Weekly Privacy News Update – Episode 29

EPDB and EDPS push for data protections in Data Act

In their new shared opinions and recommendation for the proposed EU Data Act, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) and  European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) cite the need to “ensure that data subjects’ rights are duly protected.” They urged the legislators to introduce “clear limitations” when it comes to the use of personal data and raised some concerns over the government’s access to data.

Source: IAPP, EDPS

Mental health apps lack privacy notices

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been considerable growth in mental health apps. Users face uncertainty about their health data privacy as not all of the apps have privacy policies and some of the apps aren’t subject to health privacy rules.

Source: IAPP, Axios

UK Parliament invites Elon Musk to discuss Twitter

With the future of Twitter on the table, the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee of the UK Parliament has invited Elon Musk for a discussion. With his $44 billion purchase of the app, MP Julian Knight says they are interested to learn “how Mr. Musk will balance his clear commitment to free speech with new obligations to protect Twitter’s users from online harms.” Previously Musk commented on privacy-related changes to the app, such as a real-name policy for authenticating users.

Source: IAPP, CNBC

$4.5 million seed funding for data generation platform

Kahoona, a data generation platform, has closed $4.5 million in seed funding. Kahoona created the “privacy-oriented” personalized platform to help protect users’ privacy while still allowing businesses to collect valuable user data. Financing for the company was led by Global Founders Capital, and investors include Amazon, NBC Universal, and Verizon.

Source: IAPP, The Jerusalem Post

More about the author

Written by Masha Komnenic CIPP/E, CIPM, CIPT, FIP

Masha is an Information Security and Data Privacy Specialist and a Certified Data Protection Officer. She has been a Data Protection Officer for the past six years, helping small and medium-sized enterprises achieve legal compliance. She has also been a privacy compliance mentor to many international business accelerators. She specializes in implementing, monitoring, and auditing business compliance with privacy regulations (HIPAA, PIPEDA, ePrivacy Directive, GDPR, CCPA, POPIA, LGPD). Masha studied Law at Belgrade University, and she passed the Bar examination in 2016. More about the author