Privacy is a growing concern in today’s world. Follow along with all our coverage related to privacy, security, what Apple and other companies are doing to keep your information safe, and what steps you can take to keep your information private.
If there’s one thing that’s become abundantly clear since Apple and Google’s API partnership, it’s that the coronavirus contact tracing privacy protections need to be spelled out in terms that non-technical people (even POTUS) can understand.
The two companies have gone to pains to explain that privacy was top priority in the design of the application programming interface, but mainstream media reports and conversations with non-techy friends have made it obvious that many don’t understand why apps that use this can be trusted …
Popular videoconferencing service Zoom will shortly allow paying subscribers to opt out of Chinese servers when routing calls …
Earlier this month, four US senators formally questioned Apple in a letter over its COVID-19 screening app and website even though the company has been transparent about how it works and the privacy and security it’s built on. Now Apple has officially responded to the government request.
The UK’s National Health Service has announced plans to adopt the Apple-Google coronavirus API jointly announced last week, but in a weakened form.
Even without the UK’s planned compromise, the idea of this type of contact tracing has come under criticism from a University of Cambridge computing professor …
The collection and sale of smartphone location data has long been a source of controversy, especially given that most people don’t realise they are being tracked.
But there’s a fresh argument now, as location data brokers claim they can use the data to help fight the spread of the coronavirus, while privacy advocates argue this is just an attempt to legitimize the wholesale tracking of consumers without informed consent …
Zoom has created a security advisory council to help conduct a detailed review of its apps, with Alex Stamos as one of its members. Stamos was Facebook’s chief security officer from 2015 to 2018, and now researches and teaches on ‘the misuse of technology’ at Stanford …
The Taiwanese government has made the decision to ban the use of Zoom over security concerns. The German government hasn’t gone quite that far, but the country’s foreign ministry has barred it from government computers and heavily restricted any use of the service …
Rather than each European country developing its own coronavirus tracking app, they should either all use the same one, or at least ensure that they use common standards, says the European Commission.
We recently outlined how these apps can help, but also how they can pose a significant risk to privacy without careful design…
Apple launched its user-friendly and helpful COVID-19 screening app and website last week. Even though the company publicly detailed it isn’t collecting responses, four US senators have asked Tim Cook for more details on the privacy policy of the app. Here’s what we found in our analysis of the app.
Over the last few years, Facebook has had a slew of privacy and security blunders and more details about one of them have come to light through a new court filing as the social media company is suing the spyware company NSO Group. It turns out Facebook tried to buy controversial government spyware to monitor iPhone and iPad users.
It seems hardly a day can go by without more Zoom vulnerabilities being discovered – with not just one but two more being revealed today …
A white-hat hacker was able to hijack iPhone cameras using a chain of three vulnerabilities he discovered. The same approach would also work with the cameras on Macs.
Ryan Pickren disclosed the vulnerabilities to Apple in December of last year. The company fixed the most serious of them in January, and the rest last month.
The approach relied on an exception to the normal privacy requirement for apps to seek permission for camera or microphone access…
After writing an apology note earlier today, fixing two serious Mac flaws, and detailing a plan to improve its security, privacy, and transparency moving forward, Zoom has also fixed its “malware-like” installer with the latest macOS update.
Zoom penetration tests have been commissioned by the popular videoconferencing service after a series of security and privacy issues were found in the company’s mobile and desktop apps.
Zoom’s problems have been a messy mixture of poor communication, sketchy marketing, rule-breaking, and actual security holes …
Zoom, the popular video call service has had a number of privacy and security issues over the years and we’ve seen several very recently as Zoom has seen usage skyrocket during the coronavirus pandemic. Now two new bugs have been discovered that allow hackers to take control of Macs including the webcam, microphone, and even full root access.
As reported by The Intercept, the Zoom video conferencing app offers options for end to end encryption in its UI (and in its marketing materials) but the calls are not actually end-to-end encrypted at all.
The Zoom video app is bursting into the public consciousness this year as the coronavirus causes most people to work from home. However, the security of the app has come under fire in many ways. In this instance, it turns out Zoom calls are only encrypted in transmission. This means the central Zoom servers could decrypt the incoming calls and see all participants if the company wanted to.
One of the steps taken by some countries in seeking to slow the spread of the coronavirus is the use of so-called contact tracing apps.
The idea behind these is that, once someone is diagnosed with COVID-19, the app can see everyone who came within Bluetooth range of them during the period they were symptomless but infectious. Those people can then be contacted and tested …
Update: The app has now been updated to remove this data transfer. See below for an explanation from the company.
The Zoom iOS app is sharing data with Facebook, without declaring it in the privacy policy. This happens whether or not you have a Facebook account.
Data shared with Facebook includes your iPhone or iPad model, your time-zone, city, phone carrier and a unique identifier which can be used for ad-targeting …
A bug in Apple’s recent iOS releases, including this week’s iOS 13.4 is keeping VPNs from being able to fully encrypt user traffic and data. Apple is aware of the issue and is currently working on a fix. In the meantime, there’s an easy workaround you can use to keep your VPN connection working as intended.
Privacy-focused browser DuckDuckGo has made another step in offering a more private web experience today as it released its Tracker Radar. DuckDuckGo also made the resource open source and shared how individuals, developers, and researches can make use of the tool.
Did you accidentally give an app a permission on your Mac you didn’t mean to, or maybe just want to check what kind of access various software has across macOS? Follow along for how to check which apps have camera, mic, Photos permissions, and more.
Those looking for an affordable HomeKit Secure Video (HSV) camera could be in luck: Aqara has announced that its long-promised G2H camera will support Apple’s privacy-focused standard from launch. Although pricing isn’t yet known, the company is known for budget-friendly products.
It follows news that the G2 Camera Hub will also be HomeKit compatible …
Just about a year ago, it came to light just how easy it was to buy the real-time location data of US wireless customers via lax carrier standards, shady third-parties, and bounty hunters. Now after an “extensive investigation” the FCC has declared that “one or more wireless carriers apparently violated federal law.”
There’s an emerging health crisis at the moment, besides coronavirus: the head injuries caused by techies banging their heads on their desks at each piece of evidence that governments don’t understand how end-to-end encryption works.
The latest example of this, reported in the Guardian, was the head of Britain’s domestic counterintelligence and security agency, MI5, calling on tech companies like Apple and Facebook to continue to offer end-to-end encryption, but to provide MI5 access “on an exceptional basis”…