Twitter has published its 20th transparency report, and the details still aren’t reassuring to those concerned about abuses of personal info. The social network saw “record highs” in the number of account data requests during the July-December 2021 reporting period, with 47,572 legal demands on 198,931 accounts. The media in particular faced much more pressure. Read more about Twitter warns of ‘record highs’ in account data requests[…]
A Russian court fined Google $374 million on Monday for its failure to remove prohibited content, according to the country’s internet watchdog Roskomnadzor. The Tagansky District Court of Moscow took exception to YouTube content it claimed contained “fakes about the course of a special military operation in Ukraine” and discredited Russia’s armed forces. The court Read more about Russia fines Google $374M over Ukraine invasion portrayal[…]
Investigators raised alarm bells when they learned Homeland Security bureaus were buying phone location data to effectively bypass the Fourth Amendment requirement for a search warrant, and now it’s clearer just how extensive those purchases were. TechCrunch notes the American Civil Liberties Union has obtained records linking Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Read more about Records reveal the scale of Homeland Security’s phone location data purchases[…]
A proposed class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of payment card issuers accuses Apple of illegally profiting from Apple Pay and breaking antitrust laws. Iowa’s Affinity Credit Union is listed as the plaintiff in the complaint, filed today in the US District Court for the Northern District of California. The lawsuit alleges that by restricting contactless Read more about Apple Pay illegally profited by walling off contactless payments, lawsuits in EU, US allege[…]
While we were just discussing how everyone occasionally gets reminded that for many digital goods these days you simply don’t actually own what you’ve bought, all thanks to Sony disappearing a bunch of purchased movies and shows from its PlayStation platform, this conversation has been going on for a long, long time. Whereas the expectation Read more about Ubisoft Teaches Customers They Don’t Own All That DLC They ‘Bought’[…]
Ring is rejecting the request of a U.S. senator to introduce privacy-enhancing changes to its flagship doorbell video camera after product testing showed the device capable of recording conversations well beyond the doorsteps of its many millions of customers. Security and privacy experts expressed alarm at the quality of the distant recordings, raising concerns about Read more about Amazon Ring Tells Sen. Markey It Won’t Enhance Doorbell Privacy, will listen in to long range conversations[…]
Ring, the maker of internet-connected video doorbells and security cameras, said in its latest transparency report that it turned over a record amount of doorbell footage and other information to U.S. authorities last year. The Amazon-owned company said in two biannual reports covering 2021 that it received 3,147 legal demands, an increase of about 65% Read more about Amazon’s Ring gave a record amount of doorbell footage to the US government in 2021[…]
A data leak from ride-sharing app Uber revealed activities allegedly geared to avoid regulation and law enforcement – including a “kill switch” that would remotely cut computer access to servers at its headquarters in San Francisco in case of a raid – according to weekend media. The leak was provided to The Guardian and shared Read more about Leaked Uber files reveal extensive use of ‘kill switch’, Lobbying partners including Macron, tax haven use, etc[…]
Amazon (AMZN.O) has offered to share marketplace data with sellers and boost the visibility of rival products on its platform, trying to persuade EU antitrust regulators to close their investigations without a fine by the end of the year, people familiar with the matter said. The world’s largest online retailer is hoping its concessions will Read more about Amazon offers to share data, boost rivals to dodge EU antitrust fines[…]
[…] The Cyberspace Administration of China’s (CAC) policy was first floated in October 2021 and requires businesses that transfer data offshore to conduct a security review. The requirements kick in when an organization transfers data describing more than 100,000 individuals, or information about critical infrastructure – including that related to communications, finance and transportation. Sensitive Read more about China’s cyberspace regulator details data export rules[…]
Michael E. Karpeles, Program Lead on OpenLibrary.org at the Internet Archive, spotted an interesting blog post by Michael Kozlowski, the editor-in-chief of Good e-Reader. It concerns Amazon and its audiobook division, Audible: Amazon owned Audible ceased selling individual audiobooks through their Android app from Google Play a couple of weeks ago. This will prevent anyone from buying Read more about Enjoy Digital Ownership And Public Libraries While You Still Can – the rental model is coming for you[…]
[…] LIBE committee member and Pirate Party MEP Patrick Breyer said that during the meeting last week, the committee discovered that the UK – and three EU member states, though their identities were not revealed – had already signed up to reintroduce US visa requirements which grant access to police biometric databases. In the UK, Read more about UK + 3 EU countries sign US border deal to share police biometric database[…]
[…] Mickey Mouse will enter the public domain in the year 2024, almost 95 years after his creation on 1 October 1928 – the length of time after which the copyright on an anonymous or pseudo-anonymous body of artistic work expires. Daniel Mayeda is the associate director of the Documentary Film Legal Clinic at UCLA Read more about After 95 years, will Disney finally lose copyright to Mickey Mouse? Or will they find another way to extend the right to do nothing but make money for it?[…]
In yet another example of T-Mobile being The Worst with its customer’s data, the company announced a new money-making scheme this week: selling its customers’ app download data and web browsing history to advertisers. The package of data is part of the company’s new “App Insights” adtech product that was in beta for the last Read more about T-Mobile Is Selling Your App and Web History to Advertisers allowing extremely fine personal targetting (they say)[…]
Riot Games will begin background evaluation of recorded in-game voice communications on July 13th in North America, in English. In a brief statement (opens in new tab) Riot said that the purpose of the recording is ultimately to “collect clear evidence that could verify any violations of behavioral policies.” For now, however, recordings will be Read more about Valorant will start listening in to and recording your voice chat in July[…]
A recent IPO consultation found many experts doubted AI was currently able to invent without human assistance. Current law allowed humans to patent inventions made with AI assistance, the government said, despite “misperceptions” this was not the case. Last year, the Court of Appeal ruled against Stephen Thaler, who had said his Dabus AI system Read more about UK decides AI still cannot patent inventions[…]
Coinbase Tracer, the analytics arm of the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, has signed a contract with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement that would allow the agency access to a variety of features and data caches, including “historical geo tracking data.” Coinbase Tracer, according to the website, is for governments, crypto businesses, and financial institutions. It allows Read more about Coinbase Is Selling Data on Crypto and ‘Geotracking’ to ICE[…]
Google is to pay $90 million to settle a class-action lawsuit with US developers over alleged anti-competitive behavior regarding the Google Play Store. Eligible for a share in the $90 million fund are US developers who earned two million dollars or less in annual revenue through Google Play between 2016 and 2021. “A vast majority Read more about Google to pay $90m to settle Play Store lawsuit[…]
The Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC), a non-profit focused on free and open source software (FOSS), said it has stopped using Microsoft’s GitHub for project hosting – and is urging other software developers to do the same. In a blog post on Thursday, Denver Gingerich, SFC FOSS license compliance engineer, and Bradley M. Kuhn, SFC policy Read more about Open source Fundamentalists SFC quit GitHub, want you to follow – because GitHub charges for Copilot feature[…]
Numerous companies, including Facebook, Marketo, Olytics, and HubSpot, utilize custom URL query parameters to track clicks on links. For example, Facebook appends a fbclid query parameter to outbound links to track clicks, with an example of one of these URLs shown below. https://www.example.com/?fbclid=IwAR4HesRZLT-fxhhh3nZ7WKsOpaiFzsg4nH0K4WLRHw1h467GdRjaLilWbLs With the release of Firefox 102, Mozilla has added the new ‘Query Read more about New Firefox privacy feature strips URLs of tracking parameters[…]
[…] EU privacy group NOYB (None of your business), set up by privacy warrior Max “Angry Austrian” Schrems, said on Tuesday it appealed a decision of the Spanish Data Protection Authority (AEPD) to support Virgin Telco’s refusal to provide the location data it has stored about a customer. In Spain, according to NOYB, the government Read more about Spain, Austria not convinced location data is personal[…]
Chinese bank depositors planning a protest about their frozen funds saw their health code mysteriously turn red and were stopped from traveling to the site of a rally, confirming fears that China’s vast COVID-tracking system could be weaponized as a powerful tool to stifle dissent. A red health code designated the would-be protesters as suspected Read more about Chinese Officials Are Weaponizing COVID Health Tracker to Block Protests[…]
Facebook is collecting ultra-sensitive personal data about abortion seekers and enabling anti-abortion organizations to use that data as a tool to target and influence people online, in violation of its own policies and promises. In the wake of a leaked Supreme Court opinion signaling the likely end of nationwide abortion protections, privacy experts are sounding Read more about Facebook and Anti-Abortion Clinics Are Collecting Highly Sensitive Info on Would-Be Patients[…]
A week after confirming plans for Telegram Premium, the messaging platform’s CEO, Pavel Durov, is again criticizing Apple’s approach to its Safari browser for stifling the efforts of web developers. Durov would very much like his web-based messaging platform, Telegram Web, to be delivered as a web app rather than native, but is prevented from Read more about Telegram criticizes Apple for subpar web app features on iOS, crippling app[…]
Julian Assange—founder of the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks—can now be extradited from the United Kingdom to the United States, where he will face charges of espionage. In April, a London court filed a formal extradition order for Assange, and the UK Home Secretary approved the order today, meaning that Assange can be extradited back to the Read more about Julian Assange Extradition to US Approved by UK Government[…]