Items tagged with Privacy
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Nathan Ord - Fri, Dec 04, 2020
The data collection business is a problem that affects anyone who uses a smartphone. Previously, we have seen data purchased that can track users to their doorstep, which is quite concerning in and of itself. Now, it is rumored that...
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Nathan Ord - Mon, Nov 16, 2020
Controlling where your data goes is vital in online safety and security. Unwanted data leakage and breaches are the bane of an online person’s existence, and Google is looking to make the privacy more manageable. In the next few weeks...
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Nathan Ord - Mon, Nov 02, 2020
One of the most popular features of apps like Snapchat is messages that disappear after a set period of time. Whether you are sending lewd messages or sensitive information, self-destructing messages can protect against images and...
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Brittany Goetting - Thu, Oct 22, 2020
Most smart device users are accustomed to needing to activate their smart assistant through a “wake” word. How would users feel if this inconvenience could be eliminated? Google is reportedly working on allowing users to merely approach...
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Paul Lilly - Fri, Oct 09, 2020
When you are arrested for an alleged crime, police are supposed to issue a Miranda warning (often referred to as Miranda rights), letting suspects know they have the right to remain silent and anything they say can be used against them in...
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Brandon Hill - Tue, Sep 22, 2020
When it comes to troublesome data breaches, this one is pretty significant, and it comes from a surprising company. The company in question is Microsoft, which left one of its backend servers that runs the Bing mobile app wide open. As a...
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Nathan Ord - Fri, Sep 04, 2020
Private threat analysis and mitigation company, HYAS, is buying user data from phone apps to try to track hackers. A major side-effect of this, though, is that regular users are possibly being ensnared and HYAS claims they can track people...
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Nathan Ord - Thu, Sep 03, 2020
In 2013, Edward Snowden released information on the U.S. Government regarding the mass surveillance and aggregation of data in America. Now, a U.S. Appellate Court has deemed the mass surveillance unconstitutional and thus illegal.
As...
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Brittany Goetting - Wed, Aug 19, 2020
In 2020 we are all too familiar with incidents in which private companies sell user data. Many of us are less familiar with the ways that public entities can also sell and circulate data. It was recently revealed that the California...
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Paul Lilly - Fri, Aug 14, 2020
The debate over whether smartphone owners should be legally compelled to involuntary unlock their handsets for law enforcement rages on, and advocates that they should just scored a key victory in New Jersey. In a 4-3 vote, the New Jersey...
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Paul Lilly - Fri, Aug 14, 2020
Serving as yet another reminder that whatever you put out there in the online world should be assumed to exist forever, it was discovered that Instagram (owned by Facebook) was not wiping deleted content from its servers like it was...
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Paul Lilly - Thu, Aug 13, 2020
Security researchers recently discovered multiple vulnerabilities within certain Amazon domains that could have allowed an attacker to access sensitive Alexa data, including voice histories and personal data, before they were fixed. A...
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Paul Lilly - Sun, Jul 26, 2020
App makers are going to have to rethink things when iOS 14 arrives, because the next version of Apple's mobile operating system has a privacy feature that likes to tattle on certain behaviors. We have seen this a few times already, with...
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Shane McGlaun - Sat, Jul 11, 2020
For many people around the world, a common way to protect their privacy and prevent anyone from watching them when they're not aware is to cover the camera lens on their notebook or desktop. People cover lenses of their webcams with all...
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Paul Lilly - Tue, Jul 07, 2020
App stores are imperfect places, and serving as a reminder of this, a cybersecurity firm based in France alerted Google to the discovery of over two dozen malicious Android apps hanging out in the Play Store. Fortunately, Google was quick...
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Paul Lilly - Sat, Jul 04, 2020
Earlier this week, TikTok found itself in hot water for snooping clipboard data on iPhone handsets, which it tried to justify as a fraud detection feature. Following the backlash, TikTok said it would patch out the behavior. Fantastic, but...
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Paul Lilly - Thu, Jul 02, 2020
Ever find yourself wondering how many times Facebook will drop the ball when it comes to data privacy? The answer is at least one more time, apparently. In a blog post, Facebook admitted it uncovered a flaw that allowed thousands of...
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Brandon Hill - Fri, Jun 26, 2020
Yesterday, we brought you news that the TikTok app has been doing some shady things behind the scenes with devices running iOS. Following the release of the first iOS 14 beta, it was discovered that TikTok was pinging the system clipboard...
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Brandon Hill - Thu, Jun 25, 2020
TikTok has taken the world by storm as people of all ages uses the social networking platform to share videos. People use the platform to lip-sync to their favorite songs, perform short skits, or any number of humorous hijinks that the...
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Paul Lilly - Mon, Jun 08, 2020
The main draw of using WhatsApp is enhanced privacy through end-to-end encryption, followed by its popularity—more than 2 billion people in over 180 countries use the instant messaging service. This also makes privacy and security lapses...
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Paul Lilly - Wed, Jun 03, 2020
Google faces a proposed class action lawsuit seeking at least $5 billion in damages over its data collection policies tied with its Chrome browser, and specifically the browser's Incognito mode. According to the lawsuit, Google engages in...
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Brittany Goetting - Fri, May 22, 2020
Is your smartphone’s lock screen protected by the 4th Amendment of the United States Constitution? A recent court case in Washington state argued that activating a person’s lock screen could potentially count as a “search”. Lock screens...
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