Google seems to be thoroughly considering the privacy implications of Android’s upcoming “Private Space” feature, as the company will suggest users create a separate Google account.
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A developer and privacy advocate has created a demo app that beeps every time your computer sends any data to Google. Spoiler alert — it’s a very noisy app.
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A bipartisan push for a new US law could see companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon having to state exactly how much your data is worth.
Consumers would be better able to understand how much privacy they were sacrificing to use free services if the value of the data used by the companies was made explicit …
The Cellebrite Universal Forensic Extraction Device (UFED) is a smartphone hacking tool commonly used by the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and other law enforcement agencies in the US and elsewhere. It’s the most powerful tool yet created by the Israeli company, able to extract a huge amount of data – even data which has been deleted from phones.
A brand new one normally costs $5,000 to $15,000 depending on the model, but older models can be found on eBay for as little as $100 …
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A study of 34 of the most popular Android apps found that at least 20 of them are sending user data to Facebook without consent.
The data transmitted ranges from the innocuous to the sensitive – such as whether the user has children – and is likely to be illegal in the case of European citizens …
Privacy is a huge concern on the internet in 2018, and Google is high on the list of companies that have a lot of data on users. Google has made plenty of tools available to help users control data, but today the company is announcing some new options that make it easier to control and delete your Google data directly within the company’s own products.
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 …
An international network of intelligence agencies has told the tech industry that ‘privacy is not an absolute’ and that the use of end-to-end encryption ‘should be rare’ …
California may have found the perfect way to get tech giants to support a federal privacy law: show that the alternative could be an inconsistent mess of state-by-state laws.
An industry lobbying group whose members include Google, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Samsung and others has been ‘aggressively’ lobbying the White House to argue the case for a federal law, reports the New York Times …
Banks are secretly gathering up to 2,000 data points on how you use your phone and computer to help detect fraud. The data used can be anything from the angle at which you typically hold your phone to whether or not you use a numeric keypad when typing numbers on your computer …
It was last month said that the White House was considering options for introducing a federal privacy law along the lines of Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) …
Facebook saw as much as $150B wiped from its value as after-market trading saw the share price fall by 25%. This followed the company warning that its profit margin is likely to fall from its current 44% to the mids-30s for more than two years …
Carriers are selling the locations of smartphone users to third-party companies without their consent, say legal experts and a senator …
A new Supreme Court decision this morning has ruled that in general the government will need a warrant to collect information from wireless carriers like location data.
While investors may have been satisfied by the testimony given to Congress by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, not everyone was. Two senators – one Democrat, one Republican – plan to introduce a bipartisan bill to protect online privacy …
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and six other campaign groups have responded to the Facebook privacy controversy by calling on tech companies to sign a ‘security pledge.’ The pledge asks companies to make four promises to their customers and users …
A lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) suggests that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) may be conducting illegal searches of electronic devices belonging to passengers on domestic flights …
The European Union wants to be able to force US tech giants like Apple, Google and Microsoft to hand over electronic evidence across borders when investigating serious crimes. The proposed law would apply to any company that does business within Europe, no matter where its data centers are based.
Tech firms argue that such cross-border arrangements would ‘undermine consumer trust in cloud services’ …
While the added privacy measures are not as noticeable as notification snoozing, Picture-in-Picture, and other new customizations, there are a number of them in Android O. With this release, Google is specifically aiming to limit device identifiers and other information that apps can request.
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.
Re/code found that Google’s mobile messaging app Allo can reveal your search history and other personal information when you include the Google Assistant bot in chats. Associate editor Tess Townsend made the discovery during an Allo chat with a friend.
My friend directed Assistant to identify itself. Instead of offering a name or a pithy retort, it responded with a link from Harry Potter fan website Pottermore. The link led to an extract from “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” the fifth book in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. But the response was not merely a non sequitur. It was a result related to previous searches my friend said he had done a few days earlier.
And search history isn’t the only private data the Assistant can reveal to anyone you chat with …
While the Play Store usually gets more billing, the Chrome Web Store serves an equally large audience and is full of many useful apps and extensions. Google is updating the User Data Policy for the store with more stronger policies in regards to user data.
Yesterday it was revealed that a privacy group (EFF) had a filed a complaint with the FTC claiming that Google “deceptively tracks students’ internet browsing”. Specifically, the group claims that Google is breaching a Student Privacy Pledge that it signed in January. One issue with Chrome OS in particular is Chrome Sync, a feature which enables users to have the same bookmarks, logins and other data across various devices with the Chrome Browser installed. As you would expect, it didn’t take long for Google to deny claims of wrongdoing…
Google has launched a new ‘About Me’ page, which lets you see and change what personal information is visible to others when you use any of Google’s services. The company has most likely introduced the service in an effort to counter concerns about data privacy.
Don’t expect too much from it: it’s essentially the same information you can see on Google+, and mostly appears to be an alternative for those of us who long ago consigned Google+ to history. When I checked my data, it showed only my name, gender, birthday and occupation. But if you shared contact details with any Google service, those may also be visible, so it’s worth a quick look.
You can edit the information shown, as well as choose who can view each piece of data. Personally, I always enter a false date of birth on web forms, as it’s a key piece of information used by identity thieves. I set it to private simply to ward off any mistaken birthday wishes.
You can check your own data at aboutme.google.com, where you’ll also find a link to Google’s existing privacy checkup.
