Security News
Germany launched a coronavirus tracing app Tuesday that officials say is so secure even government ministers can use it. Smartphone apps have been touted as a high-tech tool in the effort to track down potential COVID-19 infections.
This has led to a resurgence of interest, advances, and commercialization in the area of privacy enhancing technologies, or PETs, a powerful category of technologies that enable, enhance, and preserve data privacy throughout its lifecycle. By adopting a data-centric approach to privacy and security, these technologies help ensure that sensitive data remains protected during processing.
Norway's health authorities said on Monday they had suspended an app designed to help trace the spread of the new coronavirus after the national data protection agency said it was too invasive of privacy. Launched in April, the smartphone app Smittestopp was set up to collect movement data to help authorities trace the spread of COVID-19, and inform users if they had been exposed to someone carrying the novel coronavirus.
This investment validates the strength of Transcend's breakthrough technology, strategy, and team, and positions Transcend to capture the entire data privacy market. "Operating on one person's personal data across hundreds of data systems is extremely complex, but it's all beneath the hood with Transcend. We distilled this process into something that is so simple for companies to use, they can start offering their users data rights in an afternoon."
Trend Micro has pulled the Privacy Browser from its Dr Safety Android security suite following the discovery of a reoccurring flaw that could be abused to trick people into thinking malicious pages were legit. Trend responded by pulling the app from its Android security suite.
The methods used by contact tracing apps also play a role in the question of effectiveness versus privacy. Contact tracing apps store contact logs, encryption keys, and other sensitive information on the mobile device.
Singapore's announcement that it is developing a wearable for contact tracing has caused citizens to voice concern for the technology's impact on their data privacy, with more than 35,000 signing a petition against the devices. Previously, Singapore had created a contact tracing app, TraceTogether, which uses Bluetooth mobile phones' functions to detect other phones nearby and track the spread of the virus.
Privacy-focused communications application Signal this week announced a new feature meant to enhance user privacy amid social turmoil in the United States: a blur tool. Available in the image editor, the functionality is meant to help protect the privacy of the people in the photos shared over Signal.
Amid nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd, secure comms biz Signal has deployed a blur tool in its messaging and calling app to allow users to obscure faces in app-captured snapshots. Since not everyone always does so, the latest versions of Signal for Android and iOS include a blur feature in the image editor menu that can be used to degrade image details.
I just published a new paper with Karen Levy of Cornell: "Privacy Threats in Intimate Relationships." Abstract: This article provides an overview of intimate threats: a class of privacy threats that can arise within our families, romantic partnerships, close friendships, and caregiving relationships.