On January 12, the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas closed its doors for another year. Each CES raises a new set of technology themes, ranging from robots to smart fridges — and this year, the winner was voice technologies. Such technologies, while not entirely new, are now
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New California Law Regulates Voice Recognition Technology in Smart TVs
By Brandon Johnson
On October 6, 2015, California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law Assembly Bill 1116 (A.B. 1116), which regulates the manner in which smart TVs must notify users of voice-recognition technology and may use recorded voice commands. The bill, which was passed unanimously by both houses of the…
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Multistakeholder Group Seeks Comment on Draft Framework for IoT Device Manufactures
Earlier this week, the Online Trust Alliance released a draft framework of best practices for Internet of Things device manufacturers and developers, such as connected home devices and wearable fitness and health technologies. The OTA is seeking comments on its draft framework by September 14.
The framework acknowledges that not…
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Senators Request Hearing on Connected Devices
On October 20, 2014, a bipartisan group of senators sent a letter to U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) and Ranking Member John Thune (R-S.D.), requesting that the Committee schedule a “general oversight and information-gathering hearing” on digitally connected technologies before the end of 2014.
The letter, penned by Sens. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), Cory A. Booker (D-N.J.), Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), and Brian Schatz (D-Hi), stated that the connected devices industry is expected to generate global revenues of $8.9 trillion by 2020, and that its importance would soon be felt by millions of Americans with the “proliferation of connected products” and “the upcoming holiday season.” The industry, however, raises a number of important policy questions in the areas of “consumer protection, security, privacy, technical standards, spectrum capacity, manufacturing, regulatory certainty, and public-sector applications,” the letter said.
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FDA Releases Final Guidance on Cybersecurity in Medical Devices, Public Workshop to Follow on October 21-22, 2014
On October 2, 2014, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a final guidance document titled “Content of Premarket Submissions for Management of Cybersecurity in Medical Devices”. The FDA said that the “need for effective cybersecurity to assure medical device functionality and safety has become more important with the increasing use of wireless, Internet- and network- connected devices, and the frequent electronic exchange of medical device-related health information.” The FDA defines cybersecurity as “the process of preventing unauthorized access, modification, misuse or denial of use, or the unauthorized use of information that is stored, accessed, or transferred from a medical device to an external recipient.” The cybersecurity of medical devices gained media attention last year when former Vice President Dick Cheney revealed that his doctor had the wireless function of Cheney’s implanted defibrillator replaced due to fears that a terrorist could hack the device and assassinate the Vice President.
The guidance document identifies cybersecurity issues that manufacturers should consider when designing and developing their medical devices and information they should include when preparing their FDA medical device premarket submissions.Continue Reading FDA Releases Final Guidance on Cybersecurity in Medical Devices, Public Workshop to Follow on October 21-22, 2014
Data Protection Officials Adopt Internet of Things Declaration and Big Data Resolution
At the International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners in Mauritius this week, representatives of the private sector and academia joined together to discuss the positive changes and attendant risks that the internet of things and big data may bring to daily life. Attendees memorialized the observations and conclusions of their discussions in a Declaration on the Internet of Things and a Resolution on Big Data. The documents are not, of course, binding. But, the fact that the Declaration and Resolution drew the consensus of a large gathering of international data protection regulators renders them relevant indicators of direction of data privacy policies and trends.
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EU Data Protection Working Party Sets Out App Privacy Recommendations
By Dan Cooper and Philippe Bradley
This week the Article 29 Working Party released its Opinion 2/2013 on apps on smart devices (WP 202), a 30-page report on mobile app privacy and data protection considerations. This development follows on the Working Party’s Statement on the draft General Data Protection Regulation on 27 February 2013 (which we previously discussed here).
The report sets out several sets of prescriptive, but non-binding, recommendations that target app developers, app stores, OS and device manufacturers, and other third party participants in app ecosystems, such as advertisers and network operators that bundle apps with devices.
This short post sets out a summary of some of the report’s less conventional prescriptions and recommendations, which could present participants in the European digital/mobile ecosystem with significant compliance challenges.Continue Reading EU Data Protection Working Party Sets Out App Privacy Recommendations