The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was approached by four US Senators alongside a coalition of 19 civil society organisations (headed by Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, and the Center for Digital Democracy) to launch an investigation into whether Amazon Echo Dot Kids Edition violates the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The coalition presented the [...]

The conference “The Future of Work: Today. Tomorrow. For all” hosted by the European Commission brought together the President Jean-Claude Junker, Vice-President Valdis Dombroviskis, Commissioner Marianne Thyssen, Ministers, representatives from EU institutions, national governments, social partners, civil society, and academia to explore how the developments in the world of work could benefit workers, businesses and [...]

The Australian Embassy in the Philippines has initiated a six year programme, SaferKidsPH with a commitment to invest AU$8 million to protect children online. The SaferKidsPH programme is a UNICEF-led consortium bringing together the government,, the Asia Foundation, Save the Children Philippines, child rights advocates, civil society, and the private sector. ‘ SaferKidsPH reinforces our [...]

US civil society organisation, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), issued a letter to the US Congress Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce, addressing the topic of consumer safety when using Internet of things (IoT) devices. The letter details the privacy and security concerns associated with IoT devices and urges the subcommittee to consider adopting [...]

An international coalition of 31 civil society and technology experts asked the Indian Prime Minister’s Office to withdraw the proposed changes to section 79 of the Information Technology Act 2000, which regulates online intermediaries. According to the coalition, requiring intermediaries to ensure traceability of messages would undermine the security of online platforms and create a surveillance [...]

During the World Government Summit in Dubai, Dr Erin Marie Saltman, Facebook’s policy manager for Counterterrorism in Europe, Middle East and Africa, declared that the company is constantly engaged in curbing hate speech and terrorist content on its platform. However, she also stated that in order to eradicate this issue from the online platform, it [...]

The US civil society organisation Public Knowledge published a white paper suggesting a new way to protect customer IoT device security. The paper proposes to create a ‘Security Shield’ label, that will inform consumers whether a product meets the best cybersecurity standards as defined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The initiative [...]

Facebook, in a reported session at the 2019 edition of the Fairway Galle Literary Festival, held in Sri Lanka from 16-21 January, has outlined its efforts at curbing misinformation and promoting online safety through digital literacy skills programmes. According to Shelley Thakral, head of policy programmes (India, South Asia and Central Asia) at Facebook, the [...]

The World Economic Forum released its publication Our Shared Digital Future Building an Inclusive, Trustworthy and Sustainable Digital Society that was produced in collaboration with leaders from business, government, academia and civil society. The paper aimed at shaping an agenda to move towards a more inclusive, trustworthy, and sustainable digital future in six shared goals [...]

Australia passed a controversial law, the Assistance and Access Bill, designed to compel technology companies to grant law enforcement agencies access to encrypted messages. According to the Guardian, the law intends to ‘co-opt technology companies, device manufacturers and service providers into building the functionality needed for police to do their spying’ and ‘give to Australian [...]