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WhatsApp gives users an ultimatum : Share data with Facebook or stop using the app - 8 janvier 2021
The Facebook-owned messenger with 2 billion users revamps its privacy policy.
WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned messenger that claims to have privacy coded into its DNA, is giving its 2 billion plus users an ultimatum : agree to share their personal data with the social network or delete their accounts.
The (...)
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Facebook’s latest “groups” disaster will only make it more toxic - 6 octobre 2020
Every single time Facebook could improve, it doubles down on causing more harm.
Facebook is pushing yet another set of new features and policies designed to minimize harm in the homestretch to Election Day while also increasing "community" for users. But these features will do nothing to mitigate existing (...)
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Former Facebook manager : “We took a page from Big Tobacco’s playbook” - 27 septembre 2020
"At worst, I fear we are pushing ourselves to the brink of a civil war," he added.
Speaking to Congress today, the former Facebook manager first tasked with making the company make money did not mince words about his role. He told lawmakers that the company "took a page from Big Tobacco’s playbook, working to make (...)
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AT&T’s current 5G is slower than 4G in nearly every city tested by PCMag - 9 septembre 2020
AT&T phones often get just 5MHz of 5G spectrum, slowing them down in speed tests.
AT&T smartphone users who see their network indicators switch from "4G" to "5G" shouldn’t necessarily expect that they’re about to get faster speeds. In PCMag’s annual mobile-network testing, released today, 5G phones connected (...)
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Amazon’s top UK reviewers appear to profit from fake 5-star posts - 5 septembre 2020
Investigation finds suspicious behavior by 9 of top 10 UK contributors on feedback.
Amazon’s top UK reviewers appear to profit from fake 5-star posts
Investigation finds suspicious behavior by 9 of top 10 UK contributors on feedback.
Amazon is investigating the most prolific reviewers on its UK website after a (...)
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Police use of facial recognition violates human rights, UK court rules - 14 août 2020
Use of the tech needs to be narrower to conform to human rights law, court held.
Privacy advocates in the UK are claiming victory as an appeals court ruled today that police use of facial recognition technology in that country has "fundamental deficiencies" and violates several laws.
South Wales Police began (...)
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Uncovered : 1,000 phrases that incorrectly trigger Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant - 2 juillet 2020
“Election” can trigger Alexa ; “Montana” can trigger Cortana.
As Alexa, Google Home, Siri, and other voice assistants have become fixtures in millions of homes, privacy advocates have grown concerned that their near-constant listening to nearby conversations could pose more risk than benefit to users. New research (...)
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Leaked pics from Amazon Ring show potential new surveillance features | Ars Technica - 22 avril 2020
Amazon wouldn’t be the first consumer company to do it, but it would be the biggest.
Amazon subsidiary Ring, which has partnerships with almost 1,200 law enforcement agencies nationwide, does not currently include facial recognition or license plate scanning tools in its home surveillance line of consumer products. (...)
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Alexa and Google Home abused to eavesdrop and phish passwords - 22 octobre 2019
Amazon- and Google-approved apps turned both voice-controlled devices into "smart spies."
By now, the privacy threats posed by Amazon Alexa and Google Home are common knowledge. Workers for both companies routinely listen to audio of users"”recordings of which can be kept forever"”and the sounds the devices capture (...)
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Twenty minutes into the future with OpenAI’s Deep Fake Text AI - 11 mars 2019
In 1985, the TV film Max Headroom : 20 Minutes into the Future presented a science fictional cyberpunk world where an evil media company tried to create an artificial intelligence based on a reporter’s brain to generate content to fill airtime. There were somewhat unintended results. Replace "reporter" with (...)
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Facebook scraped call, text message data for years from Android phones - 27 mars 2018
Maybe check your data archive to see if Facebook’s algorithms know who you called.
Facebook has responded to this and other reports regarding the collection of call and SMS data with a blog post that denies Facebook collected call data surreptitiously. The company also writes that it never sells the data and that (...)
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Site sells Instagram users’ phone and e-mail details, $10 a search - 2 septembre 2017
Leak suggests this week’s Instagram breach was bigger than first thought.
At first glance, the Instagram security bug that was exploited to obtain celebrities’ phone numbers and e-mail addresses appeared to be limited, possibly to a small number of celebrity accounts. Now a database of 10,000 credentials published (...)
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UK police arrest man via automatic face recognition tech - 9 juin 2017
Camera-equipped van in South Wales apparently spotted man whose face was in a database.
Automatic facial recognition (AFR) technology has been used to arrest a man, the South Wales Police told Ars.
While AFR tech has been trialled by a number of UK police forces, this appears to be the first time it has led to (...)
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Facebook helped advertisers target teens who feel "worthless" - 1er mai 2017
Leaked 2017 document reveals FB Australia’s intent to exploit teens’ words, images.
Facebook’s secretive advertising practices became a little more public on Monday thanks to a leak out of the company’s Australian office. This 23-page document, discovered by The Australian (paywall), details in particular how (...)
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Found : Quite possibly the most sophisticated Android espionage app ever - 4 avril 2017
Discovery of Pegasus for Android comes 8 months after similar iOS app was found.
Researchers have uncovered one of the most advanced espionage apps ever written for the Android mobile operating system. They found the app after it had infected a few dozen handsets.
Pegasus for Android is the companion app to (...)
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Baltimore police accused of illegal mobile spectrum use with stingrays - 26 août 2016
Georgetown law prof argues that stingray use violates FCC laws, should be halted.
A law professor has filed a formal legal complaint on behalf of three advocacy organizations, arguing that stingray use by law enforcement agencies nationwide"”and the Baltimore Police Department in particular"”violate Federal (...)
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Runkeeper background tracking leads to complaint from privacy watchdog - 17 mai 2016
"Runkeeper needs to have a good think about how it treats users data and privacy."
FitnessKeeper"”the US-based outfit behind fitness app Runkeeper"”will be hit with a complaint from the Norwegian Consumer Council on Friday morning, after it was found to have breached European data protection law.
The council (...)
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Evangelical university requires Fitbit ownership, data syncing for freshmen - 3 février 2016
Oklahoma’s Oral Roberts University opened in 1965 with a fitness course requirement for its newest incoming freshman and transfer students"”a rarity among American universities. That requirement became even more unique to the evangelical university in January when the school added a technological requirement to the (...)
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Pre-crime arrives in the UK : Better make sure your face stays off the crowdsourced watch list - 18 décembre 2015
You can now be ushered out of a shop, even if you haven’t done anything wrong yet.
As you may know, we’re big fans of CCTV in the UK. At the last count there was around 6 million CCTV cameras in the UK, or about one for every ten people living here. Most of these cameras are passive : they don’t actually do (...)
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Chicago man sues Facebook over facial recognition use in "Tag Suggestions" - 9 avril 2015
Plaintiff claims Facebook violates Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act.
A Chicago man has filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against Facebook, alleging that the social networking giant is in violation of an Illinois state law that requires users to expressly consent to instances where their biometric (...)
