Facebook, Google, and GDPR: The war for data privacy

    How is your data being used? Facebook’s faux pas

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg came under fire during a Congressional hearing over Facebook’s policy of tracking data on non-users and logged out users. The scandal forced Facebook’s data-mining partner Cambridge Analytica to close as users’ outrage swarmed both companies with bad press.

There was so much that Facebook knew about me — more than I wanted to know. But after looking at the totality of what the Silicon Valley company had obtained about yours truly, I decided to try to better understand how and why my data was collected and stored. I also sought to find out how much of my data could be removed.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/11/technology/personaltech/i-downloaded-the-information-that-facebook-has-on-me-yikes.html

Can you hear me now? Google and Amazon could be listening

Google and Amazon have also been taking heat once news surfaced of their “voice sniffer algorithm” patent, which uses their devices to listen in on conversations around it and then offers users marketing targeted from those private conversations.

Amazon and Google, the leading sellers of such devices, say the assistants record and process audio only after users trigger them by pushing a button or uttering a phrase like “Hey, Alexa” or “O.K., Google.” But each company has filed patent applications, many of them still under consideration, that outline an array of possibilities for how devices like these could monitor more of what users say and do. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/31/business/media/amazon-google-privacy-digital-assistants.html

Our hero, Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

New legislation from Europe regarding how user data can be used has appeared at just the right time. While the law applies specifically to Europe, users of MailChimp and other globally reaching software also benefit. For example, subscribers to MailChimp mailing lists must now confirm their subscription, a huge step in the fight against email spam.

https://twitter.com/s_m_i/status/999353644486086659

More data protection legislation could be coming!

 

 

What do you think? Is data privacy important to you?

Christie Jennings-Wyckoff is a Senior Developer at ClearView Social.

Click here to download our strategy guide: 10 Ways To Get Your Employees Sharing To Social Media – https://clearviewsocial.com/info/10-ways-to-get-your-employees-sharing-to-social-media/