A 2020 lawsuit put forth by Google account holders resulted
in filing of a proposed class action settlement on Monday in a California
federal court. The lawsuit accused Google of illegal tracking of users’
activity in Incognito mode. In the filed settlement, Google has therefore declared
that it will destroy all the billions of records of web browsing data of its
users collected from its private browser.
In addition to this, the proposed settlement requires Google to provide greater transparency regarding its data collection processes in Incognito mode and how the company will be putting limits on these processes in the future. Google will also need to de-identify any data that is not entirely deleted. Lastly, Google has also agreed to let users block third-party cookies by default in Incognito mode, so as to prevent tracking on outside websites as they browse privately.
Google is bringing a major change to Maps – users’ location
history will now be stored locally on their devices instead of in the cloud. This
is to prevent personal data from being accessible to law enforcement.
Law enforcement can collect data from tech companies on
mobile phones that have passed through a certain area during a specific time,
as a result of ‘geoface warrants.’ This makes anyone present at an alleged
crime scene a potential suspect and puts all such people’s privacy at risk,
hence the controversy around these warrants.
The update in Maps is specifically being applied within the Timeline feature, that keeps track of users’ location history and this information is stored in the Cloud. After the change, the data will instead be stored in users’ devices. Both Android and iOS users of Google Maps will receive a notification informing them about the update as it gradually rolls out.
The popular programming language Python will now be
accessible in Excel. Available directly in the Excel ribbon, Python can be used
to conduct advanced data analysis, including manipulating and exploring data. The
insights can be further refined using Excel’s own formulas, charts and
PivotTables.
Python will be available in Excel as part of the software’s
built-in connectors and Power Query, which means that users won’t need to
separately download a software or set up an add-on to access it. Popular Python
libraries like pandas, statsmodels, and Matplotlib will also be accessible in
Excel.
Additionally, users will be able to view their Python data within the grid of their Excel spreadsheet, as a result of a new PY function. All Python calculations will take place in the Microsoft Cloud and the results will return to the Excel spreadsheets.
Google has introduced new privacy-focused APIs that will go
into effect on 24th of July. The news comes after the public release
of Chrome 115. As a result of new APIs being applied, third-party cookies
will be ultimately eliminated from Chrome by the third quarter of 2024.
More specifically, the change will come as Google’s ‘Privacy
Sandbox toolkit’ for Chrome will be gradually activated for developers, hence replacing
third-party cookies with API alternatives that grant better security.
Google plans to do an early test of the Privacy Sandbox tools with advertisers later this year, as well as disable third-party cookies for 1% of Chrome users in the first quarter of next year.
In alignment with the changes in EU privacy laws and broader
industry shifts, TikTok is updating its data usage policies. These updates
mainly revolve around data that TikTok collects from younger users on its
platform.
More specifically, TikTok has developed these policy updates
in line with the new EU Digital Services Act (DSA) that states new laws around the
use of data to target young users. The DSA is going to be implemented in the
coming months. “Starting today, we're restricting the types of data that can be
used to show ads to teens by region,” says TikTok.
TikTok’s revised ad policy includes the following:
Considering that two-thirds of teens in the US are users of TikTok, the changes in TikTok’s data usage policies will have a considerable impact on how advertisers run their campaigns on the platform to target the population.
To help users understand the purpose and usage of all the
security and safety tools in the app in one place and enhance their in-app
experience, WhatsApp has created a new Security Hub mini site. The hub provides
an overview of WhatsApp’s default safety and security features, as well as
control options that significantly contribute to users’ account and data
security.
Some of WhatsApp’s integral security features include
default privacy, automatic spam detection, and proactive security alerts.
The mini site educates users on how to avoid scamming, spamming, and malicious acts like data theft that commonly occur across the platform. “Malicious actors and hostile states routinely challenge the security of our critical infrastructure,” says the company.
Air pollution is considered to be extreme environmental health hazard to humankind, becoming a reason for over six million deaths a year and an economic cost that is equal to over $8 trillion dollars. This analysis is according to the World Air Quality Report 2022 released on Tuesday by IQAir, a Swiss air quality technology company. The analysis revealed that out of a surveyed 131 countries, regions and territories, only 13 resulted in meeting World Health Organization air guidelines of annual PM2.5 concentrations at or below 5 μg/m3 in 2022, many of which were in Oceania.
Mental health platform Cerebral claims to have accidentally
shared its user data with third-party advertisers including big companies like
Meta, Google, TikTok and others. The leaked data contains significant details
of Cerebral’s users, including their names, phone numbers, insurance
information, email addresses, IP addresses, birth dates, appointment dates,
treatment information, and more.
Cerebral further revealed that the accident could have possibly resulted from the tracking tools that it has been using, and more specifically the bits of code embedded in its app from the third party advertisers. These have allowed Cerebral to measure how its users engage with ads on its platform, while giving advertising platforms access to user information.
TikTok has partnered with Dentsu Digital, the Japanese international advertising agency, to provide a privacy-friendly alternative to cookie tracking. Through the new tracking process called ‘Digital X,’ advertisers on TikTok will be able to track user data via TikTok’s server-to-server interface Events API integrated into Dentsu Digital’s X-Stack.
More specifically, the X-Stack Connect platform works by enabling advertisers to measure users’ online behaviours on websites using server access logs with user consent. This includes actions like website visits, logins, and form entry information.
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