Security News
A German privacy watchdog said Thursday that it is fining clothing retailer H&M 35.3 million euros after the company was found to have spied on some of its employees in Germany. Hamburg's data protection commissioner said in a statement that the Swedish company collected private information about employees at a customer service center in Nuremberg, "Ranging from rather harmless details to family issues and religious beliefs."
Britain's Information Commissioner's Office has confirmed it is investigating grumbles about heavy-handed marketing emails and texts promoting the NHS COVID-19 contact-tracing app in England. Between 26 and 27 September, NHS Test and Trace messaged anyone resident in the country who was over the age of 16 and had previously provided their contact details to a GP. Those contacted had not specifically opted in to receive marketing communications regarding the NHS COVID-19 app.
Britain's Information Commissioner's Office has confirmed it is investigating grumbles about heavy-handed marketing emails and texts promoting the NHS COVID-19 contact-tracing app in England. Between 26 and 27 September, NHS Test and Trace messaged anyone resident in the country who was over the age of 16 and had previously provided their contact details to a GP. Those contacted had not specifically opted in to receive marketing communications regarding the NHS COVID-19 app.
Researchers from CSIRO's Data61 and the Monash Blockchain Technology Centre have developed the world's most efficient blockchain protocol that is both secure against quantum computers and protects the privacy of its users and their transactions. The protocol - a set of rules governing how a blockchain network operates - is called MatRiCT. Cryptocurrencies vulnerable to attacks by quantum computers.
A U.S. district judge has dismissed New Mexico's privacy claims against Google over privacy concerns, but New Mexico's top prosecutor vowed Monday to continue the legal fight to protect child privacy rights. "The law is clear that Google must protect our children's privacy, and we strongly disagree with the court's ruling," New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas said in a statement to The Associated Press.
Ring's newly announced robot drone - a connected device that flies around homes taking security footage - is causing privacy experts' concerns to take off. The new device has also sparked a firestorm of privacy concerns on Twitter about how Ring - whose connected doorbells have already created plenty of privacy controversies - will collect, use and share the collected data.
Password manager 1Password and virtual card platform Privacy.com announced an API integration that lets users create virtual cards in their browser quickly and safely when they need to make a payment. Starting today, users can create, use and save Privacy Cards directly within their 1Password extension whenever they're needed.
Apple has released iOS 14, with a bucketload of new and improved functional features and a handful of privacy and security ones. New privacy and security features in iOS 14 The new iOS will tell you when an app is using your camera or microphone.
The ongoing debate surrounding privacy protection in the global data economy reached a fever pitch with July's "Schrems II" ruling at the European Court of Justice, which struck down the Privacy Shield - a legal mechanism enabling companies to transfer personal data from the EU to the US for processing - potentially disrupting the business of thousands of companies. The plaintiff, Austrian privacy advocate Max Schrems, claimed that US privacy legislation was insufficiently robust to prevent national security and intelligence authorities from acquiring - and misusing - Europeans' personal data.
The U.S. will ban the downloads of the Chinese apps TikTok and WeChat on Sunday, with a total ban on the use of the latter, citing national security and data privacy concerns. Some security experts have raised concerns that ByteDance Ltd., the Chinese company that owns TikTok, would maintain access to information on the 100 million TikTok users in the United States, creating a security risk.