Born in County Tyrone, Mary McKenna, MBE, has always been drawn to the North West of Ireland. Shortly after being born her family emigrated to Yorkshire where she was brought up. Many “happy school holidays” were spent with their grandmother in Inishowen and a strong connection to Donegal was built. Mary tells us about her career, AwakenHub and the potential being realised by the enterprise within the North West.

Now residing in the fishing village of Greencastle, Mary calls the North West her base; “After years of city life in London, it really does feel like heaven.”

Starting her professional career as a corporate accountant, Mary left her role to start Derry-based Learning Pool, with her business partner back in 2006. The Learning Pool platform brings online learning to organisations in a collaborative way, with 5.1 million active learners worldwide.

“The North West is a great place to start and grow your business”, comments Mary. “The talent coming from our universities (ATU Donegal & Ulster University, Magee) on both sides of the border, the proximity to the EU and UK market, the start-up supports available from both governments, the excellent real estate and the high quality of life that we all enjoy, are the region’s key selling points and why I loved scaling my business from here.”

Setting up a tech business in the North West is actually very easy according to Mary. “The FDIs are still present but they’re less dominant today. Now, the local tech scene is younger, more female, less formal, more global, well-educated, informed and definitely ambitious. A lot of newer founders have lived away from Ireland for a while but are electing to return home, settle down and build a business here.”

Since selling her Learning Pool stake in 2014, Mary has focused her career as an angel investor and innovation expert.

In 2020, Mary co-founded AwakenHub, along with 4 other women, Clare McGee, Mary Carty, Sinead Crowley and Denise McQuaid. AwakenHub is a community for Irish female founders and it provides a learning and mentoring environment for women who are starting businesses that they intend to scale from day 1.

The motivation to create the social enterprise came from the goal of “making strong and successful female role models much more visible to younger females.”

Mary explains “Since we started almost 2 years ago 2,000 women have engaged with us and attended our online monthly events. We’re currently running Ireland’s only cross-border accelerator, SheGenerate, for a cohort of 56 women. We’re also about to launch our AwakenAngels investment community for angel investors interested in backing Irish female founders.” These programmes help the All-Ireland network to nurture and develop female founders to help accelerate their business to the next level.

The group has recently appointed Mary Ann Pierce as their new Global Diaspora Ambassador, helping to strengthen ties between the social enterprise and diaspora, as well as attracting inward investment into the female founders.

Scanning through Mary’s LinkedIn, one can see she juggles her work at AwakenHub with many other roles. In 2018, she became an Expert Advisor to the EU Commission on MedTech, EdTech, Pharma, ICT and Advanced Computing. She also enjoys her role as a mentor with the University of Oxford, entrepreneur in residence with Catalyst and non-executive directorship with the Millennium Forum and Mind of My Own, to mention a few!

“Only about half of what I do is listed on LinkedIn. I love everything that I’m involved in these days and that makes it less like work and more like fun. Keeping a lot of plates spinning is certainly a challenge but I’m a people person and I love the variety that my wide range of business interests brings me.”

Joking at her busy lifestyle, Mary says “years ago when people asked me where my office was, I used to point at my handbag and that hasn’t changed!” Her hectic lifestyle and wealth of experience make her the perfect ambassador for entrepr...

NFTs (non-fungible tokens) inaugurate the next stage in asset ownership characterised by transparency and decentralisation. Furthermore, NFTs have grown extremely popular in the last couple of years, and tokens are selling for astronomical amounts.

Moreover, two defining attributes of traditional NFTs are their uniqueness and the inability to replicate/forge these digital assets.

However, the one-of-a-kind exclusivity of these tokens somewhat limits an NFT holder’s possibilities. This has led to innovation within the NFT space and resulted in two exciting concepts: dynamic NFTs and A-NFTs.

All QUASA dApps are cross-chain by default. Building on QUASA NFT ensures that your NFT is future-proof.

Even if new blockchains are invented, your QUASA NFT decentralised application will instantly certify NFT from any chain and make it active.

In this article, we’ll direct our attention to the latter and answer the question, “what are active NFTs?”.

The simplest explanation for active NFTs is that they are non-fungible tokens with their entire life cycle added to them. However, if you’d like to learn more about A-NFTs, follow along as we’ll dive deeper into the intricacies of active NFTs.

What are Active NFTs?

With the increased attention towards NFTs, we have further seen token prices surge exponentially. On occasion, NFTs representing artwork have sold for millions and millions of dollars.

Moreover, avatars from famous collections such as Bored Ape Yacht Club are becoming relatively pricey. This increase in demand and price escalation makes it prohibitively expensive to purchase NFTs.

High price tags, among other things, are due to high transaction costs for commissions in networks and create significant barriers to the market, as not everyone can afford to acquire NFTs.

One way to address this issue is through a certification process where active NFTs enter the scene.

So, what are Active NFTs?

Active NFTs are non-fungible tokens certified on the blockchain, which contain all events, information, changes and additions, that is, the NFT life cycle. However, what exactly does this mean?

This essentially means taking an NFT and certifying the entire life cycle of a non-fungible token on the blockchain.

The certification process is done using smart contracts. The contract records events, history, and information with the original NFT and issues a certificate for signers to certify.

It is later possible to trade the fungible tokens representing the full lifecycle of an active NFT on an exchange or market.

To summarize, this basically suggests that an active NFT is a token that has additional information added and a certificate issued by the community or the author that allows the NFT to be associated with a physical asset allowing multiple different people to claim ownership of parts of the same NFT. In addition, all issued certificates can be verified by experts or the community even after they have been created.

Now that we’ve answered the question “what are active NFTs?”, let’s take a look at how the certification process work.

How Do Active NFTs Work?

In its bare-bone state, an NFT is a token that implements a particular standard. Two examples are Ethereum’s ERC-721 and BNB Chain’s BEP-721 standards, and both are used to regulate NFTs on the various networks.

Before the certification process, NFT tokens must be imported from a marketplace such as OpenSea, Rarible.

The QUASA NFT application today allows you to import NFT tokens made on the Ethereum or Solana blockchains from five marketplaces.

Once the original NFT is imported from the marketplace, the smart contract links the original NFT to a certificate of compliance on the blockchain.

Smart contracts are programs on a blockchain that can automatically execute functions when someone fulfils the predetermined conditions.

Each QUASA NFT smart contract is unique:

contains metadata and hashes of issued certificates and events;

tied to NFT and can be read from marketplaces or metaverses...

In this review we look at the Ugreen HiTune T3, earbuds. You can see more about this product on this link here and also on the Ugreen website here.

Ugreen HiTune T3, earbuds, reviewed

First up you can pay a lot or a little for earbuds these days. The price range is quite impressive too. Naturally at the higher end you expect good sound quality and battery life time, while, lower down the scale you are willing to tolerate lower performance levels.

At either end of the scale they need to fit well, sound good, but they remain the same size, and, in theory equally as losable. Therefore, depending on your own use case for earbuds in general, you might not want to pay a lot for a pair if you think that you are a high wear and tear kind of person.

Especially if you are prone to lose things easily. Now maybe not everyone thinks about this, or has this level of self awareness, but it does seem like something worth considering in a crowded and varied price points market like this one.

The price point on this product is good, and the ear-fit is good too, the sound is also respectable too. The battery life is also decent too. As always we don’t know exactly how long they will last, simply because we have not had them for any decent length of time, but, on all the other usual criteria these are not a bad product at all.

More about the product

Active Noise Cancellation: With advanced active noise cancelling technology, UGREEN HiTune T3 wireless earbuds can dynamically block out unwanted external noise up to 25dB. Allow you to enjoy your music while in the gym or during your commute. Less distraction allows you to focus more.

Punchy Bass and Superior Sound: Feature an oversized 10mm PU+biological composite driver unit, UGREEN HiTune T3 wireless earbuds offer punchy and premium bass with high-resolution treble and greater soundstage. Feel like you are listening to a live concert.

Easy to Use and One-Step Paring: Built-in advanced Bluetooth 5.2 chip provides stable connection, fast transmission, and wide range to bring you true wireless enjoyment and experience. UGREEN T3 wireless earbuds extend the battery life up to 7 hours with a single charge and 24 hours of playtime with the charging case.

Comfortable and Secure Fit: The wireless headphones offer more wearing stability and comfort with 4 pairs of soft silicone ear tips, suitable for both small and large ear canals. With an IPX5 rating, UGREEN HiTune T3 noise cancelling earbuds are perfect for daily light exercise.

Crystal Clear Calls: AI algorithm extracts your voice for 90% less noise for superior vocal enhancement and background-noise suppression. Creates a more stable and clearer calling environment, and ensures you’re heard clearly on the other end. Ideal for calls, face time, and online meetings.

See more reviews here

Ireland’s biggest gaming and esports festival, GamerFest, has announced its long-awaited return, with 5,000 visitors expected at the RDS, Dublin this October 22nd & 23rd.

Originally established in 2017, GamerFest is a diverse and inclusive celebration of all things gaming and esports that has been developed with a community-first approach, welcoming visitors from across Ireland, the UK and Europe.

Central to the event has been the GamerFest Live Stage which sees a huge variety of gaming content across the weekend including esports tournaments, special guest appearances and gaming challenges.

Visitors to the event can also expect a wide array of gaming entertainment including the latest titles, VR gaming and technology, an expo hall and a marketplace to grab the latest gaming equipment and gear. Esports tournaments will continue to be a huge part of GamerFest with a full list of tournaments, schedules and prize pools to be announced over the summer.

The festival is also planning to showcase the best in Irish gaming content creator talent with the launch of a new Creator Zone where visitors will get the chance to meet their favourite Twitch and YouTube creators at the event. Further announcements regarding special guests will be made by the organisers over the coming weeks.

Speaking at the announcement of the event, GamerFest CEO Stuart Dempsey was excited to see the return to live events for the Irish gaming community. “It’s obviously been a really tough couple of years for everyone involved with live events and we certainly haven’t been immune. But to see the excitement and anticipation amongst our community for the return of GamerFest is just incredible. We can’t wait to see everyone again at the RDS this October.”

GamerFest takes place at The RDS, Dublin this October 22nd and 23rd with tickets on sale now at GamerFest.ie.

More about Irish Tech News

Irish Tech News are Ireland’s No. 1 Online Tech Publication and often Ireland’s No.1 Tech Podcast too.

You can find hundreds of fantastic previous episodes and subscribe using whatever platform you like via our Anchor.fm page here:

If you’d like to be featured in an upcoming Podcast email us at [email protected] now to discuss.

Irish Tech News have a range of services available to help promote your business. Why not drop us a line at [email protected] now to find out more about how we can help you reach our audience.

You can also find and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat.

A review of the cross-technology event

This week there was a spring in the step of folks heading to ‘Dublin Tech Summit’ at the RDS centre on Dublin’s southside. It was a 2-day affair on the 15th and 16th of June, where face-to-face meetings, networking and tech talks were the order of the day.

Dublin Tech Summit 2022 Reviewed

The bustle of chatter, talks kicking off and a very full conference space led me to Detectify where Frederico talked about the external security service his company provides. Continuous automation of pre-pentest testing such as port scanning is a valuable service to provide independently of any internal security resources deployed.

My journey moved around the busy event hall to Zoom where Harry Mosley, CIO and Matthew Kenny, Systems Engineer, showcased the new smart features on their product. This included PABX integrations and internal optimizations for a better user experience. The range of booths, talks and opportunities to meet folks was impressive indeed.

I chatted with some entrepreneurs who requested secrecy around their products in the pre-launch stage noting the venture capital community was well represented at the summit making it an ideal networking opportunity for both parties concerned. The legal industry was also there in the form of Sarah Wilson and her colleagues from Cleaver Fulton Rankin located in Belfast city. Sarah and her legal colleagues are specialists in data compliance and governance in the tech space.

The second day started off in a less populist manner but did fill up to a respectable degree where one was wary of getting too close to people in certain parts of the summit. Talks by many companies including Mastercard Foundry (the new design/R&D divisional merger), were in full swing. I visited the Foundry booth and was brought through some projects by James Conway and Stephen Elder.

The use of Mastercard apps for making payments and opening up hotel doors based on existing products was an interesting product adaptation that Stephen was working on and immediately useful in my view. James was on the data side using IBM’s quantum machine to run advanced algorithms on fraud detection and mapping of fraudulent transactions across Mastercard-enabled networks identifying previously unknown cash points in the journey of the fraudulent transaction.

This investigative gap can now be swiftly resolved by quantum computing innovations such as this. I went into the Lenovo booth where Antonia brought me through the complimentary service and solutions innovation from Lenovo allowing Lenovo customers to gain value from this enhanced support solution.

My journey then led me to a talk on AI and ‘How humans can co-exist with AI’ as a panel discussion led by Laura Ellis. I was heartened by the great point made on how repeatable task elimination gives rise to new job opportunities for those willing to learn new things and take advantage of new opportunities.

The second day’s afternoon saw me attend talks such as ‘From Startup to Scale up’ where experiences were shared by Stephen Crowley of Flipdish and Eileen O’Meara of Stripe. Both leaders commented extensively on the COVID challenges of remote working. This included catchment areas to an office for recruitment, the requirements of leadership based on knowing your people and the prioritization around managing company culture through adverse times.

I also stopped off at the ThreatLocker’s booth where Eoin McGrath brought me through their scalable agent-based service that materially enhances your fleet’s security posture at the application level with their managed security solution. My final stop of the day was with Michal Sukiennik of Airnauts. I chatted with Michal for some time about development challenges in today’s web 2.0 world and his company’s outsourcing capabilities providing an integrated service that covers the product rather than just part of the project.

This is now seen as the new best practice approach to web development of digital...

Ian MacRae talks to Dr. Aaron Brace about how algorithms shape our online relationships and interactions, with a focus on the influence of algorithms in the world of online dating.

How do algorithms work on digital communication platforms?

What is their purpose, how do they filter social interactions and prioritize certain types over others?

What kind of messages tend to get through? How do algorithms encourage certain behaviours, emotions, presentation styles?

Are algorithms on dating apps essentially the same? Do they encourage different behaviours or have any effect at all?

Do we even know what the algorithms in dating apps are doing? None of them are open source. so do we really know what they’re doing, or if they’re any good?

How and why are online dating apps different from other ways of meeting people for romantic or sexual relationships? Can we really compare?

And what long-term effects do the algorithms in dating apps have on our relationships and our society. Do we even know.?

How do algorithms work on digital communication platforms? Aaron Brace

Dr. Aaron Brace is the Co-Founder of ad-tech start-up Tack Tech, the first platform of its kind to enable advertisers to automate AI-driven audience testing and deploy ads across multiple ad networks simultaneously. Prior to this he spent 3 years at Facebook in Dublin, and many more as a Data Scientist in the media industry. Aaron has a PhD in Psychology from the University of Sussex. Find him on Linkedin at:

Ian MacRae is an award-winning author, psychologist and psychometrician, He has written six books about workplace psychology including High Potential: How to Spot, Manage and Develop Talented People at Work, and his latest book is Dark Social: Understanding the darker side of work, personality and social media. His books have been translated into ten different languages.

@iansmacrae on Twitter.

Check out my discussion with @HarrisAEyre for the @Irish_TechNews podcast about brain health and how to improve brain health at every age! Really interesting discussion, and part of my mini-series on brains communication and digital behaviour!

Ian MacRae (@IanSMacRae) June 10, 2022

See more podcasts by Ian and the team here.

More about Irish Tech News

Irish Tech News are Ireland’s No. 1 Online Tech Publication and often Ireland’s No.1 Tech Podcast too.

You can find hundreds of fantastic previous episodes and subscribe using whatever platform you like via our Anchor.fm page here:

If you’d like to be featured in an upcoming Podcast email us at [email protected] now to discuss.

Irish Tech News have a range of services available to help promote your business. Why not drop us a line at [email protected] now to find out more about how we can help you reach our audience.

You can also find and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat.

National Broadband Ireland, the company delivering the National Broadband Plan, has announced that the total construction workforce delivering the roll-out has now reached over 1,500, with a 25% increase in workers in the first half of 2022. The increase includes 80 additional construction workers deployed to the NBP roll-out as a result of NBI’s new partnership with Gaeltec Utilities.

NBI Chairman, David McCourt said: “The National Broadband Plan is a transformational infrastructure project which will ultimately see Ireland become one of the most connected countries in Europe for fibre broadband. Not only will this open up economic opportunities in the future, but it is also leading to investment and job creation in the regions right now. With 80 additional Gaeltec workers now commencing work in County Wicklow, a workforce of over 1,500 is now deployed to the NBP, showing real momentum in the roll-out.”

NBI Deployment CEO, TJ Malone said: “NBI is moving to expand our capacity by adding an additional construction partner as momentum in the roll-out of the NBP grows. We are delighted to be working with Gaeltec, our second Kilkenny-based partner. This additional capacity will help us to ensure more premises are being passed by future-proofed, high-speed broadband every day.

NBI contractors have already been on the ground across the country for 25 months with over 330,000 premises nationwide surveyed to date and almost 180,000 either constructed or under construction. Today’s announcement will see this activity take a further step up and we anticipate 40% of the entire Intervention Area will be under construction by the end of the year.”

Gaeltec Managing Director, Joao Felizardo said: “Gaeltec is proud to be part of the NBP roll-out which will help to close the digital divide between urban and rural Ireland. As a Kilkenny company, we recognise the benefit high-speed broadband can bring to homes, farms and businesses all over the country, and we are delighted to be partnering with NBI to deliver it. We believe it is a testament to the reputation we have built in the Irish utility market, and the confidence our customers place in our high standard of work and consistent track record of delivery. We look forward to bringing those attributes to our partnership with NBI.”

More about Irish Tech News

Irish Tech News are Ireland’s No. 1 Online Tech Publication and often Ireland’s No.1 Tech Podcast too.

You can find hundreds of fantastic previous episodes and subscribe using whatever platform you like via our Anchor.fm page here:

If you’d like to be featured in an upcoming Podcast email us at [email protected] now to discuss.

Irish Tech News have a range of services available to help promote your business. Why not drop us a line at [email protected] now to find out more about how we can help you reach our audience.

You can also find and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat.

Michael Quartey and Lukas Bruell, founder and co-founder of Eczodex, join the show this week to riff on how Eczodex is enabling investors to unlock more returns with traditional investments through DeFi (decentralized finance).

This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by Philip Lee, one of Ireland’s fastest-growing corporate law firms and expert advisors at the heart of the Dublin and London start-up, fintech and crypto communities.

Eczodex are the ninth of the founding teams forming the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator Class of 2022 that we’ve got on the show in the lead-in to Demo Day in Dublin on June 30th.

In this episode, Michael Quartey and Lukas Bruell talk with Pete Townsend and Eoin Fitzgerald about: – How their backgrounds uniquely prepared them to bring Eczodex to life – How Eczodex will bridge real-world assets into DeFi – Enabling yield enhancement strategies for real-world investor – Connecting the Eczodex vision with the realities of the crypto markets – Breaking down the problem for individual investors

HIGHLIGHTS:

Michael Quartey on the intersection of experiences that led him to the Eczodex idea:

“I always was an entrepreneur at heart. I always had this ambition of not wanting to make my way up the corporate ladder. I always wanted to do something. So even a couple of years into my graduate job [with CSC Financial Services, now DXC], I was thinking of ways in which to build a business. At the time, it was an eCommerce startup that I was working on with my brother.

“And similarly to now, the market crashed, and then we had the dot.com bust. We weren’t as far advanced as we are with Eczodex right now, so at the time, my brother and I decided to stop. That led me into contracting and I built on the skills I had learned through CSC to work for over 20-plus years in the financial services space.

“Once I understood what was going on with decentralized finance, I had this epiphany where I realized how much better the infrastructure could be, how much more efficiently things could run using all of the innovation of blockchain technology and decentralized finance. That’s one of the sources of inspiration behind Eczodex.

“The other [source of inspiration] is just down to my own inadequacies as an investor, specifically with stocks. Over the years I’ve experienced the highs and lows of investing, and that was another spark behind this idea of trying to find a better way to invest in products with more predictable return patterns.

“Once I realized that there were many crypto projects also trying to address similar issues around risk and volatility, I started reading their whitepapers. I realized that not only are there other people trying to solve similar problems but there’s all this amazing innovation going on. Why not look at this space more closely and try to build something here?”

Lukas Bruell on his entry point into entrepreneurship and meeting Michael Quartey at the University of Cambridge:

“I wanted to build a venture and gained my first experience by setting up a research venture with my roommate helping students understand what’s happening in financial markets. Planning that as a business, we just literally aimed to solve a problem. We did that by concisely publishing reports about M&A deals and found that we helped a lot of people.

“That was the first time where I realized there is an incredible opportunity to solve problems out there and there’s nothing more exciting than doing that.

“I then realized that I wanted to be an entrepreneur for sure. When I got to Cambridge, I saw the incredibly powerful nature of crypto to an even greater level. I was interested in crypto for a while, I was reading about it, and investing in crypto a bit, but I certainly wasn’t involved in building ventures in crypto.

“But then I met Michael, and he had an initial draft of the Eczodex solution, and I also met a lot of people in the Blockchain Club in Cambridge. That’s when I started to dig deeper and deeper, went dow...

Startup Genome, the world-leading innovation policy advisory and research firm, and the Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN) on Tuesday launched the 2022 Global Startup Ecosystem Report (GSER) at London Tech Week, introduced by JF Gauthier, Founder and CEO of Startup Genome.

In its 10th year, the GSER is the world’s most comprehensive, data-driven research on startups with 280+ entrepreneurial innovation ecosystems, rankings of the leading 140 ecosystems, and 3 million startups analysed.

Key highlights from #GSER2022 on the global startup situation

Since 2012, global average Series A rounds have tripled to more than $18 million.

Since the pandemic, tech companies grew 2.3 times more than their non-tech counterparts.

A record 540 companies achieved unicorn status in 2021, up from 150 in 2020, with 113 ecosystems producing at least one $1 billion+ behemoth. Nineteen ecosystems — including Brisbane, Luxembourg, Santiago-Valparaiso, and Ho Chi Minh City — achieved their first unicorns in 2021.

North America continues to dominate the Global Rankings, with 47% of the top 30 ecosystems. Asia comes in second with 30%.

In North America, exits over $50 million made up a total of $698 billion in 2021. In Asia, they made up $531 billion.

Seoul entered the global top 10 ecosystems for the first time. Helsinki has risen more than 20 places from last year to #35, Detroit moved up 13 places to #40 and Oslo moved up 16 places to #58.

Japan has seen significant growth, with a 52.3% increase in Tokyo’s startup ecosystem value (from $40.7 billion in 2020 to $62 billion in 2021) and Kyoto, now the country’s second-largest such ecosystem, experiencing an 11% growth within the last year ($424 million in 2020 to $471 million in 2021).

The 2022 GSER found that around 95% of the UAE’s firms are SMEs or startups, and they account for more than 40% of the country’s GDP. Additionally, the city of Sharjah, home of MENA’s fastest-growing technopark, saw its startup ecosystem more than double in value (from less than $100 million in 2020 to $208 million in 2021) despite having early stage funding numbers below the global average.

Also in MENA, Cairo has seen a 156% increase in total VC funding round dollar amount from 2020 to 2021, and from 2017 to 2021, the overall number of VC funding rounds in the ecosystem increased by 60%.

Brazil experienced exponential growth both overall and in its largest city. São Paulo saw an increase in early-stage funding from $902 million in 2020 to $1.5 billion in 2021, and an overall increased ecosystem value by 122% ($1.5 billion in 2020 to $108 billion in 2021). Overall, the country reported $6.4 billion in venture funding from January to October 2021, tripling the amount raised in all of 2019.

“This 10th-anniversary edition of the Global Startup Ecosystem Report reflects on how ecosystems have evolved since 2012,” shares JF Gauthier, Founder & CEO of Startup Genome. “As the first, and still the only data-driven primary research on startup and ecosystem success factors, innovators and policy leaders depend on our objective data and specialist insights. We look forward to providing further advisory economic and employment contributions as Startup Genome remains a key advisor for accelerating entrepreneurial performance and growth.”

The #GSER2022 ranks startup ecosystems on seven Success Factors, including performance and talent. The same five ecosystems remain at the top of the ranking as in 2020 and 2021, but Beijing has dropped one place, with Boston taking its former place at #4. Silicon Valley is #1, followed by New York City and London tied at #2, Boston at #4, and Beijing at #5.

“This research reveals what it takes for cities to compete in the race to the top as destinations for startup talent and investment. The GSER is both a guide to innovation performance and a cue to leaders to grow their local innovation ecosystems with evidence-based strategies, not gut,” said Jonathan Ortmans, Founder and President...

A draft bipartisan bill was released last week by congressional leaders, and if it is adopted, the bill will go on to establish a comprehensive privacy law federally for the first time in the history of the nation. It is named the American Data Privacy and Protection Act, and its shortened version is the ADPPA, which will be providing people in America with several rights that relate to data collected from them.

It would include rights for accessing this data, deleting the data, correcting the data, and also preventing using this data without acquiring consent from the individual in question. The response would be that businesses in numerous sectors will be facing new consequences related to the data they are collecting from the individuals they are serving.

The best part is that the ADPPA is already sharing most of its features with other comprehensive privacy laws that are active on the state level, like the CCPA or the California Consumer Privacy Act, which have been adopted in recent years. It has also borrowed several elements from the health privacy law in America and the regulations that have been adopted from HIPAA or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

However, in many respects, it is more sophisticated than these laws, and it will be America’s answer to the GDPR or General Data Protection Regulation, which is the governing privacy framework for Europe. Releasing the draft legislation signals a crucial compromise between the Republican and Democratic leaders from the Commerce and House Energy Committee. They managed to come together on important issues like the private right of action and state law preemption.

There has been some criticism about the draft bill in some quarters. Some advocates of privacy hold the view that the legislation isn’t as comprehensive as it should be and representatives of various industries viewing some provisions, like allowing the private right of action, believe it to be an unacceptable measure. Hence, it’s still not clear if the ADPPA will get enough support from everyone to be enacted as a new law.

How Will the ADPPA Be Applicable to Different Entities?

The ADPPA will be applied in broad terms to ‘covered data’, which is collected by ‘covered entities.’ The meaning of covered data is any information that can be linked to an individual or identifies an individual. The only thing excluded from covered data is information that is available publicly, de-identified data, and employee data. On the other hand, covered entities involve a party or an entity that processes, collects, and transfers covered data, which comes under the Federal Trade Commission or FTC’s jurisdiction.

Unlike some privacy laws that are applied state-wide, the ADPPA will also apply to small businesses that don’t have much revenue as well as nonprofit businesses. There are also no exceptions made for government entities, even though the courts interpret other laws that have used the same language as not being applicable to state and federal agencies.

However, most businesses in the financial services, healthcare, and education sector won’t be required to follow the law for all the data that they collect and hold. Apart from that, those small businesses which don’t have any interstate commerce will be outside the jurisdiction of the FTC and would also be exempted from following the law. Additionally, organizations with at least $41 million or less in annual revenue won’t be required to follow some parts of the law, according to the ‘small data exception.’

The Duties

When the ADPPA is adopted as a law, it will place numerous duties and other requirements, especially on covered entities regarding covered data. These will include the following:

Data Minimization

Covered data can’t be unnecessarily used or collected by covered entities.

Prohibited and Restricted Practices

Some practices will be completely prohibited or restricted. There will be significant limits on allowing covered entities to allow t...