As we carry out more of our day-to-day transactions online, so the amount of information about us that exists out on the internet grows.

That means there are more and more opportunities for data to be leaked or stolen, but a new study by IT staffing company Modis reveals that people still aren't taking their privacy seriously.

It used to be that very privacy conscious people were viewed as being a bit paranoid. Some of these evangelists for security and privacy would speak of conspiracy theories about governments and hackers accessing your email, private data, webcam feeds, and more. Well, it turns out many of these folks weren't crazy, and their conspiracy theories were actual fact. As Edward Snowden highlighted, some governments and other organizations are out to spy on you -- both for control and profit.

Thankfully, consumers are starting to wake up and become more aware, and some companies, such as Purism, are designing products to safeguard users. The company's laptops, for instance, run an open source Linux-based operating system, called "PureOS" with a focus on privacy. These machines even have hardware "kill switches" so you can physically disconnect a webcam or Wi-Fi card. Today, Purism announces that it is taking those same design philosophies and using them to build a new $599 smartphone called Librem 5. The planned phone will use the GNOME desktop environment and PureOS by default, but users can install different distros too. Sound good? Well you can help the company build it through crowdfunding.

Plex recently caused controversy by changing its privacy policy so users could not opt out of data collection -- although the company backed down after assessing the level of concern it raised. Now Mozilla looks set to raise the hackles of privacy advocates as well.

Mozilla engineers working on the Firefox web browser are concerned that the current opt-in system of data collection does not allow for the collection of unbiased data about which websites users visit and so on. As such a test period of telemetry which is opt-out is planned.

Last week Plex upset a large portion of its userbase by announcing a change to its privacy policy. The change, which was due to take effect in late September, meant that it would not be possible to opt out of data collection.

After a serious backlash, the company has changed its mind, backtracking on the privacy policy update, saying that it recognized the concerns raised by users. The company insists that it was not trying to sneak the policy change by users and that it had no intention of selling data. Importantly, however, users are still going to be able to opt out of playback data collection if they want.

Plex -- the much-loved media server software -- has updated its privacy policy, and people are not happy with the changes. Included among the changes is a notification that future features may collect and share details about what you're streaming.

Usage statistics are collected by many companies -- including Plex -- to improve products; moving forward users will not be able to opt out of this data collection. Needless to say, Plex users are more than a little upset.

Facebook won't -- usually -- hand over your private messages to anyone after you die. The social network has used a new blogging series called Hard Questions to reveal just how it handles deaths of its users.

The site's director of global policy management, Monika Bickert, says that Facebook aims to not only be sensitive, but also to respect the wishes of the deceased. After death, accounts are memorialized by default, but everyone is also free to create a "legacy contact" who will be able to mange their account in the event of their death. But Facebook is, it says, also keen to protect the privacy of survivors.

In a time when people are more concerned about privacy than ever, security tools such as VPNs are proving increasingly popular. Kaspersky Lab recently released a VPN tool for Android, and reviewers are voicing concerns about the permissions required by the app.

Kaspersky Secure Connection: VPN service has a reasonable overall review score at time of writing, but the lower scores are highly critical of what are seen as privacy-invading permission requirements.

A federal judge has told Microsoft to stop preventing "talent management algorithm" hiQ Labs scraping data from public LinkedIn profiles. hiQ Labs has been using information gathered from LinkedIn to predict when people are going to leave their jobs -- information which is incredibly valuable to employers.

Microsoft was not happy at the data that hiQ Labs had been scraping from public profiles, and tried to stop it from happening. The company introduced "various blocking techniques" to prevent the startup from accessing the data and secure user privacy, but the ruling ultimately went in favor of hiQ Labs.

Accessing privileged accounts is the hacker's number one choice of the easiest and fastest way to get access to critical data according to a new study.

Privileged account solutions specialist Thycotic carried out a survey of more than 250 hackers at 2017's Black Hat conference and found that 32 percent of respondents see privileged accounts as the best way of getting hold of sensitive data, with 27 percent preferring access to user email accounts.

The Department of Justice is trying to force a web host to reveal the IP addresses of over 1.3 million visitors to an anti-Trump website. The DoJ is also requesting contact information, email content and photos.

The site -- #DisruptJ20 -- was used to organize protests against Donald Trump on the day of his inauguration. DreamHost says that it is fighting the warrant that has been issued, because the "information could be used to identify any individuals who used this site to exercise and express political speech protected under the Constitution's First Amendment. That should be enough to set alarm bells off in anyone's mind."

Security researchers from Lookout are warning about raft of spyware-infected apps that have been found in Google Play. Seemingly connected to Iraq, more than a thousand apps hve been found to include SonicSpy spyware.

The spyware is embedded in a variety of legitimate-looking apps, such as messaging tools based on Telegram. One such example is an app called Soniac which was found to be capable of not only recording audio and retrieving contacts, but also taking photos and gathering phone logs. Lookout warns that SonicSpy is sneaky, and tries to hide from users to avoid detection.

The UK government has made no secret of its desire to exert greater control over the internet, and home secretary Amber Rudd has gone as far as suggesting that encryption should be weakened -- and backdoors should be included in software -- to make it easier to carry out surveillance on terrorists.

Lord Jonathan Evans, the former chief of MI5 in the UK, acknowledged that encryption had got in the way of monitoring communication between extremists, but said this should not be used as an excuse to weaken security.

The world of banking is about to be transformed. In January 2018, the second Payment Services Directive (PSD2) will be incorporated into UK law, obliging banks to provide other organizations with access to their customers’ financial information. Known colloquially as the "open banking" directive, the new law is intended to end the monopoly of big banks and to provide consumers with a much wider range of financial services providers to choose from.

There are many technical and cultural difficulties that banks will need to overcome in order to comply with the new directive, but perhaps the most serious challenge is how to implement PSD2 without bringing themselves into conflict with another impending piece of legislation; the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Disney -- who just announced plans to launch its own streaming service and drop Netflix -- is collecting personal information about children and non-consensually sharing it with advertisers, alleges a lawsuit against the company.

The lawsuit, says that Disney and three other companies it worked with (Upsight, Unity, and Kochava) created apps that spy on users -- primarily children -- gathering information which is then shared with advertisers. If this is found to be the case, it is in violation of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, and Disney could be hit with hefty fines.

Apple recently removed some VPN clients from the App Store in China at the request of the Chinese Government. Why? That country is largely anti-privacy, and it does not want its citizens bypassing its censorship of the web. If you live in China, the government can decide what you can and can't view online. If you get caught circumventing these controls, the government can harshly punish you. Sad, right? This is why it is imperative that Linux-based privacy-centric open source operating systems such as Tails continue their development -- you never know when it might be needed (including in the USA).

If you aren't familiar with Tails, please know that it is a "Live" Linux distro that focuses on security and privacy. In other words, it can potentially cover your tracks from heavy-handed governments and other entities. Today, Tails achieve a minor point update, making the newest stable version 3.1. While it is hardly monumental from a feature perspective, it is urgent that all users upgrade as some serious vulnerabilities have been patched.