Adblock Plus introduces new platform to increase Acceptable Ads’ transparency
It has been difficult to ignore the issue of online ads recently. Facebook’s approach to ads has been in the news in particular, but the battle between advertisers and ad blockers is one that has rumbled on for some time -- and looks set to continue to do so. At the forefront of ad blocking is Adblock Plus, and the company has just announced a new ad platform that aims to deliver ads that will not irritate internet users too much.
Acceptable Ads is an idea that has been bounced around for a while now, but today it has been relaunched as a completely new platform -- the Acceptable Ads Platform, funnily enough. It has two primary directives: to increase the transparency of Acceptable Ads, and to provide website creators with easy access to a database of pre-whitelisted ads that they can use to monetize their sites.
Employees sue Seagate over HR department's private data leak
After falling victim to a phishing scam in March, Seagate is now being sued by its own employees whose sensitive data was exposed in the leak.
The company's HR department was tricked into providing the operators of the phishing scheme with the personally identifiable information (PII) of 10,000 past and current employees and W-2 forms that include their Social Security numbers along with their wage, salary and tax information.
Microsoft opens UK datacenters for Office 365 and Azure
Microsoft has announced that local datacenters are now available in the UK to Office 365 and Azure customers. This enables companies dealing with UK-only customers to ensure that data remains within the country and fully complies with data protection and privacy laws.
Describing itself as the "first global cloud productivity provider" to offer UK residency for data, Microsoft says Azure and Office 365 are now generally available from multiple data center locations in the UK. It has already attracted the custom of the Ministry of Defence.
Microsoft gains support from Mozilla, EFF, Google and Apple in fight against US gagging orders
Microsoft is fighting the US Justice Department in an attempt to quash a law that prevents companies informing customers that the government is requesting their data. The technology giant has the backing of other tech companies as well as media outlets.
Amazon, Apple, Google, Fox News, Electronic Frontier Foundation and Mozilla are among those offering their support to Microsoft. The lawsuit says that blocking companies from keeping their customers informed is unconstitutional, and it comes at a time when tech companies in particular are keen to be as open and transparent as possible about government requests for data.
Now you need to buy a TV licence to watch BBC iPlayer, and privacy advocates are concerned
As of today, Thursday 1 September, if you stream any content from BBC iPlayer without owning a TV licence, you are breaking the law. But as with licences for televisions, it's not clear how -- or, indeed, if -- the BBC will be checking to see whether watchers have paid up or not.
If you fire up BBC iPlayer now, you'll be greeted by a nag screen that asks: "Got a TV licence? You need one to watch any BBC programme on iPlayer -- live, catch-up or on-demand. It's the law". Viewers need to click to indicate whether or not they have a licence, and of course there is nothing to stop people from lying. What is not known, though, is whether privacy-invading snooping will be used to perform licence checks.
Your personal data is worth less than $1
There's a new calculator online which will tell you exactly how much your digital data is worth. This tool, created by Totally Money, asks you to name the price for 13 different data types, including email address, health condition, or credit rating. After giving your price, the calculator then tells you the real price.
The whole project was basically designed to show people just how easy and cheap it is for companies to buy your personal data. Following the release of the calculator, the company also did a survey of 1,000 UK adult consumers. Forty percent of Facebook users, for example, didn’t know the social media giant sold their data to third parties.
Iran starts to roll out its own 'domestic internet'
Iran, much like China, is not a country that has the best reputation when it comes to granting citizens unfettered access to the internet. Now, a new initiative is underway, which sees the roll out of its own 'domestic internet', dubbed the National Information Network.
The country is rolling out its own national internet in a bid to provide affordable internet access to people, but there are concerns that there will be severe limits placed on online activity. Iran already blocks access to the likes of Facebook and Twitter, and a government-controlled internet, it is feared, could lead to a further erosion of privacy and individual control.
Opera sync servers hacked, usernames and passwords at risk
Opera Software is advising all users of the sync feature of its Opera browser to change their passwords following a security breach. Details are a little scant at the moment, but the company says that servers were breached earlier in the week and user data may have been compromised.
Opera Sync is used to synchronize user data between different computers but it is apparently used by under "0.5% of the total Opera user base". However, with a user base of 350 million this means that upwards of 1.7 million people could be affected.
Information Commissioner to investigate data sharing between WhatsApp and Facebook
WhatsApp's plans to share user data with Facebook are to be investigated by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) in the UK. The change in privacy policy goes against a previous public commitment not to share data in this way.
The ICO has the power to regulate how companies make use of data belonging to people located in the UK, even if the companies themselves are located elsewhere. A key concern is whether there will be compliance with data protection laws.
WhatsApp's new privacy policy reveals it will share data with Facebook for targeted user ads
The ever-popular messaging tool WhatsApp is to start sharing more user data with its parent company Facebook. The updated privacy policy means that WhatsApp will now share users' phone numbers with Facebook to "offer better friend suggestions and show you more relevant ads".
The updated policy also communicates the fact that end-to-end encryption has rolled out, but it is the privacy side of things that will be of greater interest to many people.
Privacy-flouting, Apple-only social app Lifestage is Facebook's desperate attempt to stay relevant to teens
Facebook has become so ubiquitous that even your mum is using it. This is just one of the many reasons the social networking giant has lost any vestiges of coolness, but the company is keen to try to claw some back.
The latest attempt to get down with the kids is a new social app called Lifestage. Aimed at 'high schoolers' the app is available for iPhone and iPad and for those with a profile it "makes it easy and fun to share a visual profile of who you are with your school network". It looks and sounds godawful, and comes across as a privacy nightmare.
Mass surveillance by UK government is acceptable but there are privacy concerns, says review
A review into mass surveillance and bulk data collection by the UK government has concluded that there is a strong case for allowing such activity. The privacy-invading activities of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ were the subject of a report by independent reviewer David Anderson QC, and the findings have been welcome by prime minister Theresa May.
The report is likely to concern privacy advocates, particularly when Anderson goes on to say that he agrees 'in principle' that there could be cases for hacking phones and computers. It gives heavyweight backing to the controversial Investigatory Powers bill (snooper's charter).
Twitch is exposing your activity by default -- here's how to fix the privacy issue
As someone that grew up playing video games in the 1980s, I am rather intrigued by the current trend in watching other people play. It is not so different from when I was a kid actually -- upwards of ten children from the neighborhood would all gather around one NES waiting for their turn to play. If you think about it, we probably spent more time watching others playing than doing so ourselves.
One of the most popular video game streaming platforms is Twitch. There are countless folks broadcasting themselves playing games, and even more spectating. The service has introduced a new feature that some folks might not like. By default, it will expose your activity on friend lists. Don't like that? Luckily, there is a fix.
Security researcher accuses Microsoft of 'sneaky data mining' in Windows 10
Ah, you can never get enough paranoia nowadays, can you? Security researcher Mike Patterson -- founder and CEO of security analytics organization Plixer -- says Microsoft's Windows 10 sends encrypted data from your machine every five minutes, and there’s basically very little you can do to stop it.
Even when he opted out of everything he could find, regarding data transfer, the OS still continued to do it. The weirdest part about it is that you can’t really determine what is being sent. The content was encrypted so that it is impossible to know what’s going out, essentially hiding this information from the end-user.
EFF rips into Microsoft and Windows 10 for 'blatantly disregarding user choice and privacy'
Two months ago, we reported on a Change.org petition that had been set up to persuade the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) to investigate Microsoft for "malicious practices regarding Windows 10".
That petition picked up close to 6,000 signatures, and today the EFF responds with a deep dive into Microsoft’s sneaky tactics and Windows 10’s spying, and its take on things is pretty damning. According to the EFF, Microsoft’s strategy for user adoption has "trampled on essential aspects of modern computing: user choice and privacy" and, naturally, the privacy-focused organization thinks that’s wrong.
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