Tag Archives: privacy

Facebook Rolls Out Tool To Block Data Gathering

The Associated Press reports: Soon, you could get fewer familiar ads following you around the internet — or at least on Facebook. Facebook is launching a long-promised tool that lets you limit what the social network can gather about you on outside websites and apps. The company said Tuesday that it is adding a section where you can see the …

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Facebook Transcribed Audio Chats Without Permission

TechCrunch reports: “The future is private.” Clearly, Facebook still has a way to go. Facebook has become the latest tech giant to face scrutiny over its handling of users’ data, following a report that said the social media giant collected audio data and recordings from its users and transcribed it using third-party contractors. The report came from Bloomberg, citing the …

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Court Advances $35B Privacy Suit Against Facebook

Courthouse News reports: Rejecting arguments that Facebook users suffered no “concrete harm” by having their facial data mapped and stored, the Ninth Circuit advanced a $35 billion class action against the social media giant Thursday. Facebook sought to swat down the lawsuit last year after U.S. District Judge James Donato ordered it to alert users about an upcoming trial on …

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Facebook Settles Federal Privacy Probe For $5 Billion

The Verge reports: The Federal Trade Commission formally announced its $5 billion settlement with Facebook on Wednesday morning, which is the culmination of a years-long investigation into the Cambridge Analytica scandal and other privacy breaches. In the agreement filed today, the FTC alleges that Facebook violated the law by failing to protect data from third parties, serving ads through the …

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Amazon Offer: $10 If You Let Us Track Your Browsing

Reuters reports: Amazon.com Inc has a promotion for U.S. shoppers on Prime Day, the 48-hour marketing blitz that started Monday: Earn $10 of credit if you let Amazon track the websites you visit. The deal is for new installations of the Amazon Assistant, a comparison-shopping tool that customers can add to their web browsers. It fetches Amazon’s price for products …

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Facebook Reaches $5B Privacy Settlement With FTC

The Verge reports: Facebook has reportedly reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over repeated privacy violations, The Wall Street Journal reports. According to the Journal, the FTC voted this week to approve a $5 billion settlement, which has now moved to the Justice Department’s civil division for review. It is unclear how long the review will take. The …

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Feds Target Facebook Data Deals In Criminal Probe

The New York Times reports: Federal prosecutors are conducting a criminal investigation into data deals Facebook struck with some of the world’s largest technology companies, intensifying scrutiny of the social media giant’s business practices as it seeks to rebound from a year of scandal and setbacks. A grand jury in New York has subpoenaed records from at least two prominent …

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Zuckerberg Vows “Privacy-Focused” Future At Facebook

CNBC reports: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday posted a 3,000 word note outlining a more “privacy-focused” future for the tech company, saying that communications platforms that protect privacy will “become even more important than today’s open platforms.” “I believe the future of communication will increasingly shift to private, encrypted services where people can be confident what they say to …

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Tik Tok App To Pay Record $5.7M Child Privacy Fine

Wired reports: When the lip-syncing app Musical.ly first exploded in popularity nearly four years ago, it was best known for being a teen sensation. But according to the Federal Trade Commission, the app also illegally collected information from children under the age of 13. The agency announced Wednesday that Musical.ly, now known as TikTok, has agreed to pay a $5.7 …

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Facebook To Reveal Who Targeted You For Advertising

TechCrunch reports: Starting February 28th, Facebook’s “Why am I seeing this?” button in the drop-down menu of feed posts will reveal more than the brand that paid for the ad, some biographical details they targeted and if they’d uploaded your contact info. Facebook will start to show when your contact info was uploaded, if it was by the brand or …

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Apple Disables FaceTime Over Eavesdropping Bug

Business Insider reports: Apple temporarily disabled group FaceTime calls after it was alerted to a major bug, which allows iPhone or iPad users to secretly hear what someone is saying before they answer the call. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was among those advising people to disable FaceTime until Apple releases a fix, which it said could be as early as …

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Google Battles “Right To Be Forgotten” In EU Court

Bloomberg reports: Google’s battle against French proponents of a worldwide “right to be forgotten” enters a decisive phase at the European Union’s top court on Thursday, in a case that highlights the growing tensions between privacy, freedom of speech and state censorship. Ahead of a ruling later this year, an adviser at the EU Court of Justice will on Jan. …

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DC Sues Facebook Over Cambridge Analytica

CNBC reports: The Washington D.C. attorney general said Wednesday it will sue Facebook over the Cambridge Analytica scandal on Wednesday. D.C. prosecutors said in the lawsuit that Facebook misled users in violation of the District’s Consumer Protection Procedures Act by allowing them to download an app produced by Cambridge Analytica which then improperly collected private information from the users without …

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Facebook Gave Third Parties Ability To Read Your Emails

The New York Times reports: For years, Facebook gave some of the world’s largest technology companies more intrusive access to users’ personal data than it has disclosed, effectively exempting those business partners from its usual privacy rules, according to internal records and interviews. The special arrangements are detailed in hundreds of pages of Facebook documents obtained by The New York …

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Facebook Reveals Yet Another Privacy Breach

CBS News reports: Facebook said Friday that a security glitch may have let third-party apps access the private photos of as many as 6.8 million users, the latest example of the social-media company failing to protect people’s online content. The incident, which took place during a 12-day period in September, included images never fully uploaded to the platform and those …

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LIVE VIDEO: Google CEO Testifies On User Privacy, GOP Chairman Opens With Claims Of Anti-Conservative Bias

Mediaite reports: In recent months, Silicon Valley’s major players have visited Congress for various hearings on matters related to data gathering. Tuesday, it’s Google CEO Sundar Pichai‘s turn in the hot seat. The Google chief sits before the House Judiciary Committee to offer testimony for a hearing titled: “Transparency and Accountability: Examining Google and its Data Collection, Use and Filtering …

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BRITAIN: Companies Plan To Microchip Employees

The Telegraph reports: British companies are planning to microchip some of their staff in order to boost security and stop them accessing sensitive areas. Biohax, a Swedish company that provides human chip implants, told the Telegraph it was in talks with a number of UK legal and financial firms to implant staff with the devices. One prospective client, which cannot …

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Apple Will Now Let You See All Their Data On You

TechCrunch reports: Apple has refreshed and expanded its privacy website, a month after its most recent iPhone and Mac launches. You’re not going to see much change from previous years — the privacy pages still state the same commitments that Apple’s long held, like that privacy is a “fundamental human right” and that your information is largely on your iPhones, …

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Google+ To Shut Down After Privacy Bug [VIDEO]

The Wall Street Journal reports: Google exposed the private data of hundreds of thousands of users of the Google+ social network and then opted not to disclose the issue this past spring, in part because of fears that doing so would draw regulatory scrutiny and cause reputational damage, according to people briefed on the incident and documents reviewed by The …

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Tim Cook Calls For More Privacy Regulations [VIDEO]

Business Insider reports: The amount of information about individual users stored online and on their phones is enormous, Cook said in an interview with Vice News Tonight on Tuesday. The tech industry hasn’t done a good job of respecting and protecting that data, he said. “I’m not a pro-regulation kind of person, I believe in the free market deeply,” Cook …

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