FBI issues a warning to parents about the privacy and safety of internet-connected smart toys
The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has issued a PSA warning about the potential dangers of smart toys. The bureau encourages parents to consider cyber security before bringing internet-connect toys into the home because they could risk the privacy and safety of children.
The announcement warns of the potential for personal information to be gathered through such toys. The presence of sensors, microphones, cameras, data storage components, speech recognition and GPS, coupled with cloud storage of data, is cited as cause for concern, and parents are urged to check privacy agreements.
Appeal court rules FBI national security letter gagging orders should remain in place
Anyone subject to secret surveillance by the FBI through access to their private data remains unentitled to be told about the related national security letters (NSLs). The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that existing gagging orders that prevent companies from advising people about NSLs relating to them do not violate the First Amendment.
A case had been brought to court by the Electronic Frontier Foundation on behalf of Cloudfare and CREDO Mobile that challenged the legitimacy of the gagging orders. EFF won its case back in 2013, but subsequent changes to the law, coupled with the appeal court ruling, means that companies are still unable to inform customers about the existence of national security letters relating to their accounts.
Chill your boots! Ads in the HTC TouchPal keyboard was just a little weekend SNAFU
Over the weekend, distress rippled around the HTC community as advertisements suddenly appeared in the TouchPal keyboard. The keyboard is installed as the default on many of HTC's Android phones, including the HTC 10, and users took to social media to voice their unhappiness and concerns about privacy.
Despite the ire directed at the Taiwanese company, HTC is not directly responsible for the keyboard, or the update that pushed ads onto people. Rather, the developer issued an update resulting in the SNAFU that upset so many people.
EFF's latest privacy report criticizes Amazon and WhatsApp over policies that 'fall short'
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has published the latest edition of its "Who has your back" privacy report. This is the seventh report from the digital rights group, and this year it criticizes both WhatsApp and Amazon for having policies that "fall short of other similar technology companies."
Four big telecom companies -- AT&T, Comcast, T-Mobile, and Verizon -- performed very poorly, while at the other end of the scale Adobe, Credo, Dropbox, Lyft, Pinterest, Sonic, Uber, Wickr, and WordPress were all praised. In all, the report rates 26 technology companies in five key areas relating to privacy and government data requests: "Follows industry-wide best practices," "Tells users about government data requests," "Promises not to sell out users," "Stands up to NSL gag orders" and "Pro-user public policy: Reform 702."
Judge says Twitter can proceed with lawsuit to increase transparency about government surveillance
Transparency reports about government data requests have become very common from tech companies such as Facebook, Twitter and Google. But while these firms publish reports, their hands are tied when it comes to what they can reveal. Twitter wants to change that.
A federal judge in California ruled in Twitter's favour, dismissing the US government's claim that revealing precise numbers of data requests represented a "clear and present danger." The ruling against the government doesn't change anything in the short term, but it is still an important victory for freedom of speech.
Schools warn that Snapchat's Snap Map could be used to track children
The location-sharing Snap Map feature of SnapChat is leading schools to warn parents about the potential risks of the popular app. The feature allows users to share their location on a map with friends and it's been around for a couple of weeks now.
While many users are happy to be able to see where their friends are, others are concerned about potential privacy issues. Some schools have written to parents warnings that the app could be used to track their children and raises "serious safeguarding concerns." But while there are concerns about the safety of Snap Map, there are numerous mitigating factors to consider. So what's all the fuss about?
Facebook privacy: judge dismisses case surrounding tracking of logged out users
A privacy case against Facebook has been thrown out of court by a judge in the US District Court, Northern District of California. The case surrounded Facebook's tracking of users via Like buttons on other sites even when they were not logged into their accounts.
Plaintiffs said that Facebook violated wiretapping and privacy laws, but District Judge Edward Davila ruled that there was no evidence that the social network had illegally "intercepted" communications. She said that plaintiffs had failed to show "realistic" economic harm or loss, adding that they could have taken steps to maintain the privacy of their browsing histories.
Sharing of patient data between Royal Free hospital and Google DeepMind breached Data Protection Act
A partnership between London's Royal Free hospital and DeepMind resulted in a breach of the Data Protection Act, an investigation by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has concluded.
The personal data of more than 1.6 million patients was transferred to the Google subsidiary as part of the creation of Streams, an app to diagnose and detect acute kidney injury. The ICO found that patients were not properly informed about how their data would be used, and highlighted a "number of shortcomings" in the way data was handled.
France drops Windows 10 privacy case after Microsoft changes telemetry settings
There have been lots of complaints about invasion of privacy since the release of Windows 10. Microsoft's telemetry lead to several lawsuits, including one from France's National Data Protection Commission which said Windows 10 was collecting "excessive personal data" about users.
But now the Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL) has decided to drop its case against Microsoft. The commission is happy that sufficient steps have been taken to reduce the amount of data that is collected and users are now informed about data collection.
Cloud-based governance solution identifies breaches in real time
All organizations have valuable data which they need to protect, but as their digital footprint gets larger it becomes harder to keep track of and guard all their information.
Content collaboration and governance specialist Egnyte is launching a cloud-based governance solution, Egnyte Protect to provide real-time analysis of all content within an organization and deliver insights to help administrators prevent potential data breaches.
Find and control Windows 10 privacy settings with WPD
WPD is a freeware tool for exploring, understanding and tweaking Windows 10 privacy settings. We’ve seen many of these -- we’ll bet you have, too -- but the program does have some unusual extras which help it stand out from the crowd.
The interface is up-to-date, for instance. The developer hasn’t got it right in every area, but the program does look like it was written for Windows 10.
Google will now hide personal medical records from search results
Google has updated its search policies without any sort of fanfare. The search engine now "may remove" -- in addition to existing categories of information -- "confidential, personal medical records of private people" from search results.
That such information was not already obscured from search results may well come as something of a surprise to many people. The change -- first reported by Bloomberg -- has been confirmed by Google, although the company has not issued any form of announcement about it.
ProtonVPN is a free VPN service that's now available to everyone
ProtonMail has opened up its free VPN service to anyone who wants to use it. ProtonVPN was previously only available to a limited number of beta testers, but now everyone can secure their internet connection for free.
The company is best known for its encrypted email service, but the prospect of a free VPN tool will also be enticing to anyone who has concerns about privacy. It also provides a free way of bypassing internet restrictions that may be put in place by governments or ISPs.
Mozilla launches Firefox Focus, a privacy-focused web browser for Android
Late last year Mozilla launched a private browser for iOS called Firefox Focus. Now the browser arrives on Android bringing the same privacy-focused internet experience to users of Google's mobile operating system.
When Mozilla talks about being privacy-focused, it does not just mean using Private Browsing. Firefox Focus is a completely separate browser which blocks trackers, analytics and ads, and also wipes your browsing history with a single tap. As well as improving privacy, Focus also speeds up web browsing and reduces data usage.
Is your business GDPR-compliant? This free tool will let you know
Time is running out to ensure that your organization is prepared for the upcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and with less than a year to go now is the time to take action.
In order to help organizations prepare for GDPR, the data governance firm DQM GRC has released a free online GDPR Self-Assessment Tool that provides insight into a company's compliance levels compared to the new regulation and offers practical advice on how they can overcome their biggest challenges.
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