Items tagged with Privacy
Following an eight-year stint as the man in charge of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), Army General Keith Alexander has decided to step down effective next March or April. So will his civilian deputy, John "Chris" Inglis, who is planning to retire by the end of the year. The NSA came under heavy media and public scrutiny after former...
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If you’re an avid Facebook stalker, here’s some good news: Facebook is removing the feature that formerly let users prevent others from finding them by searching for their name in the Facebook search bar. If you’ve been successfully avoiding old classmates, a crazy ex, your boss, or just the general public on Facebook, you...
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In the famous words of a canine scholar best known for his research into unexplainable phenomenon, "Ruh roh!" That about sums up our reaction to the discovery that Google's popular Chrome browser may be storing sensitive data in such a way that it would be relatively easy for a malicious third party to dig it up and...
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The issues of security and privacy should always be on our minds, but ever since the revelation of NSA spying played out this past summer, those issues have been forced to the forefront - impossible to avoid. In reality, that's a great thing... we should be concerned about our privacy and definitely about our...
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Given the revelations of the NSA’s data-gathering program coupled with the fact that if you use essentially any Internet services your data is out there and capable of being mined, more users than ever are looking for ways to thwart the prying eyes of power that be. One solution, called openPDS, has been...
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Microsoft's onetime Chief Privacy Advisor, Caspar Bowden, has come out with a vote of no-confidence in the company's long-term privacy measures and ability or interest to secure user data in the wake of the NSA's PRISM program. From 2002 - 2011, Bowden was in charge of privacy at Microsoft, and oversaw the company's...
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When confronted with something that is both massive in scale and completely quantifiable, it does something to your brain. That “something” is hard to explain, but we feel it when we look at The Faces Of Facebook, which is a web page--a single web page--that contains the thumbnail images of all 1.2 billion (and counting) Facebook...
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During an interview at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center this past weekend, antivirus software founder John McAfee touted a new invention that he's planning to launch as soon as possible. It's called D-Central, and based on that name alone, and the fact that it's goal is to enhance your privacy, it's probably...
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Information about the NSA's data gathering efforts continues, with newly-released information of the agency's efforts on the social networking front. It's already been revealed that the NSA gathers information from many different sources, but this latest information gives us a clear idea as to the extent that this...
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Solutions that enable access to remote devices for security purposes are far from uncommon, but what is uncommon is having the functionality built right into the device, and especially with a solution that's simple to take advantage of. With a recent update to its Android Device Manager, Google has added the ability to remote lock, and remote...
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Hot on the heels of news that a crowdfunded competition aims to figure out if the fingerprint security implementation on Apple's iPhone 5s can be exploited comes news of a proven security risk, squarely involving iOS 7. The exploit specifically involves the lockscreen, the most common piece of security that stops some unauthorized individual...
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Following the initial leaks against the NSA by Edward Snowden this past summer, there was speculation that what was being exposed would end up hurting the business of US-based tech companies overseas. It's easy to understand why - when it's discovered that a country has been literally spying on those in friendly...
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The train carrying a vast amount of NSA confidential information continues to trek along today, with a revelation that the government agency conducted man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks involving a couple of the Web's largest companies. Falling under the guise of "FLYING PIG", one of the main traffic sources to...
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It was bad enough to find out about the NSA's PRISM program and all the companies that are involved, but in another blow to privacy, it was recently revealed that the NSA has cracked key encryption algorithms that formerly protected the Internet at large. It's part of the reason why Google is busy building better...
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Years ago, privacy never stuck me as being a truly hot topic online, and if there's a reason for that, it's likely because many of us didn't realize the extent that some companies go to, to make it almost nonexistent. As has been proven time and time again, your privacy online is almost nil if you make use of any social networking site, but...
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Google has continued to fight for its right to party continue scanning user email in a Californian court this week, with it seeming rather obvious that it's doing little to sway public opinion. The company, as you might recall, has been trying to prove its case that it must scan user email - it's all part of its...
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Yahoo, new logo and all, it turning over a new leaf when it comes to privacy, reporting, and what the public is allowed to know. In the wake of the NSA / PRISM scandal, which is honestly still ongoing, Yahoo has followed Facebook in issuing a public transparency report. Facebook did likewise last month, and now Yahoo...
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TRENDnet, a maker of home networking and security products, has agreed to settle charges brought on by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) alleging that its "lax security practices" left consumers susceptible to remote viewing by hackers. Specifically, the FTC took issue with TRENDnet's SecurView line of cameras and...
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Data privacy is fast becoming a running joke, and users are the punchline. Following the hoopla surrounding NSA's PRISM program, there's evidence to suggest that even link crawling robots can (and do) violate user privacy by sniffing out URLs included in private messages and emails. Not all sites are guilty of this...
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Facebook's search for new sources of revenues continues unabated -- and this time, the company wants to target your own profile phtoos for inclusion in its database. That's a change from the previous system, in which users were only scanned if other people tagged them first. Your own profile photos weren't...
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Privacy and security have been steaming-hot topics these past few months, and as evidenced in comment sections around the Web, they're topics not everyone can agree on. This latest story, of a school district in Glendale, California, is likely to have the same divided opinion. To help keep an eye on student goings-on...
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One of the worst things about Web security - and perhaps security in general - is that many people don't pay any attention to it. When Chrome, or another Web browser, asks you to store a password, do you happen to think about how it's stored, or how vulnerable it may leave you? A number of years ago, when I was...
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