India bill aims to tighten data privacy
India’s parliament has proposed a new bill which will bring in a set of rules similar to the GDPR. The rules would require organisations to gain consent before collecting and processing personal data. However, it includes exemptions for governmental bodies acting in the interest of the state, security, foreign policy or public order.
Additionally, in a move clearly aimed at social networks, certain companies would be required to offer a ‘verification’ option, whereby a user could provide proof of identity and have this noted on their profile or account.
California DMV selling personal data for revenue
An investigation conducted by Motherboard, Vice’s tech digital magazine, found that the California Department of Motor Vehicles has been generating €50,000,000 a year through the sale of personal information.
Whilst this is practiced in DMVs across the USA, California have recently introduced much stricter rules for the way that data is handled and processed, through the CCPA.
The activity has been criticised by digital privacy experts and senators alike.
Tens of millions exposed by SMS data leak
Business SMS provider TrueDialog left the massive database exposed online. The team at vpnMentor discovered the Oracle Marketing Cloud database hosted on Microsoft Azure. It was apparently left easily accessible, with 604GB – nearly a billion entries – of sensitive personal information.
The firm has now fixed the data leak.
Web hosting company 1&1 fined €9.55m under the GDPR
The German Federal Data Protection Commission fined 1&1 for failing to adequately protect customer data, after it transpired that it was possible to access personal data simply by providing a name and a date of birth – something easy to obtain from public records.
1&1 cooperated with the investigation and has said it has since developed its security to meet standards. However, the Data Protection Commission said there was still a need to fine 1&1 due to the scale of the risk. The web hosting company will be appealing the decision.
