Security News

Campaigners warn of legal challenge against Privacy Shield enhancements
2022-05-26 14:00

European privacy campaigner Max Schrems is warning that enhancements to the EU-US Privacy Shield data-sharing arrangements might face a legal challenge if negotiators don't take a new approach. In 2020, the European Court of Justice struck down the so-called Privacy Shield after Schrems successfully argued it gave US government agencies access to EU citizens' personal data without commensurate protection.

How to ensure that the smart home doesn’t jeopardize data privacy?
2022-05-20 04:00

The smart home has been much hyped for what feels a very long-time, but I think it is fair to say that the smart home era is now truly upon us. This status has been almost entirely driven by the rise of the smart speaker - the first truly mass-market smart home device.

Europe proposes tackling child abuse by killing privacy, strong encryption
2022-05-12 06:35

Proposed Europe regulations that purport to curb child abuse by imposing mass surveillance would be a "Disaster" for digital privacy and strong encryption, say cybersecurity experts. A number of options have been put forward for lawmakers to mull that aim to encourage or ensure online service providers and messaging apps tackle the "Detection, removal, and reporting of previously-known and new child sexual abuse material and grooming."

India's ongoing outrage over Pegasus malware tells a bigger story about privacy law problems
2022-05-08 21:03

There's one nation where outrage about Pegasus has been constant for nearly a year and shows little sign of abating: India. A quick recap: Pegasus was created by Israeli outfit NSO Group, which marketed the product as "Preventing crime and terror acts" and promised it would only sell the software to governments it had vetted, and for approved purposes like taking down terrorists or targeting criminals who abuse children.

How to manage your Alexa voice recordings and privacy
2022-05-05 19:45

How to manage your Alexa voice recordings and privacy. Perhaps you'd like to review those conversations to find mistakes that Alexa has made, rate the accuracy of Alexa's responses or remove any recordings that may be sensitive.

Mozilla privacy survey finds mental health and prayer apps fail privacy test pretty spectacularly
2022-05-04 14:46

Mozilla privacy survey finds mental health and prayer apps fail privacy test pretty spectacularly. Apps with the most sensitive data seem to be the worst at protecting user privacy, according to a review by Mozilla's Privacy Not Included team.

Privacy pathology: It's time for the users to gather a little data – evidence
2022-05-03 08:30

According to the research paper by Trinity College Dublin computer science professor Douglas Leith, the company had been gathering far too much user data from core messaging apps, and the forensic analysis of the network flow extracted a well-deserved mea culpa from Mountain View. The complexity of this system is matched by the lack of transparency over how it works, much as the charming simplicity of using Alexa - you just gab at it - hides how it works.

Google starts testing fenced frames to guard its Privacy Sandbox
2022-05-03 07:29

Google in the next few days plans to begin testing fenced frames, a proposed web API to help its Privacy Sandbox ad technologies meet commitments to privacy of a sort. Fenced frames are designed to take the place of inline frames, or iframes, for specific scenarios like delivering interest-based ads without betraying interest data to the web page in which they're embedded.

Google Releases First Developer Preview of Privacy Sandbox on Android 13
2022-05-01 23:06

Google has officially released the first developer preview for the Privacy Sandbox on Android 13, offering an "Early look" at the SDK Runtime and Topics API to boost users' privacy online. "The Privacy Sandbox on Android Developer Preview program will run over the course of 2022, with a beta release planned by the end of the year," the search giant said in an overview.

How to use Ghostery’s privacy-minded Dawn browser
2022-04-11 18:36

Instead, you can turn to a lesser known but more privacy-minded browser, and one candidate is the Ghostery Dawn browser. Made by the people behind the Ghostery browser privacy extension, Dawn tries to limit the information that is typically monitored and recorded when you use one of the major browsers.