Facebook wants you to think it’s consistently increasing transparency about how the company stores and uses your data. But the company still isn’t revealing everything to its users, according to an investigation by Privacy International. The obvious holes in Facebook’s privacy data exports paint a picture of a company that aims to placate users’ concerns Read more about Facebook’s privacy tools are riddled with missing data[…]
Drone enthusiasts are up in arms over rules proposed by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that would require their flying gizmos to provide real-time location data to the government via an internet connection. The requirement, for drones weighing 0.55lb (0.25kg) or more, would ground an estimated 80 per cent of gadgets in the United Read more about US Gov wants to spy on all drones all the time: they must be constantly connected to the internet to give Feds real-time location data[…]
This is going to be a lengthy blog post so let me use this opening paragraph as a summary of where Project Svalbard is at: Have I Been Pwned is no longer being sold and I will continue running it independently. After 11 months of a very intensive process culminating in many months of exclusivity Read more about Project Svalbard, Have I Been Pwned will not be sold after all[…]
Ring, the Amazon-owned maker of smart-home doorbells and web-enabled security cameras, is changing its privacy settings two weeks after a study showed the company shares customers’ personal information with Facebook, Google and other parties without users’ consent. The change will let Ring users block the company from sharing most, but not all, of their data. Read more about Ring doorbells to change privacy settings after study showed it shared personal information with Facebook and Google[…]
Facebook is tightening its rules around the use of raw, device-level data used for measuring ad campaigns that Facebook shares with an elite group of advertising technology partners. As first spotted by AdAge, the company recently tweaked the terms of service that apply to its “advanced mobile measurement partner” program, which advertisers tap into to track the Read more about Facebook Cuts Off Some Mobile tracking Ad Data With Advertising Partners, should have done this long long ago[…]
An iPhone app built by controversial facial recognition startup Clearview AI has been blocked by Apple, effectively banning the app from use. Apple confirmed to TechCrunch that the startup “violated” the terms of its enterprise developer program. The app allows its users — which the company claims it serves only law enforcement officers — to Read more about Apple has blocked Clearview AI’s iPhone app for violating its rules[…]
A facial-recognition company that contracts with powerful law-enforcement agencies just reported that an intruder stole its entire client list, according to a notification the company sent to its customers. In the notification, which The Daily Beast reviewed, the startup Clearview AI disclosed to its customers that an intruder “gained unauthorized access” to its list of Read more about Clearview AI, Creepy Facial Recognition Company That Stole Your Pictures from Social Media, Says Entire Client List Was Stolen by Hackers[…]
Tesla chief executive Elon Musk calls this function Sentry Mode. I also call it Chaperone Mode and Snitch Mode. I’ve been writing recently about how we don’t drive cars, we drive computers. But this experience opened my eyes. I love that my car recorded a hit-and-run on my behalf. Yet I’m scared we’re not ready Read more about Your car records a lot of things you don’t know about – including you.[…]
The shift, prompted by Britain’s exit from the EU, will leave the sensitive personal information of tens of millions with less protection and within easier reach of British law enforcement. The change was described to Reuters by three people familiar with its plans. Google intends to require its British users to acknowledge new terms of Read more about Google users in UK to lose EU data protection, get US non-protection[…]
The nation’s largest financial data broker, Yodlee, holds extensive and supposedly anonymized banking and credit card transaction histories on millions of Americans. Internal documents obtained by Motherboard, however, appear to indicate that Yodlee clients could potentially de-anonymize those records by simply downloading a giant text file and poking around in it for a while. According Read more about Firm Tracking Purchase, Transaction Histories of Millions Not Really Anonymizing Them[…]
The US state of Maine is violating internet broadband providers’ free speech by forcing them to ask for their customers’ permission to sell their browser history, according to a new lawsuit. The case was brought this month by four telco industry groups in response to a new state-level law aimed at providing Maine residents with Read more about Forcing us to get consent before selling browser histories violates our free speech, US ISPs claim[…]
Seeking to improve its pisspoor customer service rating, UK telecoms giant Vodafone has clarified just how much information it slurps from customer networks. You might want to rename those servers, m’kay? The updates are rather extensive and were noted by customers after a headsup-type email arrived from the telco. One offending paragraph gives Vodafone an Read more about Vodafone: Yes, we slurp data on customers’ network setups, but we do it for their own good. No, you can’t opt out.[…]
You probably don’t realize just how many devices in your home or workplace are not only capable of eavesdropping on all your conversations but are specifically designed to. Smartphones, tablets, computers, smartwatches, smart speakers, even voice-activated appliances that have access to smart assistants like Amazon’s Alexa or Google Assistant feature built-in microphones that are constantly Read more about This Bracelet Prevents Smart Speakers From Spying on You[…]
The Internet Society’s own members are now opposing its sale of the .org internet registry to an unknown private equity firm. The Chapters Advisory Council, the official voice of Internet Society (ISOC) members, will vote this month on whether to approve a formal recommendation that the society “not proceed [with the sale] unless a number Read more about Internet Society told to halt .org sale to dodgy companies… by its own advisory council[…]
In 2018, Target wrote an article about Ada Lovelace, the daughter of Lord Byron who some credit as being the world’s first computer programmer, despite being born in 1815. Unfortunately, however, those who search for that article today using Google won’t find it. As the image below shows, the original Tweet announcing the article is Read more about Google allows random company to DMCA sites with the word ‘Did’ in it, de-indexes (deletes) them without warning or recourse.[…]
The popular Edison email app, which is in the top 100 productivity apps on the Apple app store, scrapes users’ email inboxes and sells products based off that information to clients in the finance, travel, and e-Commerce sectors. The contents of Edison users’ inboxes are of particular interest to companies who can buy the data Read more about How Big Companies Spy on Your Emails[…]
Based on the findings, more than 20 consumer and civil society organisations in Europe and from different parts of the world are urging their authorities to investigate the practices of the online advertising industry. The report uncovers how every time we use apps, hundreds of shadowy entities are receiving personal data about our interests, habits, Read more about The advertising industry is systematically breaking the law says Norweigan consumer council[…]
Chooseco LLC, a children’s book publisher, filed its complaint in January 2019. According to the plaintiff, it has been using the mark since the 1980s and has sold more than 265 million copies of its Choose Your Own Adventure books. 20th Century Fox holds options for movie versions, and Chooseco alleges that Netflix actively pursued Read more about Netflix Loses Bid to Dismiss $25 Million Lawsuit Over ‘Black Mirror: Bandersnatch’ because someone feels they own the phrase: choose your own adventure[…]
On Tuesday, the Czech data protection authority announced an investigation into antivirus company Avast, which was harvesting the browsing history of over 100 million users and then selling products based on that data to a slew of different companies including Google, Microsoft, and Home Depot. The move comes after a joint Motherboard and PCMag investigation Read more about Data Protection Authority Investigates Avast for Selling Users’ Browsing and Maps History[…]
It’s a really good expose on copyright and why it’s a bad, bad thing in the music business.
Snowden’s bestseller Permanent Record is now available as a free download in Chinese after Communist Party censors cut out all the parts of the former IT admin’s memoir referring to China’s Great Firewall censorship system. The Great Firewall is one of the main means, in the digital era, by which the party maintains its iron Read more about Super-leaker Snowden punts free PDF* of tell-all NSA book with censored parts about China restored, underlined[…]
As legal pressures and US lawmaker scrutiny mounts, Clearview AI, the facial recognition company that claims to have a database of more than 3 billion photos scraped from websites and social media, is looking to grow around the world. A document obtained via a public records request reveals that Clearview has been touting a “rapid Read more about Instagram-Scraping Clearview AI Wants To Sell Its Facial Recognition Software To Authoritarian Regimes[…]
When you visit any website, its owner will know where you click, what you type, and how you move your mouse. That’s how websites work: In order to perform actions based on user input, they have to know what that input is. On its own, that information isn’t all that useful, but many websites today Read more about Almost Every Website You Visit Records Exactly How Your Mouse Moves[…]
The American Civil Liberties Union plans to fight newly revealed practices by the Department of Homeland Security which used commercially available cell phone location data to track suspected illegal immigrants. “DHS should not be accessing our location information without a warrant, regardless whether they obtain it by paying or for free. The failure to get Read more about US gov buys all US cell phone location data, wants to use it for deportations[…]
In a perfect world, every new computer with Windows 10 on it—or every new installation of Windows 10—would arrive free of annoying applications and other bloatware that few people need. (Sorry, Candy Crush Saga.) It would also be free of annoying advertising. While that’s not to say that Microsoft is dropping big banners for Coke Read more about How to Remove Windows 10’s Annoying Ads Masquerading as ‘Suggestions’[…]