Apple may still be recording and transcribing conversations captured by Siri on its phones, despite promising to put an end to the practice nine months ago, claims a former Apple contractor who was hired to listen into customer conversations. In a letter [PDF] sent to data protection authorities in Europe, Thomas Le Bonniec expresses his Read more about Hey Siri, are you still recording people’s conversations despite promising not to do so nine months ago?[…]

The US Senate has voted to give law enforcement agencies access to web browsing data without a warrant, dramatically expanding the government’s surveillance powers in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The power grab was led by Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell as part of a reauthorization of the Patriot Act, which gives federal agencies Read more about Senate Votes to Allow FBI to Look at US citizen Web Browsing History Without a Warrant[…]

You can’t make access to your website’s content dependent on a visitor agreeing that you can process their data — aka a ‘consent cookie wall’. Not if you need to be compliant with European data protection law. That’s the unambiguous message from the European Data Protection Board (EDPB), which has published updated guidelines on the Read more about No cookie consent walls — and no, scrolling isn’t consent, says EU data protection body[…]

This Guide has been developed by experts from IAB Europe’s Programmatic Trading Committee (PTC) to prepare brands, agencies, publishers and tech intermediaries for the much-anticipated post third-party cookie advertising ecosystem. It provides background to the current use of cookies in digital advertising today and an overview of the alternative solutions being developed. As solutions evolve, Read more about IAB Europe Guide to the Post Third-Party Cookie Era[…]

Researchers have created a new a new system that helps Internet users ensure their online data is secure. The software-based system, called Mitigator, includes a plugin users can install in their browser that will give them a secure signal when they visit a website verified to process its data in compliance with the site’s privacy Read more about Researchers create a new system to protect users’ online data by checking if data entered is consistent with the privacy policy[…]

Britons will not be able to ask NHS admins to delete their COVID-19 tracking data from government servers, digital arm NHSX’s chief exec Matthew Gould admitted to MPs this afternoon. Gould also told Parliament’s Human Rights Committee that data harvested from Britons through NHSX’s COVID-19 contact tracing app would be “pseudonymised” – and appeared to Read more about UK COVID-19 contact tracing app data may be kept for ‘research’ after crisis ends, MPs told[…]

Browser maker Mozilla is working on a new service called Private Relay that generates unique aliases to hide a user’s email address from advertisers and spam operators when filling in online forms. The service entered testing last month and is currently in a closed beta, with a public beta currently scheduled for later this year, Read more about New Firefox service will generate unique email aliases to enter in online forms[…]

Brave, a maker of a pro-privacy browser, has lodged complaints with the European Commission against 27 EU Member States for under resourcing their national data protection watchdogs. It’s asking the European Union’s executive body to launch an infringement procedure against Member State governments, and even refer them to the bloc’s top court, the European Court Read more about Brave accuses European governments of GDPR resourcing failure[…]

When he looked around the Web on the device’s default Xiaomi browser, it recorded all the websites he visited, including search engine queries whether with Google or the privacy-focused DuckDuckGo, and every item viewed on a news feed feature of the Xiaomi software. That tracking appeared to be happening even if he used the supposedly Read more about Surprise surprise, Xiaomi web browser and music player are sending data about you to China[…]

The design of Australia’s COVIDSafe contact-tracing app creates some unintended surveillance opportunities, according to a group of four security pros who unpacked its .APK file. Penned by independent security researcher Chris Culnane, University of Melbourne tutor, cryptography researcher and masters student Eleanor McMurtry, developer Robert Merkel and Australian National University associate professor and Thinking Security Read more about Australian contact-tracing app leaks telling info and increases chances of third-party tracking, say security folks. That’s OK says maker, you download worse stuff as games.[…]

It has been called the “most extreme surveillance in the history of Western democracy.” It has not once but twice been found to be illegal. It sparked the largest ever protest of senior lawyers who called it “not fit for purpose.” And now the UK’s Investigatory Powers Act of 2016 – better known as the Read more about Why should the UK pensions watchdog be able to spy on your internet activities? Same reason as the Environment Agency and more than 50 more[…]

Among startups and tech companies, Stripe seems to be the near-universal favorite for payment processing. When I needed paid subscription functionality for my new web app, Stripe felt like the natural choice. After integration, however, I discovered that Stripe’s official JavaScript library records all browsing activity on my site and reports it back to Stripe. Read more about Stripe Payment Provider is Silently Recording Your Movements On its Customers’ Websites[…]

As Rolling Stone reported, the app is now playing host to virtual sex parties,  “play parties,” and group check-ins which have become, as one host said, “the mutual appreciation jerk-off society.” According to Zoom’s “acceptable use” policy, users may not use the technology to “engage in any activity that is harmful, obscene, or indecent, particularly Read more about Zoom sex party moderation: app uses machine-learning to patrol nudity – will it record them to put up on the web?[…]

Apple has released a set of “Mobility Trends Reports” – a trove of anonymised and aggregated data that describes how people have moved around the world in the three months from 13 January to 13 April. The data measures walking, driving and public transport use. And as you’d expect and as depicted in the image Read more about Apple: We respect your privacy so much we’ve revealed a little about what we can track when you use Maps[…]

The EFF’s staff technologist — also an engineer on Privacy Badger and HTTPS Everywhere, writes: Twitter greeted its users with a confusing notification this week. “The control you have over what information Twitter shares with its business partners has changed,” it said. The changes will “help Twitter continue operating as a free service,” it assured. Read more about Twitter Obliterates Its Users’ Privacy Choices[…]

Observant Firefox users on Windows who have updated the web browser to Firefox 75 may have noticed that the upgrade brought along with it a new scheduled tasks. The scheduled task is also added if Firefox 75 is installed on a Windows device. The task’s name is Firefox Default Browser Agent and it is set Read more about Mozilla installs Scheduled Telemetry Task on Windows with Firefox 75 – if you had put telemetry on[…]

Facebook Inc said on Monday it would start surveying some U.S. users about their health as part of a Carnegie Mellon University research project aimed at generating “heat maps” of self-reported coronavirus infections. The social media giant will display a link at the top of users’ News Feeds directing them to the survey, which the Read more about Facebook asks users about coronavirus symptoms, releases friendship data to researchers[…]

But what many people may not know is that, until Thursday, a data-mining feature on Zoom allowed some participants to surreptitiously have access to LinkedIn profile data about other users — without Zoom asking for their permission during the meeting or even notifying them that someone else was snooping on them. The undisclosed data mining Read more about A Feature on Zoom Secretly Displayed Data From People’s LinkedIn Profiles[…]

Thousands of personal Zoom videos have been left viewable on the open Web, highlighting the privacy risks to millions of Americans as they shift many of their personal interactions to video calls in an age of social distancing. From a report: Many of the videos appear to have been recorded through Zoom’s software and saved Read more about Thousands of recorded Zoom Video Calls Left Exposed on Open Web[…]

The very fact that the tag being delisted when searching for this unnamed individual is the “right to be forgotten” tag shows that whoever this person is, they recognize that they are not trying to cover up the record of, say, an FTC case against them from… oh, let’s just say 2003… but rather are Read more about Someone Convinced Google To Delist Our Entire Right To Be Forgotten Tag In The EU For Searches On Their Name, which means we can’t tell if they are abusing the system[…]

Government officials across the U.S. are using location data from millions of cellphones in a bid to better understand the movements of Americans during the coronavirus pandemic and how they may be affecting the spread of the disease… The data comes from the mobile advertising industry rather than cellphone carriers. The aim is to create Read more about US Officials Use Mobile Ad Location Data to Study How COVID-19 Spreads, not cellphone tower data[…]

Israel has long been known for its use of technology to track the movements of Palestinian militants. Now, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to use similar technology to stop the movement of the coronavirus. Netanyahu’s Cabinet on Sunday authorized the Shin Bet security agency to use its phone-snooping tactics on coronavirus patients, an official confirmed, Read more about Israel uses anti-terrorist tech to monitor phones of virus patients[…]

On Friday video-conferencing software Zoom issued an update to its iOS app which stops it sending certain pieces of data to Facebook. The move comes after a Motherboard analysis of the app found it sent information such as when a user opened the app, their timezone, city, and device details to the social network giant. Read more about Zoom Removes Code That Sends Data to Facebook – but there is still plenty of nasty stuff in there[…]