index privacy
[Link] Facebook Engineers Admit They Don’t Know What They Do With Your Data
Read: 8/9/2022 www.vice.com
Earlier this year, Motherboard reported about an internal Facebook document that said the company has no idea where users’ data goes, and what the company is doing with it.
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[Link] SafeGraph Investor Selling His Stake, Donating the Money to Planned Parenthood
Read: 6/5/2022 www.vice.com
Motherboard reported that SafeGraph was selling aggregated location data of people who visited family planning centers, raising concerns the data could be used to figure out which clinics were providing out-of-state abortions. Hacking. Disinformation. Surveillance.
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[Link] Tech Firm Offers Cops Facial Recognition to ID Homeless People
Read: 8/2/2022 www.vice.com
“Police use ODIN facial recognition to identify even non-verbal or intoxicated individuals,” the brochure from surveillance firm ODIN Intelligence reads. ODIN’s specific homelessness product is called ODIN Homeless Management Information System, or ODIN HMIS.
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[Link] Stop Leaving Your Smartphone's Bluetooth On
Read: 8/2/2022 lifehacker.com
Bluetooth is a handy feature that allows you to easily connect up your various devices, whether you’re trying to get your new wireless headphones to talk to your Android phone or connecting your Apple Watch to your iPhone.
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[Link] IRS to Stop Use of Facial Recognition Tech After Widespread Backlash
Read: 8/2/2022 www.vice.com
The IRS said on Monday it will stop the use of ID.me, an identification verification service that uses facial recognition technology. Lawmakers had raised concerns with the service over the last week, with multiple members of Congress and Senators urging the IRS to stop the deployment of ID.me.
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[Link] Facebook appeal over Cambridge Analytica data rejected by Australian court as ‘divorced from reality’
Read: 8/2/2022 www.theguardian.com
Facebook has lost a major battle with the Australian regulator over the Cambridge Analytica scandal, after a court dismissed the social media giant’s claim that it neither conducts business nor collects personal information in the country.
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[Link] People Are Selling AirTags with Disabled Speakers that Are Totally Not for Stalking
Read: 6/2/2022 www.extremetech.com
Apple released AirTags last year, giving iOS users a better way to track and find their belongings. However, the tracking capabilities of AirTags were so good that many expressed concerns about privacy and safety.
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[Link] This NFT on OpenSea Will Steal Your IP Address
Read: 27/1/2022 www.vice.com
NFTs are usually passive affairs. A consumer buys the token, and then sells or stores the NFT. The NFT doesn’t really do anything.
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[Link] Lawmakers Plan Legislation to ‘Ban Surveillance Advertising’
Read: 19/1/2022 www.vice.com
Lawmakers have proposed new legislation that they say would ban surveillance-based advertising. The legislation would target the underlying practice of targeted or personalized ads that facilitates surveillance-based advertising itself.
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[Link] WhatsApp criticised for plan to allow messages to disappear after 24 hours
Read: 6/12/2021 www.theguardian.com
WhatsApp users are to be given the option to have their messages disappear after 24 hours, a change that drew immediate criticism from children’s charities. In a blog post announcing the change, WhatsApp, which has 2 billion users, said its mission was to “connect the world privately”.
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[Link] Prisons transcribe private phone calls with inmates using speech-to-text AI
Read: 6/12/2021 www.theregister.com
In brief Prisons around the US are installing AI speech-to-text models to automatically transcribe conversations with inmates during their phone calls.
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[Link] Korean Facial Recognition Project Faces Opposition
Read: 1/12/2021 hackaday.com
It was discovered last month that a South Korean government project has been providing millions of facial images taken at Incheon International Airport to private industry without the consent of those photographed.
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[Link] Court Throws Out Messages Obtained by FBI Honeypot Phone Company Anom
Read: 30/11/2021 www.vice.com
On Tuesday a Finnish court ruled that chat messages secretly gathered by the FBI from encrypted phone company Anom can’t be used as evidence against two particular suspects, according to a report from Finnish outlet Iltalehti.
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[Link] You Can Now Get $25 From Zoom Following a Class Action Settlement
Read: 29/11/2021 www.vice.com
As part of a class action lawsuit for alleged privacy and security issues, people who used Zoom between 2016 and 2021 can now file a claim to receive $25 or $15 as compensation.
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[Link] Apple Sues NSO Group For Hacking Its Users
Read: 23/11/2021 www.vice.com
The tech giant’s lawsuit is just the latest in a string of bad news for NSO in the last few weeks.
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[Link] Meta delays encrypted messages on Facebook and Instagram to 2023
Read: 22/11/2021 www.theguardian.com
The owner of Facebook and Instagram is delaying plans to encrypt users’ messages until 2023 amid warnings from child safety campaigners that its proposals would shield abusers from detection.
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[Link] Clearview AI ordered to delete all facial recognition data belonging to Australians
Read: 14/11/2021 www.theverge.com
Controversial facial recognition firm Clearview AI has been ordered to destroy all images and facial templates belonging to individuals living in Australia by the country’s national privacy regulator.
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[Link] Infrastructure Bill's Drunk Driving Tech Mandate Leaves Some Privacy Advocates Nervous
Read: 14/11/2021 gizmodo.com
The recently passed $1 trillion infrastructure package is jam-packed with initiatives but sprinkled in there amid alongside $17 billion in funding for road safety programs is a mandate requiring carmakers to implement monitoring systems to identify and stop drunk drivers.
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[Link] Clearview Finally Submits AI For Independent Testing; Only Tests Feature It Isn't Actually Selling
Read: 8/11/2021 www.techdirt.com
At long last, Clearview has finally had its AI tested by an independent party.
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[Link] Don’t Go Cheering Facebook for Killing Its Face Recognition Database Just Yet
Read: 4/11/2021 www.gizmodo.com.au
On Tuesday, Facebook offered us a brief respite from the deluge of awful news stories on the company with a pretty pleasant-sounding announcement.
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[Link] US Sanctions Could Cut-off NSO from Tech It Relies On
Read: 3/11/2021 www.vice.com
The U.S. government added NSO Group to a federal denylist that prohibits any American company or individual from selling or providing services to the controversial Israeli spyware seller. The sanctions effectively prohibit any U.S. company, as well as American citizens working in the U.S.
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[Link] Facebook Shuts Down Massive Photo Tagging Facial Recognition Program
Read: 2/11/2021 www.vice.com
For years, photo tagging was a core Facebook feature and was one of the main things people “did” on Facebook. To tag a photo, you clicked a specific part of it and wrote in the name of your friend.
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[Link] Zuckerberg Announces Fantasy World Where Facebook Is Not a Horrible Company
Read: 29/10/2021 www.vice.com
Facebook’s new name is “Meta,” and its new mission is to invent a ‘metaverse’ that will make us all forget what it’s done to our existing reality.
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[Link] ‘Asian Achievers,’ ‘Gay’: How ISPs Label Customers for Advertisers
Read: 22/10/2021 www.vice.com
A new FTC report has revealed that ISPs collect and sell a horrifying amount of sensitive data about their customers.
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[Link] Tiktoker finds folder with thousands of audio recordings from home gadgets
Read: 21/10/2021 www.news.com.au
The woman, who goes by my.data.not.yours on TikTok, posted a now-viral video explaining that she requested to see what data Amazon had collected about her, but wasn’t expecting to receive so much. She revealed that she has three Amazon smart speakers.
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[Link] Facebook’s Brand Is So Toxic Zuckerberg Reportedly Wants to Change Its Name
Read: 20/10/2021 www.vice.com
Want the best of VICE News straight to your inbox? Sign up here. In the middle of one of the worst crises his company has ever faced, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is not digging in and fixing the democracy-destroying problems he’s created. Instead, he’s reportedly planning to rebrand.
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[Link] Court Mistakenly Gave Potential Jurors Access to Ahmaud Arbery’s Mental Health History
Read: 19/10/2021 www.vice.com
Want the best of VICE News straight to your inbox? Sign up here. Those documents include specifics about Arbery’s mental health and prior criminal history that a judge ordered suppressed and never brought up in court.
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[Link] Man Arrested for Unblurring Japanese Porn With AI in First Deepfake Case
Read: 19/10/2021 www.vice.com
Japanese police on Monday arrested a 43-year-old man for using artificial intelligence to effectively unblur pixelated porn videos, in the first criminal case in the country involving the exploitative use of the powerful technology.
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[Link] Looks Like Facebook Found a Way to Bypass Europe’s Privacy Rules
Read: 14/10/2021 www.vice.com
Want the best of VICE News straight to your inbox? Sign up here.
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[Link] CIA Funding Arm Gave Encrypted App Wickr $1.6 Million
Read: 12/10/2021 www.vice.com
In-Q-Tel, a nonprofit investment firm started by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), recently poured more than $1.6 million into encrypted messaging platform Wickr, according to public disclosure records reviewed by Motherboard. The $1.
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[Link] Former OnlyFans Employees Could Access Users’ and Models' Personal Information
Read: 30/9/2021 www.vice.com
Some former OnlyFans support staff employees still had access to users' data—including sensitive financial and personal information—even after they stopped working for the company used by sex workers to sell nudes and porn videos.
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[Link] Amazon Astro is ‘terrible’ and will ‘throw itself down’ stairs, developers reportedly claim
Read: 29/9/2021 www.theverge.com
Some of the people building Amazon’s Astro home robot are not impressed with it, according to a report by Vice.
[Link] The NSA and CIA Use Ad Blockers Because Online Advertising Is So Dangerous
Read: 23/9/2021 www.vice.com
Lots of people who use ad blockers say they do it to block malicious ads that can sometimes hack their devices or harvest sensitive information on them. It turns out, the NSA, CIA, and other agencies in the U.S.
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[Link] Sunglasses Have Terms of Service Agreements Now, Thanks to Facebook
Read: 9/9/2021 www.vice.com
They are without a doubt the most iconic sunglasses in the world. They are a cliche symbol representation of cool, and yet, somehow still cool. They are decades old, and have been popularized by cartoonishly suave celebs, from Muhammad Ali, to James Dean, to Bruce Willis.
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[Link] Why You Suddenly Need To Delete Google Chrome
Read: 29/8/2021 www.forbes.com
A shocking new tracking admission from Google, one that hasn’t yet made headlines, should be a serious warning to Chrome’s 2.6 billion users. If you’re one of them, this nasty new surprise should be a genuine reason to quit.
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[Link] Many Americans aren't aware they're being tracked with facial recognition while shopping
Read: 26/8/2021 www.techradar.com
Despite consumer opposition to facial recognition, the technology is currently being used in retail stores throughout the US according to new research from Piplsay.
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[Link] WhatsApp Can’t Ban the Taliban Because It Can’t Read Their Texts
Read: 26/8/2021 www.vice.com
The Taliban have effectively taken control of Afghanistan, entering the capital Kabul as U.S. diplomats and allies flee the country.
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[Link] Apple allows children to access casual-sex and BDSM apps, finds report
Read: 26/8/2021 www.theguardian.com
Apple knowingly lets underage users access apps intended for adults, according to an investigation by the Tech Transparency Project (TTP), despite having asked for and recorded their dates of birth.
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[Link] China moves to protect personal data form misuse by tech companies
Read: 25/8/2021 the-pen.co
There is considerable interest in efforts by the Chinese government to impose greater control over major private enterprises operating in the country. Critics see this as an attack of freedom to do business. Supporters see it as a justified crackdown on corporate greed.
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[Link] NSW police apologise for sending email with sensitive information to wrong person
Read: 23/8/2021 www.theguardian.com
When a sensitive email from New South Wales police landed in Richard McDonald’s inbox earlier this month, he could scarcely believe the irony.
[Link] The UK finally got Big Tech to boost teens’ privacy
Read: 17/8/2021 www.protocol.com
Social media platforms are suddenly all increasing privacy standards for teen users. Why now, after all these years? It looks like new U.K. privacy rules got the ball rolling.
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[Link] Apple to only seek abuse images flagged in multiple nations following backlash
Read: 15/8/2021 www.abc.net.au
Apple says it will hunt only for pictures that have been flagged by clearing houses in multiple countries following criticism over its planned system for detecting images of child sex abuse.
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[Link] How GrayShift Keeps its iPhone Unlocking Tech Secret
Read: 12/8/2021 www.vice.com
Grayshift, the company that develops that iPhone unlocking device GrayKey that is widely used by law enforcement, tries to keep details of its technology out of the broader public's hands.
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[Link] Apple’s Stunning Plan To Strike Facebook With Brilliant New iPhone Features
Read: 9/8/2021 www.forbes.com
Apple is about to strike Facebook with a major blow that will hit the data-hungry social network’s revenues and could force it to change its ways. That’s because in September this year, Apple will launch its iOS 15 operating system update, bringing with it multiple new iPhone features.
[Link] All your DNS were belong to us: AWS and Google Cloud shut down spying vulnerability
Read: 9/8/2021 www.theregister.com
Until February this year, Amazon Route53's DNS service offered largely unappreciated network eavesdropping capabilities. And this undocumented spying option was also available at Google Cloud DNS and at least one other DNS-as-a-service provider.
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[Link] Is Your Crummy Router Giving Away Your Location?
Read: 8/8/2021 au.pcmag.com
Security researchers at Black Hat showed a new way to discern street-level location data. The key? Crummy routers often provided by internet service providers.
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[Link] Senate Infrastructure Bill Would Invest $500 Million in “Smart City” Surveillance Technology
Read: 7/8/2021 theintercept.com
Buried in the Senate’s bipartisan infrastructure bill is a grant program that would distribute $500 million to cities to experiment with sensors, autonomous vehicles, drones, and other technologies intended to improve urban living standards. Under the $1.
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[Link] FTC Slams Facebook For Lying About Why it Shut Down Misinformation Research
Read: 7/8/2021 www.vice.com
Want the best of VICE News straight to your inbox? Sign up here. In a rare rebuke against a big U.S.
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[Link] The Pegasus Project Shows Tech Giants Need to Do More to Keep Users Safe
Read: 5/8/2021 www.vice.com
Cybersecurity experts have been sounding the alarm about industrialized insecurity for years, but the Pegasus Project has to be a line in the sand. As you might have noticed, this newsletter was dormant for the last 6 months.
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[Link] Apple Introduces Parental Control Feature That Scans Messages for Nudity
Read: 5/8/2021 www.vice.com
Apple plans to introduce a new feature that would scan messages sent to and by child users of iPhones to determine if the images contain nudity, the company announced on Thursday. The move is a major development in the ongoing debate around privacy and the inspection of communications.
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[Link] DuckDuckGo tackles email privacy with new tracker-stripping service
Read: 2/8/2021 www.engadget.com
DuckDuckGo, which is best known for its privacy-focused search engine, has announced a new service that aims to thwart email trackers. Email Protection is now available in beta.
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[Link] The Pandemic Was An Excuse To Trample Your Digital Rights
Read: 10/2/2021 www.gizmodo.com.au
A once-in-a-century pandemic has given cover for governments, businesses and organisations to use technology in new or expanded ways to their benefit. As a result, 2020 was a year that saw Australians’ digital rights tested and encroached on in unprecedented ways.