About-Face: The Year in Facial Recognition and Trends to Watch in 2021
As with so many other fields, 2020 bore witness to a dizzying series of developments within the facial recognition policy sphere. At ACT| the App Association, we did our best to stay abreast of it all. We compiled a taxonomy of legislative responses to facial recognition and created an infographic for facial recognition use-cases to illustrate the diversity of applications for a technology often viewed one-dimensionally. Even as facial recognition retained its place in the spotlight last year, the long-term [...]
Brexit Briefing – What the UK’s Exit from the EU Means for Your Small Business
Four and a half years have passed since the United Kingdom (UK) voted to leave the European Union (EU). On 24 December 2020, the two parties finally struck a last-minute agreement to avoid the disastrous scenario of a no-deal Brexit. The majority of provisions included in the new “UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement” (UK-EU TCA) provisionally entered into force on 1 January 2021. A few remaining provisions will be phased in over time. The agreement covers rules for selling and [...]
Prop 24, CPRA, and CCPA 2.0: What Developers Need to Know
While scholars of the finer points of Californian privacy law will have immediately noticed the redundancy in the title of this post, an important clarification is in order for those less familiar: Prop 24, CPRA, and CCPA 2.0 all, somewhat confusingly, refer to the same thing. On November 3, 2020, Californians approved a ballot initiative known as Proposition 24, also known as the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) or California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) 2.0. This ballot initiative was backed [...]
Wearable Devices for Symptom Monitoring: The Complement to COVID Testing
The quarantine routine is becoming common for many Americans. I myself finished a 14-day quarantine in early November, complete with PCR test following a positive COVID-19 exposure. Within those two weeks, I—as I am sure many Americans—had several questions floating around in my head including, Am I quarantining properly? When will I get my test results?!? What do my test results mean? and What do I do based on the results? A more productive question I found myself thinking was, [...]
Key Takeaways from CMS’s CY 2021 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule and Quality Payment Program Rules
On December 2, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released its highly anticipated 2021 rules for the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) and Quality Payment Program (QPP). These rules have had, and will continue to have, a massive impact on the use of digital health tools in the American healthcare system. Permanent Solutions Needed After the Public Health Emergency Concludes Telehealth CMS continues to support expanded use of telehealth in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic, adding many new [...]
Year in Review: EU Member Spotlights 2020
ACT | The App Association exists to help our members flourish. 2020 may not be the year any of us expected, but it was a year during which our members managed to celebrate many successes, overcome challenges, and grow their companies. We are delighted to welcome so many talented and innovative new members this year and collaborate with many of our long-standing member companies. Our members develop and innovate technologies across all sectors of the app economy and play a [...]