Items tagged with Privacy
Smartphones are inherently personal devices. We use them to help with and document so much of our lives. While data security is always a concern, the physical act of handing our phones over to be serviced can be particularly nerve-wracking. Sometimes the technician can perform the service in front of your watchful...
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Google announced its Privacy Sandbox initiative back in 2019 with the stated goal of changing the online advertising business that supports much of the web to use more privacy-preserving technologies. At present, online advertising relies heavily on third-party cookies that track users’ behavior across different...
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Near the end of 2020, Apple introduced a dedicated app privacy section to the App Store, requiring developers to disclose what user information is linked to users’ identities and used to track them. Then, in May of 2021, Google announced that a similar feature was in the works for its Play Store. Almost a year later...
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Ring, the smart home security company acquired by Amazon in 2018 for $1 billion, has a history of raising privacy concerns with its user data practices. Less than a year after Amazon completed its acquisition of Ring, an inside source revealed that the company’s employees had full access to customers’ live video...
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We recently wrote about TikTok’s extensive user data collection and an FCC commissioner's letter asking Apple and Google to ban the app from their app stores for violating their privacy policies. While TikTok goes to great lengths to collect user data, there is some small solace in the fact that users can avoid the...
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TikTok continues to be the subject of many discussions and news stories regarding not only privacy and personal data sovereignty, but also national security. Like so many popular social media and entertainment apps, TikTok collects lots of user data, including usage behavior, for advertising purposes. Detailed...
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Malicious software, commonly known as malware, is one of many threats to both cybersecurity and privacy. Cybercriminals can distribute malware to achieve a number of different goals, including siphoning funds from cryptocurrency wallets, stealing login credentials, or establishing botnets. However, cybercriminals...
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One of the perks of using Chrome is a wide assortment of browser extensions at your disposal. Including themes and apps, there are over 200,000 of them in the Chrome Web Store. There's strength in numbers but as it turns out, having so many extensions is also a weakness as it applies to privacy. How so? Your profile...
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Ransomware is bad news not only because it can cause business-ending disruptions, as in the case of Abraham Lincoln College, but also because the actors behind ransomware attacks often exfiltrate data from compromised systems in addition to encrypting the data on said machines. Ransomware gangs tend to use this stolen...
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Wi-Fi capable devices, like smart phones, often automatically send out probe requests in order to detect available Wi-Fi networks in the area. These probe requests include a device identifier known as a MAC address. Nowadays, most phones, as well as some other devices, utilize randomized MAC addresses to increase...
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Personal information is also valuable information, as personal data in the wrong hands can empower cybercriminals to commit identity theft and fraud. However, even those who take important steps to secure their personal information can have it exposed when an employer, health care provider, government agency, or other...
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The pursuit of internet privacy is something akin to an ever-evolving game of Whac-A-Mole, as new tracking techniques are revealed by researchers and addressed by privacy-preserving tools. Fortunately, there are a great many privacy tools available and under active development. DuckDuckGo offers a number of such...
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What a shocker—a social media giant misused its users’ data. It appears that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is not allowing at least one of those giants to entirely get away with its behavior. The FTC is fining Twitter $150 million USD for deceptively collecting users’ data and using it for targeted...
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Earlier this month, Clearview AI reached a settlement agreement with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) over the company’s usage of Illinois citizens' biometric data without their consent. Clearview AI sells its recently patented facial recognition technology to both private companies and government agencies...
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Facebook does not have the best track record when it comes to its privacy. However, there are a few things you can do as a user which can help protect your account and personal information from other users.
Social media apps have become the hub where people go to connect to both old and new friends alike. Being...
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Tech companies are often inconsistent in their stances towards privacy. Take Google for example; the web search and advertising giant is forcing better data collection and sharing transparency in the Google Play Store and recently joined other big tech firms to back legislation banning the use of geofence and keyword...
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Back in November, Meta announced that it was shutting down Facebook’s Face Recognition system and deleting over 1 billion people’s facial recognition templates. Only a month later, Clearview AI won a patent on its facial recognition algorithm, after ranking first in the US in the National Institute of Standards and...
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We’ve written in the past about both reverse location searches and reverse keyword searches and their uncertain legal status. Various US law enforcement agencies have been able to obtain warrants forcing companies such as Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft to hand over user location and search history data.
A reverse...
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When you fill out an online form and hit the submit button, you're willingly transmitting your personal data to the website and any third parties you may have agreed to in the fine print. That's fair game. However, an alarming security report suggests your data is sometimes transmitted even if you change your mind and...
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Do you ever think the internet's forum for public discourse is a little too public? Maybe a conversation with your friends doesn't need prying eyes on it, but you want everyone involved in the conversation. No, not Reddit.
Twitter seems to be right there with you, which is why it has introduced Twitter Circle. A...
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Last week, Google introduced its new data safety section for the Play Store, which states that Android application developers have until July 20th to fully disclose their data collection, sharing, and safety practices. A new analysis of popular Android apps shows why this kind of data collection transparency is...
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Earlier this week, we covered leaked details regarding a government contractor that demonstrated its ability to track billions of phones all over the world by spying on CIA and NSA agents’ activity. Government contractors are able to provide surveillance services by purchasing user data from third parties. However, US...
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