It goes without saying 2020 has been a challenging and difficult year. COVID-19 has affected the world in inalterable ways. And though the pandemic is a sea change for how we live, work and educate our children, it did not lessen the impact of privacy and the privacy profession. In fact, privacy has become an even more front-and-center issue for businesses, governments and individuals. From the “Schrems II” decision in the EU to Proposition 24 in California to new and proposed laws in Brazil, Canada, China and India, there was no shortage of developments in the privacy space. To help assess what just happened in 2020 and what’s ahead in 2021, IAPP Editorial Director Jedidiah Bracy, CIPP, spoke with IAPP VP and Chief Knowledge Officer Omer Tene and Research Director Caitlin Fennessy, CIPP.

Artificial intelligence, big data and personalization are driving a new era of products and services, but this paradigm shift brings with it a slate of thorny privacy and data protection issues. Ubiquitous data collection, social networks, personalized ads and biometric systems engender massive societal effects that alter individual self-determination, fracture shared reality and even sway democratic elections. As an associate professor at the University of Oxford's Faculty of Philosophy and the Institute for Ethics in AI, Carissa Véliz has immersed herself in these issues and recently wrote a book, "Privacy Is Power: Why and How You Should Take Back Control of Your Data." In this latest Privacy Advisor Podcast, host Jedidiah Bracy, CIPP, caught up with Véliz to discuss her book and the importance privacy plays in society. 

Hard to believe it, but we’re only days away from a fateful vote in California on what’s called Proposition 24. If approved by the residents of California, Prop 24 will put the California Privacy Rights Act on the books. The law will add an additional layer of privacy protections for California residents and a new privacy compliance regime for businesses. Prop 24 has been hotly debated, especially in recent weeks. And the traditional fault lines between consumer advocacy and industry are not what you might suspect. Behind much of Prop 24, and the CCPA before it, is Alastair Mactaggart. With a background in real estate, Mactaggart has quickly become one of the most influential individuals in the U.S. privacy landscape. I recently had a chance to catch up with Alastair to discuss the ins and outs of Prop 24. 

As a consumer, it can be really difficult to figure out who's tracking your data online. Many companies hide behind algorithms claiming they're the "secret sauce" to their business model, which sometimes frustrates regulators and laymen alike. That's why award-winning journalist Julia Angwin and investigative journalist Surya Mattu, both of the non-profit news organization The Markup, recently developed and released Blacklight, a web site that allows users to scan any site for potential privacy violations, including what's being tracked and who's sharing your personal data. In this episode of The Privacy Advisor Podcast, Angwin and Mattu talk about the tool and why the team is passionate about user empowerment. 

There have been no shortage of hearings in the last couple of years on potential federal privacy legislation in the U.S. This week was no exception, as the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation held another. But this hearing was under different circumstances, namely, it was held in the middle of the COVID-19 global pandemic. That garnered some conversation about the need for a comprehensive law more than ever, as did the release this week of the SAFE Data Act, which consolidates previously released legislation into one bill, with some nuance. In this episode of the podcast, IAPP Senior Research Fellow Muge Fazlioglu discusses the bill's provisions, and Sara Collins of Public Knowledge discusses how that featured into this week's hearing. 

As children around the globe either head back to school or continue their school year, depending on geolocation, many new privacy and data protection concerns present themselves. Whether it be heightened data collection on student health to prevent the spread of COVID-19 at school or new technologies implemented to facilitate virtual learning, there are all sorts of new unprecedented risks. In this episode of The Privacy Advisor Podcast, former White House Senior Advisor for Privacy Marc Groman and the Future of Privacy Forum's Director of the Education Privacy Project Amelia Vance discuss how we can help protect children's privacy — and whose job that is. 

If Brazil gave birth to its data protection law this week, it was a really fast labor.  Privacy professionals awoke to the news Thursday that overnight, in an unprecedented move, the Brazilian Senate approved an amendment allowing the General Personal Data Protection Law to go into effect (almost) immediately. The decision reverses a vote Tuesday to delay the implementation of the LGPD to Dec. 31, 2020. How could this have happened? What does it mean for those covered by the law? In this episode of The Privacy Advisor Podcast, Dirceu Santa Rosa talks to Angelique Carson, CIPP/US, about why there's some fear surrounding the news. 

In a highly anticipated decision, Europe's highest court decided July 16 that the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield agreement is invalid. The ruling will impact thousands of companies who'd used Privacy Shield to transfer data from the EU to the U.S. Additionally, the court decided to uphold another data transfer mechanism, standard contractual clauses, but with conditions. The news is a game-changer and casts much uncertainty upon the stability of cross-border agreements. In this episode of The Privacy Advisor Podcast, IAPP Research Director Caitlin Fennessy, Hintze Law's Susan Lyon-Hintze and Future of Privacy Forum's Gabriela Zanfir-Fortuna discuss the decision and what privacy pros should be thinking about in the coming days and weeks. 

There's no shortage of tech companies and apps aiming to help thwart the spread of COVID-19, in addition to government efforts. But with so many different apps being deployed and so much sensitive data being swept up, is this one of those moments in time that we're putting safety ahead of privacy in ways that can't be undone? In this episode of The Privacy Advisor Podcast, the Future of Privacy Forum's Polly Sanderson and the International Digital Accountability Council's Quentin Palfrey discuss both the apps themselves as well as the greater ecosystem surrounding contact tracing. 

Recently, Jay Edelson and his team at Edelson PC have filed three different class-action lawsuits related to unwanted surveillance: One against security company ADT, one against a Chicago hospital and another against biometric start-up Clearview AI. In this episode of The Privacy Advisor Podcast, Edelson talks about why he chose to file the suits and why he thinks they're important cases for privacy rights generally. He also talks about the status of his firm's historic settlement with Facebook over violations of Illinois biometric privacy law.