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Most of us don’t fully understand how privacy works, how it extends beyond our browser history, or how we’re really vulnerable!

When you think about protecting your privacy, you probably think about your Facebook data or text messages. However, as I learned while working for a private investigations company, most of us don’t fully understand how privacy works, how it extends beyond our browser history, or how we’re really vulnerable.
Read more: http://www.lifehacker.co.uk/2015/06/24/privacy-isnt-just-digital-learned-private-investigations
Posted by Dont Mine on me

Uber data collection shift should be barred, privacy group urges!

A digital-privacy group has filed a complaint against Uber, saying the company’s new privacy policy says it could use a rider’s location information to track where they are even when the app is running in the background, and also takes issue with the company’s policy regarding collecting address book information. The Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, D.C wants the FTC to investigate.
Read more: http://consumerist.com/2015/06/22/privacy-groups-ftc-complaint-uber-shouldnt-track-users-when-theyre-not-using-the-app/
Posted by Dont Mine on Me

We know where you’ve been:
Ars acquires 4.6M license plate scans from the cops!

In a rare move against the advance of license plate readers, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal (R) has vetoed a plan to acquire the scanners in the Bayou State. It had previously passed both houses of the Louisiana legislature overwhelmingly.
Read more: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/06/louisiana-governor-vetoes-license-plate-reader-bill-citing-privacy-concerns/
Posted by Dont Mine on Me

WhatsApp users, your personal data might be at risk!

TWO YEARS SINCE Edward Snowden became a household name, technology companies are competing like never before for privacy bragging rights. In that race, Google may have just dropped out of the lead group. And WhatsApp faceplanted at the starting line.
In the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s annual “Who’s Got Your Back” privacy scorecard that rates companies’ protection of their users’ data from government surveillance and censorship, Google slipped for the first time, receiving only three stars out of five…
Read more: http://www.wired.com/2015/06/rating-tech-giants-privacy-google-slips-whatsapp-fails/
Posted by Dont Mine on Me

“It’s really a myth that you need to track people to make money in search!”- Duck Duck Go CEO Gabriel Weinberg

Privacy-first search aggregator DuckDuckDuckGo has grown a whopping 600 percent since NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden began revealing the extent of the US spying apparatus.
The search engine uses sites including Wikipedia, Yandex, Yahoo!, Bing and Yummly and offers users bare-bones search results without the personalisation and tracking wizardry which powers Google.
Chief executive officer Gabriel Weinberg told CNBC it crunches some three billion searches a year. “We’ve grown 600 percent since the surveillance revelations two years ago,” Weinberg says.
Read more: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/06/18/duckduckgrow_privacy_search_soars_after_snowden_dumps/
Posted by Dont Mine on Me

Many people still don’t fully understand the privacy issues around wearable technology!

As more wearable devices continue to enter into the market and into our lives, questions are being raised as to how vulnerable this may be making us when it comes to potential security and privacy risks.
Smartphones already have the capacity to hold a large quantity of data about us as individuals and wearable technology is likely to work in a similar way — with fitness trackers able to store information about our health, for example, or the routes taken during exercise sessions.
Read more: http://betanews.com/2015/06/15/privacy-concerns-stand-against-wearable-adoption/
Posted by Dont Mine on Me

Unencrypted information of this kind this is disgraceful – it really is disgraceful!!

Deeply personal information submitted by U.S. intelligence and military personnel for security clearances – mental illnesses, drug and alcohol use, past arrests, bankruptcies and more – is in the hands of hackers linked to China, officials say.
In describing a cyberbreach of federal records dramatically worse than first acknowledged, authorities point to Standard Form 86, which applicants are required to complete. Applicants also must list contacts and relatives, potentially exposing any foreign relatives of U.S. intelligence employees to coercion. Both the applicant’s Social Security number and that of his or her cohabitant are required.
Read more: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/personal-information-u-s-intelligence-military-personnel-may-chinese-hackers-hands/
Posted by Dont Mine on Me

It’s easy to understand why this type of targeting may freak some users out!

For the past six months, Twitter has been collecting data on which smartphone apps its users download. Now, the company is using that data to make some money.
Twitter announced on Wednesday that its advertisers can use that app information to target users with ads. Marketers will be able to target you based on the different categories of apps you have downloaded onto your phone as well as how recently you downloaded them.
Read more: http://recode.net/2015/06/10/twitter-advertisers-can-now-target-you-based-on-the-other-apps-on-your-phone/
Posted by Dont Mine on Me

If personal data is the collective American soul, it has been sold to the metaphorical devil of Silicon Valley!

In what may be one of the most dejected research results of the year, a new study from the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication has determined that Americans are painfully aware of just how little control they have over how their data is being used by companies like Facebook and Google, and that they’re not happy about it. But despite their displeasure, most Americans seem to view it as a necessary evil, and are begrudgingly engaging in tradeoffs that they view, albeit uncomfortably, as a product of the times. If personal data is the collective American soul, it has been sold to the metaphorical devil of Silicon Valley.

Read more: http://www.digitaltrends.com/web/americans-not-happy-with-lack-of-online-privacy
Posted by Dont Mine on Me

The threat was first discovered when one PhishMe user received a message over Skype, where the other party tried several times to contact him.

Skype users, beware. There are nefarious links being spread around through Skype, and if you click them you will be presented with a lot of adware. However, there are good news, and bad news here.
Researchers at the security behavior management company PhishMe have identified a campaign in which Skype was used to distribute adware, SC Magazine reported on Wednesday.
Read more: http://betanews.com/2015/06/08/adware-spreading-through-skype-links/
Posted by Dont Mine on Me