Privacy

Ad blocking has been in the news quite a lot recently, not least because of iOS 9's new support for advertising avoidance. Perhaps the most famous tool in the arena is Adblock Plus. It's something that many people have become reliant on for cleaning up their online experience but Eyeo -- the company behind AdBlock Plus -- has been keen to encourage people to permit the display of some advertising through its Acceptable Ads program.

That companies can pay to bypass Adblock Plus is nothing new, although Adblock Plus insists that most ads that are deemed 'acceptable' are added for free. Today Eyeo announces that it is going to hand over control of the Acceptable Ads program to a completely independent board.

Former NSA contractor cum whistle-blower Edward Snowden is now officially on Twitter. Since blowing the lid on the surveillance activities of the NSA and sparking on-going global debate about privacy, Snowden has been a vocal campaigner for freedom of speech, privacy, and surveillance awareness.

Within hours of joining, Snowden -- who managed to bag the @snowden handle -- had amassed over half a million followers, and the flow shows no signs of abating. After a few hours, Snowden has posted just 7 tweets; but more interestingly he is only following one account.

Additional reliance on social network platforms and social communication channels creates regulatory issues for enterprises.

This means that social media and communications content are becoming an increasingly popular target of opposing counsel in legal issues involving eDiscovery.

Perhaps inspired by the backlash Microsoft has faced over privacy concerns in Windows 10, Apple has published its own privacy policies on a new page that's designed to be easy to read. Written in plain English, the site sets out Apple's position regarding privacy in OS X and iOS. As well as touting the steps to which the company goes to protect its customers' privacy, Apple also uses the documents to trumpet numerous security features.

This is Apple riding the waves of interest concerning privacy, using it as an opportunity to get one over the likes of Microsoft and Google. There are promises of "telling you up front exactly what’s going to happen to your personal information and asking for your permission" as well as the offer that "if you change your mind later, we make it easy to stop sharing with us". Sounds great in theory, but does it stand up to scrutiny?

Yesterday, Microsoft's Terry Myerson defended how the company has handled privacy in Windows 10. The level of concern about privacy in Windows 10 is unprecedented -- it even has some torrent sites spooked --  but my colleague Brian feels that Microsoft has, somehow, earned our trust. He is wrong.

Microsoft has broken the trust of many users, and Myerson's post does little to patch things up. In reality, it is an exercise in public relations, spin, and misdirection. It also raises more questions than it answers. In particular, it highlights the obnoxious disregard Microsoft appears to have for home users.

Windows 10 is the best operating system to ever come from Microsoft. I have single-handedly installed it on many computers for myself, friends and family. I have no trepidation about using it or recommending it. With that said, I understand both consumers and pundits criticizing Microsoft over privacy setting in the newest Windows.

Can these settings be confusing for the average person? Absolutely. Should people blindly trust Microsoft? No, not blindly, but based on the company's track record, it has certainly done enough to earn our trust. If you are using a company's operating system, you have to have some level of faith in that company -- otherwise you should disconnect from the Internet or give up on computers altogether. Today, Terry Myerson, Microsoft's Executive Vice President of the Windows and Devices Group, attempts to quell privacy fears regarding Windows 10. You know what? His explanation seems honest and sincere.

With all of the talk about the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, and the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+, it's easy to forget that there are some genuine alternatives out there. One such smartphone is the Blackphone from the privacy-centric Silent Circle. The original Blackphone caused great excitement, and now the Blackphone 2 is available.

This is a phone that has been built from the ground up with security and privacy in mind. While the Blackphone 2 will appeal to anyone who is concerned about privacy, this time around there is a greater push to appeal to businesses and enterprise, including joining Google's Android for Work program. In terms of specs, opting for the most secure handset on the market does not mean making compromises: this phone is a beast.

There have been countless stories about the activities of the NSA and the revelations by Edward Snowden continue. A new batch of documents leaked by the former NSA contractor show that GCHQ ran a program called Karma Police that was used to "build a web-browsing profile for every visible user on the internet".

If that sounds a little sinister, that's because it is. You would think that we might have become hardened to this sort of thing, but it is still comes as a slight surprise to learn of the extent of surveillance that has been taking place. The UK government has been building profiles of web users around the world based on their browsing histories (news, porn, social networking, and so on), monitoring email and Skype communication and more for the last seven years.

Belgian Privacy Commission (BPC) said during a court hearing earlier this week that Facebook is spying on its users in Europe. The American social media company is allegedly violating privacy laws, monitors information of non-users and logged-out users, all for the purpose of placing ads, IB Times just wrote in a report.

This is a developing story which started in April this year, when the Centre of Interdisciplinary Law and ICT at the University of Leuven in Belgium claimed the social network’s privacy policy violates European Union laws.

Here’s a plot twist: despite everything that’s been going on with governments spying on other governments and people, despite countries looking to ban encrypted communications apps and generally fighting against encrypted communications, people still trust the government with their data more than private service providers.

Those are the results of a survey made by secure Swiss-based data center provider Artmotion. It surveyed more than 1000 citizens in the US, Europe, Russia and Australia.

Government snooping into online activity is something that has long appalled privacy groups around the world. In something of a victory for those concerned about privacy and government meddling, the US Senate has killed plans that would have required social networks to tell the government about any users talking about terrorism-related topics.

The change of heart is a win not only for social network users, but also the social networks themselves who will no longer be required to police content more than they already do. The policy had been criticized for being vague, placing undue pressure on companies, and limiting freedom of speech.

The Indian government has performed a U-turn on a proposed encryption policy. Draft papers showed that the plan was to require people to store non-encryption versions of any data they have encrypted.

The draft policy was an all-encompassing one, and this led to a vocal backlash from users of social networks and messaging tools. The Indian government was forced to backtrack somewhat, making it clear that social media would be exempt and indicating that there is still a great deal of work to be done on the policy.

One person's spam is another's feast, depending on who is giver or receiver. That's one way to read new capabilities coming to Gmail on Android and the web. The first, available starting today on PCs and arriving on Android devices over the next week, lets users block designated email addresses. Google describes "block", but the feature is more of an easy-and-quick filter that dumps unfriendly senders into the spam folder.

For either platform, you click the dropdown options menu to the right of the email address, and block appears as an option. Unsubscribe already is available from personal computers but is new to Android. For example, in the desktop browser, marking listserver messages as spam solicits the user to unsubscribe. The feature also will roll out over the next week to Android. 

France has rejected an appeal from Google about last year's Right to Be Forgotten ruling. A previous ruling said that when Google received requests from European citizens to remove search results linking to stories deemed "inadequate, irrelevant, or no longer relevant", the removals should be applied worldwide.

Google disagreed, saying that removals should be limited to country-specific Google domains like Google.co.uk and Google.fr, leading to the appeal. But the president of the Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés, Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, said that rather than amounting to censorship, imposing global removals would help to prevent circumventions of the ruling.

Windows 10 is a wonderful operating system. Every day, I boot a computer running Microsoft's latest operating system to get work done. On the surface, everything is peachy-keen. Sadly, under the hood, there are some legitimate privacy concerns. There is a bunch of information being sent to Microsoft, and you may not even know it. This has caused programs like the wonderful O&O ShutUp10 to be created.

Luckily, Windows is not the only game in town, folks. Actually, there are many wonderful operating systems available to you at no charge. Unlike Windows 10, where it is only free with a prior licence, most Linux-based operating systems are entirely free. Period. If you want to try one of these open-source operating systems, you may be confused as to where to start. Don't worry, I am here to help. Here are the distributions and software you should use.