Privacy

Stay up to date on privacy news coverage, from data protection, policy and emerging tech, and how startups are trying to solve some of the biggest data privacy problems for the future.

Cover says what sets it apart is the underlying technology it employs, which has been exclusively licensed from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

A new startup from Figure’s founder is licensing NASA tech in a bid to curb school shootings

Opponents also contend the EU plan will fail at its claimed aim of protecting children, suggesting law enforcement will instead be swamped by millions of false positives.

EU member states remain divided on controversial CSAM-scanning plan — but for how long?

A controversial European Union legislative proposal to scan the private messages of citizens in a bid to detect child sexual abuse material (CSAM) is a risk to the future of…

Stop playing games with online security, Signal president warns EU lawmakers

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Privacy app maker Proton transitions to nonprofit foundation structure

The newly setup Proton Foundation will serve as the main shareholder to the existing corporate entity that is Proton AG, which will continue as a for-profit company under the auspices of the Foundation.

4:34 am PDT • June 17, 2024
Privacy app maker Proton transitions to nonprofit foundation structure

To give users more control over the contacts an app can and cannot access, the permissions screen has two stages.

iOS 18 cracks down on apps asking for full address book access

LinkedIn has confirmed it will no longer allow advertisers to target users based on data gleaned from their participation in LinkedIn Groups. The move comes more than three months after…

LinkedIn to limit targeted ads in EU after complaint over sensitive data use

The next few weeks could be pivotal for Worldcoin, the controversial eyeball-scanning crypto venture co-founded by OpenAI’s Sam Altman, whose operations remain almost entirely shuttered in the European Union following…

Worldcoin faces pivotal EU privacy decision within weeks

Microsoft’s education-focused flavor of its cloud productivity suite, Microsoft 365 Education, is facing investigation in the European Union. Privacy rights nonprofit noyb has just lodged two complaints with Austria’s data…

Microsoft hit with EU privacy complaints over schools’ use of 365 Education suite

Meta has been banned from launching features on Facebook and Instagram that would have collected data on voters in Spain using the social networks ahead of next month’s European Elections.…

Spain bans Meta from launching election features on Facebook, Instagram over privacy fears

A data protection taskforce that’s spent over a year considering how the European Union’s data protection rulebook applies to OpenAI’s viral chatbot, ChatGPT, reported preliminary conclusions Friday. The top-line takeaway…

EU’s ChatGPT taskforce offers first look at detangling the AI chatbot’s privacy compliance

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Signal’s Meredith Whittaker on the Telegram security clash and the ‘edgelords’ at OpenAI 

Among other things, Whittaker is concerned about the concentration of power in the five main social media platforms.

5:45 am PDT • May 24, 2024
Signal’s Meredith Whittaker on the Telegram security clash and the ‘edgelords’ at OpenAI 

Jolla has taken the official wraps off the first version of its personal server-based AI assistant in the making. The reborn startup is building a privacy-focused AI device — aka…

Jolla debuts privacy-focused AI hardware

Flock Safety is a multibillion-dollar startup that’s got eyes everywhere. As of Wednesday, with the company’s new Solar Condor cameras, those eyes are solar-powered and use wireless 5G networks to…

Flock Safety’s solar-powered cameras could make surveillance more widespread

A feature Google demoed at its I/O confab yesterday, using its generative AI technology to scan voice calls in real time for conversational patterns associated with financial scams, has sent…

Google’s call-scanning AI could dial up censorship by default, privacy experts warn

Apple released new data about anti-fraud measures related to its operation of the iOS App Store on Tuesday morning, trumpeting a claim that it stopped over $7 billion in “potentially…

Apple touts stopping $1.8B in App Store fraud last year in latest pitch to developers

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UnitedHealth data breach should be a wake-up call for the UK and NHS

The ransomware attack that has engulfed U.S. health insurance giant UnitedHealth Group and its tech subsidiary Change Healthcare is a data privacy nightmare for millions of U.S. patients, with CEO Andrew Witty confirming this week that it may impact as much as one-third of the country. But it should also…

8:43 am PDT • May 3, 2024
UnitedHealth data breach should be a wake-up call for the UK and NHS

OpenAI is facing another privacy complaint in the European Union. This one, which has been filed by privacy rights nonprofit noyb on behalf of an individual complainant, targets the inability…

ChatGPT’s ‘hallucination’ problem hit with another privacy complaint in EU

Meta’s tracking ads business could be facing further legal blows in the European Union: An influential adviser to the bloc’s top court affirmed Thursday that the region’s privacy laws limit…

Meta could face further squeeze on surveillance ads model in EU

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Security bugs in popular phone-tracking app iSharing exposed users’ precise locations

The location-sharing app iSharing, which has 35 million users, fixed vulnerabilities that exposed users’ personal information and precise location data.

7:01 am PDT • April 24, 2024
Security bugs in popular phone-tracking app iSharing exposed users’ precise locations

Dating apps are not following great privacy practices and are collecting more data than ever in order to woo Gen Z users, a new study by Mozilla pointed out. Researchers reviewed…

Mozilla finds that most dating apps are not great guardians of user data

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UnitedHealth says Change hackers stole health data on ‘substantial proportion of people in America’

The health tech giant processes 15 billion health transactions a year, and handles health information for about half of all Americans.

3:35 pm PDT • April 22, 2024
UnitedHealth says Change hackers stole health data on ‘substantial proportion of people in America’

The director general of the UK’s National Crime Agency has targeted Meta over its planned expansion of end-to-end encryption to Instagram.

European police chiefs target E2EE in latest demand for ‘lawful access’

House and Senate lawmakers passed a bill reauthorizing the controversial Section 702 powers under FISA, which allows U.S. spy agencies to conduct warrantless searches of Americans’ communications.

Lawmakers vote to reauthorize US spying law that critics say expands government surveillance

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Your Android phone could have stalkerware — here’s how to remove it

This simple guide helps you identify and remove common consumer-grade spyware apps from your Android phone.

2:15 pm PDT • April 19, 2024
Your Android phone could have stalkerware — here’s how to remove it

“You can’t leak or sell what you don’t have,” according to the company’s website.

Cape dials up $61M from a16z and more for mobile service that doesn’t use personal data

The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) has published new guidance that has major implications for adtech giants like Meta and other large platforms. Since November 2023, the owner of Facebook…

Adtech giants like Meta must give EU users real privacy choice, says EDPB

Incoming guidance by an expert steering body on European Union data protection law could have major implications for Meta’s advertising business model. The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) has decided…

EU privacy body adopts view on Meta’s controversial ‘consent or pay’ tactic

Nearly two dozen rights groups are urging the EDPB to not endorse a strategy used by Meta that they say is intended to bypass the EU’s privacy protections.

Meta’s ‘consent or pay’ tactic must not prevail over privacy, EU rights groups warn

Spyware makers are reportedly working on targeting individuals with stealthy data-stealing malware using online banner ads.

Government spyware is another reason to use an ad blocker

A flagship European Union digital market regulation appears to be shaking up competition in the mobile browser market. It’s been a little over a month since the Digital Markets Act…

Alternative browsers report uplift after EU’s DMA choice screen mandate