Microsoft will honor Californian privacy laws across the entire US
Microsoft has announced that it plans to honor the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) across the whole of the United States, not just in California.
In Europe, GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) has done a lot to protect people's privacy, and some companies have opted to voluntarily apply similar policies in the US. Microsoft, however, is the first major US company to say it will expand CCPA outside of its home state, bringing greater privacy protection to people across America.
Online anonymity is a lie: Research challenges privacy protection frameworks
Online privacy and anonymity seem farther away from our reach than ever. It is almost as if every new advancement and progress in technology further removes another brick from an already flimsy wall of privacy on the web.
Although legislations such as GDPR were designed to protect user privacy and anonymity, these guarantees hold little weight against powerful technologies like machine learning which -- researchers have found -- can piece together anonymized information to form your complete identity.
One year on from the Facebook data breach -- what has changed? [Q&A]
One year ago this week Facebook suffered a massive data breach that prompted the company to reset access for around 90 million accounts.
A year on from this event what has been done to make users' data more secure and are people becoming more aware of the risks to their privacy from using social networks and other sites? We spoke to Fouad Khalil VP of compliance at SecurityScorecard to discuss these things and more.
Facebook may know when you're having sex
Few people would argue with the assertion that Facebook knows a lot about its users. The social network is hard to avoid, but could it really know when you have sex?
The answer, it seems, is yes. This is not -- you'll be very pleased to hear -- because Facebook is listening to you or using your webcam to spy on you. Rather it is down to period-tracking apps. A study by Privacy International shows that a number of apps used to track menstrual cycles can share a huge amount of highly personal information with the social media company.
Automated Business Glossary makes enterprise data more available
Data is a resource all enterprises have, but it's only valuable if it's accessible, searchable and understandable. As the amount of data we accumulate grows getting it into a usable form can be a real challenge.
Metadata automation specialist Octopai is looking to make data more easily accessible with the launch of its Automated Business Glossary. This uses machine learning to synthesize data across enterprises and provide one authoritative source for all business operations.
Brave browser accuses Google of using hidden web pages to track users
Google stands accused of using hidden web pages to circumvent EU privacy regulations, secretly sending users' personal data to advertisers.
The accusation comes from the privacy-focused Brave web browser which says it has, "uncovered what appears to be a GDPR workaround that circumvents Google's own publicly stated GDPR data safeguards". Evidence has been handed to the Irish Data Protection Commission that allegedly shows Google using hidden web pages to share data on its Authorized Buyers exhange, formally known as DoubleClick.
Security professionals now think cloud is safer than on-premise
New research from internet infrastructure company Nominet finds that 61 percent of security professionals believe the risk of a security breach is the same or lower in cloud environments compared to on-premise.
The study of nearly 300 UK and US C-level security professionals, marks a major shift in the perception of security of the cloud. However, it doesn't mean the cloud is viewed as entirely safe.
Only a quarter of UK firms prioritize security when buying new tech
Only 24 percent of organizations are prioritizing security when it comes to technology investment according to a new report from UK-based software company Advanced.
For the report the company surveyed over 500 senior decision makers working in UK businesses, both SMEs and large enterprises, to explore the state of digital transformation. It shows that just 34 percent admit that regulatory change is triggering the purchase of new technology in their organisation, which is surprisingly low given the introduction of GDPR in May last year.
Microsoft faces another European investigation over Windows 10 privacy concerns
Worries about privacy in Windows 10 show no signs of abating, with Europe expressing ongoing concerns about Microsoft's data gathering and telemetry.
Having already asked Microsoft to make modifications to Windows, the Dutch data protection agency (DPA) has since looked into what changes the company has implemented. Having found "new, potentially unlawful, instances of personal data processing", the agency is calling for an investigation by the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC), Microsoft's lead EU privacy regulator.
Web host Hostinger resets 14 million customer passwords following data breach
Hosting company Hostinger has reset passwords for all of its customers after a data breach in which a database containing information about 14 million users was accessed "by an unauthorized third party".
Hostinger says that the password reset is a "precautionary measure" and explains that the security incident occurred when hackers used an authorization token found on one of the company's servers to access an internal system API. While no financial data is thought to have been accessed, hackers were able to access "client usernames, emails, hashed passwords, first names and IP addresses".
C-Suite in the hot seat -- Execs' responsibility regarding digital security
Are you killing your numbers? Crushing your targets? Growing your team? Leading with authenticity and building a loyal following? What a shame it is that your tenure may already be over.
While you were busy winning and shredding the competition, a cybercriminal breached your network. Don’t be too embarrassed, it happens to almost everyone these days. The average "dwell time" of an intruder is more than 100 days, so it’s hard to know exactly when that bucket of ice water was tossed on your dreams. Unfortunately, even if you’re doing everything right, recent examples illustrate that our jobs are on the line when hackers come a knockin’.
Half of companies won't move mission critical workloads to the cloud
A new report from enterprise file sharing platform FileCloud looks at cloud and data security and finds that 50 percent of companies don’t plan on moving mission critical workloads to the public cloud.
The survey of 150 professionals from industries including health care, financial services and educational institutions finds that shifts in perceptions of data security are impacting movement to the cloud.
Privacy: Google stops transcribing Assistant recordings and Apple stops listening to Siri recordings
Following the revelations that Apple contractors are listening to recordings of things people say to Siri, and Google workers are manually transcribing Assistant recordings, both companies have said they will cease the practice -- at least temporarily.
Both Apple and Google were "listening in" on recordings with a view to improving their respective digital assistants, but privacy concerns have forced them to take action. But while Apple is suspending its "grading" program worldwide, Google is only changing the way it operates in Europe.
EU says that websites with Facebook Like buttons are liable for private data sharing
The fingers of Facebook have spread like a cancer across the internet. Even people who have made the conscious decision to boycott the network find it near-impossible to completely avoid its reach thanks to the prevalence of Like buttons.
Now the Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that websites with embedded Like buttons can be held responsible for the transmission of data to Facebook. This is a particularly important ruling due to the fact that Like buttons can be used to share information about site visitors without the need for the button to be clicked.
Migrating infrastructure to the cloud -- what the board needs to know
If you serve on the board of a UK organization, it’s likely that digital transformation is high on your agenda as you look strategically at futureproofing your business. A key part of that is ensuring that the IT infrastructure supporting your company is functioning robustly as a platform on which to build competitiveness, rather than a legacy anchor holding back innovation and growth. Moving to an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IAAS) set-up is increasingly the way that companies aim to unlock potential and enable more dynamic, flexible business processes.
The benefits of IAAS are clear: It’s flexible and can easily scale as your business grows. It removes the burden of maintaining legacy systems and allows the easy deployment of new technology and, ideally, you only pay for what you use on a predictable opex basis; you won’t be paying to maintain capacity that is rarely needed. It also allows you to add on services such as analytics and disaster recovery-as-a-service and it’s the perfect environment for the big data projects requiring large workloads and integration with business intelligence tools.
Recent Headlines
Most Commented Stories
Windows 12.1 is everything Windows 11 should be -- and the Microsoft operating system we need!
Apple Intelligence will launch in beta and that’s unacceptable for a trillion-dollar company
© 1998-2024 BetaNews, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy - Cookie Policy.