Tag Archives: privacy

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 …

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. …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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, …

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 …

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 …

Pew Research reports: Significant shares of Facebook users have taken steps in the past year to reframe their relationship with the social media platform. 42% of Facebook users have taken a break from the site in the past year. Just over half of Facebook users ages 18 and older (54%) say they have adjusted their privacy settings in the past …

Courthouse News reports: Despite its promise to stop scanning emails for advertising purposes, Google let outside developers access and read millions of users’ private emails without consent, an Ohio man claims in a new class action. Lead plaintiff James Coyne, of Ohio, sued the technology giant in federal court Friday night, seeking damages and injunction to stop the Alphabet-owned company …

CNET reports: The US Supreme Court has ruled in favor of digital privacy. In a 5-4 decision on Friday the justices decided that police need warrants to gather phone location data as evidence for trials. The Supreme Court reversed and remanded the Sixth Circuit court’s decision. Carpenter v. United States is the first case about phone location data that the …

From Facebook’s corporate blog: The investigation process is in full swing, and it has two phases. First, a comprehensive review to identify every app that had access to this amount of Facebook data. And second, where we have concerns, we will conduct interviews, make requests for information (RFI) — which ask a series of detailed questions about the app and …

Reuters reports: Facebook Inc is entering the dating game, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said on Tuesday, planning a dating service to matchmake millions of people on the world’s largest online social network and nudge them into spending more time there. The service, which Facebook had considered offering for over a decade and will launch soon, could help rebuild its popularity …

The Verge reports: The world’s most popular email service is getting a big overhaul today. Google is making official the changes we saw leaked earlier this month, with email snoozing, nudging, and confidential mode making their debut alongside a substantial visual redesign for Gmail on the web. The new Gmail begins a global phased rollout today, which is to say …

USA Today reports: Mark Zuckerberg says his data was exposed in the Cambridge Analytica leak. The Facebook CEO made the admission during questioning on Capitol Hill Wednesday. The hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee was his second appearance before lawmakers in as many days. He took questions on privacy practices, foreign interference in U.S. elections and whether Facebook …

CNBC reports: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified to a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees Tuesday that Facebook is cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. “I know we are working with them,” Zuckerberg said during the hearing. When asked by Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont about Facebook’s involvement with Mueller’s investigation, Zuckerberg confirmed the cooperation but …

CNBC reports: Mark Zuckerberg is testifying at a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees Tuesday, in the first of two congressional hearings for the Facebook founder and CEO. The company is facing questions following reports that research firm Cambridge Analytica improperly gained access to the personal data of as many as 87 million Facebook users. Zuckerberg is …

The Hill reports: Facebook on Tuesday officially launched a program to reward users for reporting “data abuse” on its platform. The move comes as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg prepares to testify before lawmakers on Capitol Hill amid scrutiny over the controversy surrounding Cambridge Analytica, a data firm that Facebook says improperly obtained data on potentially 87 million of its users. …