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Category Archives: Privacy

Smart TVs are like “a digital Trojan Horse” in people’s homes

Ars Technica: “The companies behind the streaming industry, including smart TV and streaming stick manufacturers and streaming service providers, have developed a “surveillance system” that has “long undermined privacy and consumer protection,” according to a report from the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) published today and sent to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Unprecedented tracking techniques aimed at pleasing advertisers have resulted in connected TVs (CTVs) being a “privacy nightmare,” according to Jeffrey Chester, report co-author and CDD executive director, resulting in calls for stronger regulation. The 48-page report, How TV Watches Us: Commercial Surveillance in the Streaming Era [PDF], cites Ars Technica, other news publications, trade publications, blog posts, and statements from big players in streaming—from Amazon to NBCUniversal and Tubi, to LG, Samsung, and Vizio. It provides a detailed overview of the various ways that streaming services and streaming hardware target viewers in newfound ways that the CDD argues pose severe privacy risks. The nonprofit composed the report as part of efforts to encourage regulation. Today, the CDD sent letters to the FTC [PDF], Federal Communications Commission (FCC), California attorney general [PDF], and California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) [PDF], regarding its concerns.”

How to Delete Your 23andme Data Amid the Company’s Turmoil

Lifehacker: …What happens when you delete your 23andme data? – Deleting your 23andme data doesn’t necessarily withdraw it from studies, especially since the data was “de-identified,” that is, stripped from your name and personal information. It does mean that your data will not be used in future research projects. 23andme explains their deletion policies here… Continue Reading

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, October 5, 2024

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, October 5, 2024 – Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and… Continue Reading

License Plate Readers Are Creating a US-Wide Database of More Than Just Cars

Wired [unpaywalled]: “…License-plate-recognition systems, broadly, work by first capturing an image of a vehicle; then they use optical character recognition (OCR) technology to identify and extract the text from the vehicle’s license plate within the captured image. Motorola-owned DRN sells multiple license-plate-recognition cameras: a fixed camera that can be placed near roads, identify a vehicle’s… Continue Reading

License Plate Readers Are Creating a US-Wide Database of Political Lawn Signs and Bumper Stickers

Wired: While people put up signs in their yards or bumper stickers on their cars to inform people of their views and potentially influence those around them, the ACLU’s Stanley says it’s intended for “human-scale visibility.” not to that of machines. “They may want to express themselves in their communities, to their neighbors, but they… Continue Reading

AI assistants are blabbing our embarrassing work secrets

Washington Post [unpaywalled]: “Corporate assistants have long been the keepers of company gossip and secrets. Now artificial intelligence is taking over some of their tasks, but it doesn’t share their sense of discretion. Researcher and engineer Alex Bilzerian said on X last week that, after a Zoom meeting with some venture capital investors, he got… Continue Reading

Tor and Tails privacy projects merge

BoingBoing: “The Tor Project protects user privacy and anonymity on the network. Tails is a portable operating system that does so in the software. The two projects are merging, writes Pavel Zonaff, who hails the move as the “natural outcome of the Tor Project and Tails’ shared history of collaboration and solidarity.”Countering the threat of… Continue Reading

2024 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report Cybersecurity and Privacy Edition

2024 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report | Cybersecurity and Privacy Edition – summary and overview. Published: Monday, September 30, 2024 “These are, in many ways, tumultuous times. Global political movements and ideologies continue to erode social ties and disrupt state and national legislative processes. Wars in Eastern Europe and the Middle East threaten to destabilize the global… Continue Reading

States where abortion is legal, banned or under threat

Washington Post [unpaywalled]: “Access to abortion remains a patchwork of state-by-state policies nearly two years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, with abortion restricted across most of the Southern United States. New restrictions are continuing to take effect, even in states that have long been havens for those seeking abortions. A six-week ban… Continue Reading

Introducing a New Resource – Self-Managed Abortion: The Global Legal Landscape

“Explore legal barriers to accessing self-managed abortion in 35 countries and select U.S. states with this new online tool. Medications like misoprostol and mifepristone offer people a safe, private, and effective way to self-manage their abortion outside a clinical setting during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. And recently, the World Health Organization recognized self-managed… Continue Reading