Google is able to track your offline purchases thanks to a secret deal with Mastercard
It's no secret that Google -- and other companies -- track your online purchases; it's one of the reasons you see the ads you do, for instance. But a secret deal between Google and Mastercard means that it is also possible for the internet giant to track your offline purchases.
Google offers a service called Store Sales Measurement that makes it possible for advertisers to determine whether their online ads results in offline sales. A report from Bloomberg reveals that this was all made possible because of the deal between Google and Mastercard in the US-- one that raises serious privacy questions.
Developers must give their apps a privacy policy or Apple will kick them out of the App Store
Apple has announced that all apps submitted to the App Store must have a privacy policy, including those apps which are undergoing beta testing.
The change is due to come into force on October 3, and after this date any app lacking a privacy policy that lets users know how their data is being used faces ejection from the App Store.
CCleaner update offers improved privacy controls, renames elements to stop users freaking out, adds bundleware
It’s fair to say, CCleaner has experienced a lot of problems since Avast acquired it last year. We’ve seen issues with malware, bundled software, and popup ads, and most recently the company was embroiled in a privacy controversy, which led to it pulling the last update.
Today, Avast rolls out a new update to CCleaner which adds a number of privacy settings, and sees certain monitoring features being renamed. Avast also takes the opportunity to once again try to install its antivirus software on your PC. Yes, seriously.
Privacy: Yahoo still scans your emails... and wants to sell data to advertisers
Oath -- the owner of Yahoo -- is in talks with advertisers, promoting a service that scans the content of emails and provides a wealth of information about users.
The service would give advertisers access to data contained in over 200 million Yahoo Mail inboxes. Email scanning would also apply to AOL Mail inboxes, also owned by Oath. As noted by the Wall Street Journal, Oath is now the only major US email provider than scans emails in this way -- and the way to opt out is well-hidden.
Does your website risk leaking personal data?
Recent scandals surrounding the use of personal data, such as the Cambridge Analytica scandal, plus the large fines that can be levied under GDPR, have focused minds on the protection of information.
But is your website at risk of exposing your visitors' data? Auditing and monitoring specialist DataTrue has produced an infographic looking at the risks site tags may pose to privacy.
Facebook VPN Onavo Protect disappears from App Store for violating Apple's data collection and privacy rules
Facebook bought Onavo and its VPN tool back in 2013, and ever since there have been concerns about how the social network uses the tool to gather data -- even when it is disabled.
Now Apple -- itself not a stranger to allegations of privacy violations -- has taken objections to the way Facebook sucks up data from its users through the Ovano Protect VPN app. The iPhone-maker warned Facebook that it was violating its rules on data collection and suggested that the company might want to voluntarily pull the app before it was forcibly removed from the App Store.
Google confirms it misleadingly tracks your location even with Location History disabled -- but it's not changing that
Call it bad wording, call it blatant lying, call it what you like -- Google was recently found to have been misleading people about what disabling Location History on their phones actually meant. Many people understandably thought that turning off this setting would prevent Google from tracking and recording their location. They were wrong
But despite the upset caused by this revelation, Google is not backing down. Rather than changing the behavior of the setting so it did what people would expect it to do, the company has instead chosen to simply update its help pages to make it clear how misleading it is being.
Now you can send auto-expiring emails from Gmail on your mobile
With the recent update to Gmail, Google added a number of features to its email service. One of the new features is Confidential Mode which allows for the sending of auto-expiring messages -- although, as we have previously noted, it's not perfect by any means.
Available on the web version of Gmail for a number of weeks now, the feature is finally rolling out to iOS and Android users.
If you want to record calls in Android 9 Pie, you'll need to root your phone
Recording phone calls is dodgy territory legally speaking, but whether you choose to do it depends on where you are in the world, and whether you're concerned about complying with the law. Since Marshmallow, Google has made it difficult to record calls on Android phones by killing the recording API, but this has not stopped third party developers finding ways around it.
But with Android 9 Pie, Google has made it impossible for apps such as Call Recorder - ACR and BoldBeast Android Call Recorder to be used to record calls. Unless, that is, you're willing -- or able -- to root your handset.
Google is tracking your location even when you tell it not to
An investigation by the Associated Press has found that Google is tracking the location of Android and iPhone users even when privacy settings supposedly explicitly stop this from happening.
The AP concedes that "for the most part, Google is upfront about asking permission to use your location information", but its investigation -- the findings of which were confirmed by researchers from Princeton -- showed that Google services recorded user data even when Location History was disabled.
Privacy: Apple denies listening in on iPhone conversations and sharing recorded audio with third parties
In response to questions from Congress, Apple has written a letter in which it denies recording iPhone users' phone calls. The letter stresses Apple's stance on privacy after the House Committee on Energy and Commerce asked both Tim Cook and Alphabet's Larry Page about their respective companies' attitude to the privacy of user data.
Apple says very firmly that its business model "does not depend on collecting vast amounts of personally identifiable information to enrich targeted profiles marketed to advertisers". The letter also adds that Apple "doesn't provide third-party app developers with access to Siri utterances".
Americans value their personal data above their wallets
When asked which items would concern them most if stolen, 55 percent of Americans responding to a new survey named personal data, compared to 23 percent their wallet, 10 percent their car, and just six percent each their phone or house keys.
The study by cyber security and application delivery company Radware surveyed over 3,000 US adults finds that social security numbers are the data people value most with 54 percent saying they would be most concerned if this was stolen.
Facebook denies asking banks for your financial details
Facebook has rushed to deny allegations that it is in talks with banks with a view to gathering information about users' card transitions and other financial information.
The allegations came in a story in the Wall Street Journal which claimed the social networking giant had asked US banks to share information about their customers. Facebook is said to have told banks that information about customers could be used to offer further services to users, but at least one bank had been scared off by the privacy implications.
How to lock down Windows 10, block telemetry and kill unwanted features like Cortana and Bing-integration
Windows 10 has got over its early teething problems, and is now shaping up to be an excellent operating system. It might have taken a long while to get there, but the fact it’s about to overtake Windows 7 shows how far the new OS has come.
However, you only have to read one of our lively comments sections to realize there are plenty of people who still prefer Windows 7 and have no desire to switch to Windows 10. Those people typically aren’t fans of Microsoft’s telemetry gathering, forced adverts, and unwanted features, and I get that. However, there is a way you can quickly lock down the new OS and make it -- dare I say -- more like an updated version of Windows 7.
Avast pulls the latest version of CCleaner following privacy controversy
Piriform rolled out updates for CCleaner on a monthly basis, and this is something that has continued since Avast took over. The latest update, CCleaner 5.45, wasn’t at all well received due to a number of changes affecting privacy, and the company’s response to the matter proved to be unsatisfactory -- to say the least.
Now it seems that Avast has seen the light, and pulled the latest update. The current version available is 5.44. On its forums the company had this to say:
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