Facebook denies allowing advertisers to target people based on their emotional state
A leaked internal document shows that Facebook is capable of identifying people according to their emotional state. The document, seen by The Australian, shows how the social network can monitor users' posts and determine when they are feeling "stressed, defeated, overwhelmed, anxious, nervous, stupid, silly, useless, or a failure."
The leak pertains to Facebook's Australian office and suggests that algorithms can be used to detect "moments when young people need a confidence boost." It raises serious ethical questions about Facebook's capabilities, but the company denies it is doing anything wrong.
New report shows the number of requests for user data Facebook receives from global governments
Today Facebook publishes its Global Government Requests Report, revealing just how many data requests the social network has received from governments around the world. This time around, the report covers the second half of 2016, and it shows a mixed-bag of figures.
While the number of items that had to be restricted due to contravention of local laws dropped, the number of government data requests increased by 9 percent compared to the previous six months. Facebook is well-aware that it faces scrutiny and criticism for its willingness to comply with data requests, and the company tries to allay fears by saying: "We do not provide governments with "back doors" or direct access to people's information."
Overexposure of data leaves organizations at risk
Excessive employee permissions are exposing organizations to insider threats, ransomware and other risks according to the findings of a new report.
Using its Data Security Platform, threat prevention specialist Varonis conducted over a thousand risk assessments for customers and potential customers on a subset of their file systems totaling over 236 million files and 3.79 petabytes of data.
68 percent of consumers think brands put personal data at risk
Customers are coming to expect a more personalized service, but that means exposing more of their information to businesses.
But a new survey from identity management company Gigya reveals that many still don’t trust brands with their personal information.
Uber tracked iPhone users even after they uninstalled the app and Tim Cook wasn't happy
Uber broke Apple's rules by tagging and tracking iPhones even after users had uninstalled the taxi-hailing app. The New York Times reports that Tim Cook met with CEO Travis Kalanick and warned that the Uber app could be kicked out of the App Store for violating privacy guidelines.
It is said that Uber has been found "secretly identifying and tagging iPhones" not only after the app was uninstalled, but even after phones had been wiped. The "fingerprinting" technique was used -- it is alleged -- to identify individual iPhones, and measures were taken to hide the offending code from Apple.
Email unsubscription service Unroll.me sells user data; CEO is 'heartbroken' that people found out
Overwhelmed by the number of emails hitting our inboxes these days, it's little wonder that a "unsubscription service" like Unroll.me came into being. Designed to make it easier to clean up your inbox, it turned out that Unroll.me was selling user data to other companies -- including Uber, which is caught up in other controversies of its own.
After this came to light, CEO Jojo Hedaya has written a sorry-not-sorry-style apology. In it, he says that it was "heartbreaking" to find that users were upset to discover "how we monetize our free service." But while recognizing that people are unhappy, there are no plans to change the practice. If you're concerned, however, a data scientist has written a guide to deleting your account.
WikiLeaks reveals CIA's Weeping Angel tool for hacking Samsung TVs
WikiLeaks continues to release documents that reveal various hacking tools used by the CIA. After the HIVE revelations just over a week ago, the group has followed up with details of operations that were mentioned in the very first batch of Vault 7 leaks -- hacking Samsung televisions to listen in on people.
The documents suggest that the CIA's work is based on a tool developed by MI5 in the UK called Extending. The CIA went on to transform this into its own utility by the name of "Weeping Angel." WikiLeaks has published the guide to using the tool in a file marked "SECRET STRAP 2 UK EYES ONLY," and it describes how an implant is configured on a Linux PC before installing it on a target Samsung F Series smart TV.
Microsoft improves Gmail experience for Windows 10 Insiders, but there are privacy concerns
Microsoft's mobile Outlook app for iOS and Android is a really great email experience. It serves as a centralized place to aggregate your email accounts and calendar entries. The problem? It is a privacy nightmare. It stores your emails on Microsoft's servers, even when the email provider isn't Microsoft, such as Gmail or Yahoo. In other words, users must trade their privacy for convenience -- a bad deal if you ask me.
Today, Microsoft announces a new Gmail experience for Windows 10. While only available for Windows Insiders as of today, it uses the same concept as the Outlook mobile app, but for the Mail & Calendar apps. Microsoft will provide you with an arguably improved experience as long as you are OK with storing all of your Gmail messages in Microsoft's cloud -- yikes. What types of features will the new experience offer? Things such as tracking packages, getting updated on your favorite sports teams, and a focused inbox.
Bose faces privacy lawsuit over headphones that share listening habits with third parties
When it comes to privacy concerns, the mind naturally drifts to the likes of Facebook, Microsoft and Google. But in reality, there is the potential for privacy issues with any connected device -- and that includes Bluetooth headphones from Bose.
Illustrating this is a man from Illinois who has filed a lawsuit against the Massachusetts-based audio company for "secretly collecting, transmitting, and disclosing its customers' private music selections to third parties, including a data mining company." Kyle Zak alleges that his Bose QuietComfort 35 wireless Bluetooth headphones and the associated Bose Connect app gathered information about him, and sold it on to third parties including Segment.io.
Privacy: How to stop Google Maps' Your Timeline tracking where you go
We live in a dichotomous age in which we are more concerned about privacy than ever, while simultaneously handing over more and more personal information to the likes of Facebook and Google. With its Your Timeline feature, Google Maps provides us with a great way to keep track of the places we've visited, but it also means sharing a lot of very revealing data with Google.
You may well like the idea of being able to check to see which coffee shop you visited a year ago, or check how far you walked last Wednesday, but you may also like the idea of maintaining some grasp of your privacy. Here's how to disable Your Timeline in Google Maps and how to delete any records that have been saved already.
Managing compliance in the hospitality industry [Q&A]
Even for businesses in sectors like finance and healthcare where compliance and security is ingrained in the culture, protecting sensitive information is a major challenge.
For other sectors where it's incidental to the main business, compliance can be a major headache. With new payment card security requirements and other regulations like GDPR coming into force, businesses in sectors like hospitality need to up their game. We spoke to Geoff Milton, security strategist at data protection company ShieldQ to find out how the hospitality industry can overcome the headaches associated with compliance.
A fifth of UK firms hit by cyber-attacks, putting private data at risk
UK companies are ill-equipped to deal with cyber-attacks, a report by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) says. Nearly one in five smaller companies (18 percent) have fallen prey to cybercrime, and the figures are even worse for larger firms.
When looking at companies with more than 100 employees, the number that have been hit by cyber-attacks jumps to a staggering 42 percent. More than three quarters of the firms surveyed by the BCC did not have anti-hacking security measures in place, and most relied on third-party firms to clean up after an attack rather than having in-house solutions.
GDPR and what it means for businesses
The EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force in just over a year's time, but what impact will it have on business data protection efforts?
GDPR is one of the toughest pieces of data protection legislation in the world and will impose heavy penalties for non-compliance for any business around the world that collects or processes EU resident data -- even if the company is based outside the EU.
Migrating data to safe havens to protect customers' privacy
The events of the past month have pushed data privacy firmly to the top of not just the technology industry agenda, but also the political agenda.
In the UK, the government has been in conflict with the technology industry ever since David Cameron’s ludicrous call for a "ban" on encryption. However, in the last month the Prime Minister and Home Secretary have doubled down on this objective, demanding back door access to social media services such as WhatsApp -- despite widespread doubts as to whether the policy is even practicable.
Employees in the dark about data retention policy
Enterprises are increasingly bound by legal and compliance requirements to retain information and communications.
Yet a new study reveals that over half of office-based employees say their companies don't have written policies on data retention or personal use of work devices, or if they do, they aren’t aware of them.
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