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.
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”…
Firefox is rolling out a new privacy feature designed to stop ISPs from tracking the websites you visit. Known as DNS over HTTPS, it will plug a privacy hole when surfing the web …
A new demo from researchers at Mysk shines a light on the free, unrestricted, access all apps have to the iOS clipboard.
In the video, the developers create a dummy app that simply prints out the information gleaned from the clipboard. When the user copies an image, the app can immediately see the image content and the metadata like the location of where the photo was taken. This becomes a little more sinister when the demo shows that installed widgets can also silently collect all data copied to the clipboard, without user knowledge.
An absurdly named bill is set to form the latest attempt to create legislation requiring tech giants to provide a backdoor to encryption.
The Eliminating Abuse and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies Act of 2019 (EARN IT Act) is co-sponsored by Lindsey Graham (R-SC), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT)…
Cybersecurity company Wandera found that some 23 iOS file-conversion apps used by three million people fail to use encryption, potentially putting the documents at risk.
All the apps in question were created by a single developer, Cometdocs, but Wandera says that the discovery raises a broader security issue…
A coronavirus app created by the Chinese government lets people check whether they have been in close contact with someone confirmed or suspected to have the virus.
The app is made possible because of close government monitoring of Chinese citizens…
A search warrant issued on behalf of Homeland Security Investigations provides a glimpse into how Apple detects and reports child abuse images uploaded to iCloud or sent via its email servers, while protecting the privacy of innocent customers.
The first stage of detection is automated, using a system common to most tech companies…
A new report from Motherboard today dives into a few iOS and Mac email apps/services that aren’t being very transparent about selling users’ personal data. Notably, one of them is even in Apple’s App Store ranked in the top 100 for productivity apps.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has acknowledged using databases that track millions of smartphone users, despite a court ruling intended to limit its powers to do so.
The data has reportedly been used for border and immigration enforcement, and there is some evidence to suggest that the DHS has not wanted to admit to having access to it…