A recent social media trend that has exploded in the past couple years is the use of “short-form videos.” Short-form videos are short in length—typically ranging from a few seconds to a few minutes—and feature a wide variety of topics
The risk of privacy breaches using large data sets of personal information is only increasing with advancements in data processing and artificial intelligence (AI). With any large-scale manipulation of personal data by organizations, there is potential for misuse
By Dan Daniele
Bill C-27, the Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2022 seeks to bring “safety and trust” to the forefront of Canada’s evolving digital sphere, according to the Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Francois-Philippe Champagne, who introduced this bill on June 16, 2022. Bill C-27 promises to update and strengthen Canadian privacy law, govern the responsible development and use of artificial intelligence (“AI”), and continue implementing the principles of Canada’s Digital Charter. As social media companies deal with large volumes of personal data and are increasingly relying on AI systems, these companies and their consumers will surely experience the impacts of this bill if it becomes law. In Europe, where privacy laws are stringent, social media companies have already faced significant fines for data misuse.
Self-isolation, stay-at-home orders, and lockdowns have changed the way we live during the COVID-19 pandemic. As many of us work remotely, limit face-to-face interactions, and stay indoors, we are reaching for our smartphones more and increasing our mobile app use. Mobile app usage increased by 40% year-over-year in the second quarter of 2020, hitting an all-time high of over 200 billion hours of app usage in April. The average user is spending 4 hours and 20 minutes per day on their smartphones, frequently on social media.
Apps for games, entertainment, photo and video sharing, business, health and fitness, shopping, digital payments, and medical based apps all saw app usage growth since the pandemic started. As our app usage increases, so does our information sharing. We share our game scores on one social media platform. We share photos and videos on another social media platform . We even share the distance we ran or biked, and how many calories we burned. But we don’t share things such as banking information, passwords, and our medical information, or do we? As we increase our app use we need to think about the risks to privacy.
Sharing information and reaching consumers is even easier today thanks to the prevalence of social media.
On November 17, 2020, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, Navdeep Bains, tabled proposed legislation in Parliament that aims to overhaul Canada’s data privacy law. Bill C-11, entitled An Act to enact the Consumer Privacy Protection Act and the Personal Information and Data Protection Tribunal Act and to make consequential and related amendments to other Act, will create new data privacy obligations and new enforcement mechanisms for these obligations if it becomes law.
As the second wave of COVID-19 spreads across Canada, the use of COVID-19 tracing apps is on the rise. For example, the Government of Canada released COVID Alert – an app using Bluetooth technology to help people report positive diagnoses, and control the spread of the virus. The success of the app depends on a high quantity of users, but concerns over privacy and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in analyzing the data may hinder that objective.
There seem to be a lot of questions lately about the use of photographs on social media, so a recent federal court case may be of interest in raising some risks you may not have contemplated. The case involves some photos that professional models had posted to their social media pages, which they alleged had been copied and altered by a nightclub to make it appear that they worked at or endorsed the nightclub. (Moreland v. Beso Lounge & Restaurant LLC, case no. 3:19-cv-00958 (VLB) (D. Conn. Sept. 4, 2020) (2020 WL 5302312).)
In September 2020, the California legislature sent a bill to the Governor’s desk which would bar a social media company from opening an account for anyone it “actually knows” is under the age of 13, absent parental consent. The bill, passed with bipartisan support within the legislature, aims to bring social media companies in line with existing federal and California law requiring parental consent before a minor’s personal information is obtained online or sold. (The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) prohibits companies from selling a minor’s personal information without obtaining the authorization of the consumer’s parent or guardian if the business has actual knowledge the consumer is less than 16 years old.)
Social media users may have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their internet browsing data, according to a recent decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Court.
Users of a social media platform brought a class action against its owner, alleging that the company tracked users’ browsing histories when they visited third-party websites, and then compiled those browsing histories into personal profiles which were sold to advertisers to generate revenue. The company did not dispute that it engaged in these tracking practices even after its users had logged out of the site. Plaintiffs complaint alleged, among other claims, violation of the California Invasion of Privacy Act (“CIPA”), and common law invasion of privacy.