Secret subpoenas issued by the FBI for personal data go far deeper than previously known, according to new documents obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, according to the New York Times. The agency says the sweeping requests are crucial to counterterrorism efforts – however the new records […]
T-Mobile/Sprint Merger Faces Big Trouble at DOJ Despite FCC Approval…
The Department of Justice’s antitrust staff has recommended blocking T-Mobile’s attempted purchase of Sprint, Reuters reported today, citing an anonymous source. DOJ staff “fear that after the deal T-Mobile will no longer aggressively seek to cut prices and improve service to woo customers away from market leaders Verizon and AT&T,” Reuters wrote. A final decision […]
Democrats Are Cozying Up to Corporate Lobbyists Despite Purity Pledges…
When former Navy officer Gil Cisneros mounted his campaign for retiring Rep. Ed Royce’s House seat in Southern California, he found a clear way to distinguish himself from his Republican rival. While Young Kim, a former state lawmaker, took in donations from high-profile corporate PACs, including those of Chevron, ExxonMobil and Koch Industries, Cisneros, a […]
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) […]
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 […]
FCC Wants Chinese Tech Out of U.S. Phones, Routers…
U.S. officials are discouraging U.S. telephone and internet companies from purchasing Chinese technology that could be used for surveillance, Federal Communications Commissioner Ajit Pai announced Monday. “Threats to national security posed by certain communications equipment providers are a matter of bipartisan concern,” Pai said. “Hidden ‘back doors’ to our networks in routers, switches — and […]
Now That The FCC Is Doing Away with Title II for Broadband, Will Verizon Give Back the Taxpayer Subsidies it Got Under Title II?…
Now that the FCC has done as it said it was going to do and declared that broadband internet is properly classified under Title I of the Communications Act, rather than Title II, I’m left wondering if taxpayers will be getting back all the subsidies that we provided Verizon, AT&T and others when they claimed […]
Dozens of Companies Are Using Facebook to Exclude Older Workers From Job Ads…
A few weeks ago, Verizon placed an ad on Facebook to recruit applicants for a unit focused on financial planning and analysis. The ad showed a smiling, millennial-aged woman seated at a computer and promised that new hires could look forward to a rewarding career in which they would be “more than just a number.” […]
Verizon’s Latest Rewards Program Shares Gobs of Your Data…
Verizon has just fired up a new rewards program, but you might want to hold off if you’re concerned about your privacy. Brandon Robbins and other customers have noticed that enlisting in Up requires enrolling in a Verizon Selects personalized advertising program that tracks an extensive range of voluntary and automatic data: it’ll supply…
Verizon Says Personal Data of 6M Users Leaked Online…
The personal data of 6 million Verizon users has leaked online, the company said Wednesday. “Human error” caused the leak, Verizon told CNN Tech. The error, a misconfigured security setting on a cloud server, made customer phone numbers, names and some PIN codes publicly available online, CNN Tech reported. PIN codes are used to confirm […]