[ad_1] My friend got a big pull in the Data Breach pack, Hashtag’s own Algerian Arrow, @YaniOurabah. We’ll send you a birthday card. What a mess. pic.twitter.com/IYMT1ieq4g — George Hughes (@GeorgeHughes) October 3, 2019 Before I get to the absolute farce of that competitive bullshit, when you click the link register for verification you get […]
Category: Privacy
Contractors say they were told to lie while collecting Pixel 4 face scans
[ad_1] This summer, we learned that Google had embarked on a wide scale project to collect facial recognition data, which the company said was necessary to build “fairness” into face unlocking for its Pixel 4, which will be officially unveiled on October 15th. A new report from the New York Daily News has more details […]
UK court rules Google must face lawsuit over Safari privacy
[ad_1] Google told the Financial Times that it intended to appeal the reversal to the country’s Supreme Court. It said the incident “took place nearly a decade ago” and that it had “addressed [it] at the time.” The lawsuit “has no merit,” the company added. The suit could prove costly to Google if successful. The […]
WhatsApp tests disappearing messages in its Android app
[ad_1] While the feature isn’t available yet, the self-destructing messages could be useful for anyone sending sensitive info. Telegram launched with the ability to send disappearing messages, so in this case Facebook is playing catch-up. WhatsApp has been ramping up its safety and privacy features. Encryption is now built in, and last year, WhatsApp extended […]
Google faces scrutiny from Congress, DOJ over plans to encrypt DNS
[ad_1] The House sent a letter on September 13th asking if Google would use data handled through the process for commercial purposes. Google has maintained that its Chrome tweaks would give users control over who shares their info, and that it won’t force people to switch to encrypted DNS. That likely won’t allay telecoms’ fears. […]
Treaty would force Facebook to share encrypted chats with UK police
[ad_1] The pact would bar each country from investigating the other’s citizens, and the US couldn’t use data from UK companies in any case where the death penalty is an option. Like other politicians, UK Home Secretary Priti Patel has claimed that end-to-end chat encryption helps terrorists, and that intelligence agencies should have backdoors to […]
Amazon will let parents control who kids chat with on their Echo
[ad_1] Amazon is under pressure to make its Alexa products safer for kids. With that in mind, the company is introducing Alexa Communications for Kids, which will allow parents to white list contacts that their kids are allowed to talk to on Echo devices. Theoretically, the parental controls will allow kids to talk to people […]
Billions of license plate scans are part of a private surveillance database
[ad_1] It costs just $20 to look up a license plate in the data base, and $70 to receive a “live alert” that flags when a plate shows up. As you might have already suspected, this automatic data gathering creates many issues. For one, most of the vehicles in the database are of completely innocent […]
YouTube stops counting ad views in its top music charts
[ad_1] As Rolling Stone observed, the outgoing system effectively let companies pay to climb the charts. YouTube’s TrueView ads let marketers play shortened versions of videos that would count as views if you either watched for long enough or interacted with them. This let artists and labels game the system by purchasing enough ads to […]
51 companies tell Congress it’s time to tackle data privacy
[ad_1] Accordingly, the companies have published a framework for what they’d like to see. They want “robust” protections for data that foster accountability, a “technology neutral” approach that spurs innovation, worldwide interoperability and, of course, a harmonized rule set. The company list includes some notable omissions, although that doesn’t necessarily reflect a lack of interest. […]