Privacy professionals

The FBI has called it a national security threat.The US government has passed a law forcing officials to delete it from their phones.Texas senator Ted Cruz has denounced it as a Trojan horse the Chinese Communist party can use to influence what Americans see, hear, and ultimately think.And in March its CEO will defend its existence before the US Congress.

Over the past several years, organizations have undergone a roller coaster of digital transformations.First, they accelerated the onboarding of cloud services and adopted bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies so that users could effectively work from anywhere.Now, in the name of security and productivity, many industry leaders are coaxing employees back into the office.

A data retention policy is the first step in helping protect an organization's data and avoid financial, civil, and criminal penalties that increasingly accompany poor data management practices.This article outlines what a data retention policy is and why it's important in your organization.As the amount of organizational data around the globe grows, it becomes increasingly important for companies to develop comprehensive data retention policies or strategic plans.

Microsoft wants everyone to know that it isn't looking to invade their privacy while looking through their Windows PCs to find out-of-date versions of Office software.In its KB5021751 update last month, Microsoft included a plan to scan Windows systems to smoke out those Office versions that are no longer supported or nearing the end of support.

Apple is being taken to court over allegations that it lies to consumers about privacy measures to gain an edge on competitors while actually harvesting massive amounts of data to grow advertising revenue.Despite representations in a campaign touting its privacy features, Apple continues to collect user data and "facilitates interception by third parties," according to a pair of prospective class actions filed against the company on Thursday.

Passwords are problematic.They are arguably the weakest link in security, a leading cause of breaches, and difficult to manage.Yet, on Change Your Password Day 2023, passwords remain ubiquitous.Instead of continuously changing passwords in an attempt to stay ahead of online threats, the best solution is no passwords at all.

In a first-of-its-kind enforcement, the Federal Trade Commission has imposed a $1.5 million penalty on telehealth and prescription drug discount provider GoodRx Holdings Inc. for sharing users' personal health data with Facebook, Google and other third parties without their consent.Under a settlement, California-based GoodRx also accepted that it will be prohibited going forward from sharing user health data with third parties for advertising purposes, the FTC said.

Millions of Americans have used GoodRx, a drug discount app, to search for lower prices on prescriptions like antidepressants, H.I.V. medications and treatments for sexually transmitted diseases at their local drugstores.But U.S. regulators say the app's coupons and convenience came at a high cost for users: wrongful disclosure of their intimate health information.

Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan is finding new ways to take on an old problem: digital privacy.Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images GoodRx has not been very good at your privacy.And now the Federal Trade Commission has written an expensive prescription: a hefty fine and an agreement to implement various privacy protections.

Data-Driven Thinking Today's column is written by Richard Eisert, partner and co-chair of the advertising + marketing and privacy + data security practice groups, and Zachary Klein, associate in the privacy + data security and advertising + marketing practice groups, both at Davis+Gilbert " is written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media.

Our smartphones contain a shocking amount of precious information.Years of family photos, endless private text conversations and personal details about who we are, where we work and what is important to us.Tech is not your friend.We are.Sign up for The Tech Friend newsletter.ArrowRight If all that information fell into the wrong hands, it could be disastrous, personally and financially.