Articles about Privacy

Meet the three amigos of data: Governance, privacy and security

The three slices of the data pie -- data governance, data privacy and data security -- are often lumped together -- but although they naturally overlap, there are crucial differences that are important to understand.

Let’s slice up the pie. First, there’s data governance. You can think of it as the cornerstone; the thing that holds everything together. If you have the right data governance in place for all your data assets then it's much easier to apply the right privacy and security controls.

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Twitter updates privacy policy to ban unauthorized images and videos of people

Twitter logo through a magnifying glass

Twitter has announced an important change to its privacy policy so that the sharing of images and videos of people without consent is now forbidden.

In many ways this is simply a tightening up of existing privacy protections and anti-doxxing policies, giving individuals a route to having media depicting them removed from the platform. The new policy does not apply to everyone, however.

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International Computer Security Day seeks to raise awareness

cybersecurity

It seems like a while since we've had a day dedicated to some aspect of the tech world, so if you're looking for something to celebrate in the lull between Thanksgiving and Christmas you'll be pleased to hear that today is International Computer Security Day.

This is designed to create greater awareness of computer security issues and encourage people to secure the personal information stored on their computers.

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45 percent of Brits don't trust tech companies to safeguard their data

A survey of 2,000 UK adults, reveals that 45 percent don't trust big tech companies to safeguard their personal data.

The study from NexGen Cloud finds 66 percent concerned about how tech giants are able to collect and use their personal information. In addition only 24 percent of individuals believe big tech firms have their best interests at heart.

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UK consumers skeptical about 'common digital identity'

The idea of a 'common digital identity' (CDI), that would allow access to a range of services, offers huge benefits to financial institutions in delivering better, faster, and more reliable checks for consumers.

Consumers themselves, however, are less convinced. A survey conducted by RegTech Associates on behalf of PassFort finds only 17 percent of UK respondents say they are very much in favour of CDI.

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More than a third of consumers don't trust brands with their data

New research from digital experience company Acquia shows that 39 percent of UK consumers don't trust all brands to handle their data correctly.

The study also suggests wide scale breaches of GDPR rules, with a huge 87 percent of UK consumers receiving marketing communications from brands which they don't recall opting in for.

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Meta is deleting a billion 'faceprints' and closing down Facebook's facial recognition system

Facial recognition

Facebook's parent company, Meta, has announced a major shift for the social networking, saying it will no longer use facial recognition to identify users in photographs.

As well as closing down the facial recognition system, the company will also delete over a billion people’s individual facial recognition templates. Meta says that it is part of "company-wide move to limit the use of facial recognition in our products", and it is move that will be welcomed by privacy advocates.

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62 percent of organizations not confident they can prevent data loss

Data exfiltration remains a significant threat and despite large investments in security tools, organizations are not confident they can stop it according to a new report.

The survey of 255 cybersecurity professionals, conducted by Osterman for data privacy and security company BlackFog, finds 62 percent lack confidence in the ability of their security tools to prevent data exfiltration.

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Dark web data is spreading faster than ever

Lit up keyboard

Stolen data on the dark web is spreading 11 times faster today than it was six years ago, according to the latest study from Bitglass.

Breach data received over 13,200 views in 2021 compared to 1,100 views in 2015 -- a 1,100 percent increase. In 2015, it took 12 days to reach 1,100 link views -- in 2021, it takes less than 24 hours to pass that milestone.

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Firefox's address bar has become an ad-stuffed privacy nightmare

Firefox logo

Mozilla has just released Firefox 93 and there is a big and controversial change to the address bar. Not content with making helpful suggestions from your browsing history as you type, Firefox Suggest now also includes "relevant suggestions" and "sponsored suggestions" from "trusted partners"; in other words, ads.

There are privacy concerns associated with making these suggestions. Mozilla may insist that it only deal with partners that meet its privacy standards for Firefox, but it still means that whatever is typed into the address bar is sent back to Mozilla and processed in order to deliver ads it hopes you will click on. The good news is that you can disable Firefox Suggest and hide ads in Firefox.

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Yubico YubiKey Bio authentication dongle uses biometrics for added security on Windows, Mac, and Linux

Portable hardware authentication dongles are pretty darn cool -- they can be a great way to secure access to various devices, applications, and services using hardware. Google offers its own Titan security keys, for instance, but the search giant likely isn't the first company that comes to mind for these products. Actually, Yubico is probably the name most associated with authentication dongles.

Believe it or not, Yubico's popular YubiKey devices have not yet been offered with biometric support. Thankfully, this changes today. You see, the all-new YubiKey Bio features a fingerprint reader for an added level of security. Not only must you physically have possession of the YubiKey Bio to use it, but you must prove you are its owner by scanning your finger.

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Consumers are becoming more active in protecting their privacy

privacy key

Almost a third of consumers have taken a more active role in protecting their privacy this year, including leaving organizations over their data practices or policies.

The 2021 Consumer Privacy Survey from Cisco has gathered results from 2,600 people across 12 countries and finds consumers are very concerned about the use of their personal data in AI decision-making, and their trust is at stake.

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Lithuanian government warns consumers not to buy new Chinese phones and to throw out old ones ASAP

The Defence Ministry of Lithuania has issued a warning that people should stop buying phones from China and should "get rid of those already purchased as fast as reasonably possible".

The extraordinary advice comes after a government report found that handsets produced by Xiaomi and Huawei include a feature to detect and censor certain words and phrases. On the blacklist are terms such as "free Tibet", "long live Taiwan independence" or "democracy movement", and while the censoring functionality was disabled for the European market, there is the potential for it to be remotely activated at any time.

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Data privacy and consent in the age of CCPA, GDPR and impending federal privacy law [Q&A]

privacy key

When it comes to consent and data privacy, the rise of regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), along with increased consumer awareness of data infractions and breaches, has raised the stakes.

When the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) passed in 2018, many states began following California's lead. Currently, more than 30 states have comprehensive privacy bills that are close to passing or in early stages of being drafted.

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Assessing the viability of first-party data

data privacy

In the wake of expanding regulations surrounding the use of consumer data for unprecedented purposes, the digital advertising industry is in for a massive overhaul. Google has announced the removal of third-party cookies and, although they have pushed the date of obsolescence back to 2023, companies are now forced to reckon with a future devoid of third-party data collection. Big Tech is looking to lead the rest of the industry in the development of innovative alternatives.

Unsurprisingly, Google has been at the front of these efforts thus far. The technology giant controls the largest browser, adtech, and search engine products in the industry, a powerful trio that leaves them perfectly positioned to navigate the digital advertising industry through uncharted territory. In addition to removing third-party cookies from their Chrome browser, Google is also fostering the development of responsible adtech in their Privacy Sandbox.

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