- The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is increasingly seeking to protect the online privacy rights of consumers
- The FTC recently sued data broker Kochava for brokering the geolocation details of millions of consumers
- Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed suit against Google for allegedly collecting customer information without consent
- Reklaim enables users to reclaim their data – providing the option to delete it or monetize it
A poll conducted during the summer of 2021 showed that 13 percent of UK teens and 6 percent of American teens linked Instagram usage to suicidal thoughts. Even more surprising is the fact that the social media platform was seemingly privy to that knowledge all along. The extent to which Instagram parent company Meta (NASDAQ: META) allegedly knew about the harmful effects of its products and withheld that information from the public caused Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) to compare the company’s tactics to those of tobacco companies in years past (https://ibn.fm/tPQr2).
The allegations have also sparked a spate of legislation, with a number of senators recently approaching the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) to update the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act in a move intended to oblige social media platforms to protect the confidentiality, security and integrity of data relating to minors.
Reklaim (TSX.V: MYID) (OTCQB: MYIDF), a business focused on enabling consumers to reclaim their online information and monetize it, has been at the forefront of the battle to assist and empower users to establish ownership over personal data which has, in many cases, been circulating in the market unbeknownst to them. The company’s actions have encountered renewed impetus given increased focus on protecting data privacy from the FTC and its ongoing initiatives toward making online privacy a priority.
The Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“ANPR”) – opened by the FTC for public comments over the summer – is the first stage of that process, as noted by Rashida Richardson, the attorney advisor to FTC Chair Lina Khan, at AdExchanger’s Programmatic IO conference in New York City.
“We have to go aggressively after [high-risk] data practices that pose the greatest risks to consumers, at least as a mitigating intervention,” Richardson said (https://ibn.fm/N8jHA).
The FTC’s push was in full effect when the agency sued Idaho-based data broker Kochava for selling the geolocation data of hundreds of millions of mobile devices – data which the FTC argues could be used to track the physical location of consumers, including to and from sensitive areas such as reproductive health clinics or churches (https://ibn.fm/CfSyV).
The litigation against Kochava coincides with a separate lawsuit filed by Texas AG Ken Paxton against Google for allegedly collecting and using biometric data belonging to millions of Texans without proper consent. The legal action has drawn attention both for the scale of the motion’s defendant and for the implications it could have on the behavior of other online businesses operating throughout the nation.
With Reklaim, not only are consumers able to unlock the online data collected on them, they are able to preclude the data from leaking from their devices in the first place – the latter scenario being one which has long been exploited by search engines, social media platforms and online data brokers alike. Rather, should they wish, consumers are empowered to monetize their data, gaining compensation in return for providing third-party businesses with insights drawn from their online behavior.
For more information, visit the company’s website at www.ReklaimYours.com.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to MYIDF are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/MYIDF
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