Privacy

Instagram and Facebook collect your data from thousands of companies, according to an experiment carried out by Consumer Reports.

Separately, the company is the largest reporter of potential child sexual abuse materials (CSAM), but there is a legal problem with the way many of these reports are submitted …

The security vulnerability which seemingly led to an AirDrop crack by a Chinese state institute has been known to Apple since at least 2019, according to a new report.

Some new details are also emerging about how China is able to obtain the phone numbers and email addresses of people transferring files via AirDrop …

In a significant breach of Apple’s privacy measures, a new report says that AirDrop was cracked by the Chinese government, to reveal the phone number and email address of senders.

The anonymity of AirDrop was one of the reasons it has been commonly used by activists to share information about protests, and other information censored by the government …

An Xfinity data breach has been revealed by the company, in which hackers were able to obtain a wide range of customer information.

Data obtained for at least some Xfinity customers “may” include usernames, hashed passwords, real names, contact information, date of birth, last four digits of social security numbers, and security questions and answers …

In what would be a massive privacy breach if it were true, a major marketing company is claiming that it can eavesdrop on your conversations, through microphones in smartphones, TVs, and smart speakers.

Calling the claimed capability Active Listening, Cox Media Group (CMG) has been promoting the service on its website, and pitching it to brands …

One of the key features added in the iOS 17.3 beta is Stolen Device Protection. This is a thoughtful and creative solution to balancing out the need for protecting iPhone users without stopping them do the things they want to do with their devices.

What I love about Apple’s solution here is that someone has clearly put a lot of thought into that balancing act …

When it was revealed that foreign governments were demanding push notification data from Apple and Google, it was suspected that the US government was doing the same. This has now been confirmed, one use of it being to investigate January 6th Capitol rioters.

Apple was not previously allowed to reveal that it was receiving legal demands for the information, but now that it can do so, it has also set a higher bar for compliance …

Following up on last year’s report “The Rising Threat to Consumer Data in the Cloud”, Apple has shared a new study from MIT’s Dr. Madnick that looks at how cyber threats are growing worldwide. Read on for a look at the state of online security and what we can do to limit our exposure and risk like using Apple’s Advanced Data Protection.

Update: Apple issued the following statement to 9to5Mac:

Apple is committed to transparency and we have long been a supporter of efforts to ensure that providers are able to disclose as much information as possible to their users. In this case, the federal government prohibited us from sharing any information and now that this method has become public we are updating our transparency reporting to detail these kinds of requests

Apple has confirmed that foreign governments have been carrying out what has been described as “push notification spying,” stating that the company was not previously allowed to disclose the practice.

Governments have been serving both Apple and Google with secret legal orders to hand over details of the push notifications sent to iPhones and Android smartphones …

Apple released an important security update today for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. The list of fixes is short, but iOS 17.1.2 and macOS Sonoma 14.1.2 patch two web-based security flaws that have been actively exploited.

A powerful new malware launched in early 2023 called Atomic macOS Stealer (AMOS) targets Apple users and has become a growing threat. Now, with the latest iteration of the malware, malicious parties are planting AMOS inside fake Safari and Chrome browser updates for Mac. We’ll cover how it works and how to avoid this threat.

A new report says that personal information sold by data brokers is even more sensitive and detailed than previously thought, making so-called anonymized data even easier to tie back to specific individuals.

The report says that those buying data are able to target people working in extremely sensitive professions, including military personnel and “decision makers” working in national security roles …

Apple has sent iPhone hack warnings to the leader of India’s main opposition party, alongside other politicians opposing Narendra Modi’s government – placing Apple in a potentially delicate position.

A security researcher was also alerted, and shared a copy of the alert message he was sent, in which Apple advised enabling Lockdown Mode …

A combined Facebook and Instagram subscription is coming to European users in the next few weeks, enabling an ad-free experience in both services for €9.99/month ($10.60).

Alongside this, parent company Meta has announced that it is “pausing” all advertising to under-18s at the same time, meaning they get the same privacy benefits as a paid subscription at no cost …

Apple’s new iMessage Contact Key Verification at first glance seems to be a rather niche security feature, likely to be of interest only to the most paranoid or highly-targeted individuals. But it could turn out to be a privacy feature which protects us all from government spying.

That’s because it seems almost custom-designed to prevent a plan developed by the UK’s equivalent to the NSA – GCHQ …

Apple has launched its first major update for all users since debuting iOS 17 in September. iOS 17.1 comes with a range of security patches and none of them were identified as exploited in the wild ahead of the fixes.

A planned law to require CSAM scanning in chat apps would be illegal, disproportionate, and could increase rather than decrease the risks to children, say experts. It could also see Apple withdraw iMessage from EU countries.

The warning was given by more than 20 speakers at a privacy seminar, as the European Union continues to press for a CSAM measure which would effectively outlaw end-to-end encryption in chat apps like iMessage, WhatsApp, and Signal …

Some 81% of Americans are concerned about how companies use their personal data, according to a large-scale study.

Two-thirds of those surveyed said they have little to no understanding of what companies do with the data collected about them, and even more believe there’s nothing they can do about it …