Tonya Riley reports: Allstate Corp. faces a proposed class action for allegedly violating California and federal wiretapping and privacy laws with its data-collection practices. Allstate illicitly conspired to collect and sell the driver behavior data of more than 45 million Americans without their knowledge, according to the complaint filed Tuesday in the US District Court for the Northern…
Category: Business
Reddit and Film Companies Clash in Appeals Court Over Sharing Users’ IP Addresses
Ernesto Van der Sar explains: Reddit has gone head-to-head with a group of filmmakers over the past two years, aiming to protect the privacy of its users. In three separate cases, the filmmakers subpoenaed Reddit for details of users who commented on various piracy related topics. The movie companies said they are not planning to…
Mad at Meta? Don’t Let Them Collect and Monetize Your Personal Data
Lena Cohen writes: If you’re fed up with Meta right now, you’re not alone. Google searches for deleting Facebook and Instagram spiked last week after Meta announced its latest policy changes. These changes, seemingly designed to appease the incoming Trump administration, included loosening Meta’s hate speech policy to allow for the targeting of LGBTQ+ people and immigrants. If these changes—or Meta’s long history of anti-competitive, censorial, and invasive practices—make you…
FTC Surveillance Pricing Study Uncovers Personal Data Used to Set Individualized Consumer Prices
Richard B. Newman of Hinch Newman LLP writes: The Federal Trade Commission’s initial findings from its surveillance pricing market study revealed that details like a person’s precise location or browser history can be frequently used to target individual consumers with different prices for the same goods and services. The staff perspective is based on an examination of…