Privacy newsletter - Oct. 6, 2020

Welcome to the latest edition of the Privacy Insider Newsletter. Each week, we send you the latest and smartest news in the world of data privacy.

Here are the top stories from last week you might have missed:

1. More than 80% of organizations have experienced a data breach due to vulnerabilities in their supply chains. New research finds that the average organization has 1,013 vendors in its supplier ecosystem. Businesses continue to underestimate the risk posed by third parties. Monitor your vendors! Link
2. More than half of Americans believe Facebook and TikTok are spying on them. More than 1/3 of respondents felt the same way about Google, Amazon, Snapchat, and Twitter. At a time when trust in big tech companies is quite low, one in five people has deleted an app over privacy issues. Link
3. We all know the California Consumer Privacy Act is important, but what does it mean to you? Our new quiz answers that very question. Find out if the CCPA applies to you, what you need to do to comply, and the potential consequences if you don't. Link
4. New research shows that more than 12 data points are available for 60% of internet users. Hackers have been using that data to breach increasing numbers of systems. More than half of internet users have appeared in a data breach since 2010, and more than 1 in five have experienced more than 10 data breaches in the past decade. Link
5. Students are bristling at the growing attempts by colleges to keep an eye on their activities during assessments. Tensions are rising as tools become more commonplace that monitor computer microphones and cameras, as well as eye-tracking to flog any behavior deemed suspicious. Link
6. A software engineer attracted a lot of attention last week, arguing that privacy is the most important concept of our time. You don't have to agree to appreciate his thoughtful argument. "Privacy is the principle of separation of concerns, different spaces should not interfere with each other." Link
7. Amazon unveiled hand recognition technology that lets you "Pay with your Palm." Initially rolling out in Amazon Go grocery stores, the company has ambitions to bring it to locations beyond its own stores. The company argues that it is more "private" than facial recognition technology, but that is a low bar to meet. It will be interesting to see the public's willingness to trade off privacy risk with friction reduction. Link