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.
Popular messaging app Telegram received an update over the weekend that adds a couple of new sticker features, and provides an easy way to ensure you don’t miss any replies or mentions in group chats …
Uber attracted a great deal of criticism last year when it started tracking the location of customers even after their rides had ended. While the tracking was said to last for only five minutes, some riders reported that it appeared to be tracking them for days or even weeks after their rides.
The company offered an explanation for this the following day, but many were still unhappy that they were forced to choose between never allowing the app to track their location (which would make it next to impossible to use) or allowing it at all times. Uber says that it is now fixing the problem …
Apple has joined with Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Verizon and others in asking the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that 4th Amendment protections apply to cellphone location data. This would mean that location data could not be accessed without a warrant or court order.
The issue is before the Supreme Court as a result of a 2011 conviction …
A couple of days after Apple started pulling VPN apps from the App Store in China to comply with government restrictions on their use, Russia looks to be next in line to clamp down on the use of virtual private networks …
An Apple software engineer recently revealed that Apple is now rolling out its use of differential privacy to cover both web browsing and health data, as it now uses the technique to process millions of pieces of daily information from device users.
Differential privacy has so far flown largely under the radar, so we thought it would be a good time to look at what it does and how it works – and to ask how comfortable you feel about its wider use by Apple …
Facebook is testing a new feature designed to protect profile photos from being downloaded. The aim is to make women in particular feel more comfortable about uploading their photo to the service.
While the battle between the FBI and Apple over backdoor access to iPhones ended without a legal ruling, it seems the European Union takes Apple’s side. The European Parliament has proposed legislation which would safeguard data privacy and specifically outlaw the creation of backdoors for law enforcement agencies.
The proposed legislation would also provide a legal right to use end-to-end encryption, preventing individual EU countries from banning its use …
A new report out of China details the arrest of some 20 employees working as Apple distributors who illegally sold customer data as part of a $7 million operation. The arrested employees reportedly worked in “direct marketing and outsourcing” roles for the company in the Zhejiang province.
Twitter has introduced a new privacy policy, with some significant changes taking effect next month.
First, it is no longer respecting Do Not Track, which allowed web users to opt out of cross-site tracking on websites that honor the setting. Do Not Track is supported by most major browsers, including Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Opera and Internet Explorer …
Antitrust regulators in Europe have fined Facebook €110 ($122M) for misleading them over its acquisition of the secure messaging service WhatsApp.
The European Commission said that the fine would have been more than twice as high but for Facebook’s acknowledgement of wrong-doing and cooperation with the investigation …
Uber has announced that an update to the app rolling out over the next few weeks will make it easier for customers to delete their accounts. Previously, deleting the app did not remove your account from Uber servers, leaving your data in place …
Just a few days after Congress reversed internet privacy rules enacted during the Obama administration, Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon have all made statements claiming they will not sell personal web browsing histories.
Well, it’s official. Both the Senate and the House voted to overturn privacy rules created by the FCC, and your ISP will now be free to sell your Internet browsing history and location data to advertisers.
Internet service providers will have a few expenses to set off against this revenue stream – like the cost of donations to the politicians who voted to allow it.
But if you want to opt out, there’s still one way you can do so: use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) …
(note: specials.9to5toys.com has a variety of VPN offers starting at $10/year)
Last week, the US Senate voted to overturn Internet privacy rules that were introduced by the FCC last year. As we noted last week, the next step for the issue was to pass through Congress and today it did just that…
This joint resolution nullifies the rule submitted by the Federal Communications Commission entitled “Protecting the Privacy of Customers of Broadband and Other Telecommunications Services.”
The 2017 Corporate Accountability Index – a company ranking put together by a non-profit chaired by Alphabet’s Eric Schmidt – has ranked Google top dog in the technology sector, while Apple sits at #7 with a little over half Google’s score.
The US Senate has voted to overturn Internet privacy rules introduced last year by the FCC – and to prevent the FCC from passing any further such rules in the future.
Congress disapproves the rule submitted by the Federal Communications Commission relating to “Protecting the Privacy of Customers of Broadband and Other Telecommunications Services” (81 Fed. Reg. 87274 (December 2, 2016)), and such rule shall have no force or effect.
The issue will now face a second vote by the House of Representatives, and will become law if it is approved there …
Following reports that the Uber app appears to be tracking customer locations days or even weeks after their last ride, the company has issued an explanation. That statement also explains who some users were seeing the behavior while others weren’t.
The company says that it is not the app which is accessing location data, but rather the iOS Maps extension that some have chosen to activate …
We know Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg relies on good old-fashioned tape to disable his MacBook’s mic and camera, and NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden is working on something a little more sophisticated to stop your iPhone from snooping. It’s a protective case not aimed at preventing damage from drops and tumbles but instead spying and snooping…
[UPDATE: Video embedded below.]
Tim Cook featured at StartupFest this morning, in an interview with Neelie Kroes discussing Apple’s influence in startups and entrepreneurship culture. Cook covered many topics including the role of entrepreneurs and the App Store, the startup climate in Europe, economic optimism, technology in education, Apple Watch and more. We’ve included some snippets of the talk below …
In the interview, Tim Cook says Apple gives entrepreneurs the ability to sell their app instantly worldwide through the App Store. Apple provides technical and marketing assistance to clear the path so the developer can focus on their product. Most young companies should be principally focused on the product; Apple tries to help ease the frictions to fuel more entrepreneurs to do exactly that. Apple is bringing an app development center in Naples to kickstart the app economy in places it hasn’t yet been.
The fallout from the standoff between Apple and the FBI in the San Bernardino case continues. Following the introduction of one bipartisan bill in the House of Representives in February, seeking to protect encryption against any state-level legislation that might compromise it, a new bill has now been introduced in the Senate ,,,
Virtual Private Networks are becoming increasingly handy things to have, offering greater security on public Wi-Fi networks, making it harder for websites to track you and accessing content only available in particular countries. Usually you have to pay for these, but the latest developer version of the Opera for Mac has one built right into the browser, and it’s completely free to use.
Until now, most VPN services and proxy servers have been limited and based on a paid subscription. With a free, unlimited, native VPN that just works out-of-the-box and doesn’t require any subscription, Opera wants to make VPNs available to everyone.
If accessing content from other regions is your primary interest, the browser currently allows you to virtually travel to the USA, Canada and Germany, but more regions will follow once the feature makes it into the stable version.
Opera’s developer browser is a free download. Once installed, follow the instructions below to activate the feature.
Mac users just need to click the Opera menu, select “Preferences” and toggle the feature VPN on. A button will appear in the browser address field, from which the user can see and change location (more locations will appear later), check whether their IP is exposed and review statistics for their data used.
While the FBI abandoned its court case against Apple, the dispute of course still rumbles on in Congress, with hearings today and a proposed bill to force U.S. tech companies to break encrypted devices on demand. But at least one legal expert thinks the Feinstein-Burr bill is deeply flawed, arguing that it is unconstitutional, unenforceable and would harm U.S. investigative capabilities.
And not just any legal expert: you can’t really ask for better credentials in this area than those of Paul Rosenzweig.
Paul Rosenzweig is the founder of Red Branch Consulting PLLC, a homeland security consulting company [and] formerly served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy in the Department of Homeland Security. He is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Homeland Security Studies and Analysis Institute. He also serves as a Professorial Lecturer in Law at George Washington University [and] a Senior Editor of the Journal of National Security Law & Policy.
In a blog post on Lawfare, Rosenzweig sets out the three problems he sees with the Feinstein-Burr bill …
The FBI has so far been ambivalent about whether or not it will reveal to Apple the method used to access the San Bernardino iPhone, but a Reuters report suggests that the agency may not even know – or have the legal right to disclose it if it does.
The Washington Post reported yesterday that it was freelance hackers, and not Cellebrite, who sold the FBI the tool used to access the phone. But the group may not have revealed the vulnerability on which it was based, and the government process that decides which vulnerabilities to share with companies does not apply in this case …
The White House will not be supporting draft legislation that would allow courts to force tech companies like Apple to help law enforcement hack into encrypted devices, reports Reuters.
The Senate Intelligence Committee in February announced plans to impose criminal penalties on companies that fail to comply with court orders like the one challenged by Apple and finally withdrawn by the FBI. Remarks by President Obama last month appeared to suggest he would support the proposed legislation, but it now appears this isn’t the case …