By: Kathryn C. Montgomery, Jeff Chester, and Katharina Kopp | Sep 10 2020
TikTok (also known by its Chinese name, Dǒuyīn) has quickly captured the interest of children, adolescents, and young adults in 150 countries around the world. The mobile app enables users to create short video clips, customize them with a panoply of user-friendly special effects tools, and then share them widely through the platform’s vast social network.
By: Jeff Chester | Dec 5 2019
EMBARGOED UNTIL DECEMBER 5, 2019 AT 12:01 AM
Contact:
Jeffrey Chester, CDD, jeff@democraticmedia.org, (202) 494-7100
Josh Golin, CCFC, josh@commercialfreechildhood.org; 617-896-9369
Leading child advocacy, health, and privacy groups call on FTC to Investigate Children’s Digital Media Marketplace Before Proposing any Changes to Privacy Protections for Children
By: Jeff Chester | Sep 11 2019
Working closely with the Electronic Privacy Information Center (epic.org) and US PIRG, CDD led a campaign to oppose the acquisition of Doubleclick by Google. CDD opposed the deal on privacy, consumer protection and competiton grounds. We all foresaw what would happen if Google was allowed to swallow a leading digital marketing giant--more data collect
I played a key role helping get the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) passed by Congress in 1998 (when I was executive director of the Center for Media Education). Since then, I have tried to ensure that the country’s only federal law addressing commercial privacy online was taken seriously.
By: Jeff Chester | Jul 26 2019
FOR RELEASE
July 26, 2019
Consumer Privacy Organizations to Challenge Facebook Settlement
Statement from Groups
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“The Settlement Fails to Provide Meaningful Relief to Facebook Users”
WASHINGTON, DC – Many of the nation’s leading consumer privacy organizations are urging a federal court in Washington, DC to consider public comments before finalizing a proposed settlement between the Federal Trade Commission and Facebook.
By: Jeff Chester | Jul 8 2019
Letter sent on June 3 2019 to Chairman Simons and FTC Commissioners in response to a call made by the Campaign for Commercial-Free Childhood and CDD, represented by our attorneys from the Institute for Public Representation (IPR), Georgetown University Law Center with the commission.
By: Jeff Chester | Mar 30 2018
A digital “great awakening” has occurred with unprecedented global attention given to the commercial surveillance business model at the core of our collective digital experience.
By: Jeff Chester | Mar 8 2018
By: Jeff Chester | Feb 13 2018
By: Jeff Chester | Jan 20 2018
Computational politics—the application of digital targeted-marketing technologies to election campaigns in the US and elsewhere—are now raising the same concerns for democratic discourse and governance that they have long raised for consumer privacy and welfare in the commercial marketplace. This paper examines the digital strategies and technologies of today’s political operations, explaining how they were employed during the most recent US election cycle, and exploring the implications of their continued use in the civic context.
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By: Jeff Chester | Dec 15 2017
By: Jeff Chester | Oct 18 2017
WASHINGTON, DC – October 18, 2017—A number of brands of “smartwatches” intended to help parents monitor and protect young children have major security and privacy flaws which could endanger the children wearing them. A coalition of leading U.S. child advocacy, consumer, and privacy groups sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) today, asking the agency to investigate the threat these watches pose to children.
By: Jeff Chester | Sep 23 2017
Released on September 22, 2017 at a political microtargeting conference held in Amsterdam, in response to the recent announcement by Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg on changes to how they conduct political ad campaigns.
Dear Mark,
By: Jeff Chester | Sep 13 2017
“Marketers. Ready, aim, engage! It is easier than ever to hit the right marketing targets,” explains Equifax about its far-reaching data capabilities that capture, analyze, and sell our information. Equifax’s admission last week about its loss of personal information on 143 million Americans—including Social Security and drivers license numbers—is also a wake-up call about the dramatic loss of our privacy in the digital era.
By: Kathryn Montgomery, Jeff Chester, Katharina Kopp | Aug 29 2017
By: Jeff Chester | Apr 3 2017
President Trump has killed the first real protections for commercial privacy that Americans have online. Phone and cable giants, allied with the GOP Congressional majority, have just voted to overturn the historic consumer-data safeguards adopted last year by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). AT&T, Comcast, Verizon—the country’s dominant providers of high speed broadband—along with industry and Congressional GOP allies, intensely opposed the new FCC rule. Why?
By: Jeff Chester | Mar 23 2017
Americans lost a crucial right today as the GOP-controlled Senate voted to overturn the only federal protection that could have protected their privacy online. This is a key victory for lobbyists from the ISP monopolies, such as AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon. These companies have built a “Big Data" business model to track—and profit from—our every move online. Today, Americans who use personal computers, mobile phones and other online devices are the victims of continuous monitoring of their digital activities.
By: Jeff Chester | Feb 8 2017
Statement of Jeff Chester, Executive DirectorCenter for Digital DemocracyFebruary 7, 2017
By: Jeff Chester | Feb 1 2017
This blog entry by Jeff Chester originally appeared on the Media Policy Blog of the London School of Economics and Political Science here.
By: Jeff Chester | Jan 14 2017
Edith Ramirez brought the FTC into the 21st century. Under her leadership, the agency made it clear that new technologies had to treat consumers fairly, including when it came to protecting their privacy. Through enforcement, litigation, and publicly exposing new threats, Edith Ramirez’s commission has created a unique consumer protection legacy that will have a long-lasting and positive impact. Ramirez’s tenure has also been marked by a strong commitment to protecting economically vulnerable and other at-risk consumers, including those who reflect the country’s diversity.
