I'm Just a Bill
In 2021, this state passed the Consumer Data Protection Act, the second state-wide comprehensive privacy legislation in the US following California's CPA in 2018.
What is Virginia?
Snap Crackle Pop! Redditors organized a spam campaign against this cereal making company after the company announced it would replace striking workers with permanent replacements as part of its anti-union efforts.
What is Kellogg?
This spyware, developed by NSO group and licensed to governments worldwide, was used to hack the phones of journalists and activists. Apple released security updates on all devices after Citizen Lab disclosed this vulnerability.
What is Pegasus?
Facebook changed its name to this, as part of the company’s expansion from being known as just a social media company to its plans for building the metaverse
What is Meta?
This historic piece of legislation protects workers who speak out about harassment and discrimination even if they’ve signed a non-disclosure agreement. Workers in California are legally protected for speaking out about discrimination based on race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, ancestry, disability, and age.
What is the Silence No More Act?
Content creators and gamers organized a daylong boycott of this livestreaming platform to raise awareness of hate raids targeting minority groups and the lack of adequate response from the company to address misconduct.
What is Twitch?
Donald Trump's new social media platform was found to be ripping code from this self-hosted social networking service, violating the terms of the open source code it was built on.
What is Mastodon?
Facebook was again at the center of a wave of damaging revelations this year after this whistleblower released documents to the WSJ providing evidence that the company negatively impacted the mental health of teenagers, incited violence and perpetuated harmful content, and prioritized certain users over others.
Who is Frances Haugen?
President Joe Biden signed an executive order aimed at promoting competition and curbing restrictions that limit consumers’ ability to repair gadgets on their own terms, a win for advocates of this movement.
What is right to repair?
In April, New Yorkers came out to the Ban the Scan rally to end government use of this technology that classifies photos and confirms the identity of a face in a photograph or video.
What is Facial Recognition?
This year, millions of Chrome users were quietly added to Google’s pilot of this new advertising technology meant to eventually replace third-party cookies with browser-based sorting, tracking, and targeting of user groups around the web.
What is FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts)?
This Facebook program exempts high-profile users and celebrities from its typical moderation process, allowing some users to skirt Facebook policies and gain special treatment on the platform.
What is XCheck? (cross check)
Activists in multiple municipalities are looking for officials to end this type of "fly-by" surveillance; during this past summer, the Fourth Circuit Court ruled Baltimore's use of this tech as unconstitutional
What is Aerial Surveillance
Earlier this year, Amazon employees at this warehouse location campaigned to form a union, ultimately lost the effort in a high-profiled drive, but may be getting a second chance. A recent decision from the National Labor Relations Board noted Amazon's pressuring of employees during the labor vote, which may open up the opportunity for a vote in the near future
Where is Bessemer, Alabama?
This company has been planning to install a backdoor into its data storage and messaging systems as part of it’s new child safety plan, allowing the company to scan all photos in iCloud and iMessage and send notifications to parents.
What is Apple?
Facebook banned the personal accounts of academics of this project, who researched ad transparency and the spread of misinformation on the social network through political ads.
What is NYU Ad Observatory?