rules of the Road for Business, set to make its online debut on October 29, 2020, from Cleveland.

“Take out” takes on a whole new meaning when it involves your data. Consumers and industry members are giving more thought to the issue of data portability – the ability of consumers to move data (such as emails, contacts, calendars, financial information, health information, favorites, friends, or content posted on social media) from one service to another or to their own files. That’s the topic of a September 22, 2020, virtual event, Data To Go: An FTC Workshop on Data Portability.

If you have kids in school, there’s a good chance they’re kicking off their school year . . . in your living room. All the while, you’re connecting with clients, taking meetings, and making sales from a carved out corner at home. The start of a new school year is a good time to double-check your online set-up to make sure the kids can take their classes while you take care of business. Here are a few things to check or consider.

As parents know, kids spend a huge amount of time online, especially now with COVID-19 school and camp closures. They get ideas from influencers on social media and video platforms, make purchases on their smartphones, and influence a lot of family spending. This phenomenon is not limited to the U.S. alone.

Maybe it’s the influence of that best-selling book on home organization or perhaps the silos of stuff in our makeshift home offices are becoming more noticeable. Either way, people are in a decluttering mood – and we are, too. Our recent project: updating and streamlining Complying with COPPA: Frequently Asked Questions, known as the COPPA FAQs. But not to worry. The revisions don’t raise new policy issues and our COPPA Rule review continues.

Information Security and Financial Institutions: An FTC Workshop to Examine the Safeguards Rule – a virtual event to consider the future of the Rule – is on now. Watch from the LIVE WEBCAST link on the event page. In addition, FTC staff is tweeting from @FTC using the hashtag #SafeguardsFTC.
 
 

PrivacyCon is going virtual this year. As the just-released agenda for the fifth annual Gathering of the Gurus demonstrates, you’ll want to mark July 21, 2020, on your calendar and watch the webcast for thought-provoking research into topics related to consumer privacy and data security.

During this pandemic, preserving public health has, rightly, been our nation’s top concern. But a lively debate has arisen during this time about whether that top priority necessarily means that other values – such as privacy – need to give way. If tracking people’s location will facilitate contact tracing and enforcement of shelter-in-place mandates, do we give governments and commercial partners carte blanche to track our whereabouts? Will enforcing longstanding privacy requirements impede the flow of life-saving public health information?

For businesses, cloud services are kind of like clouds. At their best, they can be soothing and expansive. But for companies that fail to appreciate the security implications, their ethereal presence may hide dangerous storms within. As cloud computing has become business as usual for many businesses, frequent news reports about data breaches and other missteps should make companies think carefully about how they secure their data.