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.
Former Facebook privacy and policy employee Sandy Parakilas has been hired by Apple, according to a report by The Financial Times. Parakilas left Facebook six years ago following less than a year and a half with the company after his user privacy concerns fell on deaf ears internally.
We’ve been seeing a lot of scam apps in the App Store lately, which try to trick users into purchasing expensive subscriptions or products, we’ve also seen apps that track and transmit the user’s location without their consent. Today, I want to talk about an app that’s using iOS devices to perform work for other users, without the device owner’s consent.
CES 2019 is set to kick off in Las Vegas this coming week, and while Apple does not have an official presence at the event, this year looks slightly different. Ahead of CES, Apple has strategically placed a massive new privacy-focused billboard in Las Vegas…
Los Angeles has brought a lawsuit against The Weather Channel alleging that the app “deceptively collected, shared and profited from the location information of millions of American consumers.” This news comes from The New York Times after it published an expose last month about apps that threaten privacy with their location data practices.
A new poll by data research firm Toluna via Recode attempted to analyze the least trusted companies in the tech sector.
Conducted between December 9 through December 15, the poll surveyed one thousand online participants asking which company they believe to be the least trustworthy with personal information.
Apple today has released its latest transparency report, showing the number of government demands for user data it received. In the past, Apple has released this data in the form of a PDF, and while that still remains an option this time, the company has also launched a new interactive website to view the information.
Another week, another privacy scandal – and no prizes for guessing which company it involves. There is, though, a lesson for Apple in all this.
We could get into the weeds with all of the Facebook stuff. Some of what has happened has been exaggerated, and the company’s single biggest privacy crime has been failing to prevent sketchy behavior by third-party companies. But I’m not going to get into that. The bottom line is that when you run a platform on which people share often very personal information, you have a huge responsibility to take the utmost care to protect that data, and Facebook has failed miserably to do so.
The latest development even dragged Apple into the fray …
The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), a consumer advocacy group which has received large donations from Apple and Alphabet, has drafted a privacy bill it would like to see made federal law.
The bill would ban the collection of biometric data – like fingerprints and face-recognition data – as well as precise location data unless specifically needed to provide consumers with a service they have chosen to use …
Last week, we reported that Australia had passed a new anti-encryption law that could force Apple and other tech companies to help law enforcement access encrypted messages. TechCrunch reports today, however, that Apple is among a handful of tech companies coming out against the legislation.
Apple already offers fairly tight control of location data privacy. We can choose whether or not to share it at all. We can choose to share it or not with specific apps. We can specify whether an app is allowed to access location data in the background, or only while we are actively using it. And we can see which apps are accessing the data at any given time.
But as we’ve been reminded this morning, that doesn’t entirely solve the problem …
A lengthy NY Times feature provides some stark illustrations of the extent to which potentially-identifiable location data is being captured, shared and retained by both iOS and Android apps, threatening user privacy.
The paper was able to identify specific individuals from some location patterns, and found that one iOS app was passing exact location data to a total of 40 different companies …
One of the questions asked in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal was whether Facebook was selling user data. CEO Mark Zuckerberg told a Congressional hearing that the answer was very simple.
I can’t be clearer on this topic: We don’t sell data.
But it appears that while the company has never done it, it did consider effectively doing so …
A senator has suggested that a US privacy law could be drafted early next year in the form of a bipartisan bill.
While there is as yet no consensus on the wording of such a bill, there is widespread agreement that some form of legislation is required …
A large-scale survey has found that the majority of Americans now back Apple’s call for tech regulation.
Some 55% fear that the government won’t do enough to regulate tech giants …
Cloudflare has made it easier for you to protect your browsing privacy on iOS and Android devices with a new 1.1.1.1 app …
Speaking to a roomful of privacy commissioners today, Apple CEO Tim Cook quoted something Steve Jobs said about tech privacy way back in 2010.
Steve Jobs said in no uncertain terms: “Privacy means people know what they’re signing up for, in plain language, and repeatedly.”
To me, three things are notable about this statement …
We yesterday got a preview of a few elements of Tim Cook’s speech to the 40th International Conference of Data Protection & Privacy Commissioners.
The full speech is now available as a video, and Apple’s CEO spoke about why privacy, dignity and respect are key issues for the tech industry as well as society as a whole …
Apple has updated its dedicated Privacy website today, something it typically does each year following the release of new iPhones and a new version of iOS. The new Apple Privacy website offers a detailed look at the steps the company takes to protect user privacy and data through its latest hardware and software updates.
When Facebook entered the smart speaker business last week, it was keen to stress that it understood potential concerns about the privacy of Facebook Portal and Portal+ devices.
The company said then that four forms of protection were employed …
Apple’s stance on privacy is clear: it will do its best to comply with law enforcement, however, it believes creating a backdoor for its operating system is the wrong thing do to.
I’ll make a statement that might be unpopular: Apple shouldn’t promote their privacy stance to schools when they aren’t offering a compelling service that schools can sign up for that replaces G-Suite. They’ve built solutions for schools that are siloed off from most of the student information systems without making an identity management system. They’ve created solutions (like Classkit, Apple Business Manager, and Apple School Manager) that don’t 100% replace anything else a school or business has. They’ve simply added more overhead to deploying iPad. Apple proclaiming their stance on privacy while also accepting a 9 billion payment from Google just makes them look hypocritical. If Apple is really concerned about privacy, they need to be building tools to replace what Google offers enterprise and education customers. Let me explain how.
Apple is one of four tech giants to come out in opposition to a proposed new law in Australia which would force companies to provide access to encrypted user data. The fear is that, if the law is allowed to pass, it could set a precedent which other countries are likely to follow – with the USA high up the list of likely candidates to effectively ban strong encryption …
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Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, has announced that he has put most of his work on hold to develop a way for web users to regain control of their personal data.
The concept, first developed at MIT, is known as Solid. A Solid POD is effectively a secure repository for all our personal data, and from there we can choose what access to grant to other companies and apps …