Tag Archives: privacy

Survey: 74% Have Curtailed Facebook Use In 2018

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 …

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Google Sued Over Third Party Access To Emails

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 …

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SCOTUS Rules Cops Need Warrant For Phone GPS

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 …

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Facebook Suspends 200 Apps For “Misusing Data”

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 …

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Zuckerberg: Facebook Will Launch A Dating Service

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 …

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Gmail Launches First Major Update In Years [VIDEO]

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 …

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Zuckerberg: Cambridge Analytica Got My Own Data Too

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 …

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Zuckerberg: We’re Working With Mueller [VIDEO]

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 …

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LIVE VIDEO: Zuckerberg Testifies Before Congress

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 …

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Facebook Rolls Out Data Abuse Bounty Program

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. …

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Mark Zuckerberg Apologies For Data Scandal: I Started Facebook, I Run It, I’m Responsible For What Happens

Slate reports: The House Energy and Commerce Committee released Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s prepared introductory remarks on Monday. Zuckerberg is expected to testify before the committee on Wednesday. He will also appear before the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees on Tuesday. Zuckerberg expresses regret for both the Russian interference and the Cambridge Analytica scandal at the beginning of his testimony: …

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Apple Co-Founder Ditches Facebook Over Data Scandal

The Associated Press reports: Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is shutting down his Facebook account as the social media giant struggles to cope with the worst privacy crisis in its history. In an email to USA Today, Wozniak says Facebook makes a lot of advertising money from personal details provided by users. He says the “profits are all based on the …

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Facebook Pauses Data Exchange With Hospitals

CNBC reports: Facebook has asked several major U.S. hospitals to share anonymized data about their patients, such as illnesses and prescription info, for a proposed research project. Facebook was intending to match it up with user data it had collected, and help the hospitals figure out which patients might need special care or treatment. The proposal never went past the …

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Facebook: 87M Users Exposed In Data Privacy Scandal

The Associated Press reports: Facebook revealed Wednesday that tens of millions more people might have been exposed in the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal than previously thought and said it will restrict the user data that outsiders can access. Those developments came as congressional officials said CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify next week, while Facebook unveiled a new privacy policy that …

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Facebook To Update TOS For First Time In Years

Digital Chew reports: On Wednesday, Facebook announced they will be updating their terms of service to clarify what it does with user’s social media information. The changes to the TOS are in response to major business shakeups to Facebook’s business since the last time the company implemented major changes in 2015. This news comes after the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal. However, …

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Grindr Exec: We’ve Stopped Sharing Users’ HIV Status

Axios reports: Grindr has stopped sharing users’ HIV status with its third-party vendors, the company’s head of security told Axios. However, much of the concerns with Grindr’s data-sharing practices were a misunderstanding of what was being shared and with whom, says Grindr security chief Bryce Case. Grindr may have been sharing more information than needed, but it insists the most …

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Supreme Court To Hear DOJ’s Digital Privacy Case

Bloomberg reports: The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to decide whether law enforcement officials conducting a criminal investigation can demand data held overseas by Microsoft Corp. and other technology companies in a high-stakes clash over digital privacy. The justices will review a federal appeals ruling that the Trump administration says has become a major obstacle in criminal probes. Already, Google Inc. …

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iFAIL: Apple’s New Facial Recognition Thingy Doesn’t Recognize Face Of Dude Giving Launch Demo [VIDEO]

CNBC reports: During Apple’s demo on stage of the iPhone X’s Face ID, which is supposed to let a user unlock the phone by looking at it, the feature failed. Oops. The new Face ID feature is supposed to be more accurate and secure than Touch ID, which currently lets iPhone users unlock their devices with a fingerprint. But what …

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DOJ Demands Web Hosting Company Turn Over IP Addresses Of Everybody Who Visited Anti-Trump Site

The Washington Post reports: A Los Angeles-based tech company is resisting a federal demand for more than 1.3 million IP addresses to identify visitors to a website set up to coordinate protests on Inauguration Day — a request whose breadth the company says violates the Constitution. “What we have is a sweeping request for every single file we have” in …

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GOP US House Rep Defends Vote To Rollback Web Privacy: Nobody HAS To Use The Internet [VIDEO]

Raw Story reports: In a town hall appearance held on Thursday, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis. defended his decision to vote to repeal the Broadband Consumer Privacy Rules passed by the FCC last October by arguing that “nobody’s got to use the internet.” When a constituent attending the event in Wisconsin’s fifth district raised the issue that she has only one …

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