[…] Consumer Reports, which recently published a 48-page white paper on VPNs that looks into the privacy and security policies of 16 prominent VPN providers. Researchers initially looked into some 51 different companies but ultimately honed in on the most prominent, high-quality providers. The results are decidedly mixed, with the report highlighting a lot of Read more about Report: VPNs Are Often a Mixed Bag for Privacy[…]

Prisons around the US are installing AI speech-to-text models to automatically transcribe conversations with inmates during their phone calls. A series of contracts and emails from eight different states revealed how Verus, an AI application developed by LEO Technologies and based on a speech-to-text system offered by Amazon, was used to eavesdrop on prisoners’ phone Read more about Prisons snoop on inmates’ phone calls with speech-to-text AI[…]

The co-founder of a company that has been trusted by technology giants including Google and Twitter to deliver sensitive passwords to millions of their customers also operated a service that ultimately helped governments secretly surveil and track mobile phones, Bloomberg reported Monday, citing former employees and clients. From the report: Since it started in 2013, Read more about Executive at Swiss Tech Company Said to Operate Secret Surveillance Operation[…]

Life360, a popular tracking app that bills itself as “the world’s leading family safety service,” is purportedly selling location data on the 31 million families and kids that use it to data brokers. The chilling revelation may make users of the Tile Bluetooth tracker, which is being bought by Life360, think twice before continuing to Read more about Life360 Reportedly Sells Location Data of Families and Kids[…]

There is no “going dark.” Consecutive FBI heads may insist there is, but a document created by their own agency contradicts their dire claims that end-to-end encryption lets the criminals and terrorists win. Andy Kroll has the document and the details for Rolling Stone: [I]n a previously unreported FBI document obtained by Rolling Stone, the Read more about Documents Shows Just How Much The FBI Can Obtain From Encrypted Communication Services[…]

“Your phone’s front camera is always securely looking for your face, even if you don’t touch it or raise to wake it.” That’s how Qualcomm Technologies vice president of product management Judd Heape introduced the company’s new always-on camera capabilities in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor set to arrive in top-shelf Android phones early Read more about Qualcomm’s new always-on smartphone camera is always looking out for you[…]

Following an investigation, the Irish data protection watchdog issued a €225m (£190m) fine – the second-largest in history over GDPR – and ordered WhatsApp to change its policies. WhatsApp is appealing against the fine, but is amending its policy documents in Europe and the UK to comply. However, it insists that nothing about its actual Read more about WhatsApp privacy policy tweaked in Europe after record fine[…]

In recent years, Amazon.com Inc has killed or undermined privacy protections in more than three dozen bills across 25 states, as the e-commerce giant amassed a lucrative trove of personal data on millions of American consumers. Amazon executives and staffers detail these lobbying victories in confidential documents reviewed by Reuters. In Virginia, the company boosted political Read more about The Amazon lobbyists who kill U.S. consumer privacy protections[…]

The South Korean Ministry of Justice has provided more than 100 million photos of foreign nationals who travelled through the country’s airports to facial recognition companies without their consent, according to attorneys with the non-governmental organization Lawyers for a Democratic Society. While the use of facial recognition technology has become common for governments across the Read more about South Korea Is Giving Millions of Photos of all foreign travelers since 2019 to Facial Recognition Researchers[…]

[…] Mysk, a duo of app developers and security researchers, recently exposed Chrome’s shadiness on Twitter. In the tweet, Mysk brings to light that, by default, Chrome is sharing your phone’s motion data with the websites you visit. This is not cool. Why you don’t want third parties accessing your motion data To start with, Read more about How to Stop Chrome From Sharing Your Motion Data on Android[…]

[…] this news again comes courtesy of Microsoft’s roadmap service, where Redmond prepares you for the joys to come. This time, there are a couple of joys. The first is headlined: “Microsoft 365 compliance center: Insider risk management — Increased visibility on browsers.” It all sounded wonderful until you those last four words, didn’t it? Read more about Microsoft will now snitch on you at work like never before[…]

Subjecting students to surveillance tech is nothing new. Most schools have had cameras installed for years. Moving students from desks to laptops allows schools to monitor internet use, even when students aren’t on campus. Bringing police officers into schools to participate in disciplinary problems allows law enforcement agencies to utilize the same tech and analytics Read more about UK Schools Normalizing Biometric Collection By Using Facial Recognition For Meal Payments[…]