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.

Online Privacy & Security

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Crypto-Chat Quickly and Securely Encrypts Peer-to-Peer Conversations

The following announcement was written by Indiana Technology and Manufacturing Companies (ITAMCO): Cupertino, California – iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users who are worried about hackers, thieves and others snooping on their private peer-to-peer conversations, can now put their worries to rest by downloading the innovative new no-cost app Crypto-Chat – which has already been described in 5-star App Store reviews as “perfect for anyone needing to hide messages from […]

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24 Privacy Authorities Worldwide Call For More Mobile App Privacy

Last week, the increased focus of national data protection authorities on the processing of personal data through mobile apps was again confirmed in an open letter from a group of data protection authorities. Earlier this year, the Global Privacy Enforcement Network (GPEN, consisting of 40 national and regional data protection authorities) carried out a ‘mobile app privacy sweep’ to scrutinize organizations’ collection and use of personal data on mobile apps. […]

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Defying Feds, Microsoft Tries to Keep User Data Private

Woody Leonhard has written an article about Microsoft’s efforts fighting a federal search warrant demanding that the company release emails stored in Ireland. The article describes why you should be extremely concerned by a U.S. court’s actions — and what you can do about it. You can read Woody’s article at: http://windowssecrets.com/top-story/defying-feds-ms-tries-to-keep-user-data-private.

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Dutch Watchdog Demands Privacy Changes From Google

A Dutch privacy watchdog on Monday ordered Google to make changes to the way it handles users’ personal data or face fines of up to 15 million euros ($18.7 million). The College for the Protection of Personal Data announced it is giving the Internet giant until the end of February to comply with measures aimed at giving consumers in the Netherlands more clarity about how their personal information is used […]

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The Best VPN Services

Christian Cawley has published an article that claims to list the Best VPN Services. I can’t vouch for his accuracy but the list certainly is interesting. I have used SurfEasy Total and Private Internet Access and I agree with his reviews of these services. I am not familiar with the others he mentioned. I was disappointed that Cawley did not mention Witopia, one of my favorite VPN providers. You can […]

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Posting a “Privacy Notice” to Facebook Does Nothing

A new wave of Facebook users are posting a new privacy notice to their Facebook News Feeds, hoping to protect their posts and photos from being used without their permission. Chalk it up to another hoax notice that doesn’t actually do anything. Details may be found in an article by Ian Sherr in the Yahoo Tech News web site at https://www.yahoo.com/tech/posting-a-privacy-notice-to-facebook-does-104161204389.html.

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Facebook Privacy – How Much Information Are You Giving Away?

If you haven’t reviewed your Facebook account’s privacy settings for a while, you may be sharing more than you realize. Facebook is under fire for drawing up terms and conditions so confusing that few people can understand what they’re actually agreeing to when they sign up to the social network. Whatever you think of the service, with 1.35 billion active users (about the same as the population of China), that […]

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How to be Safe when Shopping Online

Online safety is something we all need to be concerned with. However, the safe use of credit cards online seems doubly important as we enter the holiday shopping period. Consumers will spend roughly 1.2 trillion dollars in online shopping this year, according to Statista at http://goo.gl/DomMya. That number is expected to double in the next four years. Almost all of the transactions will be paid with a credit card, a debit […]

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