Europe’s GDPR Law Lacks Funding, Enforcement
Nearly two years ago, the EU enacted the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which was the world’s strictest online privacy regulation. Since its enactment, Google has been the only company fined under the law, making many question its effectiveness. CEO ... Read More
Texas AG Continues Antitrust Investigation into Google
Since September 2019, Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, has led a group of attorneys general across the country in an investigation into Google for potential antitrust violations. Specifically, the attorneys general are scrutinizing Google’s level of control and anticompetitive behavior ... Read More
News Media Alliance Joins Others to Recommend Strong Copyright Protections in the U.S.-UK Trade Agreement
On April 28, the News Media Alliance joined a group of creative-industry organizations to publish comments on the proposed trade agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom. The comments outline the importance of the copyright-intensive industries to the ... Read More
District Court Approves $5 Billion Settlement for Facebook’s Privacy Violations
On April 23, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia upheld the settlement reached last July for sanctions brought by the FTC against Facebook for privacy violations that have spanned nearly eight years. Judge Timothy Kelly upheld the largest penalty ... Read More
Google Joins W3C’s Privacy Community Group
On April 23, 2020, several Google and Facebook representatives participated in an every-other-week video conference hosted by the Privacy Community Group (PCG) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). This marks Google’s first appearance at a PCG conference as a ... Read More
Australia to Draft Regulations for How Platforms Use News Media Content
On April 20, 2020, the Australian government directed the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to develop a mandatory code governing the commercial relationship between digital platforms and media outlets. This code will address the sharing of data, ranking and display ... Read More
Keyword Ad Blocking Hurts News Industry
Traffic to news sites has spiked in recent weeks due to the COVID pandemic; however, news publishers have not seen a financial benefit. Overzealous blacklisting – based on unjustified fears that news stories don’t meet brand safety guidelines – has ... Read More
Google Contract with Brand Safety Companies Allegedly Limits Ability to Share Negative Information
On April 19, the Wall Street Journal reported that OpenSlate, a brand safety company, refused to sign a contract with Google after being an approved partner since 2017. The contract would allegedly limit OpenSlate’s ability to report to clients when their ads play ... Read More
