The article emphasizes the importance of adhering to data protection laws, obtaining proper consent for data collection and processing, implementing robust security measures, being transparent with users about how their data is used, and ensuring ethical use of AI. It also highlights the need for clear communication about subscription renewal processes, respecting customer opt-outs and unsubscribes, securing IoT devices and networks, avoiding deceptive advertising, ensuring transparency in digital contracts, and avoiding the use of 'dark patterns' in user interfaces.
Key takeaways:
- Companies are being scrutinized for their handling of user data and subscription services, with regulatory agencies paying closer attention to how tech product and service companies treat their customers.
- Common technology-related missteps that could land a business in legal trouble include mishandling user data, spamming customers with marketing emails, storing personal information outside of regulatory guidelines, and overusing large language models without proper guardrails.
- Other potential legal issues include ineffective data protection measures, establishing automatically renewing subscriptions without transparency, tolerating technical debt, aggressively tracking users’ activity without clear consent, and failing to secure IoT devices and networks.
- Companies are also warned against leveraging automated decision-making systems that perpetuate biases, engaging in deceptive advertising, creating opaque digital contracts, improperly training and maintaining AI algorithms, selling user data without transparency and consent, and using facial recognition for customer surveillance without clear consent.