Category «Privacy»

Your phone and TV are tracking you and political campaigns are listening in

La Times: “…Welcome to the new frontier of campaign tech — a loosely regulated world in which simply downloading a weather app or game, connecting to Wi-Fi at a coffee shop or powering up a home router can allow a data broker to monitor your movements with ease, then compile the location information and sell …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Internet, Privacy, Social Media

Internet Privacy – Additional Federal Authority Could Enhance Consumer Protection and Provide Flexibility

Internet Privacy: Additional Federal Authority Could Enhance Consumer Protection and Provide Flexibility GAO-19-52: Published: Jan 15, 2019. Publicly Released: Feb 13, 2019. “In April 2018, Facebook said that up to 87 million users’ personal data may have been improperly disclosed. This was one of many recent Internet privacy incidents. We found that there is no …

Subjects: Congress, E-Mail, E-Records, Internet, Privacy, Social Media

Reddit posts transparency Report 2018

Transparency Report 2018 – January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2018 – “Every year, Reddit produces a Transparency Report to provide users with information about the types of requests that we receive from third parties that want Reddit to disclose user data or remove content from the platform. Reddit takes the privacy of its users …

Subjects: Privacy, Social Media

How to unblock blocked website

PCWorld: “Some governments, schools, and businesses try to block websites in order to reduce distractions, conserve bandwidth, or censor content. If you want to circumvent such limitations—and you’re willing to assume any attendant risks—you can try to enlist the aid of a VPN, or virtual private network. A VPN creates a secure tunnel between your …

Subjects: Internet, Privacy, Search Engines

Consumer privacy concerns as Amazon buys Eero net routers

Consumer Reports: “Amazon’s agreement to buy the wireless router manufacturer Eero could make it easier for homeowners to manage a wide array of wireless devices, like smart thermostats and video doorbells, according to analysts and Consumer Reports’ in-house experts. But some of them expressed concern over how often high-profile startups get bought by the tech …

Subjects: E-Commerce, E-Mail, E-Records, Internet, Privacy

AR Will Spark the Next Big Tech Platform – Call It Mirrorworld

Wired: “The mirrorworld doesn’t yet fully exist, but it is coming. Someday soon, every place and thing in the real world—every street, lamppost, building, and room—will have its full-size digital twin in the mirrorworld. For now, only tiny patches of the mirrorworld are visible through AR headsets. Piece by piece, these virtual fragments are being …

Subjects: AI, Internet, Privacy

Why data, not privacy, is the real danger

NBCNews: “While it’s creepy to imagine companies are listening in to your conversations, it’s perhaps more creepy that they can predict what you’re talking about without actually listening…First, understand that privacy and data are separate things. Your privacy — your first and last name, your Social Security number, your online credentials — is the unit …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, E-Commerce, Internet, Legal Research, Privacy, Social Media

Want to Really Block the Tech Giants? Here’s How

Gizmodo: “Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Apple move more money than many medium-sized nations. Their extraordinary profits are won through extraordinary reach—this is not a secret. That a few companies are afforded unprecedented and shamefully unregulated access into our homes is now an unremarkable fact of living with tiny computers everywhere. When Gizmodo reporter Kashmir …

Subjects: E-Mail, Internet, Knowledge Management, Privacy, Social Media

T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T are selling access to their customers’ location data

and that data is ending up in the hands of bounty hunters and others not authorized to possess it, letting them track most phones in the country – via Motherboard: “…Motherboard’s investigation shows just how exposed mobile networks and the data they generate are, leaving them open to surveillance by ordinary citizens, stalkers, and criminals, …

Subjects: Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Internet, Privacy

New Library Bill of Rights Provision Recognizes and Defends Library Users’ Privacy

American Library Association – “The Library Bill of Rights — first adopted in 1939 and last amended in 1980 — has been updated to include an article focused on the concept of ensuring privacy and confidentiality for library users.The new article of the Library Bill of Rights, Article VII, states: “All people, regardless of origin, age, …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Education, Legal Research, Libraries, Privacy

Shoshana Zuboff on the Age of Surveillance Capitalism

The Intercept: “…An unavoidable takeaway of “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism” is, essentially, that everything is even worse than you thought. Even if you’ve followed the news items and historical trends that gird Zuboff’s analysis, her telling takes what look like privacy overreaches and data blunders, and recasts them as the intentional movements of a …

Subjects: E-Commerce, Internet, Privacy, Recommended Books, Social Media