Krebs on Security: “Many organizations — including quite a few Fortune 500 firms — have exposed web links that allow anyone to initiate a Zoom video conference meeting as a valid employee. These company-specific Zoom links, which include a permanent user ID number and an embedded passcode, can work indefinitely and expose an organization’s employees,… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Privacy
Cities Should Act NOW to Ban Predictive Policing
EFF: “Sound Thinking, the company behind ShotSpotter—an acoustic gunshot detection technology that is rife with problems—is reportedly buying Geolitica, the company behind PredPol, a predictive policing technology known to exacerbate inequalities by directing police to already massively surveilled communities. Sound Thinking acquired the other major predictive policing technology—Hunchlab—in 2018. This consolidation of harmful and flawed… Continue Reading
Firefox 118 brings browser-based website translation
Liliputing.com: “Web browsers have had tools that let you translate websites for years. But they typically rely on cloud-based translation services like Google Translate or Microsoft’s Bing Translator. The latest version of Mozilla’s Firefox web browser does things differently. Firefox 118 brings support for Fullpage Translation, which can translate websites entirely in your browser. In… Continue Reading
H&R Block, Meta, and Google Slapped With RICO Suit
Gizmodo: “Anyone who has used H&R Block’s tax return preparation services in recent years may have unintentionally helped line Meta and Google’s pockets. That’s according to a new class action lawsuit which alleges the three companies “jointly schemed” to install trackers on the H&R Block site to scan and transmit tax data back to the… Continue Reading
Privacy washing: Google claims to support privacy while lobbying against it
Proton Blog: “In the public eye, Google presents itself as a champion of privacy. “Privacy is at the heart of everything we do,” its CEO said (new window / X-Twiiter posting). But behind closed doors, Google is telling a different story to policymakers and actively fighting against privacy laws that would protect you from online… Continue Reading
5 easy ways to run an LLM locally
InfoWorld: “Chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude.ai, and phind can be quite helpful, but you might not always want your questions or sensitive data handled by an external application. That’s especially true on platforms where your interactions may be reviewed by humans and otherwise used to help train future models. One solution is to download a large language… Continue Reading
How to keep junk snail mail out of your mailbox forever (sort of)
Washington Post: “…Mail volumes in the United States peaked in 2011, but junk mail has continued almost unabated. Last year, roughly 63 billion catalogues, postcards, credit card offers and coupon booklets arrived in America’s mailboxes. That’s 62 percent of all U.S. household mail, reports the U.S. Postal Service. This takes a heavy environmental toll. The… Continue Reading
Is Amazon Alexa spying on you?
Proton VPN Blog: “Amazon and third parties (including advertising and tracking services) collect smart speaker interaction data. We find that Amazon processes voice data to infer user interests and uses it to serve targeted ads on-platform (Echo devices) as well as off-platform (web). Smart speaker interaction leads to as much as 30X higher ad bids… Continue Reading
CISA Toolkit Encouraging Americans to Keep Themselves and Families Safe Online
“The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) today announced the launch of “Secure Our World,” a nationwide cybersecurity public awareness campaign to educate all Americans on how to stay safe online. The campaign includes a public service announcement (PSA) that will air on stations around the country, as well as digital content, a toolkit, and… Continue Reading
Google Indexing Public Bard Conversations In Search Results
Search Engine Journal: “…On X, formerly Twitter, people report links to conversations with Google’s Bard chatbot are appearing in search results, raising concerns about privacy and data security. You can replicate what others are seeing by typing ‘site:bard.google.com/share‘ into the Google Search bar. This has sparked a wave of concern among Bard users. Google hasn’t… Continue Reading
Behind the Scenes at ‘Have I Been Pwned’
Via Slashdot and contributor slincolne [the link is behind a paywall]: “The founder of the data-breach notification site Have I Been Pwned manages “the largest known repository of stolen data on the planet,” reports Australia’s public broadcaster ABC, including over 6 billion email address. Yet with no employees, Troy Hunt manages all of the technical… Continue Reading
The Man Who Trapped Us in Databases
The New York Times [read free]- “Hank Asher was a drug smuggler with a head for numbers — until he figured out how to turn Americans’ private information into a big business. One of Asher’s innovations — or more precisely one of his companies’ innovations — was what is now known as the LexID. My… Continue Reading
