Privacy

All stories in Privacy

• Amnesty International calls for ban on facial recognition

  The NGO is creating a crowd-sourced map of facial recognition cameras in NYC, as part of a global campaign to ban the tech. ...

  • Thomas Macaulay

• Google unveils privacy-friendly AI cookie killer

  The ad targeting method clusters users into groups rather than tracking individuals like cookies.

  • Thomas Macaulay

• India wants WhatsApp to retract its controversial privacy policy

  Update: In response to the government's letter, WhatsApp said that the app is not expanding its ability to share data with ...

  • Ivan Mehta

• WhatsApp delays its privacy policy update by three months — but what's the point?

  After a ton of backlash and user exodus, WhatsApp is delaying the rollout of its controversial privacy policy by three months. ...

  • Ivan Mehta

• Wearable that detects hand gestures could one day control prosthetics and computers

  The wearable uses a hyperdimensional computing algorithm to update itself with new information, such as new electronic signals ...

  • Thomas Macaulay

• How VR is used by psychologists to profile your personality

  Virtual reality (VR) has the power to take us out of our surroundings and transport us to far-off lands. From a quick round ...

  • The Conversation

• San Diego cuts off all streetlight sensors over privacy concerns

  This article was originally published by Sarah Wray on Cities Today, the leading news platform on urban mobility and innovation, ...

  • Cities Today

• This EU-funded AI rates how hideous your face is — for society's sake

  A new facial recognition tool that infers your beauty, age, BMI, life expectancy, and gender from a photo exposes the risks ...

  • Thomas Macaulay

• Dutch predictive policing tool 'designed to ethnically profile,' study finds

  An Amnesty International investigation found that the predictive policing system deliberately targets Eastern Europeans.

  • Thomas Macaulay

• The high privacy cost of a 'free' website

  Kara Zajac said SPART*A, a small nonprofit serving transgender military service members and veterans, helped her begin ...

  • The Markup

• Apple’s iOS 14 will give users more privacy protection — and publishers aren’t happy about it

  iPhone users are about to receive access to Apple’s latest mobile operating system, iOS 14. It will come with the usual ...

  • The Conversation

• Uber vs Los Angeles: The fight for passenger privacy

  This article was originally published by Christopher Carey on Cities Today, the leading news platform on urban mobility and ...

  • Cities Today

• British police to trial facial recognition system that detects your mood

  Lincolnshire police plan to test facial recognition and behavioral tech that infers people's moods and expressions by analyzing ...

  • Thomas Macaulay

• Employers are lurking on your social media ahead of interviews — raising ethical concerns

  As businesses around the world slowly start to reopen after being forced to shut down operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, ...

  • The Conversation

• UK court rules police use of facial recognition was 'unlawful'

  In a landmark decision, judges said South Wales Police's use of facial recognition breached human rights and data protection ...

  • Thomas Macaulay

• This free Android app reveals when other apps secretly use your mic and camera

  Access Dots simply displays a dot in a chosen corner of your screen to let you know when another Android app engages your ...

  • Abhimanyu Ghoshal

• EU top court bans US-EU data sharing deal over surveillance fears

  The EU's Court of Justice has struck down its Privacy Shield pact with the United States due to concerns about US surveillance. ...

  • Thomas Macaulay

• I hate how much I love the animations on Apple's Privacy page

  Apple's Privacy page has some really amazing animations. Genuinely, it does. Thing is, I hate how much I love the damn things. ...

  • Callum Booth

• The evolution of home security — and the latest trends keeping us safe

  If you had to render an opinion, would you say the world is a more or less dangerous place today than it was, say, ten years ...

  • Susan Doktor

• Troubled facial recognition startup Clearview AI pulls out of Canada ⁠— before it was pushed

  Dystopian surveillance firm Clearview AI has stopped offering its facial recognition service in Canada, the government's ...

  • Thomas Macaulay

• The iOS clipboard saga is a testament to Apple’s privacy-first approach

  The iOS clipboard saga is in full swing — and it's a major PR victory for Apple and its approach of making privacy a product. ...

  • Callum Booth

• Pardon the Intrusion #21: What does the privacy label say?

  Apple has introduced a new privacy-focused "nutrition label" for third-party apps that clearly describe how apps use your ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• All things privacy announced by Apple at WWDC

  Last year, Apple made privacy the central theme of Worldwide Developer Conference with Sign in with Apple, limited location ...

  • Ivan Mehta

• EU privacy watchdog thinks that Clearview AI is illegal

  Clearview AI's planned expansion into the EU hit a roadblock yesterday when the bloc's privacy watchdog said it "doubts" ...

  • Thomas Macaulay

• Signal can now automatically blur faces in photos — and you can use the images in any app

  Thousands of people are protesting against police brutality and to support the Black Lives Matters cause. If you are a part ...

  • Ivan Mehta

• Who’s allowed to track my kids online?

  For two decades children’s digital privacy in the United States has been regulated by a national law: the Children’s ...

  • The Markup

• The coronavirus pandemic shouldn't legitimize permanent surveillance after the crisis

  In Shoshana Zuboff’s 2019 book The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, she recalls the response to the launch of Google Glass in ...

  • Fiona J McEvoy

• Zoom sued by shareholder after security issues tanked its stock price

  Just when it looked like Zoom's getting its act together, the company's troubles got bad to worse. Yesterday, one of its ...

  • Ivan Mehta

• Huawei's first OLED TV looks insane — but I'm not sure I want one

  Huawei's first OLED TV — the Smart TV X65 — looks like an incredible piece of technology, but I don't want all those ...

  • Callum Booth

• NYC classrooms cancel Zoom after trolls make 'Zoombombing' a thing

  Zoom, the company most of the world didn’t know existed before quarantine, is being banned from New York City classrooms ...

  • Bryan Clark

• Washington state passes Microsoft-approved facial recognition laws

  Washington state has adopted sweeping facial recognition laws seen as a national model, much to the pleasure of Microsoft ...

  • Thomas Macaulay

• After a litany of security fuck-ups, Zoom promises weekly updates

  While the world is sitting at home, video calling and conferencing apps are having the time of their lives. Zoom is probably ...

  • Ivan Mehta

• New coronavirus contact-tracing app coming to UK 'within weeks'

  The British government plans to launch a new contact-tracing app that alerts people when they're close to someone with the ...

  • Thomas Macaulay

• Don't believe Zoom: Its video calls are not encrypted end-to-end

  It's a brand new day with a brand new privacy issue for popular video calling app Zoom. Last night, The Intercept published ...

  • Ivan Mehta

• Zoom's iOS app is sending your data to Facebook, because privacy is a myth (Updated)

  Update (30/03/2020): Over the weekend, Zoom said it had removed the code that sends data from the iOS app to Facebook. The ...

  • Ivan Mehta

• Pardon the Intrusion #14: There is some honor among thieves

  Use of surveillance to fight coronavirus raises has raised concerns about government overreach after pandemic dies down.

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• As a CEO I’m often wrong — but that’s okay

  In order to improve as a person and entrepreneur, you will need to adopt a ‘strong convictions, weakly held’ state of ...

  • Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten

• Pardon the Intrusion #13: Policing using AI

  Indian law enforcement agencies have employed facial recognition tech to identify more than 1,100 individuals who were allegedly ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• Pardon the Intrusion #12: Private by default

  Mozilla, the company behind the Firefox browser, has begun rolling out encrypted DNS over HTTPS (DoH) for US users by default. ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• How cameras in public spaces might change how we think

  Facial recognition is increasingly being used in many countries around the world. In some cases, the take up has been dramatic. ...

  • The Conversation

• Shocker: There’s another smart camera hackers can use to spy on you

  Researchers have found gaping security holes in yet another smart camera, with the vulnerabilities practically turning the ...

  • Mix

• Court orders moratorium on black box AI that detects welfare fraud amid human rights concerns

  The Hague District Court in The Netherlands yesterday ordered the Dutch government to halt its use of a black box AI system ...

  • Tristan Greene

• 3 privacy issues to consider before bringing an Amazon Echo into your house

  Amazon Echo and the Alexa voice assistant have had widely publicized issues with privacy. Whether it is the amount of data ...

  • The Conversation

• Why Amazon's Ring and facial recognition technology are a clear and present danger to society

  “The deployment of connected home security cameras that allow footage to be queried centrally are simply not compatible ...

  • Tristan Greene

• Amazon Engineer: 'Ring should be shut down immediately and not brought back'

  An Amazon software engineer named Max Eliaser is calling for the shutdown of Ring, the doorbell camera company Amazon paid ...

  • Tristan Greene

• Ring's Android app reportedly sends data to third-party trackers

  Ring, the Amazon-owned security camera company, has been caught in another privacy mishap. A report published by Electronic ...

  • Ivan Mehta

• How to use Facebook's 'Off-Facebook Activity' tool

  Facebook's finally rolled out its Off-Facebook tool to everyone. Here's how to use it to manage what other sites are sharing ...

  • Rachel Kaser

• It’s 2020 and we still have a data privacy problem

  To fully protect consumer data as we enter 2020, security must be the number one priority for organizations everywhere.

  • Om Mahida

• Google found vulnerabilities in Apple’s Safari that allowed user tracking

  In December, Apple fixed multiple bugs found in its Safari browser that allowed third-party websites to track users' browsing ...

  • Ivan Mehta

• Report: India will force WhatsApp, Telegram to trace sensitive messages back to their originators

  In its upcoming intermediary rules -- which will govern the policing of content on digital platforms with more than 5 million ...

  • Ivan Mehta

• The next big privacy scare is a face recognition tool you've never heard of

  The NYT published an eye-opening piece detailing a relatively unknown firm offering facial recognition services to roughly ...

  • Abhimanyu Ghoshal

• Facebook and Zuckerberg keep getting ‘freedom of expression’ wrong

  Facebook's digital panopticon creates a “chilling effect,” where people are afraid to exercise their freedom of expression. ...

  • Harold Li

• How to hide your Instagram Stories from strangers

  Instagram introduced a new feature that highlights Stories by location or hashtag — meaning people who don’t follow you ...

  • Cara Curtis

• Smart locks are cool as fuck — but I'll never trust them

  I honestly think smart locks are super cool, but I just don't think I could ever have one on the front door to my house or ...

  • Callum Booth

• Firefox will now let you delete your collected data

  Firefox browser will now let you delete all data it collects in its upcoming version rolling out on January 7. The company ...

  • Ivan Mehta

• 267 million Facebook users' data has reportedly been leaked

  A database containing more than 267 million Facebook users' data was reportedly found exposed online, says Comparitech and ...

  • Abhimanyu Ghoshal

• The pros and cons of how Google Chrome encrypts DNS activity

  Thanks to the expansion of HTTPS, the secure version of the original HTTP protocol, most internet traffic is encrypted today, ...

  • Ben Dickson

• AI Now 2019 report slams government use of facial recognition, biased AI

  “Community groups, workers, journalists, and researchers—not corporate AI ethics statements and policies—have been ...

  • Tristan Greene

• Facebook’s a mess, but it doesn’t mean backdoors are the answer

  Despite my run-ins with the Islamic State, I believe backdoors aren't the answer. What we need is a pre-agreed, cryptographically ...

  • Andersen Cheng

• Survey: People in their 20s are more likely to sell their data

  For all the flack the elder generation's taken as of late, it turns out that millennials and Gen Z-ers are more likely to ...

  • Tristan Greene

• Smart cities won't infringe on privacy or destroy buildings

  Across the world, over a thousand smart city pilots have been launched—many of them attempt to construct entirely new ...

  • Binary District Journal

• Don’t trust Google Chrome’s incognito mode

  Privacy is fast becoming a hard-to-earn luxury. As you browse through websites, it’s hard to shake off the creepy ...

  • Ben Dickson

• Facebook tests tool that allows users to export photos to Google

  Facebook today announced a new tool that would allow users to transfer their photos and videos from Facebook to other storage ...

  • Rachel Kaser

• Uber will start audio-recording trips to protect its passengers

  Uber has plans to ensure its passengers feel safe when using the taxing service by introducing an audio-recording safety ...

  • Cara Curtis

• Trust issues loom large over Google's ambitious healthcare plans

  Google's healthcare deal with Ascension has rightly attracted a lot of scrutiny, and now the search giant has stepped in ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• US Senator: 'Amazon Ring’s policies are an open door for privacy and civil liberty violations'

  US Senator Edward Markey yesterday revealed the results of a months-long investigation into Amazon's Ring camera-doorbells ...

  • Tristan Greene

• How I fully quit Google (and you can, too)

  Over the past six months, I have gone on a surprisingly tough, time-intensive, and enlightening quest — to quit using, ...

  • Nithin Coca

• Mozilla’s report shows just how awful Ring’s privacy practices are

  When the first internet-connected devices hit the market, they were rare enough that you could seriously consider whether ...

  • Callum Booth

• Instagram cracks down on app that allowed users to stalk private profiles

  Instagram is cracking down on Ghosty, an Android and iOS app that allowed users to look into private profiles without their ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• Anonymous supposedly resurfaces to donate $75M in Bitcoin to privacy tech

  A group claiming to be hacktivist organization Anonymous has supposedly pledged to donate $75 million in Bitcoin to startups ...

  • Yessi Bello Perez

• Facebook is secretly using your iPhone's camera as you scroll your feed

  iPhone owners, beware. It appears Facebook might be actively using your camera without your knowledge while you're scrolling ...

  • Mix

• Google confirms plans for a search tool that can analyze millions of health records

  Google partners with Ascension to give it access to personal health datasets that can be used to develop AI-based tools for ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• India is going ahead with its facial recognition program despite privacy concerns

  The Indian government has played down fears of mass surveillance in response to concerns that the proposed facial recognition ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• How to opt out of Revolut's data sharing policies

  Revolut, like a lot of tech companies, shares data about its users with third parties. But you can opt out of that if you ...

  • Matthew Beedham

• DNA testing startup exposes customer info in data breach (Updated)

  Veritas Genetics, a DNA-testing startup, has become the latest company to fall victim to a security incident that exposed ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• Zcash founders hand trademarks to non-profit foundation — for free!

  The creators of privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zcash are handing ownership of the coin's trademark to the Zcash Foundation ...

  • Matthew Beedham

• Website privacy options are often valid and relevant — but good luck finding them

  You’ve probably encountered a pair of shoes that won’t stop following you around the internet, appearing in advertisements ...

  • The Conversation

• WhatsApp now lets you choose which contacts can add you to groups

  Hallelujah! WhatsApp is rolling out a new setting that lets you specify which people in your contact list can add you to ...

  • Ivan Mehta

• Facebook Groups members' info left exposed to 100 app developers

  Facebook has revealed that an unspecified number of third-party apps from as many as 100 developers may have improperly accessed ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• Australia wants to use facial recognition to verify people watching online porn

  Australia's Department of Home Affairs proposed to start scanning porn viewers’ faces and match them up with government ...

  • Cara Curtis

• Mozilla and Element AI want to build 'data trusts' in the artificial intelligence age

  Mozilla, the nonprofit behind the free and open-source Firefox web browser, is partnering with Montreal-based Element AI ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• Modern cybersecurity is inaccessible to smaller companies — and that’s bad for you

  We find ourselves in an era when it’s not a question of if but when you’ll get hacked. So it's time to stop and declare: ...

  • Gal Ringel

• Stalkerware apps struck down for the first time ever by the FTC

  The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) made its first case against the developers behind three stalking apps that may also be ...

  • Cara Curtis

• Facebook’s Libra ‘cryptocurrency’ gets desperate as it considers stablecoins

  Facebook's controversial 'cryptocurrency' Libra could be based on national currencies such as the dollar, the tech giant ...

  • Yessi Bello Perez

• The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is coming — get compliant

  Were you unprepared for GDPR? Well then get ready now before California's new privacy regulation kicks in, no matter where ...

  • Matthew Baier

• Instagram now lets you control which apps can access your account data

  Instagram adding a new feature that allows individuals to "manage all of the third-party services they connect to their Instagram ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• Google announces the dual-camera, notchless, & face-unlocking Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL

  Google has announced its new Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL phones, which include a range of exciting updates to satisfy the most ...

  • Callum Booth

• Europol: Bitcoin is the still the dark web’s favorite cryptocurrency

  Europol notes that Bitcoin's prevalence in underground economies is a consequence of its familiarity within the customer ...

  • David Canellis

• WhatsApp for Android has mysteriously disappeared from Google Play [Update: It's back]

  WhatsApp, one of the world's most popular privacy-oriented messengers, has suddenly disappeared from Google Play — and ...

  • Mix

• Apple might soon allow you to delete Siri history

  Apple has officially begun testing a feature that allows users to explicitly opt out of sharing audio snippets to improve ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• Why the insurance tech industry needs to lead the way on privacy

  With incidents like Cambridge Analytica becoming the norm, the insurtech space should question any practice that interferes ...

  • Peter Colis

• Study: Americans still confused by 2FA, encryption & private browsing

  A study by Pew Research Center shows that few American’s have the expertise to effectively protect themselves online. Most ...

  • Bryan Clark

• California bans law enforcement from using facial recognition software for the next 3 years

  California lawmakers today passed a bill placing a three-year state-wide moratorium on the use of facial recognition technology ...

  • Tristan Greene

• Here’s how you make your Google Docs secure

  Google Docs is one of the few online applications that I’m deeply dependent on for my everyday work. Like millions of other ...

  • Ben Dickson

• Opera 64 now protects users against tracking scripts

  Opera keeps getting better

  • Matthew Hughes

• YouPorn now lets you create an account without an email

  YouPorn now lets you open an account without entering an email, just like Reddit. It's also introducing a light theme that ...

  • Mix

• US and UK pressure Facebook for backdoor access to WhatsApp messages

  The US, the UK, Australia are calling on Facebook to delay its plans to implement the end-to-end encryption across its messaging ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• EU courts can now force Facebook to remove ‘illegal comments’ worldwide

  The is yet another landmark ruling from the CJEU in a period of few weeks, but the latest one might be monumental in defning ...

  • Már Másson Maack

• WhatsApp bug allowed hackers to steal files and messages with GIFs

  A vulnerability in WhatsApp made it possible for attackers to gain access to your files nad messages by tricking you to open ...

  • Mix

• You'll soon be able to tell your Google Assistant to forget search history

  Google announced multiple enhancements to some of its products to better protect your data — including the ability to manage ...

  • Cara Curtis

• EU's top court says pre-checked boxes for tracking cookies are illegal

  Europe's highest court, the CJEU, has ruled that pre-checked cookie consent boxes do not provide the necessary legal consent ...

  • Már Másson Maack

• Facebook election interference study delayed over privacy concerns

  Facebook's plans to share open up its data vault for researchers to analyze the platform's influence on elections has run ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• This AI reads privacy policies so you don't have to — and it's actually pretty good

  Guard is an AI that reads privacy policies and uncovers their hidden dangers — but you still might want to do your own ...

  • Mix

• EU top court rules Google doesn’t need to apply the ‘right to be forgotten’ globally

  Google argued if search results were removed globally, it would risk abuse by authoritarian governments. Now it only needs ...

  • Már Másson Maack

• Google plans to give you more control over 'Hey Google' sensitivity

  "Hey Google, what's the weather like?" "OKAY Google, what's the weather like?" "YO GOOGLE ARE YOU LISTENING?" If ...

  • Napier Lopez

• WhatsApp's 'Delete for Everyone' doesn't delete media files from iPhones

  WhatsApp's 'Delete for Everyone' feature could leave traces of your messages, due to a discrepancy in the way the it works ...

  • Mix

• Colossal Ecuador leak exposes data of 20M individuals — including Julian Assange

  The personal data of just about every citizen of Ecuador has been found exposed online in what could be the country's biggest ...

  • Mix

• Mozilla begins charging for services — starting with Firefox premium support for enterprises

  The Firefox maker is rolling out a new offer for organizations that run the browser in enterprise environments with a premium ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• Google open-sources tool for companies that aims to keep personal data private

  Google open-sourcesis differential privacy library that it uses to glean insights from aggregate data in a privacy-preserving ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• Brave browser catches Google tracking users with hidden web pages

  Brave, the budding browser with its own native cryptocurrency, is going after Google for allegedly tracking users using secret ...

  • David Canellis

• How Android 10 is making your phone more private and secure

  A comprehensive look at all the new privacy and security features of Android's latest version Android 10; rolling out to ...

  • Ivan Mehta

• Facebook now asks for consent to scan your photos (but only on new accounts)

  Facebook today announced it'd be rolling out its facial recognition settings to everyone -- and that and that it'd be turned ...

  • Rachel Kaser

• Nice: Firefox 69 now blocks cryptominers and tracking cookies by default

  Your move, Google

  • Matthew Hughes

• Apple apologizes for snooping on Siri users, promises consent moving forward

  Apple today announced a new shift in company policy that prioritizes user privacy -- at least with regards to Siri audio ...

  • Rachel Kaser

• Google accused of 'privacy gaslighting' over its anti-tracking policy

  Google's watered-down anti-tracking policy for the web has invited fresh criticism from privacy experts who say the search ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• Microsoft is listening to you via your Xbox One (Update: not anymore)

  Update (August 22, 2019): In a story published on August 21, Microsoft told Vice it's stopped listening to recordings from ...

  • Rachel Kaser

• Facebook's 'cryptocurrency' Libra reportedly facing EU competition probe

  The European Union’s antitrust regulators are “currently investigating potential anti-competitive behavior” amid concerns ...

  • Yessi Bello Perez

• Google stops sharing your network data with carriers over privacy concerns

  Google shuts down Mobile Network Insights service over concerns that "sharing data from users of its Android phone system ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• Google study says people are still using old passwords after being compromised

  A study released by Google has found that approximately 1.5 percent of all sign-ins used across the web involved credentials ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• Apple will soon treat online web tracking the same as a security vulnerability

  Apple ups its privacy batte with a new "WebKit Tracking Prevention Policy" that aims to prevent all forms covert tracking ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• Facebook's group privacy settings actually make sense now

  Until today, Facebook has given you three options for creating a user group: Open, closed, or 'secret.' While the first is ...

  • Napier Lopez

• Amazon says its facial recognition tech can now detect fear

  Amazon has announced that its Rekognition facial recognition system can now detect a person's "fear," among other accuracy ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• Cryptocurrency scammers have netted $4.26B so far this year, report

  Cryptocurrency scammers continued to swindle funds throughout Q2 2019, netting approximately $4.26 billion so far this year.  ...

  • Yessi Bello Perez

• FBI proposal outlines plans for large-scale collection of social media data

  The Federal Bureau of Investigation is planning to step up its efforts to monitor social media platforms more aggressively ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• Moonday Mornings: IBM wants to put your browser history on the blockchain, forever

  Welcome to another Moonday Mornings. Let's waste no time and take a look at the weekend's cryptocurrency and blockchain headlines ...

  • Matthew Beedham

• WhatsApp's chat manipulation exploit remains unresolved even after a year (Updated)

  Vulnerabilities uncovered in WhatsApp by cybersecurity firm Checkpoint can allow bad actors to exploit the platform to manipulate ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• Apple will limit VoIP background data collection from WhatsApp, Snapchat et al in iOS 13

  Apple is reportedly planning a new feature in iOS that will restrict apps from runing VoIP in the background when the programs ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• Facebook, stop trying to make Libra happen

  Data protection bosses from all over the world are concerned about Facebook Libra's potential privacy issues.

  • Yessi Bello Perez

• The UK illegally copied sensitive personal data from EU databases, but the EU doesn’t seem to care

  EU officials confirmed that the UK made illegal copies of a Schengen database, but MEPs worry there are more data breaches ...

  • Már Másson Maack

• Equifax probably owes you $125. Here’s how to collect

  TNW recently reported the US Federal Trade Commision (FTC) had passed down a rather friendly little fine to Equifax – ...

  • Tristan Greene

• Facebook gets away with $5B FTC fine for leaking your data

  The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has slapped a $5 billion fine on Facebook in wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal ...

  • Ivan Mehta

• Police demand access to sexual assault survivors' phones — or have their case dropped

  In April, the UK police introduced consent forms asking sexual assault survivors for permission to access their personal ...

  • Cara Curtis

• The Jour mindfulness app helps you build a daily journaling habit

  Mental health problems are one of the leading causes of disease burden worldwide, and major depression is the second leading ...

  • Georgina Ustik

• Google and Facebook are tracking your porn preferences – even in incognito mode

  It turns out Google and Facebook are tracking your porn consumption habits – and even incognito mode can't save you from ...

  • Mix

• How to request FaceApp to remove your data from its servers

  A short guide on how you can ask FaceApp to remove your data from its servers. There are a lot privacy concerns surrounding ...

  • Ivan Mehta

• Facebook now tells you where brands are getting your ad targeting data

  Facebook has announced a series of updates to its "Why am I seeing this ad?" and Ad Preferences tools with an aim to bring ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• UK Alexa users can now get answers to medical questions right from the NHS

  The NHS teams up with Amazon's Alexa digital voice assistant to help answer medical queries with advice from the service's ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• Google contractors are secretly listening to your Assistant recordings

  Not only is your Google Home device listening to you, a new report suggests there might be a Google contractor who’s listening ...

  • Rachel Kaser

• US risks its leading role in tech by leaving regulations to the EU

  The borderless nature of tech regulation puts immense power in the hands of the EU, which has emerged as the de-facto global ...

  • Emmanuel Schalit

• ‘The world’s greatest email app’ is a privacy nightmare

  Superhuman isn't all that super.

  • Matthew Hughes

• Amazon confirms it retains your Alexa voice recordings indefinitely

  Amazon has confirmed that it keeps Alexa transcripts and voice recordings indefinitely, and only removes them if they're ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• Dutch ministers push for cryptocurrency regulation to fight money laundering

  Dutch ministers want to regulate cryptocurrencies as part of a wider effort to tackle money laundering in the country.

  • Yessi Bello Perez

• Here's why India wants to build its own WhatsApp and Gmail

  The Indian government is reportedly plannning to build its own WhatsApp-like chat platform to facilitate secure communications ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• Facebook’s Libra partners remain cautious amid growing scrutiny from regulators

  Facebook's Libra partners have reportedly signed non-binding agreements, meaning they're not obliged to promote or use the ...

  • Yessi Bello Perez

• MySpace employees reportedly read your mid-2000s DMs

  Long before Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram ruled the social media world, there was Myspace. One of the earliest social ...

  • Ivan Mehta

• Bought a used Nest security cam? The previous owner can spy on you (Update: Fixed)

  A new report by Wirecutter finds some users who sold their Nest cam devices are able to access images from their old cameras ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• Google open-sources cryptographic tool to keep data sets private

  Google open-sources Private Join and Compute, a new secure multi-party computation (MPC) tool designed to help organizations ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• India is still hounding WhatsApp to make its messages traceable

  Indian aks WhatApp to "digitally fingerprint" every message sent on its platform without breaking encryption, according to ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• Tim Cook takes aim at tech companies for creating 'chaos'

  Apple CEO Tim Cook once again took shots at Silicon Valley tech companies in his Stanford commencement speech on Sunday.

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• PSA: Set your Venmo transactions to private right now

  A new research has found that Venmo continues to make it easy for third-parties to scrap users' public transaction history ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• Addressing the privacy paradox: Top leaders and experts share insights

  During TNW Conference 2019, top government officials, business and technology leaders came together at The Assembly to discuss ...

  • Andrea Hak

• Loyalty programs cost you your personal data — are the rewards worth it?

  Rewards and loyalty programs are increasingly becoming a way to access your personal information. These apps make it easy ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• [Best of 2019] Why Gary Vaynerchuk thinks the death of privacy is a good thing

  Gary Vaynerchuk wades into the privacy debate and explains why he thinks that most people care about privacy in theory. But ...

  • Neil C. Hughes

• Apple's privacy-focused features risk trapping users in its walled garden

  An update to the App Store Review Guidelines reveals that apps that use other companies' single sign-on features will be ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• Privacy is Apple’s most premium product

  However, Apple was selling another feature to all of us – privacy. Apple took jibes at Google and Facebook and tracking ...

  • Ivan Mehta

• Apple introduces privacy-focused 'Sign in with Apple' button for sites and apps

  Apple introduces privacy-focused 'Sign in with Apple' button for sites and apps to keep the app trackers away from tracking ...

  • Ivan Mehta

• Google is cracking down on Drive and Chrome extensions that abuse your data

  Google has announced new policies for Chrome extensions and Drive API that ensures developers only have necessary permissions ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• Amazon adds vocal command to delete saved Alexa recordings

  Amazon recently announced an easy solution for privacy-conscious individuals to delete the devices’ saved recordings. Now, ...

  • Bryan Clark

• PSA: You can now delete your voice recordings with an Alexa command

  Amazon is now rolling out a pair of Alexa voice commands that allows you to delete voice recordings without using its website. ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• Your iPhone is leaking personal info to tracking companies

  The Washington Post finds a lot of third-party iOS apps are sending sensitive personal information to tracking companies. ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• Apple's privacy reputation at risk with new iTunes class-action lawsuit

  Three iTunes file a federal lawsuit against Apple alleging that the company unlawfully collects and sells their iTunes listening ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• Why the future of US data regulation must come from Congress

  As of May 2019, over 20 US states have introduced bills seeking to regulate data privacy, data security, or some combination ...

  • Alison Pepper

• Google and Facebook are gonna hate Apple's new privacy-preserving online ads

  Apple has outlined a new Safari feature, called Privacy Preserving Ad Click Attribution, that aims to stop online ads from ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• Kenya is allegedly selling citizen data to highest corporate bidder

  According to Dr. Roselyn K. Akombe, Chief of Policy Planning and Guidance at the United Nations and ex-commissioner of Kenya's ...

  • iAfrikan News

• Listen, parents, here are 3 reasons you shouldn't use child tracking apps

  The use of self-tracking and personal surveillance technologies has grown considerably over the last decade. There are now ...

  • The Conversation

• South African voters fear mobile political campaigns will steal their personal info

  Mobile technology will arguably go down in history as the most successful innovation of our lifetime. Mobile devices, especially ...

  • The Conversation

• Twitter bug accidentally shared location data of some iOS users

  Twitter says it has fixed a security bug that resulted in a user's approximate location information being shared with an ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• Google forces Nest users to use Google accounts, raising privacy concerns

  Google's Nest rebranding gets rid of the privacy barrier between Google and Nest, and the move has significant implications ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• Google's case for privacy is more convincing than Facebook's

  A week after Facebook's F8 conference, Google makes a case for privacy, stating how a lot of new features have been built ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• Facebook contract workers look at your private posts to help train its AI

  A new report from Reuters has revealed how contract workers for Facebook and Instagram are looking at your private posts ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• PSA: You can now auto-delete your location and web history on Google

  Google has announced it is rolling out new auto-delete controls for Location History and Web & App Activity that allows users ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• Here's what Facebook announced at its F8 developer keynote

  Facebook announces a redesign of its social network alongside updates to Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp at F8 deve conference. ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• Here are the 7 requirements for building ethical AI, according to the EU commission

  In October, Amazon had to discontinue an artificial intelligence–powered recruiting tool after it discovered the system ...

  • Ben Dickson

• How Facebook plans to keep your data private while opening it up to researchers

  Facebook has outlined a differential privacy-based approach that it expects will protect users' confidentiality while simultaneously ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• Facebook clamps down on personality quizzes to plug data leaks

  Facebook has updated its devloper platform policies to subject apps with minimal utility, such as personality quizzes, to ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• Facebook sets aside billions to pay its way through privacy issues

  Facebook said it has set aside $3 billion in connection with an ongoing FTC investigation into its privacy abuses set off ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• Facebook uploaded 1.5 million people’s email contacts without permission

  Welcome to the newest episode of "Facebook screws up daily." it uploaded contact lists of over 1.5 million people since 2016, ...

  • Ivan Mehta

• Jumbo is an iPhone app that clears your old tweets and Google searches

  There’s an insane amount of news every day about social networks screwing up and compromising user data. So, it’s advisable ...

  • Ivan Mehta

• Big tech’s ‘ethical guidelines’ are no substitute for real regulation

  Data ethics is now a cause célèbre. “Digital ethics and privacy” shot into research and advisory company Gartner’s ...

  • The Conversation

• How to stop people from adding you to WhatsApp groups

  WhatsApp announced a feature that allows people to stop others from adding them to group without consent. Now, the feature ...

  • Ivan Mehta

• Activision knows when its employees are having sex

  The Washington Post this week reported Activision Blizzard has been using various apps to track its employees' health ...

  • Rachel Kaser

• Smart cities are an AI-powered dystopia that's already happening

  Separating the futuristic from the dystopian in the minds of the general public can be a challenge, particularly when trying ...

  • Binary District Journal

• [Best of 2019] WhatsApp finally lets you prevent people from adding you to their shitty groups

  WhatsApp is finally rolling out a feature that will prevent anyone from adding you to a group without your permission from ...

  • Ivan Mehta

• Facebook announces a long-overdue transparency tool for News Feed

  Over the weekend, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg sounded the alarm, calling for increased government regulation for internet ...

  • Bryan Clark

• Rebuilding trust in democracy starts with digital identity verification

  As Mark Zuckerberg recently wrote, “free and fair elections are the heart of every democracy.” Despite controversy over ...

  • Vinny Lingham

• The rise of the ubiquitous voice assistant

  Apple, Amazon, and Google have done a great job educating users that voice is here! Voice recognition has been getting better ...

  • Rajat Mukherjee

• No, viewing publicly shared Google Docs don't reveal your identity

  Every day, millions of people use Google Docs to share and collaborate on documents. And when it comes to working on documents ...

  • Ben Dickson

• PSA: MetaMask reveals your Ethereum address to sites you visit, here’s how to hide it

  There's a setting disabled by popular Ethereum service MetaMask by default, and its putting the privacy of cryptocurrency ...

  • David Canellis

• Rift widens between Epic and gamers over data mining allegations

  Epic Games is being torn a new one by gamers again. This time, it's been accused of mining users' Steam data without their ...

  • Rachel Kaser

• Mark Zuckerberg plans to make Facebook more private with 6 key changes

  Mark Zuckerberg wants to make Facebook less like a town square, and more like a living room. So he declares in a massive ...

  • Napier Lopez

• [Best of 2019] Think about privacy the next time you ask Alexa the weather

  As long as voice assistants are on the rise, data privacy should be too. The market is now saturated with voice assistants ...

  • Eric Johnson

• We’re not safe without information privacy

  It’s not just because you are a criminal and the coppers might catch you. Or because you really, really hate big corporations ...

  • Larry Sanger

• PSA: Don’t give out your phone number for Facebook 2FA, use an app instead

  It's no secret that Facebook doesn't respect your privacy in the least: we learned last October that the company  used the ...

  • Abhimanyu Ghoshal

• How to decentralize social media, according to Wikipedia’s co-founder

  The problem about social media is that it is centralized. Centralization empowers massive corporations and governments ...

  • Larry Sanger

• Laws can't keep up with sex robots' ethical and privacy issues

  From the Drudge Report to The New York Times, sex robots are rapidly becoming a part of the national conversation about the ...

  • The Conversation

• Apple's crackdown on screen-recording apps is a privacy win

  Apple’s iOS screen recording functionality – which was first introduced in version 11 back in 2017 – comes in handy ...

  • Ivan Mehta

• Why Germany wants to block Facebook's Messenger-Instagram-WhatsApp merger

  Facebook made a splash recently when CEO Mark Zuckerberg's plans to integrate its messaging platforms on Instagram, Messenger, ...

  • Vishwam Sankaran

• 15 strategies everyone should know to protect their online information

  As technology increases at an ever-faster rate, so too do the ways in which our information can be put at risk. With the ...

  • Scott Gerber

• Facebook sucks for privacy, but how good are advertisers at targeting me?

  Amid the massive hue and cry about Facebook’s utter disregard for data privacy, and the illicit use of personally identifiable ...

  • Preetish Panda

• Facebook's totally not listening to you, its new ad disclosure feature screams desperately

  Remember hearing about - or worse, feeling like - people seeing ads related to topics they've merely talked about with friends ...

  • Ivan Mehta

• Facial recognition tech sucks, but it’s inevitable

  Is facial recognition accurate? Can it be hacked? These are just some of the questions being raised by lawmakers, civil libertarians, ...

  • Christopher Shiostu

• Google has quietly dropped ban on personally identifiable web tracking

  This article was originally published by ProPublica on October 21st, 2016. When Google bought the advertising network ...

  • Julia Angwin, Pro Publica

• This week's Facebook-Google-Apple drama, explained

  With so much happening in the tech world, this week feels like it’s 21 days long. The highlight of the week has been the ...

  • Ivan Mehta

• After Facebook, Google apologizes for running a user data collection program on iOS

  Last night, just when we were trying to get our heads around Facebook's data collecting program, TechCrunch reported that ...

  • Ivan Mehta

• New macOS malware steals your cookies to swipe your cryptocurrency

  Security researchers from Palo Alto Networks' Unit 42 have uncovered a new cryptocurrency stealing malware that specifically ...

  • Matthew Beedham

• How to hide everything from everyone on your PlayStation 4

  Welcome to TNW Basics, a collection of tips, tricks, guides, and advice on how to get the most out of your gadgets, apps, ...

  • Rachel Kaser

• Ad blockers threaten digital marketers’ ability to understand customers

  Digital advertisers know they’re screwed. Digital marketers don’t. Considering statistics like one in four US internet ...

  • Hamlet Batista

• How 2018 became Facebook’s worst year in privacy and security

  In early December, Facebook’s developer team declared the discovery of a security bug that gave developers access to ...

  • Ben Dickson

• US police can't force you to unlock your phone with fingerprints or face recognition

  A US federal court judge ruled that police can't compel suspects to unlock their phones using biometrics like face recognition, ...

  • Abhimanyu Ghoshal

• NASA looks to secure flight data with blockchain tech

  NASA is exploring potential use-cases for blockchain technology in a bid to safeguard the privacy and security of aircraft ...

  • Yessi Bello Perez

• Why data privacy is hot and machine learning is not

  Looking back on the past twelve months, we will all remember cybersecurity scares, revelations of data malpractices, and ...

  • Rafael Laguna

• Google twists Samourai Wallet's arm to disable privacy features

  Samourai Wallet, a bitcoin wallet provider, is temporarily disabling some of its privacy-related features following a request ...

  • Yessi Bello Perez

• Weather apps are secretly selling your location data to the highest bidder

  Location data is a funny thing. You need it to get an accurate forecast, and they, the app-maker, need it to cash in on a ...

  • Bryan Clark

• Facebook "owns" my family: a cautionary fable

  I hate New Year. I don’t do resolutions and am generally “bah, humbug” about the whole hullabaloo. This year, my ...

  • Jennifer Baker

• Google reportedly shuts down its Chinese censored search project

  Google has stopped key data analysis needed for its highly contested China project, the censored search engine 'Dragonfly' ...

  • Már Másson Maack

• Blockchains should have ‘privacy by design’ for GDPR compliance

  LTO Network hosted speakers at Hard Fork Decentralized last night to tackle some of the blockchain industry's toughest GDPR ...

  • Matthew Beedham

• Depressing lessons 2018's endless data breaches taught us

  In the days after Facebook's September announcement about a bug that may have compromised 90 million users – yes, that ...

  • Emily Wilson

• This website sets your Spotify playlists to private with a single click

  Nobody will know you love Peter Andre

  • Matthew Hughes

• US government building tools to deanonymize anonymous cryptocurrencies

  If you thought you were safe using privacy coins like Zcash and Monero, think again, the US government is developing forensic ...

  • Matthew Beedham

• What GoDaddy is doing wrong about privacy — here’s what it should do

  GoDaddy asks users to pay for privacy protection. It's distasteful that a large domain registrar would charge a fee for a ...

  • Dan Storbaek

• 7 EU countries accuse Google of violating GDPR by tracking users

  Consumer groups in the Netherlands, Poland, Czechia, Greece, Slovenia, Sweden, and Norway have asked regulators to look into ...

  • Már Másson Maack

• Uber fined €1M for 2016 data breach by Dutch and British privacy watchdogs

  The Dutch Data Protection Authority and UK's Information Commissioner's Office have fined Uber over €1M the company's data ...

  • Már Másson Maack

• Microchip implants are threatening workers’ rights

  It’s not often trades unions and employers are equally worried about an issue threatening workers’ rights. But recently, ...

  • The Conversation

• Here's how we take back control over our digital identities

  The data reckoning has arrived. We’re already too familiar with the breach headlines: Equifax, Under Armour, Target. But ...

  • Charles Race

• Report: Microsoft’s enterprise products covertly gather personal data on users

  Microsoft collects and stores personal data about the behavior of individual users of its enterprise offerings on a large ...

  • Már Másson Maack

• Please appreciate Mozilla’s security-focused gift guide

  Shout out Mozilla. The not-for-profit company behind the web-browser Firefox has put together a gift guide with a difference. ...

  • Callum Booth

• We’re living in digital serfdom — trading privacy for convenience

  Think for a second: compared to your grandparents and parents, what do you actually own outright? Why own when you can ...

  • Hassan Khan

• China has a new surveillance tool that identifies citizens by how they walk

  Chinese authorities have begun deploying a new surveillance tool designed to identify people by how they walk, or the shapes ...

  • Bryan Clark

• Twitter's privacy settings, explained

  Twitter is one of the most open social media platforms on the web, which is why it might be easier to ignore the privacy ...

  • Rachel Kaser

• Is Tim Cook the champion of privacy?

  Today’s ceaseless data scandals have everyone talking about privacy, especially insofar as our favorite digital devices ...

  • Gary Eastwood

• How to review and delete your Google search history

  Your Google search history includes the queries you've entered into Google search when you're signed in. Here's how to wipe ...

  • Abhimanyu Ghoshal

• Tim Cook supports EU’s strict privacy laws — but thinks taxes are 'crap'

  Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, gave a keynote at ICDPPC where he called for better data policies in tech and lauded EU's GDPR. Unfortunately, ...

  • Már Másson Maack

• How blockchain technology can — and can't — prevent sexual assault

  This story explores how projects like Callisto and LegalFling are using blockchain technology to store vital information ...

  • Cara Curtis

• 50% of American WhatsApp users don't know it's owned by Facebook

  Research from the search engine DuckDuckGo has revealed 50 percent of American WhatsApp users don't realize Facebook owns ...

  • Callum Booth

• The free internet makes us the product — we need to stop it

  The bad headlines continue to stack up for Facebook this year: from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, to the New York Times ...

  • Mark Rolston

• When your boss knows everything about you

  Big data and algorithmic decision making have become an indispensable part of the human resources toolkit at companies.

  • William Watterson

• Here's how to keep advertisers from using your phone number on Facebook

  A Gizmodo report on Wednesday detailed the latest in a long series of Facebook privacy blunders. The report said, and Facebook ...

  • Bryan Clark

• Without coaching our privacy, does Google even have a business?

  Google is on a seemingly-ceaseless crusade to turn every one of its users into an open book that it can exploit for valuable ...

  • Gary Eastwood

• Google and Mastercard are secretly tracking your offline purchases

  Google has quietly been providing select advertisers a "stockpile" of offline credit card transaction data. After a four ...

  • Bryan Clark

• Facebook recently started asking banks for your financial data

  A report from the Wall Street Journal today revealed Facebook was attempting to gain detailed financial information from ...

  • Rachel Kaser

• GDPR is eroding our privacy, not protecting it

  It's been more than a couple of months since GDPR (the EU General Data Protection Regulation) came into force. The promise ...

  • Mindaugas Kiskis

• All Android phones should run stock OS (including you Samsung!)

  Countless consumers around the globe cherish the customization options available to them when it comes to their smartphones, ...

  • Gary Eastwood

• Facebook's Digital Literacy Library is an imperfect course in online etiquette

  Facebook today released a "Digital Literacy Library," a series of education modules designed to help parents and teachers ...

  • Rachel Kaser

• This is how you can personalize marketing campaigns — without violating GDPR

  GDPR -- no other four letters are giving tech companies a bigger headache this year. So many articles have been written about ...

  • Yvonne Koleczek

• How cryptography enables online shopping, cloud tech, and the blockchain

  What do the Gallic Wars and online shopping have in common? The answer, believe it or not, is cryptography. Cryptography ...

  • Nigel Smart

• WhatsApp's label for forwarded messages won't be enough to battle fake news

  Continuing its mission to help fight the spread of misinformation on its platform, WhatsApp is introducing a label to help ...

  • Abhimanyu Ghoshal

• Privacy Statement

  Privacy Statement This Privacy Statement applies to personal data collected, used and stored by The Next Web B.V. having ...

  • Julian Aijal