#user-privacy

#user-privacy

Imagine using an AI to sort through your prescriptions and medical information, asking it if it saved that data for future conversations, and then watching it claim it had even if it couldn't. Joe D., a retired software quality assurance (SQA) engineer, says that Google Gemini lied to him and later admitted it was doing so to try and placate him.

In the past year, DHS has consistently targeted people engaged in First Amendment activity. Among other things, the agency has issued subpoenas to technology companies to unmask or locate people who have documented ICE's activities in their community, criticized the government, or attended protests. These subpoenas are unlawful, and the government knowns it. When a handful of users challenged a few of them in court with the help of ACLU affiliates in Northern California and Pennsylvania, DHS them rather than waiting for a decision.

OpenAI's decision to introduce advertisements into ChatGPT has sparked serious concerns about privacy, trust, and the ethical complexities of monetizing artificial intelligence. This shift marks a dramatic departure from earlier assurances by OpenAI's leadership, who once described pairing ads with AI as a "last resort." For users who rely on ChatGPT for everything from brainstorming ideas to sharing sensitive information, the implications of this change feel deeply personal, and potentially unsettling.

The bill, sponsored by Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Rep. Maria Salazar (R-FL), sought to speed up the removal of troubling online content: non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII). The spread of NCII is a serious problem, as is digitally altered NCII, sometimes called "deepfakes." That's why 48 states have specific laws criminalizing the distribution of NCII, in addition to the long-existing defamation, harassment, and extortion

The Indian government has officially rescinded a controversial mandate that would have forced smartphone manufacturers to ship new devices with a state-run cybersafety tool preloaded. The decision, confirmed by India's telecoms ministry on Wednesday, marks a swift policy reversal following significant resistance from global tech giants and privacy advocates. The initial directive, issued confidentially on Nov. 28, set a 90-day deadline for vendors to integrate the Sanchar Saathi app into their firmware, with the stipulation that users must not be allowed to delete it.

This has been revealed by Austrian researchers, who were able to extract phone numbers for all 3.5 billion WhatsApp users. And for around 57% of those 3.5 billion users, the researchers were also able to access their profile photos, and for another 29%, the text on their profiles. If you're wondering what black hat hacking magic trick they needed to use, well, none.

Apple has always pushed hard on the need for user privacy. Apple CEO Tim Cook has spoken about the threat of a surveillance economy and Craig Federighi, Apple's software vice president, gave an extensive speech on the topic at the European Data Protection and Privacy Conference in 2020. "The mass centralization of data puts privacy at risk," he said then, "no matter who's collecting it and what their intentions might be. So ,we believe Apple should have as little data about our customers as possible.

"When you read content on X, you should be able to verify its authenticity," Bier posted on X. "This is critical to getting a pulse on important issues happening in the world."

If true, this new order is not 'less worse' than the first. That's because, as we have been saying all along, Apple cannot undermine end-to-end encryption of iCloud services only for the UK when those services are used worldwide. If Apple breaks end-to-end encryption for the UK, it breaks it for everyone. The resulting vulnerability can be exploited by hostile states, criminals and other bad actors the world over.

LinkedIn Corp. and Meta Platforms Inc. are among the companies that have been emboldened to train their artificial intelligence on the personal data of European users, testing EU regulators' approach to privacy enforcement.

Mastodon, an open source, decentralized alternative to X, is rolling out a somewhat controversial feature by adding quote posts, which will launch next week. The feature, which allows a user to quote someone else's post and re-share it with their own response or commentary, has contributed to a culture of " dunking " on X, where users often deride other people by responding with snark or insulting humor. To address this concern, Mastodon says it's implementing quote posts with safety controls.

It scans your site and updates itself accordingly. You won't have to struggle to figure out a new API, monkey with site code to get a consent form working for your tools, or swap out one tool for another because of incompatibility. In fact all you need to do on your site to get started is copy and paste the code Cookiebot generates for you into your site header.

A US federal court has told Google to pay $425m (316.3m) for breaching users' privacy by collecting data from millions of users even after they had turned off a tracking feature in their Google accounts. The verdict comes after a group of users brought the case claiming Google accessed users' mobile devices to collect, save and use their data, in violation of privacy assurances in its Web & App Activity setting. They had been seeking more than $31bn in damages.

The US government backed Apple in its fight against a UK order for encrypted user data access, resulting in the UK agreeing to drop the demand after talks.

Instagram is launching a new feature called Instagram Map that allows friends to share their real-time locations, enhancing user visibility and connection.

Retail media networks, like those launched by RE/MAX, exemplify how traditional companies can tap into diverse advertising revenue beyond their primary markets.

Fitify exposed 373K files including 138K progress photos through unsecured Google cloud storage.

Whether sharing your name and address for food deliveries, or phone numbers when making a booking at a barber shop, there is no guarantee that businesses are keeping crucial information safe and secure, said Sarunas Sereika, product manager at Surfshark, which carried out the research.

Citizen has launched a 'NYC Public Safety' account to alert three million users about emergencies, crimes, and safety tips, targeting notifications by neighborhood.

The technique used to achieve this was truly innovative, and akin to malware behaviour. It exploited protocols to break the isolation between apps and browsers, a fundamental security concept meant to protect users.

"Obviously, you don't want to spend too much on this solution, and it can be expensive because the model itself is pretty expensive, but at the same, you don't want to make that number too small, because like in some in a lot of ways, I think every dollar into this system, you know, is like more than one dollar out."

The federal judge has granted the New York Times and its co-plaintiffs access to OpenAI's user archives, including deleted materials, amid a copyright infringement lawsuit.

IVPN offers an impressive level of user privacy, standing out in comparison to established services like NordVPN, while matching great speeds with Mullvad VPN.