Security News
Messaging app LINE has removed Chinese affiliate's access to personal data, after infosec concerns led Japanese government officials to stop using the app. Government officials began to rethink using the app following reports of foreign access to in-country equipment.
Nebulous privacy and censorship criticisms about video social-media app TikTok have been swirling for months. Security analysts from CitizenLab are the first to collect real data on the platform's source code, and reported that TikTok meets reasonable standards of security and privacy.
Mozilla today announced the release of Firefox 87 in the stable channel fitted with a new intelligent tracker blocking mechanism. Called SmartBlock, the feature works in Firefox Private Browsing and Strict Mode and is meant to improve users' browsing experience through fixing pages that Mozilla's tracking protections break.
The US Supreme Court on Monday declined to consider an appeal by Facebook that would have derailed a $15 billion lawsuit over whether it illegally tracked users about a decade ago. The nation's top court issued an order denying a request by the leading social network to review a California federal court's decision to allow the litigation accusing Facebook of violating wiretap laws.
TikTok is likely no more of a threat to users than Facebook, according to an analysis by academic research group Citizen Lab that analyzed the video-sharing social networking service's app to probe for security, privacy and censorship issues. The authors considered both TikTok - the app available outside China - and Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.
Mozilla has announced that it will introduce a more privacy-focused default Referrer Policy to protect Firefox users' privacy, starting with the web browser's next version. Once updated, the web browser will automatically trim user-sensitive information like path and query string information accessible from the Referrer URL. This URL is sent together with the HTTP Referrer header between websites during subresources requests and navigating between sites by clicking on links.
Tala Security announce Tala Detect, platform solution specifically designed to secure and control critical, sensitive web data and enable compliance/risk management. With the onset of regulations and the need for complete visibility, verification and control of private customer and business sensitive data, Tala Detect tracks data across three dimensions: exposure, capture and exfiltration/leakage and provides the means to control it.
A new report, Personal Data, Privacy & Smartphones: The Cautious Consumer analyzes what smartphone owners think of the upcoming Apple Identifier for Advertisers opt-in requirement and the use of their data. Smartphone owners are not in agreement-partially due to the inexact wording and understanding-of how their data should be navigated by app developers and content providers.
Avira has released an all-new Avira Security for Mac, including a free version as well as Prime for premium features. Avira Security for Mac has been redesigned from the ground up and is built using the latest Apple's Swift, SwiftUI, Combine frameworks alongside with the best in breed Avira protection technologies such as SAVAPI and APC. The app benefits from the latest technology stack to conserve system resources and not slow down the system, all while delivering best-in-class protection.
Google's Apple-mandated privacy labels for its Chrome and Search apps on iOS have drawn criticism from tiny search rival DuckDuckGo, which tweeted "No wonder they wanted to hide it." Mysterious delays in Google's app updates soon ensued - though the company said in January that: "As Google's iOS apps are updated with new features or to fix bugs, you'll see updates to our app page listings that include the new App Privacy Details. These labels represent the maximum categories of data that could be collected - meaning if you use every available feature and service in the app."