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VOICE ARCHIVE

Justin Brookman

@justinbrookman
35 posts
2025-03-19
“Any Commissioner may be removed by the President for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.” 15 U.S.C. § 41. The President can't remove a Commissioner just because they don't like them! Humphrey's Executor, 295 U.S. 602 (1935).
2025-03-19 View on X
New York Times

President Trump fires the FTC's two Democratic members, threatening the regulatory body's independence in a decision that is likely to face a legal challenge

The decision to fire the two members of the traditionally independent regulatory body is likely to face a legal challenge.

2025-01-14
First ever lawsuit under a state comprehensive privacy law: Texas sues Allstate for collecting sensitive data (inc geolocation) from third-party apps without permission.  —  This is a big deal as companies have widely skirted consent reqs for sensitive data! www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/ release...
2025-01-14 View on X
New York Times

Texas sues Allstate and its subsidiary Arity, accusing the insurer of illegally collecting and selling data about people's driving behavior through mobile apps

The lawsuit accuses Arity, an Allstate subsidiary, of collecting data about people's driving behavior through mobile phone apps …

2024-08-03
It's wild that a company under intense media scrutiny and *already under FTC order* seemingly doesn't have enough incentive to take basic steps to comply with COPPA. Good to see the FTC bringing down the hammer on repeat offenders.
2024-08-03 View on X
New York Times

The US DOJ sues TikTok, saying it collected children's data without parents' permission, knowingly let users under the age of 13 create accounts, and more

The Justice Department said that TikTok illegally collected children's data and knowingly allowed users under the age of 13 to create accounts.

2022-11-15
It will be interesting to see how this plays out in practice. Forcing consumers to navigate confusing privacy settings (Google's are incredibly complex) is rarely effective. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
2022-11-15 View on X
New York Times

Google agrees to a record $391.5M privacy settlement with 40 state AGs over charges the company misled users into thinking they had disabled location tracking

Cecilia Kang / New York Times :

2022-08-30
The FTC has sued data broker Kochava for selling access to raw consumer location data derived from partners' smartphone apps. They allege this is unfair under § 5 because location data is sensitive and reveals intensely personal aspects of our lives. (1/6) https://www.ftc.gov/...
2022-08-30 View on X
The Verge

FTC sues app analytics and data broker Kochava for selling data revealing visits to reproductive health clinics, places of worship, homeless shelters, and more

2022-08-27
CA AG Rob Bonta announces $1.2 million settlement with Sephora for CCPA violations — failure to disclose it was selling consumer data and failure to adhere to GPC opt-out signals. https://oag.ca.gov/...
2022-08-27 View on X
NBC News

California's AG says Sephora agreed to pay $1.2M for failing to tell customers that it was selling their data, marking the start of CCPA privacy law enforcement

failure to disclose it was selling consumer data and failure to adhere to GPC opt-out signals. https://oag.ca.gov/... Wafa Ben-Hassine / @ousfourita : This is the first #CCPA enfor...

2022-08-26
CA AG Rob Bonta announces $1.2 million settlement with Sephora for CCPA violations — failure to disclose it was selling consumer data and failure to adhere to GPC opt-out signals. https://oag.ca.gov/...
2022-08-26 View on X
NBC News

California's AG says Sephora will pay $1.2M after failing to tell customers that it was selling their data, marking the start of CCPA privacy law enforcement

SAN FRANCISCO — California has its first significant settlement under the state's sweeping online privacy law, and it's not with a tech company.

2022-05-20
Today, the FTC adopted (5-0) a policy statement saying it will enforce COPPA against ed tech companies that condition access to their services on parents agreeing to unrelated data collection. A quick thread on non-retaliation and why it's important. https://www.ftc.gov/... https://twitter.com/...
2022-05-20 View on X
CyberScoop

FTC warns edtech companies to not use children's data for ads and other commercial purposes without parental consent, saying it will “vigilantly enforce” COPPA

The Federal Trade Commission voted 5- on Thursday to issue a policy statement warning education tech companies …

2021-08-06
This is fantastic — the FTC calls bullshit on Facebook for using its Consent Order as an excuse for shutting down Ad Observatory. https://www.ftc.gov/...
2021-08-06 View on X
Washington Post

In a letter to Zuckerberg, the FTC called Facebook's initial claim it cut off NYU researchers' access to comply with an FTC privacy agreement “inaccurate”

The Federal Trade Commission has dismissed as “inaccurate” Facebook's claim that it cut off a group of researchers' access …

2021-06-25
You can accommodate both privacy and competition concerns by getting rid of third-party cookies and then replacing them with nothing. https://www.theverge.com/...
2021-06-25 View on X
CNET

Google delays plans to block third-party cookies from early 2022 to late 2023, says it wants to find ways to protect privacy without hurting ad-dependent sites

With Lots of Entry Points Lane Ellis / B2B Marketing Blog : B2B Marketing News: Brand Social Media Expectations Study, Google Postpones Cookie Changes, & B2B Buyer Behavior Report ...

2021-05-26
This is an important case — it charges Amazon with throwing its weight around to intimidate sellers from setting lower prices on platforms other than Amazon. That unfairly advantages Amazon and limits consumers' ability to seek better deals elsewhere. https://twitter.com/...
2021-05-26 View on X
CNBC

DC attorney general sues Amazon on antitrust grounds, claiming the company's practices have unfairly raised prices for consumers and suppressed innovation

starting around 11 min in — from our Land of the Giants podcast about Amazon in 2019. In it, Amazon seller @Molson_Hart lays out the “price-parity” issue 2 years ahead of time: htt...

2021-04-23
Unsurprising but disappointing. But this is something Congress can fix! Surely we can all agree that companies that profit from ripping consumers off shouldn't be allowed to keep that money. https://twitter.com/...
2021-04-23 View on X
Bloomberg

SCOTUS slashes FTC's power to seek monetary awards in court, banning a tool that it used to fine tech and other companies engaged in unfair business practices

& I'm going to fight vigorously against it. Rebecca Kelly Slaughter / @rkslaughterftc : Thank you for your leadership and the time you have dedicated to this incredibly important i...

2021-04-07
Did y'all remember to report this to the FTC as required by your latest settlement agreement with them? https://www.ftc.gov/... https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
2021-04-07 View on X
Wired

Facebook says the leaked 533M records are a different data set that attackers created by abusing a flaw in a Facebook contacts import feature, not by hacking

The company's explanations have been confusing and inconsistent, but there are finally some answers.

2021-03-29
So get up, get, get, get down DAA is a joke in yo town https://themarkup.org/...
2021-03-29 View on X
The Markup

How Digital Advertising Alliance's AdChoices tool, which launched in 2010 to let users opt out of personalized ads, is undermined by its cookie-based approach

Aaron Sankin / The Markup : Tweets: @dangillmor , @themarkup , @paulnemitz , @juliaangwin , @justinbrookman , and @snowjake Tweets: Dan Gillmor / @dangillmor : The ad-tech busines...

2020-12-20
Apple's iOS14 changes are literally transparency and control! Facebook is concerned that they're *too much* transparency and control, and that they're actually effective instead of FB's own performative and unusable privacy settings. https://twitter.com/...
2020-12-20 View on X
New York Times

The only explanation for its ad campaign against Apple is that Facebook has decided shamelessness works, after years of cozying up to the Trump administration

For most of the past week and a half, this image has been stuck in my head: John Gruber / Daring Fireball : Facebook Wades Into Epic's Dispute With Apple Filipe Espósito / 9to5Mac ...

2020-12-19
Apple's iOS14 changes are literally transparency and control! Facebook is concerned that they're *too much* transparency and control, and that they're actually effective instead of FB's own performative and unusable privacy settings. https://twitter.com/...
2020-12-19 View on X
New York Times

The only explanation for its ad campaign against Apple is that Facebook has decided shamelessness works, after years of cozying up to the Trump administration

The company declared in newspaper ads that it was “standing up to Apple.”  It's a desperate ploy that's unlikely to work.

2020-09-22
If Walmart, Oracle, and TikTok cannot agree on even the most rudimentary aspects of the deal, can we really call it a deal? https://www.ft.com/...
2020-09-22 View on X
New York Times

Trump says he would not approve a TikTok deal unless ByteDance ceded its control, after ByteDance said it would retain an 80% stake

President Trump on Monday said that he would not approve a deal for TikTok if its Chinese owner did not fully sell its interest in the product …

If you're wondering why there's a new privacy ballot initiative in California, and why advocates — and the 2018 initiative's sponsors — are at odds over it, this is a solid primer from @GiladEdelman: https://www.wired.com/...
2020-09-22 View on X
Wired

Proposition 24, which was designed to make the California Consumer Privacy Act stronger, has divided privacy advocates who previously fought on the same side

Prop. 24 is designed to make the California Consumer Privacy Act stronger.  Why do so many privacy advocates oppose it? Tweets: @justinbrookman , @nxthompson , @jason_kint , and @w...

If Walmart, Oracle, and TikTok cannot agree on even the most rudimentary aspects of the deal, can we really call it a deal? https://www.ft.com/...
2020-09-22 View on X
Financial Times

ByteDance asserts it will maintain majority ownership and control over TikTok Global and will not transfer source code or technology to Oracle and Walmart

Financial Times :

2020-09-15
Facebook's algorithms reward artificial engagement while the company severely underfunds programs to police for it. “We simply didn't care enough to stop them.” https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ...
2020-09-15 View on X
BuzzFeed News

Internal memo from a fired Facebook data scientist says large amounts of inauthentic bot activity has boosted many countries' leaders, with Facebook slow to act

Facebook ignored or was slow to act on evidence that fake accounts on its platform have been undermining elections …