Articles about Privacy

Professional social network LinkedIn is suing 100 anonymous individuals for data scraping. It is hoped that a court order will be able to reveal the identities of those responsible for using bots to harvest user data from the site.

The Microsoft-owned service takes pride in the relationship it has with its users and the security it offers their data. Its lawsuit seeks to use the data scrapers' IP addresses and then discover their true identity in order to take action against them.

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The EU is looking to exert greater control over online messaging tools such as WhatsApp and Skype. Documents seen by the Financial Times suggest that Brussels wants to treat such services more like traditional telecoms companies.

The proposals come amid mounting privacy concerns about data handling, particularly the "security and confidentiality provisions" from companies like Microsoft and Facebook.

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Following on from Facebook's decision to override users' ad blocking tools, Adblock Plus has fired one more shot, saying that it will continue the fight for the right to an ad-free social networking experience.

After finding a way to prevent Facebook blocking ads, which Facebook then bypassed once again, Adblock Plus says that while the game of cat and mouse may continue, it wants to use what it describes as "probably be the last time we talk about it for a while" to say that the open source community will fight the good fight for users.

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Facebook's announcement that it would start to punch through ad blockers to make sure everyone sees ads was met with understandable condemnation and consternation. One of the best known ad blockers, Adblock Plus, soundly criticized the move, saying that it was an example of 'cat-and-mouse games'.

And so it begins. Facebook may have said that it will circumvent ad blocking tools, but now ad blockers are fighting back. The open source community has worked is magic and come up with code that circumvents Facebook's circumvention. How meta...

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Child pornography is something that, understandably, raises hackles and many people would argue that anything possible should be done to pursue those believed to be involved. But a court in the District of Kansas has ruled that the discovery of images of child porn is not enough to justify warrantless email searches by agents.

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that email attachment images obtained by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) should be dismissed as evidence as they were gathered via what was deemed to be a warrantless search.

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Facebook's plans to show adverts to everyone regardless of whether they are using an ad blocker was always going to prove controversial. The decision to bypass the privacy and security tools that many people have put in place has riled one company in particular -- Adblock Plus.

Describing the social network's latest move as being 'all anti-user', Adblock Plus's Ben Williams says that it is an 'unfortunate move' that 'takes a dark path against user choice'. He goes on to pooh-pooh the idea that Facebook made the decision based on what users want.

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Advertising on Facebook has undergone many changes over the years, but the latest tweak is likely to prove particularly controversial. As well as announcing the rollout of new controls for users to set ad preferences, the social network today says that its ads will circumvent ad blocking software.

The idea of bypassing the likes of Adblock Plus will almost certainly rub many Facebook users the wrong way. In an attempt to sweeten the pill a little, the company says its new ad preferences controls will enable you to filter out irrelevant ads so you only see ads that might be of interest.

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Time is relentless. The GDPR is moving ever closer, while at the same time apps aren’t. And that’s a huge problem for businesses, because if apps are not GDPR-compliant, they’re not GDPR complaint. That can mean huge fines, possibly even the end of businesses.

The fact that apps are far away from being GDPR compliant came as a result of a new and extensive study by Blue Coat Labs. The company analyzed more than 15,000 enterprise cloud applications in use and 108 million enterprise documents stored and shared within them.

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If you've upgraded to Windows 10 Anniversary Update, you only have 10 days in which to roll back to your previous operating system if you change your mind. This is a dramatic reduction from the 30 days Microsoft allowed users previously.

As noted by Richard Hay on WinSuperSite, the latest big update to Windows 10 slashes this period by two thirds. This is not just an arbitrary change, however. Microsoft says it is based on data gathered via telemetry.

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The dating app Tinder is facing criticism from Europe where lawmakers believe it breaches EU data protection rules. There are calls for the app to be investigated by the European Commission over how it makes use of personal data.

Concerns spring from the fact that Tinder's terms are written in such a way that owner Match Group Inc can continue to use user data even when accounts are closed. It is alleged that these "abusive clauses" are unlawful.

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Concerns over Windows 10 and the amount of data it collects via the Windows Store could prompt users to switch to Mac according to a new survey.

The study conducted by OnePoll on behalf of security and privacy advice and comparison website Comparitech.com finds that 61 percent of the US public who regularly use Windows would at least consider switching to Mac.

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On August 2, coinciding with the launch of Windows 10 Anniversary Update, Microsoft is updating its Privacy Statement. The company is a little light on the details of exactly what the changes are, but says that more will be revealed on the big day. The aim of the changes, as with previous updates is to "eliminate redundancies, improve usability and increase clarity and transparency".

Microsoft makes clear that it is in the habit of sharing user data with others "in certain cases" and it also announces that the Services Agreement will be updated on September 15. You are advised that if you don’t agree with the changes you should "discontinue using the products and services, and close your Microsoft account before these terms become effective".

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Who doesn't love a good AI-driven keyboard, eh? Well, people who have discovered that the keyboard is sending their email address and phone number to strangers, for starters. And that seems to be precisely what's happening with SwiftKey.

The Microsoft-owned company has disabled the syncing of data between devices after users complained not only about the appearance of unknown email addresses and phone numbers in suggestions, but also suggestions in unknown foreign languages. The problem became apparent when users who saw the random email address suggestions contacted the owner of the address.

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A security researcher is warning WhatsApp users that their chats can be retrieved even after they have been deleted, cleared, or archived. Jonathan Zdziarski says that even using the 'Clear All Chats' option leaves behind a 'forensic trace'.

He warns that the only way to be certain that your chat history is deleted, is to get rid of the app entirely. The problem appears to stem from WhatsApp's use of SQLite which fails to overwrite deleted data by default, rendering it recoverable.

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O2 customer data has been found available for sale on the dark web, most likely as a result of a hack that occurred several years ago.

The gaming website XSplit was hacked three years ago and those responsible for the hack were able to obtain usernames and passwords from the site. Through the process of credential stuffing, in which account credentials acquired through a hack are tested on multiple websites, the hackers were able to gain access and log into O2 accounts.

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