Monthly Archives: March 2019

“The Final Minutes of Ethiopian Airlines’ Doomed Boeing 737 MAX,” The Wall Street Journal, March 30, 2019.  What the cockpit voice recorder captured in the tragic crash.

What Information do we collect, and why?  How do we Use that?  Would we collect this information even if the government didn’t require it?

“Huawei Equipment Has Major Security Flaws, U.K. Says,” The Wall Street Journal, March 29, 2019.  Absence of company-wide security practices at issue.

This one would send you scrambling for your crisis management manual.  What happens when the US government says your product has a security defect?

It’s not really possible to manage what the US government says about you.  How is this information being used?  How do you manage the consequences?  Is this just a part of the China-US trade spat?  How do you deal with your customers?  How do your customers react?

Maybe a slight departure from the normal focus of this blog.  But involves having the right processes (Governance) and complying with those processes (Compliance).  And a bit of Use and Information.

“HUD Action Against Facebook Signals Trouble for Other Platforms,” The Wall Street Journal, March 29, 2019.  Do ads targeting specific races/religions  constitute discrimination?

How does Facebook use the information it has collected?  Can advertisers on Facebook pick which users get their ads, and restrict others from seeing those ads?  Could the ad be directed at one race of users and not another, or one age, or one ethnic group, or one religion?  Google got a party invite as well.

“The allegations against Facebook amount to a modern spin on redlining, or the historic practice by some real-estate brokers, lenders and others of drawing red lines around low-income and minority neighborhoods and either denying services, or targeting them with higher rates.”

And what does it mean when, in the space of a week, three different agencies of the federal government have taken action in this space?  First, the FTC with broadband providers.  Then the SEC with the PII in a database.  And now this.  Is there an Invisible Hand at work?

“Workers Push Back as Companies Gather Fingerprints and Retina Scans,” The Wall Street Journal, March 28, 2019.  State statutes provide workers and others additional rights.

Fingerprints and facial scans are information, just as much as a tax return.  There are limits on how much a business can “capture” from you, and what that business can do with that information.  In Illinois, and perhaps other states in the near future, employees and customers can sue if the employer hasn’t taken the right steps.

So, there’s Information.  There’s Governance (by the government and, perhaps, by a business), and Use, and Compliance.  This one hits on all four.

[Thanks, Judy.  I would have gotten here; just takes some time. Ed.]

“Journalists Face Prison Over Reporting George Pell Sex-Abuse Conviction,” The Wall Street Journal, March 26, 2019.  Australian journalists defy judge’s gag order over the conviction of a Cardinal for sex abuse.

Prior restraints on speech and the press are largely prohibited in the US, due to Constitutional protections.  But that’s not universal.

All four major vectors touched: Governance (who’s in charge? what controls?), Information (a criminal conviction of a priest for child sex abuse), Compliance (journalists complying, vel non, with a court order), and Use (by the journalists).

“FTC Orders Broadband Providers to Explain Data Collection Policies,” The Wall Street Journal, March 26, 2019.  The government begin to explore how broadband companies handle your private information.

While some have questions about whether there is any Constitutional right to privacy, penumbras notwithstanding, it is interesting to see a government agency begin to look into how some major providers are dealing with (e.g., handling, protecting, using) “your” information.  Is privacy a property right protected by the Constitution or an unalienable right under the Declaration that governments are obligated to protect?

Seems like Governance to me, and maybe Compliance.  Certainly Information and Use.