Apple has updated its WebKit policy, increasing the company's focus on privacy. The new WebKit Tracking Prevention Policy now states that any circumvention of its anti-tracking feature is treated in the same way, and as seriously, as security issues.

The aim is to prevent web tracking completely because "these practices are harmful to users because they infringe on a user's privacy without giving users the ability to identify, understand, consent to, or control them". Apple says it wants "to see a healthy web ecosystem, with privacy by design".

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Customers are more worried than ever about the way their data is used and shared by companies, particularly for analytics, according to a new report.

The Customer State of Mind survey from data protection specialist Trūata shows 60 percent of UK customers are uneasy with companies using their personal data for analytics. Recent high-profile data leaks have also added to this negative perception of the way personal data is managed by brands.

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It probably comes as absolutely no surprise to anyone, but Facebook is just the same as Google, Amazon and Apple when it comes to listening in on your conversations -- the ones you thought (or at least hoped) were private.

Following a report from Bloomberg News, Facebook has confirmed that paid contractors have been listening to audio of conversations. The company says, however, that it has put the brakes on the practice -- for now, at least.

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Both Apple and Google are allowing numerous potentially unsafe free VPN apps to remain in their app stores, despite being aware of privacy risks according to research from Top10VPN.com.

Among the string of serious privacy issues uncovered but not acted upon is the discovery that nearly 60 percent of the most popular free VPN apps are secretly Chinese-owned.

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The idea that conversations you have with or via your computer are confidential has been completely dispelled over the last couple of weeks. We've learned that not only were Google workers listening to recordings of people using Google Assistant, Apple workers were listening in on Siri commands, and Amazon workers could hear what you're saying to Alexa.

If you thought Microsoft would not engage in such activity, think again. A new report reveals evidence that contractors working for Microsoft are listening to Skype calls made via the translation feature.

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There have been privacy concerns about digital assistants for just about as long as there have been digital assistants, and the recent confirmation that Google and Apple were listening to Assistant and Siri conversations has done nothing to allay fears.

The 'were' in that last sentence is important, as both companies have agreed -- at least temporarily -- to cease the practice. Not wanting to miss out on an opportunity for good PR, Amazon is getting in on the action, giving Alexa users the chance to opt out of having their conversations with its digital assistant listened to -- or "manually reviewed", as Amazon would prefer. Here's how to do just that.

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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.

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Privacy is a currency these days. With social media, target advertising, and constant connectivity, it’s harder than ever to keep elements of your private life truly private. This crisis of privacy becomes especially concerning in the context of the workplace.

In the old days, it was easy to keep your work life and your personal life entirely separate. Today, those boundaries are blurrier than they used to be, and that fact has led to a big question for many employees: how much of my private data can my boss access?

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NordVPN has announced an important new option for users of the Linux version of its eponymous VPN tool. The company is introducing a new technology called NordLynx which is based on the WireGuard protocol.

The company says that it successfully combines the highspeed connection offered by WireGuard with NordVPN's own privacy-protecting double NAT system.

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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.

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Psst! Hey you! Yeah, you! Lurking in the bushes with a camera! Sitting on the park bench with a cocked ear! Riding the subway with an eye on your fellow passengers' phone screens!

Are you tired of struggling to catch a glimpse of other people’s intimate moments? Need something to fill that gaping pit of loneliness and despair you call a "life?" Well, you’re in luck! Because we’ve got the perfect job for you!

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It's only a couple of weeks since we learned, for certain, that Google is listening to what people say to Google Assistant. Now -- and perhaps surprising no one -- it transpires that Siri is just as much of a privacy invasion.

Just as with Amazon and Google with Alexa and Google Assistant, Apple shares some of the recordings made via Siri with contractors with a view to improving the service. But while it may mean that Siri gets better at responding to queries, it also means that the contractors charged with "grading" Siri's performance "regularly hear confidential details" -- everything from people having sex, to people making drug deals.

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Anyone using Office 365's webmail component to send emails is unwittingly sharing their IP address with the people they communicate with.

The web-based Outlook 365 inserts the sender's IP address into the header of an email, which makes it stand apart from other webmail services such as Gmail -- and even Microsoft's own Outlook.com. While the injected IP address serves something of a purpose, it's also a privacy and security risk that many users may not be aware of.

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"Stupid! You’re so stupid!" That iconic line from the Weird Al Yankovic’s seminal 1989 work, "UHF" (watch the "Wheel of Fish" segment and try not to snort your coffee), is what pops into my mind every time I read about some high profile individual getting outed for saying dumb things in "private" on the Internet.

First off, the belief that anything could remain private on the net is just foolish. Whether you’re an aspiring Harvard freshman who gets his admission rescinded for saying racist things in a closed chat room, or the Governor of Puerto Rico being forced to step down for making dozens of misogynistic and homophobic statements (along with some very real acts of corruption) in a Telegram thread with senior staffers, the truth has a way of surfacing at the worst possible time. And that way is typically someone privy to the conversation objecting to its content and subsequently ratting you out to the world.

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A security researcher has revealed that the SmartScreen feature of Microsoft Edge is sharing full URLs of pages visited with the Windows-maker. Also shared are users' account IDs, raising concerns about privacy-invading tracking of browsing history.

SmartScreen is a security feature that Microsoft uses to identify phishing and malware websites, but the lack of obfuscation or anonymization of URLs shared with the company opens ups the potential for invasions of privacy and the revealing of sensitive information.

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