Bulgaria is a nation of about 7 million people. The personal data of more than 5 million Bulgarians was made public this week after records got stolen by hackers from the country’s tax revenue office. See the CNN web site at https://cnn.it/2O8QH30 for the details. Yes, it could happen in any country.
As four high school seniors sat around shooting the breeze before graduation, they decided to vandalize their school as a senior prank. Disguised with T-shirts over their faces to evade security cameras, the young men originally set out to spray-paint “Class of 2018” and other graffiti on the school property. Despite their covered faces, school officials had no problem finding who was responsible: The students’ phones had automatically connected with […]
Are you an AT&T customer? If so, your personal information and tracking habits are for sale to anyone who wishes to use that information for nefarious uses. Details may be found in an article by Allison Matyus at http://bit.ly/30JqbyJ.
The popular DuckDuckGo search engine has long been the choice of everyone who wishes to avoid Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other search engines’ spying into personal lives. However, an article by Benjamin Powers in the Inverse.com web site points out there are other choices as well. Read the article at https://www.inverse.com/article/57756-privacy-google-alternatives and then take control of your privacy!
Your iPhone or iPad will soon stop needy apps from spying on your location: https://cnet.co/32bOw1P
From the TutaNota Blog: “Our encrypted calendar – Tutanota Calendar – has just been added to your secure emails. This new feature brings amazing privacy improvements. With our encryption expertise, we have not only made sure that all data you enter is encrypted, we are also encrypting notifications for upcoming events. In contrast to other calendar services, we do not know when you have an appointment, where you have an […]
Ok, first of all, the new Libra digital currency announced this past week by Facebook is NOT a cryptocurrency! Other than that error, an article by Kenan Malik in The Guardian web site describes several reasons why Libra is a bad idea, especially for anyone concerned with personal privacy. You can read the article at: http://bit.ly/2Ftllxp. NOTE: Lots of news services are calling the new Libra proposal a “cryptocurrency” but […]
Is this a privacy issue? If the new Ring doorbells’ neighborhood spy network is used only to find criminals, most of us will be strongly in favor of it. However, history has proven hundreds of times that projects designed to reduce crime or identify criminals can easily be abused by unscrupulous individuals for illegal and/or privacy-invasive uses.
An interesting article by Alison Cooper on the HowStuffWorks web site points out that paying bills online is much safer than sending a check through the post office: “Online bill payment is also safer than the snail-mail method: Your personal information is much more vulnerable to theft if it’s on paper and physically moving through the postal system.” Also, ” You can also use your credit card to pay all […]
Every ten years the U.S. Census Bureau conducts a nationwide survey that sets the terms for the country’s democracy. The questionnaire yields rich data, including people’s names, street addresses, ages, races, ethnicities, and other details. People’s responses help determine dynamics of power, such as how seats are apportioned in the House of Representatives, where voting districts get divided, and which communities receive federal funds. But the bureau, tasked with releasing […]
Privacy Blog 