Brands prepare for updated data privacy law - September 27, 2022

Executive Leadership Briefing

Lumber prices fell to their lowest level in more than two years, pointing to an anticipated downturn in construction as two-by-fours return to prices last seen before the pandemic. Wood prices exploded in the summer of 2020 as home sales and remodels surged, but have since declined by more than 70% from their peak. The shift to working from home drove more than 60% of the increase in house and rent prices during the pandemic, according to new research from the Federal Reserve. The increase in prices is likely to stick even as more corporations issue return-to-office mandates.

More brands are taking notice of California’s data privacy laws after cosmetics retailer Sephora agreed to pay $1.2 million in penalties for alleged violations of the law, which was expanded and amended as the California Privacy Rights Act to take effect on Jan. 1. Many Big Tech companies have been more focused on the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, which has led to major fines for Meta and Amazon. Tik Tok is currently facing the prospect of a $29 million fine in the U.K. for failing to protect children’s privacy.

More than half of principals said in a new survey they felt their schools were understaffed at the start of the current school year, highlighting a lingering shortage after just 20% of principals said their schools were understaffed before the pandemic. The U.S. Department of Education on Tuesday announced more than $60 million to strengthen the teacher pipeline, although some academics argue that many states’ staffing data misrepresents the true turnover rate. They say that hiring has been so difficult largely because of an increase in the number of open positions, spurred by large amounts of federal stimulus during the pandemic.

A U.S. compliance official is calling on companies and their executives to prioritize the end of forced labor in their supply chains after a law passed in June that imposes restrictions on the importation of goods from China’s Xinjiang region, where many Uyghur people are located. The number of people experiencing forced labor has grown by 10 million in the last five years, according to researchers from Geneva, bringing the total number of people in modern slavery – referring to forced labor, forced marriage and human trafficking – to 50 million worldwide.

More companies are turning to machine learning to get customer feedback, analyzing the language used in transcripts of calls and chats with AI rather than relying on customer surveys. While executives say the new solution could offer a richer report of the customer experience, many consumers have shown a reluctance to having their behavior tracked online. In Ohio, a venture operated by Alphabet Inc. that seeks to offer a “tech-enabled” approach to substance abuse through individualized approaches found that the non-technological, traditional care offered to those in the program has been most effective.

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