Tag: privacy

UK government hires ad agency to convince the public they don’t need privacy

The UK is stepping up its “war on encryption,” reports are saying, and like in any good old war, propaganda comes first to “prepare the ground.” And a new campaign is expected to launch as early as this month.

In this case, they call it publicity, with the Home Office being behind the effort whose goal is to sway public opinion in favor of undermining the privacy of the very members of that public – using their own money from public funds, to the tune of over half a million pounds.

Meanwhile the “hired gun” is ad agency M&C Saatchi. The Rolling Stone said it had a chance to review documents thanks to a Freedom of Information request, and that what it discovered were “some shockingly manipulative tactics.”

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Concerned about Your Privacy? 6 Ways to Reduce the Amount of Internet Data that Has Been Collected on You

Most businesses want to generate as much profit as possible.  That’s always been true.  Data collection can be very profitable – sometimes even more so than selling products and services.  Data collection for the purpose of marketing more products and services to customers as well as selling customer data to third parties is sometimes referred to as “Surveillance Capitalism”.  Many businesses collect personal data on customers even when customers aren’t aware of it or have freely consented to it.  The examples are countless and include utility companies that install hazardous electric, gas, and water “Smart” Meters (see 1, 2, 3) on homes throughout communities worldwide.

It’s overwhelming to think about how much data has been collected on us – even children.  The good news is that there are ways to reduce some of this.

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Facebook, Google, and Snapchat Are Bypassing Apple’s APP Tracking Transparency and Still Collecting Data on Users

Downloading “free” apps onto devices more often than not allows app providers to collect personal data on users.  Of course, companies that manufacture and sell devices tend to collect personal data on users too (see 1, 2, 3, 4, 5).  Having access to this data allows companies and providers to analyze users’ habits and preferences so they can market additional products and services to them.  They can also sell users’ data to 3rd parties.  This practice is sometimes referred to as “Surveillance Capitalism.”  As more customers are becoming aware of this, more want to be able to “opt out” of privacy invasive data collection.  Companies aren’t necessarily making this easy though.  Recently Verizon was exposed for automatically enrolling its customers into a new program that scans users’ browser histories.  Facebook, Google, and Snapchat are now also being exposed for continuing to collect data on without users’ knowledge or consent.

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Verizon accused of collecting customer browsing history (and more)

The My Verizon App has been accused of secretly collecting a user’s browser information, tracking apps, location, and contacts, for the purposes of understanding user interests. The mobile network provider appears to be automatically enrolling users in the data collection feature.

Input was first to report about Verizon’s “Custom Experience” feature that is concealed in the My Verizon app. There is also the “Custom Experience Plus” feature that is more invasive in data collection.

According to Verizon, the purposes of these features are to “personalize” users’ experience and “give you more relevant product and service recommendations” through the “information about websites you visit and apps you use on your mobile device.”

The company further states that a user “must opt in to participate and you can change your choice at any time.” However, it appears users are automatically enrolled.

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Your Next Smartphone Could Have an “Always-on” Snooping Camera

Qualcomm Technologies recently announced their newest high-end smartphone processor, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. This processor has a very controversial feature — it has always-on camera capabilities and will be used in high-end Android smartphones that will be released early 2022.

Qualcomm Vice President of product management Judd Heape  said the following about the new always-on camera capabilities of the processor: “Your phone’s front camera is always securely looking for your face, even if you don’t touch it or raise to wake it.”

Qualcomm touted the new always-on camera during their Snapdragon Tech Summit.

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Popular ‘Family Safety’ App Busted Selling Precise Location Data On Millions – Including Children

After the Cambridge Analytica / Facebook scandal and the ensuing ‘reforms’ within the tech industry to reign in wanton data harvesting by predatory app-makers, one might be left with the impression that the practice had been reined in.

Yet, a deep-dive investigation by The Markup revealed that a popular family safety app used by 33 million people worldwide, Life360, has been selling data on the precise locations of children and other family members to around a dozen data brokers, who have in turn sold data to “virtually anyone who wants to buy it.”

Two former employees of Life360 as well as two individuals formerly employed by data brokers Cuebiq and X-Mode revealed that the Life360 app “acts as a firehose of data” for shady info brokers in an industry which has “few safeguards to prevent the misuse of sensitive information.”

When confronted with evidence, Life360 founder and CEO Chris Hulls had no qualms about his business model, telling The Markup: “We see data as an important part of our business model that allows us to keep the core Life360 services free for the majority of our users, including features that have improved driver safety and saved numerous lives.”

Selling data has become a crucial component of Life360’s revenue, jumping from $693,000 in 2016 to $16 million in 2020, comprising around 20% of its revenue that year, not including an additional $6 million from a partnership with Allstate’s Arity. While the company reported a loss of $16.3 million last year, Life360 – which is publicly traded on the Australian Securities Exchange, has plans for an IPO in the US.

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Urgent Google warning for millions of Android users: These symbols mean someone is watching

Google is warning millions of Android users when apps might be spying on them.

The new feature alerts users when the microphone or camera has been activated.

It’s very similar to a warning that already exists on Apple’s rival iPhone.

The Google feature was added to phones in the latest Android 12 update. So if you don’t have that, you won’t be able to see it.

The new indicator appears in the top right corner of the screen.

You’ll see a camera or microphone icon when an app attempts to access either.

It prevents apps from surreptitiously listening in — or even watching through your camera.

You can also see a rolling log of which apps have access your camera, microphone or location — and when.

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Biden Infrastructure Bill Includes Passive Monitoring Vehicle “Kill Switch” Mandates For Automakers

As if the Biden administration wasn’t doing enough to infringe on your civil liberties with lockdowns and vaccine mandates, media reports over the last several days are suggesting that Biden’s new infrastructure bill will also include a mandate for auto manufacturers to install “kill switches” into vehicles.

Former Rep. Bob Barr, writing for The Daily Caller, calls the measure “disturbingly short on details”, but for the fact that the proposed device must “passively monitor the performance of a driver of a motor vehicle to accurately identify whether that driver may be impaired.”

Which, of course, is code for some kind of device that is constantly on and monitoring your vehicle – and will likely have the power to shut down your vehicle anytime it wants.

“This is a privacy disaster in the making, and the fact that the provision made it through the Congress reveals — yet again — how little its members care about the privacy of their constituents,” The Daily Caller writes.

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Meta asks users to send nudes

Meta, the new name for Facebook Inc., has co-developed a platform that asks people to submit their intimate photos and videos in order to prevent them from being used as ‘revenge porn’ on Facebook or Instagram.

The tool is for “adults over 18 years old who think an intimate image of them may be shared, or has already been shared, without their consent,” Meta said in a blogpost on Thursday.

The new platform, which Meta developed together with the UK Revenge Porn Helpline and 50 other NGOs, aims to prevent the publication of ‘revenge porn’, rather than just removing the delicate files after they’ve already appeared online.

Concerned users are being asked to submit photos or videos of themselves naked or having sex to a hash-tagging database through the StopNCII.org (Stop Non-Consensual Intimate Images) website.

The special hashtags, or “digital fingerprints,” are then assigned to those materials by the tool, and can be used to instantly detect and curb attempts to upload them online by the perpetrators.

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HR 550: House Passes Bill To Fund Federal Vaccination Database

Eighty House Republicans voted with Democrats on Tuesday to pass the Immunization Infrastructure Modernization Act, which if passed by the Senate and signed into law would fund a federal vaccination database.

According to the bill, also called  H. R. 550, the government would provide $400 million in taxpayer dollars to fund “immunization system data modernization and expansion,” a system otherwise defined as “a confidential, population-based, computerized database that records immunization doses administered by any health care provider to persons within the geographic area covered by that database.”

The text specifically outlines an expansion of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Public Health Department capabilities and the ability for state and local health departments, as well as public and private health care providers, to share health data with the federal government.

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