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USA: Analysis: How the world's biggest tech companies could wriggle out of privacy rules

06 September 2016

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"Companies such as Google and Facebook thrive on your personal data — the bits of information that tell advertisers how old you are, what brands you like and how long you lingered on that must-see cat video. Historically, how these companies use this data has been subject to oversight by the Federal Trade Commission, the government's top privacy watchdog.

But a big court defeat for the FTC this week is putting the agency's power to protect your online privacy in jeopardy, analysts say. The ruling could wind up giving Google and Facebook, not to mention other companies in the internet ecosystem, the ability to escape all privacy oversight from the FTC, and possibly from the rest of government, too, critics claim, unless Congress intervenes."

See the articles: Analysis: How the world's biggest tech companies could wriggle out of privacy rules (Chicago Tribune, link)

And: Amazon, Google, Apple… Fox News join Microsoft in US gagging orders fight - Eclectic bunch supports MS battle against US government's secret requests for user data. (arstechnica.co.uk, link)

"Microsoft's quest to put a stop to the US government's habit of demanding access to customers' digital records in court-ordered secrecy has won dozens of allies in the tech world.

The likes of Apple, Google, and Mozilla—among many others—have put their names to an amicus brief in support of a lawsuit Microsoft filed against the federal government over its controversial and continued use of gagging orders."

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