Protecting your users’ privacy requires you to be thoughtful about the data you collect and hold, and how you use it. By carefully considering the costs and benefits of collecting data and by properly safeguarding the information that you do collect, you prevent privacy harms and increase consumer trust in your company. 
Sub-TItle: 
Limit and protect the data you collect, retain, and use.
Display Title: 
RESPECT YOUR DATA

Blue Shield Failed to Shield Users’ Private Health Information

Blue Shield of California inadvertently permitted Google to access the private health information of millions of its member s. Blue Shield provided notice of the breach to 4.7 million members , claiming it did not know whether any particular member’...Read more >

Mobilewalla Walled Off from Selling Sensitive Location Information

The FTC banned data broker Mobilewalla from selling sensitive location information after finding that : (1) Mobilewalla improperly collected this information from third parties without verifying user consent; (2) used that information to categorize...Read more >

LinkedIn Caught Trying to Quietly Loop In User Information to Train AI

LinkedIn became noisy with angry posts when the company was not fully transparent with users and tried to silently opt people into use of their information for AI. LinkedIn automatically “ opted accounts into training generative AI models ” prior to...Read more >

International Regulators Say Meta GenAI Generates Major Privacy Concerns

Meta ended up in hot water with international regulators, faced big daily fines, and was forced to pause its release of Generative AI products in the EU and Brazil after data protection authorities raised serious privacy concerns with the company’s...Read more >

AT&T Phoned In Cybersecurity: Suffers Massive Data Breach

AT&T was blasted in the press for its “ sloppy” cybersecurity, questioned by members of Congress , and hit with a class action lawsuit for its “sweeping” data breach when the company disclosed in 2024 that hackers accessed six months of call and...Read more >

Mobile Phone Carriers Ring Up $20 Million FCC Proposed Penalty for Lax Privacy and Security

The FCC hit Q Link Wireless LLC and Hello Mobile Telecom LLC with a proposed penalty of $20 million in 2023 for failing to protect the privacy and security of people’s information. FCC rules require service providers to authenticate who someone is...Read more >

Google’s Misleading Location-Tracking Practices Leads It To $93 Million Fine

Google agreed to pay $93 million dollars to settle claims from the California Attorney General that it had deceived users with its location-privacy practices and violated consumer protection laws . Google was “ telling its users one thing – that it...Read more >

Premom Broke Privacy Promises in a Post-Roe World

The FTC sued Premom —an ovulation tracking app—for breaking “its promises and compromis[ing] consumer privacy” by deceptively sharing personal information and violating the FTC’s Health Breach Notification Rule by failing to notify users of these...Read more >

Microsoft Pays $20M for Improperly Collecting and Retaining Children’s Information

Microsoft was slapped with $ 20 million in fines in 2023 to settle FTC charges that it violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The FTC charged Microsoft with violating COPPA and the FTC Act by collecting personal information...Read more >

Apple Walks Back Anti-CSAM Feature Over Surveillance Concerns

Apple ultimately took the right step to safeguard user privacy, security, and free speech by scrapping a controversial plan to scan users’ iCloud accounts to flag content (such photos sent over iMessage) that may be abusive or exploitative. The...Read more >