In the news...
- 'Creepy' Listening Tool for Targeted Ads Didn’t Actually Work, FTC Says [wired.com]
The Federal Trade Commission has fined Cox Media Group and two other marketing companies nearly $1 million for falsely claiming they could target ads using audio recordings captured from consumers' smart devices. The service, called "Active Listening," was marketed with the tagline "Creepy? Sure. Great for marketing? Definitely," but the FTC says it never actually worked as advertised, and that the companies also falsely claimed consumers had consented to having their voice data collected. "It is a basic rule of business that you need to be honest with your customers," the FTC's consumer protection director said, "and these companies failed to do that."
- The Form Asked My Permission to Share My Health Data. Then It Wouldn't Let Me Say No. [themarkup.org]
When patients sign into a doctor's office, they're often asked to acknowledge a privacy notice explaining how their health data will be shared; in many cases, the form won't let them say no.
Markup reporter Alex Rosenblat documented how healthcare check-in systems use dark patterns to force patients to accept data sharing, even when the form itself says they have the right to opt out. The stakes are high: health data shared through provider networks can expose abortion records, enable stalking, and be exploited by third parties. "The design forces you to do something that the HIPAA privacy rule does not require you to do," one health law professor told the Markup.
- DuckDuckGo installs are up 30% as users reject being ‘force-fed’ Google’s AI Search [techcrunch.com]
ICYMI: At Google’s annual developer conference in May, "the company said it would transform its search box into [an AI-powered] conversational engine… Rather than just returning a list of links, it will use AI Overviews to answer questions directly first." Turns out, lots of folks would rather decide for themselves!
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