"Don’t judge a book by its cover – how a technology is named doesn’t tell you how it is used. This is the case with Data Clean Rooms (“DCRs”), which are not rooms, do not clean data, and have complicated implications for user privacy, despite their squeaky-clean name.

Data Clean Rooms are cloud data processing services that let companies exchange and analyze data, restrained by rules that limit data use. They are typically used when two companies want to exchange limited information about their customers. For example, a newspaper and a grocery store might use a DCR to evaluate the efficacy of an advertisement by identifying grocery sales made to newspaper subscribers. However, a close examination of DCRs yields an evergreen lesson: even if privacy enhancing technologies alone can’t protect privacy and even if they address some privacy risks, they can contribute to others.

In some cases, DCRs can add privacy protections to the handling of consumer data. In others, disclosure of consumer data via DCRs presents the same privacy risks as disclosure through other means like tracking pixels. DCRs, like other technologies that claim to protect privacy, can also be used to obfuscate privacy harms."

https://www.ftc.gov/policy/advocacy-research/tech-at-ftc/2024/11/data-clean-rooms-separating-fact-fiction

#USA #FTC #DataCleanRooms #DCRs #Privacy #DataProtection

Federal Trade Commission Warns Data Brokers about the Uncontrolled Sale of Raw Location Data - https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/federal-trade-commission-warns-data-brokers-about-the-uncontrolled-sale-of-raw-location-data/ interesting and important move by #FTC on #privacy here

#FTC orders #Intuit to stop pushing "free" software that isn't really free
#ConsumerProtection #watchdog's investigated how Intuit promoted its #tax preparation software #TurboTax as being a "free" including deceptive #ads shown during Super Bowl and the 2022 NCAA Basketball Tournament.
However, the ads were misleading as millions of Americans couldn't use Turbotax to file their taxes for free over the years, finding that it was all just a waste of time https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/technology/ftc-orders-intuit-to-stop-pushing-free-software-that-isnt-really-free/

Big #news out of the #FTC today, as the agency bans a major location data company from tracking and selling info about people's medical visits.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/09/in-the-fight-over-abortion-rights-the-government-bans-its-first-company-from-tracking-medical-visits-00134510

#QR Codes Can Hide Deceptive Links From Identity Thieves, F.T.C. Warns

#Scammers have used #QR codes to steal personal information by imitating legitimate companies or sending deceptive emails and text messages, the Federal Trade Commission said.
#privacy #ftc

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/10/business/qr-code-scam-ftc.html

PolitiFact - Red light on ‘greenwashing’? US regulatory agency takes fresh look at deceptive climate claims https://www.politifact.com/article/2023/jul/17/red-light-on-greenwashing-us-regulatory-agency-tak/ #greenwashing #FTC #uslaw #uspol