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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.

Report: iOS 13 to limit VoIP API for apps like Facebook and WhatsApp, eliminate background activity

Apple privacy

A new report today from The Information details a change coming with iOS 13 that will force WhatsApp and others to redesign their messaging apps. The small but notable change has to do with how third-party apps use iOS to make internet voice calls with the PushKit VoIP API and also run in the background which will be restricted come this fall.


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Guardian Firewall VPN iOS

Guardian VPN privacy app for iOS now open to the public, including lite version

After launching for a limited amount of users back in June, Guardian Firewall + VPN for iOS has now been made available to the public. The popular app features both intelligent firewall and VPN functionality, gives alerts when companies try to track you, and more. If you’d like to test out the app before paying for a subscription, there’s also a free lite version.


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Apple reviewing Siri audio grading practices, will let users opt out in future

How to stop Apple from listening to Siri recordings

Apple has announced in a statement that it is suspending the program which entailed human Apple contractors listening and grading a sample of Siri responses for quality control.

The company is conducting a thorough internal review of its Siri policies, and it will reinstate (a presumably different form of) Siri grading when it is finished. When Siri grading returns, users will be able to choose to opt-out of grading.


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How to stop Apple from listening to Siri recordings

How to stop Apple from potentially listening to your Siri recordings

A report from The Guardian last week highlighted privacy concerns about Siri recordings being listened to by its contractors. While Apple has responded by saying that only 1% of Siri activations are reviewed by humans and that Apple IDs are not associated with them, many users are asking for the ability to opt-out of Siri recordings being saved to Apple’s servers.


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Lockdown iOS firewall open source

Lockdown launches as world’s first open source firewall for iOS

The team behind the open source ConfirmedVPN that launched last December is out today with another security-focused app for iOS called Lockdown. The new free app is what the developer says is the first open source firewall and works completely on device to block apps from crypto mining, sharing data with Facebook, and can block custom domains as well.


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$5B Facebook fine could be confirmed this week, but won’t be the end of it

Facebook fine won't be the end of it

A report today says that a rumored $5 billion Facebook fine could be confirmed this week, with the U.S. Department of Justice signing off on the proposal by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

The FTC reportedly plans to fine Facebook $5 billion — the largest penalty ever imposed on a company — for the Cambridge Analytica scandal and other privacy breaches


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Apple now under third privacy investigation in Ireland; other tech giants too

Apple faces third privacy investigation in Ireland

Apple is now under a third privacy investigation in Ireland, this time looking at whether the company fully meets GDPR requirements in regard to a data access request from a customer.

Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) law imposes a wide range of strict privacy rules on companies, one of which is that a customer has a right to see a copy of all the data held on them …


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Trump administration considering banning end-to-end encryption – Politico

Trump administration considering banning end-to-end encryption

The Trump administration is considering the possibility of banning end-to-end encryption, as used by services like Apple’s Messages and FaceTime, as well as competing platforms like WhatsApp and Signal.

The topic was reportedly the main topic of a previously-unreported meeting of a National Security Council meeting on Wednesday …


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Facebook app banned by Apple hoovered up data from 187k users first

Facebook app banned by Apple got data from 187k users

A sketchy Facebook app banned by Apple earlier this year succeeded in collecting large amounts of personal data from around 187,000 users before it was pulled. Originally named Onavo, it was later rebranded Facebook Research.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal asked Facebook to provide the numbers, including a breakdown of how many of the users were teenagers …


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