404 Media: “A powerful AI tool can predict with high accuracy the location of photos based on features inside the image itself—such as vegetation, architecture, and the distance between buildings—in seconds, with the company now marketing the tool to law enforcement officers and government agencies. Called GeoSpy, made by a firm called Graylark Technologies out… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Privacy
Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, January 18, 2025
Via LLRX – Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, January 18, 2025 – 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… Continue Reading
FTC Surveillance Pricing Study – Wide Range of Personal Data Used to Set Individualized Consumer Prices
“The agency details interim insights from staff perspective examining how companies track consumer behaviors to inform surveillance pricing. The Federal Trade Commission’s initial findings from its surveillance pricing market study revealed that details like a person’s precise location or browser history can be frequently used to target individual consumers with different prices for the same… Continue Reading
Lawsuit accuses Amazon of secretly tracking consumers through cellphones
Reuters via MSN: “Amazon.com was sued on Wednesday by consumers who accused the retailing giant of secretly tracking their movements through their cellphones, and selling data it collects. According to a proposed class action in San Francisco federal court, Amazon obtained “backdoor access” to consumers’ phones by providing tens of thousands of app developers with… Continue Reading
The Ethics of Advanced AI Assistants
Google DeepMind – “First, because LLMs display immense modeling power, there is a risk that the model weights encode private information present in the training corpus. In particular, it is possible for LLMs to ‘memorise’ personally identifiable information (PII) such as names, addresses and telephone numbers, and subsequently leak such information through generated text outputs… Continue Reading
FTC Finalizes Order Prohibiting Gravy Analytics, Venntel from Selling Sensitive Location Data
“The Federal Trade Commission finalized an order prohibiting Gravy Analytics and its subsidiary Venntel from unlawfully tracking and selling sensitive location data from users, including data about consumers’ visits to health-related locations and places of worship. In a complaint first announced last month, the FTC alleged that Gravy and Venntel violated the FTC Act by unfairly… Continue Reading
NSA Warns iPhone And Android Users – Disable Location Tracking
Forbes: “…NSA warns that “mobile devices store and share device geolocation data by design…Location data can be extremely valuable and must be protected. It can reveal details about the number of users in a location, user and supply movements, daily routines (user and organizational), and can expose otherwise unknown associations between users and locations.” EFF:… Continue Reading
How to Avoid the Top Internet Scams
Wrong Numbers, Fake Invoices, and Catfishing: If you’re online, you’re at risk. “We spoke to three security experts about what you can do to protect yourself…In a video call, Bogdan Botezatu, Bitdefender’s director of threat research, warned that despite the numerous ways scammers go after their targets, spam email remains the most prevalent. Using telemetry… Continue Reading
Allstate used GasBuddy and other apps to quietly track driving behavior
Ars Technica: “Texas has sued insurance provider Allstate, alleging that the firm and its data broker subsidiary used data from apps like GasBuddy, Routely, and Life360 to quietly track drivers and adjust or cancel their policies. Allstate and Arity, a “mobility data and analytics” firm founded by Allstate in 2016, collected “trillions of miles worth… Continue Reading
Apple auto-opts everyone into having their photos analyzed by AI for landmarks
The Register: “Apple last year deployed a mechanism for identifying landmarks and places of interest in images stored in the Photos application on its customers iOS and macOS devices and enabled it by default, seemingly without explicit consent. Apple customers have only just begun to notice. The feature, known as Enhanced Visual Search, was called… Continue Reading
Open Port Chronicle: What Port 80 Revealed About The Internet
“At RedHunt Labs, we conduct extensive internet-wide studies as part of Project Resonance to stay ahead of the evolving cyberspace and enhance our Attack Surface Management (ASM) platform. This blog highlights our recent research, where we analyzed billions of IP addresses to check for port 80 open, uncovering fascinating insights. The internet is massive –… Continue Reading
Inside the Black Box of Predictive Travel Surveillance
Wired – “Behind the scenes, companies and governments are feeding a trove of data about international travelers into opaque AI tools that aim to predict who’s safe—and who’s a threat… In Europe, at least four technology companies—Idemia, SITA, Travizory, and WCC—offer governments around the world software that uses algorithms on traveler data to profile passengers.… Continue Reading
