Sharing Health Data without consumer Consent

Sharing Health Data without consumer Consent

ACM NEWS

FTC Accuses GoodRx of Sharing User Data Without Consent

By CNet, February 2, 2023

GoodRX users may have given up more than they thought

GoodRx will pay $1.5 million and be barred from sharing user data with outside companies for advertising purposes under a deal that would settle allegations that it shared some of its users' most intimate health-related information with companies like Facebook and Google.

The Federal Trade Commission characterized the action, which is pending approval by a federal court, as the first of its kind under its Health Breach Notification Rule, adding that the agency won't hesitate to use its full legal authority to take action against companies that willingly misuse or exploit consumer data.

"Digital health companies and mobile apps should not cash in on consumers' extremely sensitive and personally identifiable health information," Samuel Levine, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement.

According to the FTC's complaint, GoodRx, which helps users find deals on prescription drugs and offers telehealth and other health-related services, shared its users' data with outside companies for advertising purposes, despite promising it wouldn't.

From CNet   

An Arms Race to AI

An arms race.  Important point, Clouds bring the data, feed the results. 

Big Tech companies use cloud computing arms to pursue alliances with AI groups  in Arstechnca

Deals between Big Tech and "generative AI" startups raise competition concerns.

MADHUMITA MURGIA, FINANCIAL TIMES 

Big Tech companies are aggressively pursuing investments and alliances with artificial intelligence startups through their cloud computing arms, raising regulatory questions over their role as both suppliers and competitors in the battle to develop “generative AI.”

Google’s recent $300 million bet on San Francisco-based Anthropic is the latest in a string of cloud-related partnerships struck between nascent AI groups and the world’s biggest technology companies.

Anthropic is part of a new wave of young companies developing generative AI systems, sophisticated computer programs that can parse and write text and create art in seconds, that are rivaling those being built in-house by far larger companies such as Google and Amazon.

The technology behind products including OpenAI’s ChatGPT, a chatbot that can converse with users through text, requires enormous amounts of computing power—expensive infrastructure controlled by the same handful of tech giants.

“[This] is exactly the type of scenario that the Federal Trade Commission has said they’re going to focus on,” said William Kovacic, a former Republican chair of the US antitrust agency and a professor of antitrust law at George Washington University.  ... '

FTC will Spell Death for Algorithms?

Interesting thing, to actually delete an algorithm.  I don't think of algorithms as unique.  I guess then a copy or equivalent algorithm could also be thus condemned.   And in the case given the algorithm has been derived illegally from data without permission. 

The FTC's New Enforcement Weapon Spells Death for Algorithms

By Protocol        March 23, 2022

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has struggled over the years to find ways to combat deceptive digital data practices using its limited set of enforcement options. Now, it's landed on one that could have a big impact on tech companies: algorithmic destruction. And as the agency gets more aggressive on tech by slowly introducing this new type of penalty, applying it in a settlement for the third time in three years could be the charm.

In a March 4 settlement order, the agency demanded that WW International—formerly known as Weight Watchers—destroy the algorithms or AI models it built using personal information collected through its Kurbo healthy eating app from kids as young as 8 without parental permission. The agency also fined the company $1.5 million and ordered it to delete the illegally harvested data.

When it comes to today's data-centric business models, algorithmic systems and the data used to build and train them are intellectual property, products that are core to how many companies operate and generate revenue. While in the past the FTC has required companies to disgorge ill-gotten monetary gains obtained through deceptive practices, forcing them to delete algorithmic systems built with ill-gotten data could become a more routine approach, one that modernizes FTC enforcement to directly affect how companies do business.  .... 

From Protocol  View Full Article     

Right to Repair Envisioned, Regulated

Including the right to repair.   Rarely an issue in a big company, but useful for the individual.   Still will add significantly to the cost of designs involved. 

Europe Champions the Right to Repair Are other regions next?   by DAVID SCHNEIDER

   ... US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to address "unfair anticompetitive restrictions on third-party repair or self-repair of items." That order also tasked the Secretary of Commerce to report on "a plan for avoiding contract terms in procurement agreements that make it challenging or impossible for the Department of Defense or service members to repair their own equipment, particularly in the field."

The notion of soldiers at some far-flung military base unable to fix critical gear because the manufacturer insists that it be sent back to an authorized repair facility is troubling to say the least. So it's no wonder that the FTC quickly responded by voting unanimously to reinvigorate its efforts to enforce existing right-to-repair legislation, in line with the stance the agency took in May when it issued a report on the topic, "Nixing the Fix."... ' 

Google Says it Won't Scrape

Thinking of the full implications of this.

Google will continue to let sites opt out of showing in search results

They can legally scrape those sites now, but the tech titan promises that it won't.    By Mariella Moon, @mariella_moon in Engadget

Google swears it won't start scraping websites that previously opted out of web crawling just because it can now legally go back to its old ways. Back in 2012, the tech titan promised to change its practices in several areas to settle an antitrust investigation by the FTC. Those changes include removing AdWords restrictions that made it difficult for advertisers to launch multi-platform campaigns, as well as providing websites a mechanism to opt out of having their content crawled and displayed on search results. .... " 

full letter to the FTC