Privacy Blog

"Friends don’t let friends get spied on.' – Richard Stallman, President of the Free Software Foundation and longtime advocate of privacy in technology.

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Storj.io, a Distributed, Encrypted File Storage Service Where Only You Have Access to Your Data

Storj.io (pronounced “Storage eye oh) is a proposed new service for storing data in the cloud. The data can be anything you wish. I suspect most users will use Storj.io as a file backup service, keeping copies of critical files off site and available at any time. Storj.io’s primary goal is to provide a cloud storage solution that is substantially faster and 50% less expensive than traditional data center-based cloud […]

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BitPhone Shuts Down Service, Cites Regulatory Privacy Issues

BitPhone is, or soon will be “was,” an encrypted voice and video calling service. It offered services to anyone, never asking for any identifying information. Now the BitPhone web site at https://www.bitphone.net/ says: Bitphone closing due to regulatory requirements After 1.5 years in operation, bitphone.net is shutting down. WE DIDN’T GET HACKED, NOT ONCE! – And believe me, they tried! All customer funds are secure and accounted for! (and we […]

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Chinese Consortium buys Opera browser for $600 Million

I wrote about the free Opera web browser three months ago at https://goo.gl/RRd8Dp. Opera says its light, quick browser is used by more than 350 million consumers worldwide. I praised the Norwegian company’s inclusion of a high-security VPN in the product at no charge. Norwegian laws offer strong protection of the privacy of individuals. However, a Chinese consortium now is purchasing the Opera internet browser for $600 million (543 million euros), […]

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Apple’s Privacy Policies Apply to the iPhone but not to iCloud

In a highly-publicized case, Apple is refusing to decrypt a customer’s iPhone to allow the FBI to go on a “legal fishing expedition” to see if maybe there is information on the iPhone of interest to law enforcement. Apple says it can’t provide information that’s stored on iPhones because it doesn’t have access to people’s passcodes. Opening the door to those phones for law enforcement could make your personal information […]

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Symphony Raises $100 Million From New Investors

Symphony is a cloud-based messaging service that uses advanced encryption technology to secure communications. It is aimed primarily at financial companies, which are required by law to keep copies of their messages for several years in case regulators or law enforcement ever need them for an investigation. The big advantage of Symphony is that the encrypted communications cannot be intercepted by snoops. Symphony launched its first product on September 15. […]

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