A trove of hidden documents detailing how Facebook made money off children will be made public, a federal judge ruled late Monday in response to requests from Reveal. A glimpse into the soon-to-be-released records shows Facebook’s own employees worried they were bamboozling children who racked up hundreds, and sometimes even thousands, of dollars in game […]
Surveillance & Technology
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‘Disrespectful’: Google Employees Melt Down Over The Word ‘Family’…
A Google executive sparked a fierce backlash from employees by using the word “family” in a weekly, company-wide presentation, according to internal documents obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation. Many Google employees became angry that the term was used while discussing a product aimed at children, because it implied that families have children, the […]
FBI Records, Emails, Social Security Numbers Exposed in Massive Data Leak…
A massive data leak has been discovered at the Oklahoma Securities Commission, in which millions of records — including files related to sensitive FBI investigations over the last seven years, emails dating back 17 years and thousands of Social Security numbers — have been exposed. The breach was uncovered last month by Greg Pollock, a […]
Feds Can’t Force You to Unlock Your iPhone with Finger or Face, Judge Rules…
A California judge has ruled that American cops can’t force people to unlock a mobile phone with their face or finger. The ruling goes further to protect people’s private lives from government searches than any before and is being hailed as a potentially landmark decision. Previously, U.S. judges had ruled that police were allowed to […]
Elon Musk’s SpaceX Is Laying Off Hundreds Off Workers…
Elon Musk’s space exploration company SpaceX is cutting 10 percent of its workforce in an effort to cut down on costs and waste, The Los Angeles Times reported. Musk – as SpaceX CEO – and company President Gwynne Shotwell broke the news to the estimated 6,400-employee workforce Friday at an all-hands meeting at the company’s […]
How to Stop Facebook, Apple and Google Tracking Your Every Move…
Technology companies have been pummeled by revelations about how poorly they protect their customers’ personal information, including an in-depth New York Times report detailing the ability of smartphone apps to track users’ locations. Some companies, most notably Apple, have begun promoting the fact that they sell products and services that safeguard consumer privacy. Smartphone users are never […]
Samsung Phone Users Perturbed to Find They Can’t Delete Facebook…
Nick Winke, a photographer in the Pacific northwest, was perusing internet forums when he came across a complaint that alarmed him: On certain Samsung Electronics Co. smartphones, users aren’t allowed to delete the Facebook app. Winke bought his Samsung Galaxy S8, an Android-based device that comes with Facebook’s social network already installed, when it was […]
Despite Promises to Stop, U.S. Cell Carriers Are Still Selling Your Real-Time Phone Location Data…
Last year, four of the largest U.S. cell carriers were caught selling and sending real-time location data of their customers to shady companies that sold it on to big spenders, who would use the data to track anyone “within seconds” for whatever reason they wanted. At first, a little-known company LocationSmart was obtaining (and leaking) […]
A Study About Fake News Was Just Retracted…
A study that claimed to explain why falsehoods go viral — findings that were widely covered by the media — has turned out to itself be false. The article, published in June 2017, blamed people’s short attention spans for the spread of fake news. It was a claim that garnered coverage in dozens of news […]
Peter Schweizer’s “The Creepy Line” Takes Tech Giants to Task…
As if this were not “creepy” enough, there is another process going on that is far less transparent: “listing” — the order in which information appears on Google. The “list effect” on our cognitive functioning, Epstein explains, is that we believe that the items appearing at the top of a set of search results — […]
Poland Detains Employee of Chinese Tech Giant Huawei on Spying Charges…
Polish authorities detained and charged an employee of Chinese tech giant Huawei with spying on behalf of China, amid growing global concerns the company is tied to Chinese intelligence agencies. The arrest of Huawei’s local sales director in Poland comes a month after the company’s chief financial officer was detained in Canada at the U.S. […]
Related
Chinese Money Flees Silicon Valley as Trump Clamps Down on Access to U.S. Tech…
Thanks to new policies from the Trump administration aimed at cracking down at Beijing’s access to strategic US technologies, China has all but halted investments in US-based tech startups, according to Reuters. Venture funding out of China peaked last year at a record $3 billion according to the Rhodium Group, a New York economic research firm. […]
How a Russian Firm Helped Catch an Alleged NSA Data Thief…
The 2016 arrest of a former National Security Agency contractor charged with a massive theft of classified data began with an unlikely source: a tip from a Russian cybersecurity firm that the U.S. government has called a threat to the country. Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab turned Harold T. Martin III in to the NSA after receiving […]
Another Day, Another Massive Cellular Location Data Privacy Scandal We’ll Probably Do Nothing About…
We’ve noted a few times now that while Facebook gets a lot of justified heat for its privacy scandals, the stuff going on in the cellular data and app market in regards to location data makes many of Facebook’s privacy issues seem like a grade-school picnic. That’s something that was pretty well highlighted by the […]
You Bought Smart Speakers Over the Holidays. Now What Are Amazon and Google Doing With Your Data?…
I recently attended a holiday potluck hosted by a tech-junkie friend who had decked out his one-bedroom apartment with smart speakers, smart lights, and small, infrared motion sensors that looked disconcertingly like cameras. Toward the end of the party, after one of the guests disappeared into the back of the apartment, another decided to play […]
23andMe’s Pharma Deals Have Been the Plan All Along…
Since the launch of its DNA testing service in 2007, genomics giant 23andMe has convinced more than 5 million people to fill a plastic tube with half a teaspoon of saliva. In return for all that spit (and some cash too), customers get insights into their biological inheritance, from the superficial—do you have dry earwax […]
Kohler’s Smart Toilet Promises a ‘Fully Immersive Experience’…
CES has barely begun, but 146-year-old plumbing company Kohler has already stolen the show with what will undoubtedly be 2019’s hottest gadget: an “intelligent toilet” with built-in surround sound speakers, ambient mood lighting, and Amazon Alexa voice controls. Truly, we live in an age of wonders. Kohler’s Numi 2.0 Intelligent Toilet is one of those […]
Kiss What Is Left of Your Medical Data Privacy Goodbye…
Matt Stoller warned back in 2012 that insurers would increasingly induce, then force, customers to agree to surveillance. But a Wall Street Journal story tonight describes how insurers and medical providers, meaning your doctor’s employers, are actively cooperating, so as among other things, to help Big Pharma peddle more drugs to you. Stoller warned that […]
Politicians Who Block Citizens on Social Media Violate 1st Amendment…
A federal appeals court in Virginia ruled unanimously Monday that a county official who blocked a citizen from accessing her official Facebook page is in violation of the First Amendment. The case—which was heard before the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals—found that Phyllis Randall, the chair of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, improperly blocked a […]
China-Made Smartphone Weather App Stole Data from 10 Million Global Users…
TCL, a Chinese producer of consumer electronics, has been collecting data without permission from mobile phones that have downloaded its free weather forecast smartphone app. This app has been downloaded more than 10 million times by users around the world since it was released in December 2016. TCL is a listed company on the Hong […]
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