ashkan soltani
@ashk4n
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Technologist, Consultant, Reporter, Founder, Policy Wonk All tweets are my own and reflect my personal opinion, not that of any employer.
Oakland, CA
Joined November 2008
I'm grateful to the @CalPrivacy board for the opportunity to stand up America’s first dedicated privacy protection agency. It's truly been an honor to lead this incredible team. Thank you @CalPrivacy @AsmLowenthal @SenJoshBecker @SenatorUmberg and #California
Ashkan Soltani was presented with resolutions from @AsmLowenthal, @SenJoshBecker, and @SenatorUmberg and the CPPA Board recognizing his distinguished service as the inaugural Executive Director of the CPPA. Read his statement published last month: https://t.co/nNK9bCIhUT
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And ICYMI: This *first* CCPA settlement with a major car company imposes the MAXIMUM fine amount : ($382,500/(119+14+20)) = $2500 per violation. Violations include those pertaining to unnecessary verification, "dark patterns" (symmetry in choice), and deficient vendor contracts
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CPPA's first #CCPA enforcement action is out! Incredible work by Lisa Kim Lara Kehoe Hoffman and Michael Macko as well as the rest of the team. CPPA is all growns up!
American Honda Motor Co. agrees to change its business practices and pay a $630k+ fine over privacy violations. Read more: https://t.co/DygX6eOOJ2
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ICYMI: @CalPrivacy's first Annual Report came out last week, showcasing the incredible work and stupendous growth of the US's first dedicated privacy agency over its first 3 years. Have a look: https://t.co/Ge8m8lS9pC
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Job alert:
ICYMI: @CalPrivacy is seeking a General Counsel to serve as the chief legal advisor to help develop our Legal Division and oversee its daily operations. Great opportunity to help shape the future of privacy protection. Application deadline Nov 5th:
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Super important from @zamaan_qureshi This context important (and puts the focus back on the fact that @facebook permits kids to create accounts without parental consent)
Here Senator Blumenthal perfectly explains what "finstas" are (fake instas). He's seen documents from the FB whistleblower which indicates FB sees a business proposition in users creating second, private accounts sometimes without the knowledge of parents. THIS IS IMPORTANT.
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In yesterday's privacy hearing, @ashk4n talked about the problem of the revolving door between the FTC and industry. Well:
SCOOP: Two top privacy staffers resigned from the Federal Trade Commission this week. One of them is going to work at major Silicon Valley law firm Wilson Sonsini, which represented Google before the FTC several times during her 20+-year tenure. https://t.co/dC4F6t20dz
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“Nicko was diagnosed with severe brain damage. She died nine months later” “This was preventable.”
This needs to be translated into Russian and posted to every dark web/cybercrime forum. This is what it means to ransomware a hospital.
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the full slides released by @WSJ are WILD. in this presentation, Facebook researchers explain exactly how & why Instagram drives teen girls into downward spirals of depression in ways that other platforms don't. https://t.co/8CMevqRn4Z
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Link to my testimony from todays @SenateDems Commerce Committee hearing on 'Protecting Consumer Privacy" https://t.co/lbC3zwCDVa (PDF)
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Powerful statement by @ashk4n & we completely agree. The @FTC’s new privacy bureau must hire staff draft policies and litigate events of algorithmic discrimination and bring civil rights expertise to the Commission. #DataPrivacy
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Couldn't agree more with @ashk4n's proposal that the FTC hire cross-functional experts--beyond lawyers & technologists--including: statisticians, UX pros, social scientists, to help address complex issues like dark patterns, etc. [Privacy is cross-functional!]
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Everything you need to know about crypto markets: https://t.co/FY5VjxF3Ie
npr.org
A hamster named Mr. Goxx enters one of two tunnels in the his cage, which determines whether he will buy or sell. As of Friday, his portfolio is up nearly 20%, according to his Twitter account.
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.@Facebook's political strategy is exactly a page out of @googlepubpolicy's 2012 playbook when @Google attempted to woo/wow lawmakers with free rides in their driverless cars: https://t.co/mEg5lfxWIM (from @amir) (Full disclosure: I took a ride - wasn't very wow'd)
“Metaverse, medical devices, & Lean In” We have an exclusive story going inside FB’s political strategy. More than just a Zuck passion project, metaverse is an attempt to create rules for the next Internet FB could dominate. https://t.co/mQGeEiMdkL
@Cat_Zakrzewski @NickMiroff
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This is why I use @brave and @DuckDuckGo (mobile) as my main web browsers — no need to rely on shady industry-funded ad-block extensions/add-ons that could potentially compromise host OS, but still able to block 1st party (inline) ad injection on HTTPS websites.
They are right to worry about extension privileges > web page + loss of integrity, but blocking at the network layer is not enough: adversaries get into TLS 1st party payloads. MitM blocker would have to partially evaluate JS, which would add attack surface and miss some attacks.
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They are right to worry about extension privileges > web page + loss of integrity, but blocking at the network layer is not enough: adversaries get into TLS 1st party payloads. MitM blocker would have to partially evaluate JS, which would add attack surface and miss some attacks.
The @NSAGov guidance clarifies that network-level blocking (DNS/firewall) is superior to browser extensions as “browser extensions operate at a privileged level” and “could cause a greater compromise to network security than a malvertising attack” https://t.co/RffB4DUPeS (PDF)
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