United Kingdom
Could sleep app data help identify respiratory disease trends in England?
- The UK Health Security Agency and Sleep Cycle have announced the beginning of a 12-week research collaboration to understand if privacy-preserved data collected through a sleep app can support traditional respiratory disease surveillance systems and early detection of respiratory virus patterns.
- The study will analyse trends derived from anonymised and privacy-preserved data collected from the Sleep Cycle app between January 2023 and January 2026.
- The research includes the Sleep Cycle’s Cough Radar, a public visualisation tool that shows the data aggregated trends in nightly coughing intensity across different regions in England.
- The study aims to explore if these signals can provide earlier visibility into respiratory disease trends. This includes viruses such as influenza, RSV, and Covid-19.
- The study aims to investigate how the sleep-based signals such as nighttime cough patterns corresponds to the UK’s existing hospital admission data and surveillance indicators, and whether it provides an earlier signal of rising infection rates.
United States
TikTok US pushes back on claims it is censoring content
- TikTok has denied claims that its new US operations are heavily controlling what users post after it was reported by thousands there were glitches with the video streaming platform.
- A spokesperson for TikTok US stated that the glitches were due to technical issues since it became a separate American entity.
- California Governor Gavin Newsom announced an investigation into claims TikTok has censored content which is critical of the Trump administration.
- Amongst the problems users have had with the platform, many reported they were unable to see political posts, including content criticising US President Donald Trump. This has raised concerns that users are being censored and monitored.
Meta, TikTok, YouTube to stand trial on youth addiction claims
- Meta platforms, TikTok and YouTube are facing courtroom scrutiny over allegations that their platforms are fuelling a youth mental health crisis, which related to the debate about children’s screen time.
- The trial is in California Superior Court, Los Angeles County and is a ‘test case’ for thousands of other lawsuits seeking damages for social media harms.
- The plaintiff is a 19-year-old woman from California, who says she became addicted to the companies’ platforms at a young age due to their attention-grabbing design, according to court filings. She is claiming that the apps fuelled her depression and suicidal thoughts and is seeking for the companies to be held liable.
- Tech companies have argued a federal law shields them from this case which largely exempts platforms such as Instagram from legal liability for the material users post. If the verdict was held against the social media companies, then this would put a crack in that defence which has protected them from lawsuits for decades.
Europe
New plan aims to deliver effective data protection
- Guernsey’s Office of Data Protectin (ODPA) said plans to increase promotion would create a “safe and prosperous community” where people could trust their personal information was used responsibly.
- The ODPA is looking to promote data rights, work on education and outreach, while taking proportionate, assertive, and agile enforcement action against significant non-compliance.
- The ODPA said it was facing challenges as the digital environment continues to evolve. It said that promoting proactive compliance, managing breach risks, engaging our community and technological innovation are ways to confront these challenges.
- It is said that education would be one of the key parts of the plan by creating a benchmarking survey to gauge awareness of the law and developing an outreach programme.
EU to make WhatsApp more responsible for tackling harmful content
- The European Commission has stated that it has formally designated Meta’s WhatsApp as a “very large platform” under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), making it more responsible for tackling illegal and harmful content.
- The WhatsApp’ “channels” feature has been considered a very large platform; the messaging service is not affected. The channels had 51.7 million average monthly active users in the EU in the first six months of 2025, more than the 45-million-user threshold set out in the DSA.
- The DSA requires large platforms to do more to tackle illegal and harmful content. This may mean more volumes of data to be scanned which raises questions of privacy.
- A spokesperson for WhatsApp said that their platform continues to grow in the EU and elsewhere, “we remain committed to evolving our safety and integrity measures in the region, ensuring they align with relevant regulatory expectations and our ongoing responsibility to users”.
International
Qatar reinforces data protection framework on International Privacy Day 2026
- On Wednesday 28th January, the National Cyber Security Agency (NCSA) commemorated International Data Privacy Day, under the theme “Data Privacy Starts with You”. The event brought together various professionals such as senior government officials, international regulators, and cybersecurity experts.
- Qatar’s has been making an ongoing effort to strengthen its national data protection framework and promote a culture of privacy awareness among individuals, institutions and businesses.
- Speaking at the event, Ali Al Kaabi from the Data Privacy Department at NCSA noted that the 2026 Data Privacy Day marked a milestone with the launch of Qatar’s first national data privacy awareness campaign.
- It was emphasised that the campaign promotes “practical awareness encouraging organisations to adopt strong governance measures and secure data-handling practices, while empowering individuals to understand how their data is used and protected.
For the latest updates on TikTok US censorship investigation, sleep app health data tracking in England, social media youth addiction lawsuits, EU platform regulation, and global data privacy reforms, visit our Data Protection News hub.
