Items tagged with 'Privacy'
Retrievable iPhone Numbers Lead To Privacy Concerns
After some iPhone users have reported receiving phone calls from the publisher of a free app they've downloaded from the App Store, users have begun to wonder: how did the company get my contact information? Since Apple does not provide contact information for users to App Store vendors, the phone calls seem a bit suspicious.... Read More
Palm Pre's Big Brother-ish Secrets Revealed
In the latest Big Brother-ish story to hit, a developer has discovered that the Palm Pre and Palm webOS know way too much about him than he wants. Not only does it upload location-based information to Palm, it also uploads data about his application usage. webOS also reports back crash log information to Palm. Of course,... Read More
FBI Uses Spyware to Capture Cyber Criminals
It doesn't carry quite the same weight as the Warren Commission report and it might even contain more redactions than the Nixon tape transcripts, but recently-released FBI documents obtained by Wired News via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) prove that the FBI has been using its own version of spyware for years to... Read More
Potential Security Issue in Google Latitude
Only one day after Google has released its social networking, location-aware application, Google Latitude, a privacy advocacy group is claiming that Google Latitude has "a fundamental design problem that could substantially endanger user privacy." Even though Google Latitude is designed to minimize privacy risks, Privacy... Read More
Flash & Safari Fail in Privacy Test
As Mozilla’s Firefox, Google’s Chrome, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, and Apple’s Safari all compete against one another to try to see who can be the No. 1 Web browser, certainly privacy is a key factor that influences success. While many of us hope to never have to deal with the repercussions of a flawed browser and/or... Read More
Pirate Party Gets Massive Support in Sweden
We’re sure many of you have suggestions for how we could change the copyright laws, patent system, and privacy rules in this country. However, we’re guessing not many of you have acted upon it. The Pirate Party in Sweden is doing just that, and they’re gaining some serious support in the process. Heading into the 2009 European... Read More
Yahoo! To Retain User Data For Only 90 Days
There is a famous New Yorker cartoon from 1993 with a dog using a computer, where the dog says: "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog." The implication is that you can be completely anonymous when online and be anyone, or anything, you want to be. That might have be mostly true in the early 1990's, but privacy advocates... Read More
ArmorSurf Launches First Privacy-focused Browser
There's been talk recently over private browsing features in upcoming browsers such as Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox 3.1 (Safari already has this feature). Privacy, of course, is an important subject for many end users (despite the somewhat pejorative term "porn mode" frequently used for it). Well, a new browser... Read More
Firefox 3.1 to Get Privacy Mode, After All
Faced with concerns that users might switch over to IE8 or Google's new Chrome so they can browse porn, er, we mean privately, Mozilla has reversed course on Privacy Mode, which had been out for Firefox 3.1. The upcoming release will indeed support Privacy Mode, popularly known as "Porn Mode." Both IE8 in its current... Read More
No Reasonable Expectation of Privacy on Work PCs
If you think the contents of your work computer are your business and only your business, then think again. Applying federal rulings from other jurisdictions to help guide its ruling, the New Jersey State Appeals Court ruled in a recent case that "an employee has no reasonable expectation of privacy in personal files stored... Read More
AOL Makes Online Privacy More Transparent
A recent U.K. study by AOL finds that most online users are concerned about their online privacy and about providing personal details to Websites. No surprise there. In fact, the study found that 84 percent of respondents said that "they would not give away income details online." What to make then of the fact that 89 percent... Read More
Electronic Privacy in Jeopardy
According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a dangerous legal precedent has just been set that can potentially unravel existing federal privacy protections for e-mail and Internet usage. The alert from the EFF is not just to sound a general warning, but it also takes the form of an Amicus curiae (friend of the... Read More
Google Reader’s Privacy Flap
'Tis the season to be upset - upset at Google over privacy, at least. Actually, it's year-round, and here's yet another.On Dec. 14th, in Google Reader Help and on the Official Google Reader Blog, they posted about a new feature, which, as they put it:The short description of it is this: If any of your friends from... Read More
Study says DRM counters Canadian privacy laws
This week the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) released a report which investigated DRM used in 16 different products and services. The conclusion was that many DRM technologies fail to comply with basic requirements of Canadian privacy law.The study, published by the University of Ottawa’s Canadian... Read More
Google's International Privacy Standard
Google has begun challenging various governments (via the U.N.) to adopt a global standard for protecting users' private data.Peter Fleicher, Google's chief privacy officer, has set himself up with quite a serious challenge. Laws in different countries are quite different, as is they degree to which they are enforced.... Read More
AT&T And Hollywood: Piracy Versus Privacy
AT&T recently announced that when it comes to piracy it plans to do what other high-speed internet providers have fought to keep from doing; work hand-in-hand with Hollywood. While the details are still rough, AT&T and Hollywood studios hope to work in unison to stop offshore pirates from distributing pirated files... Read More
The AOL Privacy Scandal's Disturbing Search Results
For a time, AOL was intent on creating a huge database containing what types of things people usually search for. When the operation was revealed, AOL apologized, removed the file, but not in time. 21 Million search queries is what the file contains, and with a number like that, you know you're going to see a great... Read More
A Guide to Only Privacy and Anonymity
I'm sure many of our readers are fully aware of what it takes to maintain a safe level of privacy while using the Internet, but on the other hand, I'm sure there are many of you out there who think having a firewall is all you'll need. Privacy and Anonymity can't just be found in a program, you need to practice... Read More
Google Desktop 3: Convenience vs. Privacy
Is the convenience of Google Desktop worth the privacy risks? As with a lot of "free" software out there, or almost anything free for that matter, there's always the fine print you need to consider. With privacy concerns being raised over Google's service, Bigbruin.com has taken some time to examine the old Convenience... Read More
Your Opinion Of Apple's Windows 7 FUD Ads?