PRIVACY + SECURITY BLOG

News, Developments, and Insights

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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 […]

Cartoon: Multi-Jurisdictional Privacy Law Compliance

Cartoon Multi-Jurisdictional Privacy Law Compliance Poodle - TeachPrivacy CCPA Training 02 small

This cartoon depicts the challenges of multi-jurisdictional privacy law compliance. In 2018, organizations scrambled to comply with the GDPR.  In 2019, businesses are scrambling to comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).  And, there will be a new referendum on privacy law in California next year — CCPA 2.0.  There’s a flurry of legislative […]

Cartoon: Cookies and the GDPR

Cartoon Cookies and the GDPR

This cartoon depicts how, after the GDPR, countless websites have cookie notices and require agreeing to accept cookies.  I find these cookie notices to be form over substance.  These notices are virtually meaningless and don’t help consumers. They are a nuisance.  They give privacy a bad name because people start to think that privacy is […]

Cartoon on Data Breach

Cartoon Data Security Breach 02 small

This cartoon is about evolution of data breaches, which began to grab headlines back in 2005, thanks in large part to California’s data breach notification law — the first of such laws.  Since that time, every state has passed breach notification laws, and there are breach notification laws sprouting up around the world.  Every day, […]

Cartoon: Data Subject Access Requests Under the CCPA and GDPR

Cartoon Data Subject Access Requests (DSARs) - TeachPrivacy CCPA Training 02

This cartoon is about data subject access requests (DSARs) — sometimes called “subject access requests” (SARs).  The GDPR Article 15 provides for DSARs.  The new California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) provides individuals with a right to learn about the personal data collected and shared about them over the past 12 months. For more background about […]

Cartoon: Data Minimization

Cartoon Data Minimization - TeachPrivacy Privacy Awareness Training 02 small

This privacy cartoon is about data minimization, a principle embodied in many privacy laws.  Under the data minimization principle, organizations are to collect, process, or share only the minimum necessary personal data to achieve their purpose.  There’s a lot of hat tipping to data minimization, but this principle is often not followed enough.  Far too […]