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.
Proton picks up Standard Notes to deepen its pro-privacy portfolio
By adding Standard Notes to its portfolio of apps, Proton will deepen its reach with an engaged community of pro-privacy users.
As AI accelerates, Europe’s flagship privacy principles are under attack, warns EDPS
The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) has warned key planks of the bloc’s data protection and privacy regime are under attack from industry lobbyists and could face a critical reception…
Indian government’s cloud spilled citizens’ personal data online for years
The Indian government has finally resolved a years-long cybersecurity issue that exposed reams of sensitive data about its citizens. A security researcher exclusively told TechCrunch he found at least hundreds…
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‘Reverse’ searches: The sneaky ways that police tap tech companies for your private data
Reverse searches cast a digital dragnet over a tech company’s store of user data to catch the information that police are looking for.
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Your cut-out-and-keep guide to Big Tech talking points in a new age of antitrust
With tech giants facing new laws and enforcements aimed at cutting their empires down to size, a lobbying frenzy replete with wildly binary claims is underway. As the likes of Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft and TikTok face unprecedented (yes, actually!) scrutiny from lawmakers and law enforcers around the world,…
Facebook snooped on users’ Snapchat traffic in secret project, documents reveal
In 2016, Facebook launched a secret project designed to intercept and decrypt the network traffic between people using Snapchat’s app and its servers. The goal was to understand users’ behavior…
Worldcoin hit with another ban order in Europe citing risks to kids
Controversial crypto biometrics venture Worldcoin has been almost entirely booted out of Europe after being hit with another temporary ban — this time in Portugal. The order from the country’s…
Customers say their leaked AT&T customer data — names, addresses, phone numbers and Social Security numbers — is accurate.
DOT to investigate data security and privacy practices of top US airlines
The U.S. Department of Transportation announced its first industry-wide review of data security and privacy policies across the largest U.S. airlines. The DOT said in a press release Thursday that…
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Users say Glassdoor added real names to user profiles without their consent
One user said Glassdoor pulled her full name from an email and added it to her profile. Another user said it wasn’t clear how Glassdoor got his data.
Meta offers lower cost for EU ad-free subscription under privacy review
Meta has proposed to drop the price of an ad-free subscription in the European Union — currently the only way regional users of its social networks, Facebook and Instagram, can…
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Want to see an NHS doctor? Prepare to cough up your data first.
To get a doctor’s appointment in the U.K. these days, you have to entrust more of your data to private companies — and there’s not a great deal you can do about it. In part due to growing pressure from the government to meet a two-week limit for patient appointments,…
Scrap coercive ‘privacy fee,’ MEPs urge Meta’s Nick Clegg in open letter
Meta is facing a call from lawmakers in the European Union to scrap its controversial “consent or pay” tactic on Facebook and Instagram. Currently, the company demands a per-account fee…
Microsoft-owned professional social network, LinkedIn, is the latest to get a formal request for information (RFI) from the EU. The Commission, which oversees larger platforms’ compliance with a subset of…
Proton Mail desktop app officially launches, but remains for premium subscribers only
Proton Mail, the end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) email service from Swiss company Proton, is now officially available via a dedicated desktop app some three months after debuting in beta. However, despite…
Apple will allow iOS developers located in the European Union to distribute apps from the web, rather than from its App Store. The option, which it says will be made…
After losing access to Twitter’s API, Block Party pivots to privacy
Block Party, a startup developed by software engineer and tech diversity advocate Tracy Chou, was among the victims of Twitter’s (now X’s) API changes earlier this year, forcing it to…
Worldcoin fails to get injunction against Spain’s privacy suspension
Controversial eyeball scanning startup Worldcoin has failed to get an injunction against a temporary suspension ordered Wednesday by Spain’s data protection authority, the AEPD. The authority used emergency powers contained…
Airbnb is banning the use of indoor security cameras in all of its listings, the company announced on Monday. Previously, Airbnb has allowed hosts to have indoor security cameras in…
EU’s use of Microsoft 365 found to breach data protection rules
A lengthy investigation into the European Union’s use of Microsoft 365 has found the Commission breached the bloc’s data protection rules through its use of the cloud-based productivity software. Announcing…
Worldcoin says it’s paused services in Spain, after filing legal challenge to temporary ban
A German subsidiary involved in Sam Altman’s controversial crypto blockchain digital identity business, Worldcoin, was reported Friday to have filed a legal challenge against a suspension order from Spain’s data…
It’s been over two years since a key piece of the tracking-ads’ industry’s consent collection apparatus was found to breach European Union’s data protection laws. Today the surveillance data complex…
Spain’s data protection authority has ordered Worldcoin to temporarily stop collecting and processing personal data from the market. It must also stop processing any data it previously collected there. The…
Google points to privacy changes, choice screens and data API ahead of DMA compliance day
Google has trailed another bundle of product tweaks ahead of Thursday’s deadline for compliance with the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). The DMA applies to Alphabet, Google’s parent, which…
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Signal’s Meredith Whittaker scorns anti-encryption efforts as ‘parochial, magical thinking’
AI is “not open in any sense,” the battle over encryption is far from won, and Signal’s principled (and uncompromising) approach may complicate interoperability efforts, warned the company’s president, Meredith Whittaker. But it’s not all bad news. (Actually, it is all bad news, because I wrote up the good news…
Why Signal ‘turned our architecture inside out’ for its latest privacy feature
Adding usernames to a messaging app may seem like a standard feature, but for Signal, such identifiers were anathema to its mission of total privacy and security — until now.…
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Punkt rocks its minimalist roots with first smartphone
Punkt first made a name for itself in the world of mobile with pared-down, monochromatic phones focused on voice, text and not much else. Now, the Swiss company has taken its concept of minimalism and changed it up, with the launch of its first smartphone — a device that positions…
Now the EU is asking questions about Meta’s ‘pay or be tracked’ consent model
Meta’s controversial pay or be tracked ‘consent’ choice for users the European Union is facing questions from the European Commission. Today the bloc said it’s sent Facebook and Instagram’s owner…
Meta’s ‘consent or pay’ data grab in Europe faces new complaints
A controversial move by Meta last year, when it switched to charging users in the European Union for an ad-free subscription to Facebook and/or Instagram unless they agreed to be…
FTC bans antivirus giant Avast from selling its users’ browsing data to advertisers
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Thursday said it will ban the antivirus giant Avast from selling consumers’ web browsing data to advertisers after Avast claimed its products would prevent…
