Images representing 117 million American adults – almost half the grownups in the country – can be found in the facial recognition databases maintained by US law enforcement agencies, according to a study conducted by the Center on Privacy and Technology at Georgetown Law School. That figure is expected to grow as facial recognition technology Read more about Meanwhile, in America: Half of adults’ faces are in police databases[…]

Investigators in Lancaster, Calif., were granted a search warrant last May with a scope that allowed them to force anyone inside the premises at the time of search to open up their phones via fingerprint recognition, Forbes reported Sunday.The government argued that this did not violate the citizens’ Fifth Amendment protection against self incrimination because Read more about Using search warrants to get into fingerprint-locked phones[…]

The mysterious Investigatory Powers Tribunal, which oversees Blighty’s snoops, has ruled that the bulk collection of personal data — conducted by GCHQ and MI5 between 1998 and 2015 — was illegal. Responding to a claim brought by Privacy International, the 70-page judgment handed down this morning [PDF] found that the spooks’ surveillance activities had been Read more about Court finds GCHQ and MI5 engaged in illegal bulk data collection[…]

The Breast and Cosmetic Implant Registry (BCIR) is intended to prevent a repeat of faulty Poly Implant Prothèse (PIP) silicone breast implants scandal in 2010, in which fraudulently manufactured silicone gel implants affected thousands of women. Its establishment is in response to recommendation 21 in Sir Bruce Keogh’s Review of the Regulation of Cosmetic interventions, Read more about UK wants to monitor fake boobs, claims event 6 years ago is catalyst[…]

Malicious code used to press-gang IoT connected devices into a botnet was leaked online over the weekend.The Mirai malware is a DDoS Trojan and targets Linux systems and, in particular, IoT devices. A botnet formed using the malware was used to blast junk traffic at the website of security researcher Brian Krebs last month in Read more about Source code unleashed for junk-blasting Internet of Things botnet[…]

Signal has resisted a FBI subpoena and gag order that demanded a wide range of information on two users resulted in a federal grand jury investigation in Virginia. The makers of Signal, Open Whisper Systems, profoundly disappointed law enforcement. The app collects as little data as possible and therefore was unable to hand anything useful Read more about Encryption app Signal wins fight against FBI subpoena and gag order[…]

A thourough and scary analysis of what you can do with just metadata, applied to the hacking team leak. A great case for mistrusting metadata storage by anyone. https://labs.rs/en/metadata/

Nvidia’s GeForce Experience 3.0 is better than ever before, but you need to sign up to use it. Source: Nvidia’s faster, better GeForce Experience 3.0 launches with mandatory registration | PCWorld Sigh. We buy their products already, so they don’t actually need to monetise our private lives 🙁

The FCC has been formally regulating behavioural advertising since the 1990s. You’d think they’d be all over Google and Facebook, then, right? Actually, no. The FCC is now run by a former Obama fund-raiser, Tom Wheeler, and it can’t do enough for Silicon Valley, whether it’s collectivising songwriters rights or disaggregating TV. What the FCC Read more about Google’s become an obsessive stalker and you can’t get a restraining order[…]

NO, there is no opt out! The Dutch government has passed a law allowing insurance companies to access medical files with a “suspicion of fraud” (whatever that is) and only have to tell the person who’s privacy has been infringed three months later. Medical privacy is one of the last untouchable bastions of privacy, I Read more about NL Gov gets rid of medical confidentiality[…]

145 public authorities acquired data in 2015, and most of these requests came from the UK’s police forces and law enforcement agencies. Law enforcement officers acquired 93.7 per cent of all data requested by public authorities in 2015. Only 5.7 per cent of data was acquired by the intelligence agencies, and a mere 0.6 by Read more about UK Gov is open about how much it spied on its’ citizens[…]

Now that WhatsApp is sharing phone numbers with Facebook, it’s no longer the security oasis users relied on. Source: WhatsApp’s Privacy Cred Just Took a Big Hit | WIRED

Since Facebook owns WhatsApp, it’s finally time for the purchase to pay off. Facebook now wants your WhatsApp data, including your phone number. Here’s how to opt out. Source: How to opt out of WhatsApp sharing your information with Facebook You have 30 days. Why is this a problem, what have they done? What do Read more about How to opt out of WhatsApp sharing your information with Facebook[…]

To get started, head to facebook.com/ads/preferences. Here, you’ll find a large collection of “interests” Facebook thinks you have, sorted into categories. Click on “Lifestyle and Culture” to find, among other things, where you land politically. If you haven’t explicitly Liked the Facebook page of a particular politician, Facebook will guess and place that guess here. Read more about Find Out How Facebook Thinks You Think With This Setting[…]

Facebook knows more about your personal life than you probably realize. As part of the company’s increasingly aggressive advertising operation, Facebook goes to great lengths to track you across the web. The company compiles a list of personal details about every user that includes major life events and general interests. For years, details have been Read more about All of the Creepy Things Facebook Knows About You[…]

Anti-Beacon is small, simple to use, and is provided free of charge. It was created to address the privacy concerns of users of Windows 10 who do not wish to have information about their PC usage sent to Microsoft. Simply clicking “Immunize” on the main screen of Anti-Beacon will immediately disable any known tracking features Read more about Spybot Anti-Beacon for Windows[…]

the plan’s not in action yet but has been agreed in principle. It’s hoped the scheme will be up and running in about six months, by which time you’ll only be able to buy trackable SIMs when you visit. The good news is that if your phone roams, you’ll be exempt. And with roaming plans Read more about Thailand plans to track non-citizens with their mobile phones[…]

A little-known web standard that lets site owners tell how much battery life a mobile device has left has been found to enable tracking online, a year after privacy researchers warned that it had the potential to do just that. The battery status API was introduced in HTML5, the fifth version of the code used Read more about Your battery status is being used to track you online[…]

Perfect anonymization of data sets that contain personal information has failed. But the process of protecting data subjects in shared information remains integral to privacy practice and policy. While the deidentification debate has been vigorous and productive, there is no clear direction for policy. As a result, the law has been slow to adapt a Read more about A legal approach to mitigate anonymisation with risk[…]

The popular streaming service is now the latest platform that is opening its data to targeted advertising. Everything from your age and gender, to the music genres you like to listen will be available to various third-party companies. Spotify is calling it programmatic buying and has already enabled it. Advertisers will have access to the Read more about Spotify is now selling your information to advertisers[…]

the new legislation — which Edward Snowden has called “Russia’s new Big Brother law” — is not only severe against those involved in “international terrorism,” its financing, and its non-denunciation. Law enforcement agencies will also be granted access to any user’s messages without any judicial oversight. Several key provisions will directly affect the internet and Read more about Russian leader Putin signs controversial ‘Big Brother’ law[…]

More than 800 UK police staff inappropriately accessed personal information between June 2011 and December 2015, according to a report from activist group Big Brother Watch. The report says some police staff used their access to a growing trove of police data, which includes personal information on civilians, for entertainment and personal and financial gain. Read more about UK Police Accessed Civilian Data 1283 times for Fun and Profit, New Report Says[…]

Facebook wants to show advertisers that their ads make you visit their bricks-and-mortar stores and buy their stuff. To do this, they’ll use phones’ location services to track whether people actually walk into the stores after seeing an ad. Source: Facebook Will Start Tracking Which Stores You Walk Into