“Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued General Motors for its false, deceptive, and misleading business practices related to its unlawful collection and sale of over 1.5 million Texans’ private driving data to insurance companies without their knowledge or consent. This action follows Attorney General Paxton’s June 2024 announcement that he opened an investigation into several car… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: E-Records
US government wants to make it easier for you to click the ‘unsubscribe’ button
“Today, President Biden and Vice President Harris are launching “Time Is Money,” a new governmentwide effort to crack down on all the ways that corporations—through excessive paperwork, hold times, and general aggravation—add unnecessary headaches and hassles to people’s days and degrade their quality of life. Americans are tired of being played for suckers, and President… Continue Reading
How to Turn Off AI Overview Results in Your Google Searches
How to Geek – “Have you been scrolling through Google settings looking for the button that turns off AI overviews in search? I tried it too and learned two things. First, there’s no official way to disable AI overviews. Luckily, there are workarounds to get rid of those experimental search results on Google. Google Doesn’t… Continue Reading
Thousands of Corporate Secrets Were Left Exposed. This Guy Found Them All
Wired – Security researcher Bill Demirkapi found more than 15,000 hardcoded secrets and 66,000 vulnerable websites—all by searching overlooked data sources [unpaywalled]: “If you know where to look, plenty of secrets can be found online. Since the fall of 2021, independent security researcher Bill Demirkapi has been building ways to tap into huge data sources,… Continue Reading
Evaluating People Search Site Removal Services
New Report: Data Defense: Evaluating People-Search Site Removal Services – “Seven years ago, I typed my own name into a search engine and was horrified to learn that my name, age, home address, and phone number were publicly posted by multiple people-search sites without my knowledge, let alone consent. Shortly after finding my own data… Continue Reading
Trump presidential library?
Via Ben Amata: A Trump presidential library exists and appears to be only digital – The Donald J. Trump Presidential records are governed by the Presidential Records Act (PRA). Under the provisions of the PRA, Trump Presidential records are not available to public access requests for the first five years after the end of the… Continue Reading
Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, August 9, 2024
Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, August 9, 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… Continue Reading
Public records data must be off-limits for AI
The Hill – “Companies are looking for innovative ways to collect data to feed their data-hungry artificial intelligence systems and create innovative applications. Fortunately, some do not have to go too far. Then, there are the companies that collect data from public records to share on the internet and run analytics. There are many compelling… Continue Reading
How to protect your college laptop: A student’s guide to cybersecurity
PCWorld: “Security is essential for any laptop, whether you’re on a college laptop, a gaming laptop, or especially a business laptop. But college laptops face unique challenges. For example, if you’re a student and you’re connecting your own laptop to your school’s network — perhaps in a dorm — then you should really be using… Continue Reading
Why you should use a VPN on your mobile device
ProtonVPN: “Growing public awareness about the threat posed to our fundamental right to privacy by online trackers has fueled a surge(new window) in VPN adoption, a trend that has been boosted thanks to people spending more time online due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Although VPN use is at an all-time high, many people still associate… Continue Reading
Microsoft Dynamics 365 called out for ‘worker surveillance’
The Register: “Microsoft Dynamics 365 provides “field service management” that allows customers to monitor mobile service workers through smartphone apps – allegedly to the detriment of their autonomy and dignity. According to a probe by Cracked Labs – an Austrian nonprofit research group – the software is part of a broader set of applications that… Continue Reading
Can ChatGPT-4o Be Trusted With Your Private Data?
Wired – OpenAI’s newest model is “a data hoover on steroids,” says one expert—but there are still ways to use it while minimizing risk. [unpaywalled]: “…On the face of it, OpenAI’s privacy policy does show a large amount of data collection, including personal information, usage data, and content provided when you use it. ChatGPT uses… Continue Reading
