Below the Fold - when love is a sin

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Happy Friday, Below the Fold!

After so much action in the world of online data privacy and the absolute onslaught of consent pop-ups and checkboxes, it might feel like we’ve solved the problem. The alphabet soup of data privacy acts and laws can further the image that our legal system is now equipped to protect us. Not quite…

Consumer Data Privacy is Still a Problem: $4 Million in Data to Out Gay Priests
Thu Mar 09

Back in 2021, Grindr came under scrutiny when data it resold was used to out a gay priest, forcing him to resign. This time, a nonprofit Catholic group has spent $4 million on a data project to identify more than a dozen priests who have used Grindr and similar apps. The group has outed them to bishops across the country. No terminations or resignations have yet been attributed to the data project but those familiar said the data may be used to keep these clergymen from promotion or move them into early retirement.

The justification for the data project is that these clergymen are violating their public clerical vows, which is therefore of public interest. Others say it’s a sin itself to reveal information that harms a person’s reputation without an objectively valid reason, and that the method used is a simplistic approach to morality that is “un-Catholic.”

And legally, there’s nothing to be done because there isn’t a nationwide data privacy law. Instead, individual states have designed and implemented their own data privacy protection laws, which means residents have to figure out for themselves whether or not their state will protect their rights on top of remembering if they consented to something blindly.

Some good news though: Consumer data privacy protection in the US, UK, and Europe is getting upgraded this year. GDPR is reaching five years of age and the reality of enforcement is leading to an overhaul. Ireland has held most of the power since so many big tech firms are headquartered there but they’ve also proven to be lax enforcers. The UK is coming up with a revamp of its own GDPR to ease the burden on researchers and small businesses (some controversy here). And, in the US, new data privacy protection laws are going into effect this year in California, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, and Utah.

BELOW THE FOLD BYTES

Unveiling the Mystery of Today’s Inflation (“Excuseflation”)

While much fuss has been made about why prices are climbing, companies themselves have been telling us why in their corporate conference calls. Long story short, big companies are using any temporary hiccup reported widely by the media as an excuse to raise prices and keep them there. Wingstop, for instance, ran with the opportunity that headlines gave them when they let everyone know chicken prices were up. Not only were prices at Wingstop hiked, they continued to creep up after costs returned closer to normal. And it continues to work because people are willing to pay (especially for bigger brands), which is where speculation comes in. Maybe it’s the trauma of the pandemic, maybe it’s the extra pocket money from wage increases or higher social security payments.

>> Read More

Satellites Launched to Monitor Carbon Dioxide Super Emitters

Canadian company, GHGSat, is launching a commercial satellite to monitor and flag major, individual sources of carbon dioxide. Expectations are that big emitters are going to be refineries, steel mills, cement plants, and more. Most other satellites doing this type of work, including those launched and used by NASA, create large area maps and cannot specifically identify a super-emitter at the scale of an individual industrial complex. GHGSat hopes to sell the data to government (especially with the Paris Climate Accord) and financial services markets. If successful, more of such satellites will be launched to get monthly or even weekly coverage of every source in the world. The company already flies six satellites that track methane.

>> Read More

🎬 Action of the Week

If you own a business or even just a side hustle that keeps data on customers and users, check your local laws and regulations. For general US guidance on data protection, see this FTC guide. For general consumer guidelines on protecting your privacy while online, check out this NPR Life Kit guide.

THIS WEEK'S SOURCES

The Washington Post:

Catholic Groups Spends Millions On App Data to Track Gay Priests
21 minutes long | 1 day ago

Gizmodo:

Catholic Group Buys Grindr Data To Track Priests
3 minutes long | 1 day ago

Techcrunch:

UK’s Second Stab at UK GDPR
13 minutes long | 2 days ago

Politico:

Fixing EU’s GDPR
4 minutes long | 3 weeks ago

Techcrunch:

EU’s Changes to GDPR
11 minutes long | 5 weeks ago

Axios:

States’ Data Privacy Law Changes
2 minutes long | 2 months ago

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ASCII-ING ABOUT THE NEWS

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Looks like Hammond is being sacrificed this week for eggs.

Art Credit: ascii.co.uk

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Below the Fold - when love is a sin

Unveiling the Mystery of Today’s Inflation (“Excuseflation”)

Satellites Launched to Monitor Carbon Dioxide Super Emitters

🎬 Action of the Week

Older messages

the cost of going cashless

going back to our farming roots

new battle: forest v solar panel

goodbye to $2 million coin tosses

I'm rubber and you're moo

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