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

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.