privacy

Ann Cavoukian, former Ontario Privacy Commissioner, resigned from her consulting role at Sidewalk Labs to "make a strong statement" against the Google urban development project in Toronto. The former commissioner claims that a privacy framework she developed for the project is being overlooked...

According to a report published by Strategy Analytics, about 17% of Americans use smart speakers, and most of them are from Amazon. The research firm claims that "satisfaction levels are typically in the 90% range, nearly two thirds of users expect to buy another one within the next two years...

On Medium, an Amazon employee spoke out against the company's own facial recognition software. In the op-ed, the employee says that Amazon is "currently allowing police departments around the country to purchase its facial recognition product, Rekognition, and I and other employees demand that...

New York City has begun experimenting with allowing robots to patrol areas. Rosie the robot has 5 cameras, thermal imaging, artificial intelligence, self-driving car technology, analytics and is directly connected to law enforcement. Her job is to observe people walking on the streets, record...

The Taiwanese wireless charging station provider Inforcharge is now scanning faces for advertising purposes. Their chargers normally show some sort of promotional content in exchange for the free juice, as well as the use of an adapter in phones that don't support wireless charging. But soon...

Another day, another massive user data leak, this time from FitMetrix. The fitness company, which makes software for institutions like Crossfit and SoulCycle, reportedly hosted user data on AWS instances, but forgot to use a password to secure that data. Security researcher Bob Diachenko claims...

Google has announced that it is shuttering its beleaguered social media portal Google+ in response to a security lapse where 3rd party developers could access private consumer data from 2015 until March 2018. The Wall Street Journal exposed the breach this morning. Project Strobe was an...

Facebook launched their first 2 home-grown hardware products today. The Portal and Portal+ both feature Alexa integration, 4 beamforming microphones, stereo speakers, and a "Smart Camera" that "uses AI to keep everyone in the frame - panning and zooming automatically no matter where the...

Techcrunch got a tip suggesting that Instagram could share location data with Facebook in the future. Jane Manchun Wong previously reported on prototypes of Instagram Video Calling and Music Stickers, which eventually turned into features, and now she says an Instagram prototype has a new...

Smart clothes are becoming ever more sophisticated annually. These "wearables" can track how many times we have worn them. Many have Bluetooth connections that allow them to connect to the internet to report where we are headed and have been. The next generation of smart shirts will contain...

As previously reported, Google is building a cutting edge smart city in Toronto, Canada. Featuring apartments, offices, shops, and schools inside a 12 acre area, the development project will be stuffed with technology like smart sidewalks and networked trash cans. However, in light of recent...

According to documents found by Forbes, the FBI forced 28 year old Grant Michalski to unlock his iPhone X with his face as they searched his home in Colombus, Ohio. Forbes claims this is the first case of "any police agency" forcing a suspect to open their phone with FaceID "anywhere in the...

Following a story on Gizmodo claiming that Facebook was using information users never willingly gave up, Facebook confirmed that it uses 2FA phone numbers to send targeted ads to users. Facebook users noticed they were getting spammed on their 2FA phone numbers a couple of months ago, but the...

There's a perception that free VPNs provide an almost charitable privacy service. Users who are censored by their own government, for example, typically can't afford subscription VPN services, and often turn to free alternatives to circumvent oppressive restrictions. However, HackRead wrote up...

Chrome is the most popular browser on Earth, but many worry about the extent that Google uses it to track users and promote their own services. It seems Google took things one step further, automatically signing you into your Google account on the browser when signing into any Google service...

Google has admitted in a letter to Congress that it still allows apps to data mine Gmail accounts, read emails, and share user data freely with others by using tools provided by Google. These tools allow 3rd party companies to access data about purchases, travel, family and friendship...

Venture Beat reports that Apple is giving its users "trust scores" based on how they use their devices. The updated privacy policy says that calls and emails will be used to determine the score. An Apple correspondent told Venture Beat that the system is intended to fight iTunes fraud, and that...

Google recently expanded the age limit of Family Link. Family Link was previously limited to children under 13 years old, but now parents can remotely manage the phones of older children. Among other things, family link allows parents to monitor their children's Google account activity, track...

In a long awaited decision, The European Court of Human Rights ruled that the GCHQ, the hub of the United Kingdom's surveillance program, violated human rights by failing to provide sufficient safeguards against illegal privacy breaches. The Government Communications Headquarters has been spying...

The Intercept posted a good article on privacy concerns surrounding the LinkNYC internet kiosks found everywhere in the city. In addition to free WiFi, the kiosks feature Android tablets to search for directions, 911 buttons, charging ports, phones for free domestic calls, over 30 sensors, and 3...

Google allegedly purchases data from Mastercard pertaining to the purchase history of its 2 billion cardholders. They then cross-referenced it with Google's own online advertising tracking to learn how Mastercard cardholders viewed and reacted to, online advertising from Google in relation to...

Verizon, owner of Yahoo and AOL, is allegedly scraping email inboxes for information to sell to advertisers. The report claims that the practice has been going on for years, and that the service analyzes over 200 million inboxes. While Verizon does say that the system is supposed to exclude...

Since 2016, welfare fraud investigators in Sacramento, California have been using the automated license plate recognition (ALPR) system to track welfare recipients to prove fraud. The Department of Human Assistance (DHA) didn't notify the public of this as required by Senate Bill 34, until the...

Critical flaws are built into phones sold by the four major U.S. cellphone carriers according to research funded by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The flaws allow a hacker to gain access to data, emails, text messages, and "escalate privileges and take over the device" according to...

Tommy Hilfiger's new XPLORE lineup of clothing will be equipped with smart chip technology to track when and where you wear your clothing. It will seamlessly interface with an iOS app to allow Tommy Hilfiger to reward you for walking past their clothing locations and other places of interest on...

Reuters is reporting that four senior House Republicans have sent letters to the CEOs of Apple and Alphabet questioning location data, mobile phone privacy and the handling of customer data. The goal of the panel is, to quote the letter: "to probe the companies' representation of third-party...

This is a tremendously interesting study that has been conducted by the Norwegian Consumer Council (PDF). What the study lays out is that companies like Facebook, Google, and Microsoft use design techniques in how they exhibit choices to you, in order to get you to pick what they want you to...

From May 18 to May 22, while Facebook was testing a new feature, around 14 million Facebook users had the default sharing setting for all new posts set to public. CNN is reporting that Facebook revealed the blunder today, and after Facebook employees discovered the problem, it went back and...

In a report from PhoneArena, a Reddit user noticed that when he accidentally typed an extra period into a google search for "the1975..com" instead of a search result, he received a page showing his text messages. The same page that appears if you asked Google to "show me my text messages."...

In this edition of You Get What You Pay For, The Next Web points out that the EU's new GDPR laws are uncovering a lot of services and what they are doing with you data. Most notable, free VPN services which are mostly used to protect user privacy, seem to be an ugly offender when it comes to...

In a report from NPR yesterday, following Europe's new privacy laws that went into effect on Friday, California is considering new legislation regarding online privacy. The California Consumer Privacy Act will likely be on the ballot in November, and will require business' to have a "clear and...

I guess if you just leave all that personal data you collected for sale to others openly exposed on the web for years, you have to wonder how valuable it truly is. That said, the myPersonality Facebook app did actually scrub your name off before exposing your personal data online. Apparently...

Your home or phones wiretap digital assistant can hear a lot more than you think. The New York Times is reporting that researchers in China and the United States have begun demonstrating that devices like Siri and Alexa can be vulnerable to hidden commands, not audible to the human ear. In 2016...

According to a national survey of 2,500 adults in the US at least 83% of those surveyed want tighter rules on companies like Facebook that have their personal data. Also, the same percentage of those surveyed think companies that have their information should be legally responsible in the event...

Facebook isn't seeing any real changes in user behavior after the privacy uproar began, according to the Facebook VP of global marketing solutions, She also stated the company is expecting to continue making the big bucks with its current business model and stricter privacy laws shouldn't have...

Yesterday's episode of Cuck the Zuck got Gabe Newell's attention and he has acted quickly so as to not end up on a highchair in front of Congress. Seriously, the folks over at Steam have not taken kindly to apps like SteamSpy and are looking to boot its ability to collect game data on your...

Ina report from USA Today, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak told reporters that he is leaving Facebook over privacy concerns. "Users provide every detail of their life to Facebook and ... Facebook makes a lot of advertising money off this," he said in an email to USA TODAY. "The profits are all...

In the latest news from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Mark Zuckerberg will testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on April 11 the committee announced on their website today. The announcement comes after lawmakers formally asked Zuckerberg to testify on March 23rd. E&C...

In the wake of the ongoing Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook is releasing new tools to make privacy settings, as well as deleting your data easier to find. The system is focused around a new Privacy Shortcuts menu, where users can can control the data Facebook collects in just a few taps...

Vanity Fair is reporting that Facebook is getting even more bad press when it comes to user data. With the events of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, more and more people are taking a look at the data the Facebook has on them. One user, Dylan McKay, and Android user, downloaded his Facebook data...