Google, Meta, and Verizon are partners for a self-regulating “privacy” non-profit org (the BBB!) for cross border EU-US data transfers

[daveyosborn@infosec.pub]

cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/51227540

I could not find a way to reach the Council of Better Business Bureaus. So I had to dig into what happened to them. It turns out they split in 2019 into two separate orgs:

• International Association of Better Business Bureaus (IABBB)
• BBB National Programs

Confusing as fuck because I would naturally expect all the US-based BBB agencies to fall under the “BBB National Programs”. But the opposite is true. AFAICT, there is nothing international about the IABBB.

So what is the BBB National Programs? It is focused on advertising and privacy both. And w.r.t. privacy it has specifically positioned itself as some kind of authority on data movement between the EU and US.

This “BBB National Programs’ Center for Industry Self-Regulation (CISR)” has partners. When I look at the list of partners, it’s a shit-show of shitty corporations like Nestlé. I boycott about half of them. So who is partner in this non-profit effort to protect the privacy of those with EU and US digital footprints, you might ask? Here are some of them:

• Facebook (I hate to acknowledge the obnoxious “Meta” brand but write it here for searches)
• Google
• Verizon
• JP Morgan Chase (one of the most obnoxious privacy abusing banks in the US)
• Unilever (the food brand who has joined Bill Gates’ war on cash)
• T-Mobile (they are a lesser of evils for sure; it’s unclear why they want to be associated with a long list of full-blown evil corps)

Indeed the wolves seem to be in charge of the hen house.

So what is the legal consequence of this org? Are they facilitating some kind of under-handed way to get a seal of approval for GDPR purposes?

https://web.archive.org/web/20260202041756/https://bbbprograms.org/about/faq?faqb_e2eb1619-a6c1-4734-9756-abd9a9240e16=IsBBBNationalProgramsapartoftheBBB_faq&faqb_9453955a-e3e7-4d8c-8089-21a0a355fb6f=WhatistheGlobalPrivacyDivision_faq&faqb_3a9f7465-2027-4f5a-a880-885ddcb1a50c=Howdoyousubmitaconsumercomplaint_faq&faqb_9849ab78-4518-4299-9070-002cbc3ff974=DoesBBBNationalProgramspublishinformationonthecomplaintsitreceives_faq&faqb_fef79734-ccc5-4cc7-b975-23f2b5944e86=%5BWhatistheDataPrivacyFrameworkProgram_faq%2CHowdoIfileacomplaintagainstacompany_faq%5D#faqn=_EUUSDataPrivacyFrameworkServices_section