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Category Archives: Privacy

Brave launches FrodoPIR, a privacy-focused database query system

Via Brave – FrodoPIR: a new privacy-preserving approach for retrieving data. “To read more about our FrodoPIR scheme, you can find details here. The paper has been accepted to the Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETS), Vol. 2023, Issue 1, and will also appear here.” Bleeping Computer: “Brave Software developers have created a new privacy-centric… Continue Reading

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, December 24, 2022

Via LLRX – Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, December 24, 2022 – Privacy and cybersecurity 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

Fediscope

“FediScope lets you find fediverse accounts for people in a field using Wikidata. You can then compile a custom CSV and import it into Mastodon. It was made by @[email protected] (code | toggle dark mode).  Privacy: This tool directly interacts with Wikidata from your browser and does not log your queries. Wikidata creates records for… Continue Reading

Welcome to Hotel Elsevier: you can check-out any time you like … not

Dr. Eiko Fried: “In December 2021, Robin Kok wrote a series of tweets about his Elsevier data access request. I did the same a few days later. This here is the resulting collaborative blog post, summarizing our journey in trying to understand what data Elsevier collects; what data Elsevier has collected on us two specifically;… Continue Reading

Google is making its internal video-blurring privacy tool open source

engadget: “Google has announced that two of its latest privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs), including one that blurs objects in a video, will be provided to anyone for free via open source. The new tools are part of Google’s Protected Computing initiative designed to transform “how, when and where data is processed to technically ensure its privacy… Continue Reading

Spam texts are out of control, say all 51 attorneys general

FoxNews:”A proposal to force cellphone companies to block certain spam texts is gaining momentum. Meanwhile, there are simple things you can do right now to stop spam texts, which I’ll get to shortly. California Attorney General Rob Bonta has expressed his support for a proposal by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to put an end… Continue Reading

Inventing the dark Web: Criminalization of privacy and the apocalyptic turn in the imaginary of the Web

Inventing the dark Web: Criminalization of privacy and the apocalyptic turn in the imaginary of the Web by Thais Sardá, Simone Natale, and John Downey. First Monday, Volume 27, Number 11 – 7 November 2022. doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.5210/fm.v27i11.12691 “This paper examines how the deep Web, i.e., Web sites that are not indexed and thus are not… Continue Reading

Face Recognition Tech Gets Girl Scout Mom Booted From Rockettes Show — Due to Where She Works

NBC 4 New York: “A recent incident at Radio City Music Hall involving the mother of a Girl Scout is shedding light on the growing controversy of facial recognition, as critics claim it is being used to target perceived enemies — in this case, by one of the most famous companies in the country. Kelly… Continue Reading

Forever connected: the realities of parenting and growing up online

Password and Malwarebytes: “Forever connected: the realities of parenting and growing up online Have you posted those baby photos?” Decades ago, this would have sounded like gibberish. Today, we hear it all the time. Underneath these words is the understanding that we’ll share nearly everything online. And kids face the same expectation to build and… Continue Reading

Robot vacuum companies say your images are safe, but a sprawling global supply chain for data from our devices creates risk.

MIT Technology Review: “…The data collected by robot vacuums can be particularly invasive. They have “powerful hardware, powerful sensors,” says Dennis Giese, a PhD candidate at Northeastern University who studies the security vulnerabilities of Internet of Things devices, including robot vacuums. “And they can drive around in your home—and you have no way to control… Continue Reading