Bad news, Sonos customers: to lay the groundwork for its upcoming voice assistant support, the company is asking users to agree to an updated privacy policy, one that includes both mandatory data collection rules and a mention about future device functionality. Should you disagree with said policy update, your device’s basic functions could stop working, Read more about Sonos strongarms customers into giving up privacy, or hardware stops working. Here’s how to to Stop Your Sonos From Collecting (As Much) Personal Data[…]

Microsoft claims seven out of ten Windows 10 users are happy with Redmond gulping loads of telemetry from their computers – which isn’t that astounding when you realize it’s a default option. In other words, 30 per cent of people have found the switch to turn it off, and the rest haven’t, don’t realize it’s Read more about 70% of Windows 10 users haven’t turned of privacy invasion[…]

A federal class action lawsuit filed last week in California alleges that the Walt Disney Company is violating privacy protection laws by collecting children’s personal information from 42 of its apps and sharing the data with advertisers without parental consent. The lawsuit targets Disney and three software companies — Upsight, Unity, and Kochava — alleging Read more about Disney sued for allegedly spying on children through 42 gaming apps[…]

US authorities intercepted and recorded millions of phone calls last year under a single wiretap order, authorized as part of a narcotics investigation. The wiretap order authorized an unknown government agency to carry out real-time intercepts of 3.29 million cell phone conversations over a two-month period at some point during 2016, after the order was Read more about With a single wiretap order, US authorities listened in on 3.3 million phone calls[…]

Two German researchers say they have exposed the porn-browsing habits of a judge, a cyber-crime investigation and the drug preferences of a politician. The pair obtained huge amounts of information about the browsing habits of three million German citizens from companies that gather “clickstreams”. These are detailed records of everywhere that people go online. The Read more about It is easy to expose users’ secret web habits, if you have access to cheap clickstream data[…]

G Suite’s Gmail is already not used as input for ads personalization, and Google has decided to follow suit later this year in our free consumer Gmail service. Consumer Gmail content will not be used or scanned for any ads personalization after this change. This decision brings Gmail ads in line with how we personalize Read more about Gmail no longer will scan your emails – because they allready know enough about you through other channels[…]

[As you fill out a form] You change your mind and close the page before clicking the Submit button and agreeing to Quicken’s privacy policy.[…]Your email address and phone number have already been sent to a server at “murdoog.com,” which is owned by NaviStone, a company that advertises its ability to unmask anonymous website visitors Read more about Navistone saves filled in form data on hundreds of sites before you submit it![…]

Tails is a live operating system that you can start on almost any computer from a DVD, USB stick, or SD card. It aims at preserving your privacy and anonymity, and helps you to: use the Internet anonymously and circumvent censorship; all connections to the Internet are forced to go through the Tor network; leave Read more about Tails 3.0 – anonymous live OS is out[…]

Weg met telemetrie en ruime dataverzameling – het kan dus wel. Source: Wil je privacy? Gebruik dan de Chinese Windows 10! Microsoft has released a version of Windows 10 for the Chinese (!) market that doesn’t send all sorts of telemetry and private data to itself. This version is not available for the rest of Read more about Chinese Windows 10 doesn’t spy on you[…]

The credit card companies began to monetise the histories a few years ago. Facebook signed deals with data companies including Experian, allowing it to mingle third party offline and online data, something it also calls “closing the loop”. Last year Facebook was reported to combine six or seven data sources to create its “Facebook Graph”. Read more about Google now mingles everything you’ve bought with everywhere you’ve been[…]

Netgear NightHawk R7000 users who ran last week’s firmware upgrade need to check their settings, because the company added a remote data collection feature to the units. A sharp-eyed user posted the T&Cs change to Slashdot. Netgear lumps the slurp as routine diagnostic data. “Such data may include information regarding the router’s running status, number Read more about Netgear ‘fixes’ Nighthawk router by adding phone-home features that record your IP and MAC address[…]

The Liberal Democrats have pledged to end the “Orwellian nightmare” of mass-snooping powers in the Investigatory Powers Act ahead of their manifesto launch. They will propose to roll back state surveillance powers by ending the indiscriminate bulk collection of communications data and internet connection records. The party also committed to fighting Conservative attempts to undermine Read more about Lib Dems pledge to end ‘Orwellian’ snooping powers in manifesto[…]

The ever-expanding operations of Uber are defined by two interlocking and zealously guarded sets of information: the things the world-dominating ride-hailing company knows about you, and the things it doesn’t want you to know about it. Both kinds of secrets have been in play in the Superior Court of California in San Francisco, as Ward Read more about Uber Doesn’t Want You to See This Document About Its Vast Data Surveillance System[…]

uXDT is the practice of advertisers hiding ultrasounds in their ads. When the ad plays on a TV or radio, or some ad code runs on a mobile or computer, it emits ultrasounds that are picked up by the microphone of nearby laptops, desktops, tablets or smartphones. SDKs embedded in apps installed on those devices Read more about 234 Android Applications Are Currently Using Ultrasonic Beacons to Track Users[…]

The U.S. National Security Agency collected more than 151 million records of Americans’ phone calls last year, even after Congress limited its ability to collect bulk phone records, according to an annual report issued on Tuesday by the top U.S. intelligence officer. The report from the office of Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats was Read more about NSA collected Americans’ phone records (151 million of them!) despite law change[…]

How to easily unsubscribe your Gmail email address from mailing lists, newsletters, junk and other unsolicited bulk mail that is clogging up your Gmail inbox. Source: How to Easily Unsubscribe from Bulk Emails in Gmail – Unroll.me Alternative

ISPs may be forced to block sites which fail to do so, and the fact that many such sites are not based in the UK nor subject to British law shall pose plenty of difficulties for the law’s implementation, as will its provisions forcing ISPs to prohibit access to “non-conventional sex acts”, which has provoked Read more about UK gov forces porn sites to gather personal info and allows gov depts to share citizens data despite being hugely unsafe[…]

But a New York Times profile of Uber this weekend revealed, in passing, that Unroll.me, which is owned by a company called Slice Intelligence, isn’t just in the business of tidying up customers’ inboxes. Slice makes money by scanning its users’ email for receipts, then packaging that information into intel reports on consumer habits. Uber, Read more about How Did Unroll.me Get Users to Allow It to Sell Their Inbox Data?[…]

Google has been ordered by a US court to cough up people’s private Gmail messages stored overseas – because if that information can be viewed stateside, it is subject to American search warrants, apparently. During a hearing on Wednesday in California, magistrate judge Laurel Beeler rejected [PDF] the advertising giant’s objections to a US government Read more about Nuh-uh, Google, you WILL hand over emails stored on foreign servers, says US judge[…]

Now Windows 10 Home and Pro has, right now, two levels of data collection, Basic and Full. When a computer is in Basic mode, Microsoft says Win 10 takes a note of the state of your hardware and its specifications, your internet connection quality, records of crashes and hangs by software, any compatibility problems, driver Read more about What  information Windows 10 Creators Update will slurp from your PC[…]

The US House of Representatives has just approved a “congressional disapproval” vote of privacy rules, which gives your ISP the right to sell your internet history to the highest bidder. The measure passed by 215 votes to 205. This follows the same vote in the Senate last week. Just prior to the vote, a White Read more about Your internet history on sale to highest bidder: US Congress votes to shred ISP privacy rules[…]