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Category Archives: Privacy

Whistleblower: Facebook is misleading the public on progress against hate speech, violence, misinformation

60 Minutes – “Her name is Frances Haugen. That is a fact that Facebook has been anxious to know since last month when an anonymous former employee filed complaints with federal law enforcement. The complaints say Facebook’s own research shows that it amplifies hate, misinformation and political unrest—but the company hides what it knows. One… Continue Reading

Data of Over 1.5 Billion Facebook Users Sold on Hacker Forum

Privacy Affairs: “The private and personal information of over 1.5 billion Facebook users is being sold on a popular hacking-related forum, potentially enabling cybercriminals and unscrupulous advertisers to target Internet users globally.…Data Obtained by Scraping – The traders claim to have obtained the data by scraping rather than hacking or compromising individual users’ accounts. Scraping… Continue Reading

What to do if you think you’ve been hacked

PopSci: “Being hacked can feel like a personal attack: You go to log into Facebook, Gmail, or iCloud—and your password doesn’t work, leaving you unable to access your most important online accounts. This worst-case scenario might bring on feelings of nausea and helplessness. Fortunately, you can take action in the face of digital vandalism. If… Continue Reading

The Wall Street Journal Facebook Files

The Facebook Files – A Wall Street Journal investigation – “Facebook Inc. knows, in acute detail, that its platforms are riddled with flaws that cause harm, often in ways only the company fully understands. That is the central finding of a Wall Street Journal series, based on a review of internal Facebook documents, including research… Continue Reading

Cisco 2021 Consumer Privacy Survey

Cisco Secure – Building Consumer Confidence Through Transparency and Control: “Protecting privacy continues to be a critical issue for individuals, organizations, and governments around the world. Eighteen months into the COVID-19 pandemic, our health information and vaccination status are needed more than ever to understand the virus, control the spread, and enable safer environments for… Continue Reading

There’s a Multibillion-Dollar Market for Your Phone’s Location Data

The MarkUp – A huge but little-known industry has cropped up around monetizing people’s movements – “Companies that you likely have never heard of are hawking access to the location history on your mobile phone. An estimated $12 billion market, the location data industry has many players: collectors, aggregators, marketplaces, and location intelligence firms, all… Continue Reading

Clearview AI Has New Tools to Identify You in Photos

Wired – “In an interview with WIRED, CEO Hoan Ton-That said the company has scraped 10 billion photos from the web—and developed new ways to aid police surveillance. Clearview AI has stoked controversy by scraping the web for photos and applying facial recognition to give police and others an unprecedented ability to peer into our… Continue Reading

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, October 2, 2021

Via LLRX – Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, October 2, 2021 – Privacy and security issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly… Continue Reading

Our Favorite Ad Blockers and Browser Extensions to Protect Privacy

Wirecutter: “Everything you do online—from browsing to shopping to using social networks—is tracked, typically as behavioral or advertising data. But browser extensions are simple, generally free add-ons that you can use to slow down or break this type of data collection, without completely ruining your experience of using the internet. Privacy almost always comes at… Continue Reading

‘Speaking Portraits’ Make It Unsettlingly Easy to Turn Still Photos Into Animated Deepfakes

Gizmodo: “Earlier this year, social media was briefly taken over by seemingly everyone using MyHeritage’s Deep Nostalgia feature to bring old photos to life. The company whose AI technology powers Deep Nostalgia, D-ID, is taking that technology one step further, turning still headshot photos into videos that move and say whatever a user wants. As… Continue Reading