Amazon’s Ring home security camera biz says it has fired multiple employees caught covertly watching video feeds from customer devices. The admission came in a letter [PDF] sent in response to questions raised by US Senators critical of Ring’s privacy practices. Ring recounted how, on four separate occasions, workers were let go for overstepping their Read more about Amazon fired four workers who secretly snooped on Ring doorbell camera footage[…]

The Trump administration’s plan to collect DNA evidence from migrants detained in U.S. Customs and Borders Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities will commence soon in the form of a 90-day pilot program in Detroit and Southwest Texas, CNN reported on Monday. News of the plan first emerged in October, when the Read more about DHS Plan to Collect DNA From Migrant Detainees Will Begin Soon – because centralised databases with personally sensitive data in them are a great idea. Just ask the Jews how useful they were during WWII[…]

Every minute of every day, everywhere on the planet, dozens of companies — largely unregulated, little scrutinized — are logging the movements of tens of millions of people with mobile phones and storing the information in gigantic data files. The Times Privacy Project obtained one such file, by far the largest and most sensitive ever Read more about Twelve Million Phones, One Dataset (no, not  your phone companies’), Zero Privacy – The New York Times[…]

Infrared cameras detect people and other objects by the heat they emit. Now, researchers have discovered the uncanny ability of a material to hide a target by masking its telltale heat properties. The effect works for a range of temperatures that one day could include humans and vehicles, presenting a future asset to stealth technologies, Read more about Camouflage made of quantum material could hide you from infrared cameras[…]

Next time you feel the need to justify to a family member, friend, or random acquaintance why you drive an old shitbox instead of a much more comfortable, modern vehicle, here’s another reason for you to trot out: your old shitbox, unlike every modern car, is not spying on you. That’s the takeaway from a Read more about Your Modern Car Is A Privacy Nightmare[…]

If you were one of the millions of people that signed up with Unrollme to cut down on the emails from outfits you once bought a product from, we have some bad news for you: it has been storing and selling your data. On Tuesday, America’s Federal Trade Commission finalized a settlement [PDF] with the Read more about Remember Unrollme, the biz that helped you automatically ditch unwanted emails? Yeah, it was selling your data, even though it said it wouldn’t[…]

Two browsers have yanked Avast and AVG online security extensions from their web stores after a report revealed that they were unnecessarily sucking up a ton of data about users’ browsing history. Wladimir Palant, the creator behind Adblock Plus, initially surfaced the issue—which extends to Avast Online Security and Avast SafePrice as well as Avast-owned Read more about Uninstall AVAST and AVG free anti-virus: they are massively slurping your data! Mozilla and Opera have removed them from their stores[…]

Customers in China who buy SIM cards or register new mobile-phone services must have their faces scanned under a new law that came into effect yesterday. China’s government says the new rule, which was passed into law back in September, will “protect the legitimate rights and interest of citizens in cyberspace.” A controversial step: It Read more about All new cell phone users in China must now have their face scanned, as do all US citizens entering or leaving the US (as well as all non-US citizens)[…]

Developers working on open-source ad-blocker uBlock Origin have uncovered a mechanism for tracking web browsers around the internet that defies today’s blocking techniques. A method to block this so-called unblockable tracker has been developed by the team, though it only works in Firefox, leaving Chrome and possibly other browsers susceptible. This fix is now available Read more about Bad news: ‘Unblockable’ web trackers emerge. Good news: Firefox with uBlock Origin can stop it. Chrome, not so much[…]

More than 600 police forces across the country have entered into partnerships with the camera giant allowing them to quickly request and download video captured by Ring’s motion-detecting, internet-connected cameras inside and around Americans’ homes. The company says the videos can be a critical tool in helping law enforcement investigate crimes such as trespassing, burglary Read more about Police can keep Amazon Ring camera video forever, and share with whomever they’d like, company tells senator[…]

we are making plans to adopt DNS over HTTPS (or DoH) in the Windows DNS client. As a platform, Windows Core Networking seeks to enable users to use whatever protocols they need, so we’re open to having other options such as DNS over TLS (DoT) in the future. For now, we’re prioritizing DoH support as Read more about Windows will go DNS over HTTPS – Take over your DNS queries, grab more of your browsing behaviour[…]

A majority of Americans believe their online and offline activities are being tracked and monitored by companies and the government with some regularity. It is such a common condition of modern life that roughly six-in-ten U.S. adults say they do not think it is possible to go through daily life without having data collected about Read more about Americans and Privacy: Concerned, Confused and Feeling Lack of Control Over Their Personal Information[…]

Popular health websites are sharing private, personal medical data with big tech companies, according to an investigation by the Financial Times. The data, including medical diagnoses, symptoms, prescriptions, and menstrual and fertility information, are being sold to companies like Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Oracle and smaller data brokers and advertising technology firms, like Scorecard and Read more about Health websites are sharing sensitive medical data with Google, Facebook, and Amazon[…]

The social media giant said the number of government demands for user data increased by 16% to 128,617 demands during the first half of this year compared to the second half of last year. That’s the highest number of government demands it has received in any reporting period since it published its first transparency report Read more about Facebook says government demands for user data are at a record high, most by US govt[…]

When you’re scrolling through Facebook’s app, the social network could be watching you back, concerned users have found. Multiple people have found and reported that their iPhone cameras were turned on in the background while they were looking at their feed. The issue came to light through several posts on Twitter. Users noted that their Read more about Facebook bug shows camera activated in background during app use – the bug being that you could see the camera being activated[…]

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that the tech giant partnered with Ascension, a non-profit and Catholic health systems company, on the program code-named “Project Nightingale.” According to the Journal, Google began its initiative with Ascension last year, and it involves everything from diagnoses, lab results, birth dates, patient names, and other personal health data—all Read more about Google Reportedly Amassed Private Health Data on Millions of People Without Their Knowledge – a repeat of October 2019 and 2017 in the UK[…]

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) expects to have face, fingerprint, and iris scans of at least 259 million people in its biometrics database by 2022, according to a recent presentation from the agency’s Office of Procurement Operations reviewed by Quartz. That’s about 40 million more than the agency’s 2017 projections, which estimated 220 Read more about DHS expects to have detailed biometrics on 260 million people by 2022 – and will keep them in the cloud, where they will never be stolen or hacked *cough*[…]

Facebook on Tuesday disclosed that as many as 100 software developers may have improperly accessed user data, including the names and profile pictures of people in specific groups on the social network. The company recently discovered that some apps retained access to this type of user data despite making changes to its service in April Read more about Facebook says 100 developers may have improperly accessed user data, like Cambridge Analytica did[…]

How to auto-delete your Google data This process is almost identical on both mobile and web. We’ll focus on the latter, but the former is easy to figure out, too: Go to your Google activity dashboard (you’ll need to sign in to your Google account first). Click “Activity controls” from the left-hand sidebar. Scroll down Read more about How to Automatically Delete some of Your Google Data[…]