PRIVACY + SECURITY BLOG

News, Developments, and Insights

high-tech technology background with eyes on computer display

Cartoon: De-Identifying PHI under HIPAA

Cartoon HIPAA De-Identification - TeachPrivacy HIPAA Training 02 small

  This cartoon is about de-identifying PHI under HIPAA.  De-identifying personal data is quite complicated. Researchers have been able to re-identify sets of personal data with just names, birth dates, and gender. The reason why de-identifying data is difficult is that there is more and more identified personal data online that can be matched up […]

Cartoon: The Privacy Paradox

Cartoon Privacy Paradox - TeachPrivacy Privacy Training 02 small

This cartoon is about the “privacy paradox” — the phenomenon where people say that they value privacy highly, yet in their behavior relinquish their personal data for very little in exchange or fail to use measures to protect their privacy. I recently wrote an article about the privacy paradox: The Myth of the Privacy Paradox, […]

Cartoon: GDPR Lawful Basis

Cartoon GDPR Lawful Basis - TeachPrivacy GDPR Training

This cartoon is about the GDPR’s lawful basis requirement to process personal data. One of the biggest differences between U.S. and EU privacy law is that in the U.S., organizations can collect and use personal data in nearly any way they choose as long as they state what they are doing in their privacy notice […]

Cartoon: Facial Recognition

Cartoon Facial Recognition -- TeachPrivacy Privacy Training 02 small

Facial recognition technology involves using algorithms to identify people based on their faces. Distinctive details about people’s faces are compiled into “face templates,” which are then stored in a database and used to find facial matches, Facial recognition is quickly being deployed by many companies for various purposes, such as authenticating identity (unlocking smart phones) […]

Cartoon: The Travails of CCPA Compliance

Cartoon CCPA Sisyphus 04

This cartoon depicts the travails of complying with the CCPA as it rapidly evolves.  The CCPA originated when a referendum regarding consumer privacy rights was scheduled to be on the ballot in November 2018.  Alastair Mactaggart, the referendum’s sponsor, offered to withdraw it if California passed a law.  So, in the summer of 2018, the […]

Cartoon: Social Media

Cartoon Social Media - TeachPrivacy Privacy Training 02 small

It is hard to imagine a world without social media. People are increasingly relying on social media to maintain friendships, share photos and happenings with family, and keep current with the news.  But there’s a dark side – more superficial relationships, cyberbullying, harassment, hate speech, and manipulation. Social media has become a cesspool of lies […]

Cartoon: Data Use and Transparency

Cartoon Data Use and Transparency - TeachPrivacy Privacy Training 02 small

Wouldn’t it be nice if companies were completely transparent in their privacy notices?  Typically, privacy notices are filled with long clunky prose that manages to say hardly anything meaningful to consumers.  These notices are written by lawyers who carefully craft every sentence so that they won’t pin down a company.  The drafters of privacy notices […]

Cartoon: Algorithmic Transparency

Cartoon Algorithmic Transparency - TeachPrivacy Privacy Training 02

This cartoon is about algorithmic transparency. Today, more and more decisions are being made by algorithms.  The logic and functioning of these algorithms is increasingly complex and opaque to people. Today, the new buzzwords are “artificial intelligence” and “machine learning.”  AI and machine learning represent a number of different but related things, but what they […]