Telegram, the encrypted messaging app that’s prized by those seeking privacy, lost a bid before Russia’s Supreme Court to block security services from getting access to users’ data, giving President Vladimir Putin a victory in his effort to keep tabs on electronic communications. Supreme Court Judge Alla Nazarova on Tuesday rejected Telegram’s appeal against the Read more about Telegram Loses Bid to Block Russia From Encryption Keys[…]
Every time you book a flight, you generate personal data that is ripe for harvesting: information like the details on an ID card, your address, your passport information and your travel itinerary, as well as your frequent-flyer number, method of payment and travel preferences (dietary restrictions, mobility restrictions, etc.). All that data becomes part of Read more about Booking Flights: Our Data Flies with Us – the huge dataset described[…]
The program began in 2012 as a partnership between New Orleans Police and Palantir Technologies, a data-mining firm founded with seed money from the CIA’s venture capital firm. According to interviews and documents obtained by The Verge, the initiative was essentially a predictive policing program, similar to the “heat list” in Chicago that purports to Read more about Palantir has secretly been using New Orleans to test its predictive policing technology, was given huge access to lots of private data without oversight due to loophole[…]
Thousands of FedEx customers were exposed after the company left scanned passports, drivers licenses, and other documentation on a publicly accessible Amazon S3 server. The scanned IDs originated from countries all over the world, including the United States, Mexico, Canada, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Japan, China, and several European countries. The IDs were attached to forms Read more about 119,000 Passports and Photo IDs of FedEx Customers Found on Unsecured Amazon Server[…]
De MIVD tapte vorig jaar in totaal 348 keer. De AIVD plaatste dat jaar 3.205 taps. Vandaag publiceerden beide diensten de tapstatistieken over de periode 2002 tot en met 2017 op hun website. Source: MIVD tapte vorig jaar 348 keer | Nieuwsbericht | Defensie.nl And of course we have no idea how many of these Read more about 2017: Dutch Military Intelligence 348 and Internal Intelligence 3205 taps placed. No idea how many the police did, but wow, that’s a lot![…]
To turn off facial recognition on your computer, click on the down arrow at the top of any Facebook page and then select Settings. From there, click “Face Recognition” from the left column, and then click “Do you want Facebook to be able to recognize you in photos and videos?” Select Yes or No based Read more about How to Disable Facebook’s Facial Recognition Feature[…]
One of the effects of GDPR — the new EU General Data Protection Regulation — is that we’re all going to be learning a lot more about who collects our data and what they do with it. Consider PayPal, that just released a list of over 600 companies they share customer data with. Here’s a Read more about The 600+ Companies PayPal Shares Your Data With – Schneier on Security[…]
Madison Square Garden has quietly used facial-recognition technology to bolster security and identify those entering the building, according to multiple people familiar with the arena’s security procedures. The technology uses cameras to capture images of people, and then an algorithm compares the images to a database of photographs to help identify the person and, when Read more about Madison Square Garden Has Used Face-Scanning Technology on Customers[…]
Your entire online identity could be worth little more than £800, according to brand new research into the illicit sale of stolen personal info on the dark web (or just $1,200 if you are in the United States, according to the US edition of the index). While it may be no surprise to learn that Read more about What is your personal info worth to criminals? There’s a dark web market price index for that[…]
According to Media Play News, MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe had some interesting things to say during his Hollywood presentation that took place late last week, entitled “New Oil: How Will MoviePass Monetize It?” Most notably, he openly admitted that his app tracks people’s location, even when they’re not actively using the app: “We get an Read more about MoviePass Is Tracking Your Location[…]
A company that sells spyware to regular consumers is “immediately and indefinitely halting” all of its services, just a couple of weeks after a new damaging hack. Retina-X Studios, which sells several products marketed to parents and employers to keep tabs on their children and employees—but also used by jealous partners to spy on their Read more about Retina X ‘Stalkerware’ Shuts Down Apps ‘Indefinitely’ After Getting Hacked Again[…]
Picture this: You’re driving home from work, contemplating what to make for dinner, and as you idle at a red light near your neighborhood pizzeria, an ad offering $5 off a pepperoni pie pops up on your dashboard screen. Are you annoyed that your car’s trying to sell you something, or pleasantly persuaded? Telenav Inc., Read more about The Car of the Future Will Sell Your Data[…]
In a decision (PDF) handed down yesterday, chief judge Janet DiFiore said that a court could ask someone to hand over any relevant materials as part of discovery ahead of a trial – even if they are private. The threshold for disclosure in a court case “is not whether the materials sought are private but Read more about Roses are red, Facebook is blue. Think private means private? More fool you[…]
Millions of new cars sold in the US and Europe are “connected,” having some mechanism for exchanging data with their manufacturers after the cars are sold; these cars stream or batch-upload location data and other telemetry to their manufacturers, who argue that they are allowed to do virtually anything they want with this data, thanks Read more about Thanks to “consent” buried deep in sales agreements, car manufacturers are tracking tens of millions of US and EU cars[…]
The software giant has produced a tool that’s claimed to show users how much personal information its Windows 10 operating system collects and sends back to Redmond for diagnostics.The application is dubbed Diagnostic Data Viewer, and is free from the Windows Store. It reveals that stuff like the computer’s device name, OS version, and serial Read more about Microsoft whips out tool so you can measure Windows 10’s data-slurping creepiness[…]
The US House of Representatives has passed a six-year extension to the controversial Section 702 spying program, rejecting an amendment that would have required the authorities to get a warrant before searching for information on US citizens. The 256-164 vote effectively retains the status quo and undermines a multi-year effort to bring accountability to a Read more about US House reps green-light Fourth Amendment busting spy program[…]
OnePlus has admitted that the clipboard app in a beta build of its Android OS was beaming back mystery data to a cloud service in China. Someone running the latest test version of OnePlus’s Oreo-based operating system revealed in its support forums that unusual activity from the builtin clipboard manager had been detected by a Read more about OnePlus Android mobes’ clipboard app caught phoning home to China[…]
More than six million people use Slack daily, spending on average more than two hours each day inside the chat app. For many employees, work life is contingent on Slack, and surely plenty of us use it for more than just, say, work talk. You probably have a #CATS and a women-only channel, and you’ve Read more about What’s Slack Doing With Your Data?[…]
That innocent-looking mobile game you just downloaded might just have an ulterior motive. Behind the scenes, hundreds of different apps could be using your smartphone’s microphone to figure out what you watch on TV, a new report from The New York Times reveals. […] All of these apps need to get your permission before they Read more about How to Stop Apps From Listening in on Your TV Habits (it turns out thousands are)[…]
First, a user fills out a login form on the page and asks the browser to save the login. The tracking script is not present on the login page [1]. Then, the user visits another page on the same website which includes the third-party tracking script. The tracking script inserts an invisible login form, which Read more about Web trackers exploit browser login managers[…]
A group of researchers in France and Japan say RequestPolicyContinued and NoScript have the toughest policies, while Ghostery and uBlock Origin offer good blocking performance and a better user experience. The study also gave a nod to the EFF’s Privacy Badger, which uses heuristics rather than block lists, but once trained is nearly as good Read more about Ghostery, uBlock, Privacy Badger lead the anti-tracking browser extensions[…]
Using only data that can be legally collected by an app developer without the consent of a cellphone’s owner, researchers have been able to produce a privacy attack that can accurately pinpoint a user’s location and trajectory without accessing the device’s Global Position System—GPS. And while the ramifications of this ability falling into the wrong Read more about How to Track a Cellphone Without GPS—or Consent[…]
According to OMC’s data, a full 19 percent of all “conversational” email is now tracked. That’s one in five of the emails you get from your friends. And you probably never noticed.“Surprisingly, while there is a vast literature on web tracking, email tracking has seen little research,” noted an October 2017 paper published by three Read more about Email tracking now extends to your acquantances: 1 in 5![…]
The Google Home Mini is a super-affordable way to get Google Assistant in your life, but Google was forced to hobble the device shortly after launch because a sticky touch sensor caused Artem’s Mini to record everything he said. Part of that functionality is now coming back with a small tweak. Instead of tapping the Read more about New Google Home Mini update 1.29 restores top tap functionality with long-press on the side: doesn’t record everything anymore?[…]
Let me make this point dreadfully clear, though: Your family members do not need an Amazon Echo or a Google Home or an Apple HomePod or whatever that one smart speaker that uses Cortana is called. And you don’t either. You only want one because every single gadget-slinger on the planet is marketing them to Read more about Don’t Buy Anyone an Echo[…]