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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Over a Billion Android Devices Are at Risk of Data Theft

A billion or more Android devices are vulnerable to hacks that can turn them into spying tools by exploiting more than 400 vulnerabilities in Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chip, researchers reported this week. The vulnerabilities can be exploited when a target downloads a video or other content that’s rendered by the chip. Targets can also be attacked by installing malicious apps that require no permissions at all. From there, attackers can monitor […]

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Hundreds of Apps Have Hidden Tracking Software Used by the US Government

A new report exposes how a federal contractor secretly puts government tracking software into hundreds of mobile apps. The data gleaned from this tracking is then sold back to the US government for undisclosed purposes. This tactic is deceptive because the tracking isn’t disclosed. However, it appears to be totally legal. Details may be found in an article by C. Scott Brown in the Android Authority web site at https://www.androidauthority.com/government-tracking-apps-1145989/. […]

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Why a Data Breach at a Genealogy Site Has Privacy Experts Worried

From an article by Heather Murphy and published in the New York Times: “GEDmatch, a longstanding family history site containing around 1.4 million people’s genetic information, had experienced a data breach. The peculiar matches were not new uploads but rather the result of two back-to-back hacks, which overrode existing user settings, according to Brett Williams, the chief executive of Verogen, a forensic company that has owned GEDmatch since December.” Also: […]

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Covid-19 Masks Are Breaking Facial Recognition Software

Here is still another reason why you should wear a medical face mask: Masks are breaking police facial recognition. The rapid global spread and persistent threat of the coronavirus has presented an obvious roadblock to facial recognition’s similar global expansion. Suddenly everyone is covering their faces. Even in ideal conditions, facial recognition technologies often struggle with accuracy and have a particularly dismal track record when it comes to identifying faces […]

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Encryption Software for Dissidents Could Be Collateral Damage of Budget Fight

The software is widely used in Iran to view U.S.-funded content. The U.S. Open Technology Fund, a digital rights nonprofit financed by the U.S. government, is poised to cancel a contract for encryption software that helps people living in repressive regimes access impartial news without their government’s knowledge, according to a U.S. government official with direct knowledge of the matter. Psiphon, based in Canada, makes internet circumvention software tools that […]

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A U.S. Senator Demands MORE Encryption, Not Less

This is a unique twist in the ongoing saga of using encryption to protect your secrets. In recent weeks, several U.S. Senators have demanded. that all online communications either not be encrypted at all or else be encrypted with a “back door” that allows government employees (and undoubtedly others) to have the ability to read these communications. (See https://bit.ly/2ClmhWf for a list of my past articles concerning this privacy invasion.) […]

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European Union’s Court of Justice Invalidates Data Sharing Under Privacy Shield Due to US Surveillance Procedures

Facebook and Company can no longer transfer data of European Union citizens under Privacy Shield because this undermines the data protection guaranteed by the GDPR. A landmark decision for privacy rights by the European Court of Justice invalidates Privacy Shield – a US-EU agreement. Privacy Shield was passed to give Silicon Valley tech companies easier access to the European market. This special arrangement for US companies is now null and […]

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