All posts tagged: privacy

Apple’s Privacy Team Does Deep Dive Into iOS 18 Privacy Features

Apple’s Privacy Team Does Deep Dive Into iOS 18 Privacy Features

Published by skeptic

Apple’s User Privacy Engineering Manager Katie Skinner and Privacy Product Marketing Lead Sandy Parakilas recently sat down with YouTuber Andru Edwards for a wide-ranging discussion on Apple’s privacy policies. Topics covered include Apple’s approach to privacy, the ways Apple contends with privacy laws in different countries, and how Apple deals with government requests, plus there’s a good deal of information on the new features in iOS 18. Some of what’s discussed covers privacy information that Apple has reiterated over and over again, but there are some interesting tidbits on Apple’s adoption of ChatGPT, Maps privacy, the Passwords app, and accessory pairing in ‌iOS 18‌. It’s a long discussion at almost 45 minutes, but worth it for those who want a bit more insight into Apple’s philosophy on privacy. Popular Stories iPhone 17 Lineup Specs Detail Display Upgrade and New High-End Model Key details about the overall specifications of the iPhone 17 lineup have been shared by the leaker known as “Ice Universe,” clarifying several important aspects of next year’s devices. Reports in recent months have …

Google’s latest Privacy Sandbox gambit could pit user choice against tracking

Google’s latest Privacy Sandbox gambit could pit user choice against tracking

Published by skeptic

In a material development that will likely have a big impact on online business models, Google is no longer proposing to deprecate third-party tracking cookies in its Chrome browser. Instead, it appears to be suggesting that users should be given a choice to accept or deny ad tracking at the browser level. Google’s move will be subject to regulatory oversight in the U.K., so it is not yet confirmed. Still, it could cast doubt on the uptake of Privacy Sandbox, its long-brewing alternative tech stack for personalized ad targeting that does not use cookies to track and profile users. “[W]e are proposing an updated approach that elevates user choice. Instead of deprecating third-party cookies, we would introduce a new experience in Chrome that lets people make an informed choice that applies across their web browsing, and they’d be able to adjust that choice at any time. We’re discussing this new path with regulators, and will engage with the industry as we roll this out,” Google’s VP of Privacy Sandbox, Anthony Chavez, wrote in a blog …

‘TunnelVision’ Attack Leaves Nearly All VPNs Vulnerable to Spying

‘TunnelVision’ Attack Leaves Nearly All VPNs Vulnerable to Spying

Published by skeptic

Researchers have devised an attack against nearly all virtual private network applications that forces them to send and receive some or all traffic outside of the encrypted tunnel designed to protect it from snooping or tampering. TunnelVision, as the researchers have named their attack, largely negates the entire purpose and selling point of VPNs, which is to encapsulate incoming and outgoing Internet traffic in an encrypted tunnel and to cloak the user’s IP address. The researchers believe it affects all VPN applications when they’re connected to a hostile network and that there are no ways to prevent such attacks except when the user’s VPN runs on Linux or Android. They also said their attack technique may have been possible since 2002 and may already have been discovered and used in the wild since then. Reading, Dropping, or Modifying VPN Traffic The effect of TunnelVision is that “the victim’s traffic is now decloaked and being routed through the attacker directly,” a video demonstration explained. “The attacker can read, drop or modify the leaked traffic and the …

Why Reddit’s new content policy is a big win for your privacy

Why Reddit’s new content policy is a big win for your privacy

Published by skeptic

picture alliance/Getty Images Reddit has introduced a new public content policy that lays out a framework for how partners and third parties can access user-posted content on its site. This policy will apply alongside the site’s existing privacy policy, which covers how Reddit handles private user data, and its current content policy, which covers what sort of content is allowed on the platform. In a win for user privacy, the new policy dramatically limits what outside parties can do with the content users post.   Also: Delete yourself from the internet with the best online data removal services “We believe in the open internet,” an announcement about the policy begins. “We also believe that privacy is a right.” The post explains that more and more companies are using unsavory means to access user data in bulk, including Reddit posts. Once a company gets this data, there’s no limit to what it can do with it. Reddit will continue to block “bad actors” that use unauthorized methods to get data, the company says, but it’s taking …

Pennsylvania House Passes Bill Restricting How Social Media Companies Treat Minors

Pennsylvania House Passes Bill Restricting How Social Media Companies Treat Minors

Published by skeptic

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s state House of Representatives on Wednesday approved legislation aimed at regulating how online social media platforms interact with children, although its provisions are similar to those in state laws being blocked in federal courts or in a case before the U.S. Supreme Court. The bill passed nearly along party lines, 105-95, with 10 Republicans voting with most Democrats for it and seven Democrats voting with most Republicans against it. It faces an uncertain future in the Republican-controlled state Senate, and the nation’s highest court may soon decide whether state-level provisions like the ones in the bill can be enforced. The bill would require social media platforms to allow users to report “hateful conduct,” such as threats or bullying, and publicize a policy for how they will respond to such reports. It also would require users under 18 to get parental consent and bar the platforms from “data mining” users under 18, or sifting through their user data to find specific information or develop insight into patterns or habits. The sponsor, …

Top FBI Official Urges Agents to Use Warrantless Wiretaps on US Soil

Top FBI Official Urges Agents to Use Warrantless Wiretaps on US Soil

Published by skeptic

House Intelligence Committee chair Mike Turner and ranking member Jim Himes blasted out invitations announcing a “bipartisan celebration” of the 702 program’s continuation last week. The event, which the lawmakers have dubbed FISA Fest, is being held in a reception room in the US Capitol building Wednesday night. A House Intelligence Committee spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. Turner and Himes were instrumental in preserving the FBI’s warrantless access to 702 data. In countless “briefings” since October, the pair urged members of their respective parties to avoid reining in the FBI’s authority too greatly. Instead, the new procedures designed by the bureau itself were touted by both lawmakers as a sufficient bulwark against further abuse. Narrowly winning that battle last month, Himes and Turner worked to kill an amendment that would have forced FBI employees to get search warrants before reviewing the communications of Americans swept up by the program. (The amendment, opposed by the Biden White House, failed in a tie vote, 212-212.) Instead, the FBI’s procedures, now part of the …

Microsoft goes from bad boy to top cop in the age of AI

Microsoft goes from bad boy to top cop in the age of AI

Published by skeptic

This article is part of a series, Bots and ballots: How artificial intelligence is reshaping elections worldwide, presented by Luminate. REDMOND, Wash. — In a shabby corner of Microsoft’s sprawling campus in this suburb of Seattle, Juan Lavista Ferres spun around in his chair and, with a mischievous grin, asked a simple question: “Do you want to play a game?” Microsoft’s chief data scientist — speaking at a frenetic pace, seemingly powered by unlimited free soft drinks and espressos from the building’s unkempt kitchen — pushed himself across his office and typed something into his computer. Within seconds, an image of former U.S. President Donald Trump popped up on the Uruguayan’s massive flatscreen monitor. “What do you think?” he asked, laughing. “Is this real or fake?” This is not just a game. (The Trump photo is an AI-generated forgery.) Lavista Ferres also runs the company’s AI For Good Lab in a converted warehouse here that still has the loading docks left over from when Microsoft used to ship floppy disks to customers worldwide. Alongside efforts to use …

A New Surveillance Tool Invades Border Towns

A New Surveillance Tool Invades Border Towns

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This week, WIRED reported that a group of prolific scammers known as the Yahoo Boys are openly operating on major platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, TikTok, and Telegram. Evading content moderation systems, the group organizes and engages in criminal activities that range from scams to sextortion schemes. On Wednesday, researchers published a paper detailing a new AI-based methodology to detect the “shape” of suspected money laundering activity on a blockchain. The researchers—composed of scientists from the cryptocurrency tracing firm Elliptic, MIT, and IBM—collected patterns of bitcoin transactions from known scammers to an exchange where dirty crypto could get turned into cash. They used this data to train an AI model to detect similar patterns. Governments and industry experts are sounding the alarm about the potential for major airline disasters due to increasing attacks against GPS systems in the Baltic region since the start of the war in Ukraine. The attacks can jam or spoof GPS signals, and can result in serious navigation issues. Officials in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania blame Russia for the GPS issues in …

A Lawsuit Argues Meta Is Required by Law to Let You Control Your Own Feed

A Lawsuit Argues Meta Is Required by Law to Let You Control Your Own Feed

Published by skeptic

A lawsuit filed Wednesday against Meta argues that US law requires the company to let people use unofficial add-ons to gain more control over their social feeds. It’s the latest in a series of disputes in which the company has tussled with researchers and developers over tools that give users extra privacy options or that collect research data. It could clear the way for researchers to release add-ons that aid research into how the algorithms on social platforms affect their users, and it could give people more control over the algorithms that shape their lives. The suit was filed by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University on behalf of researcher Ethan Zuckerman, an associate professor at the University of Massachusetts—Amherst. It attempts to take a federal law that has generally shielded social networks and use it as a tool forcing transparency. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is best known for allowing social media companies to evade legal liability for content on their platforms. Zuckerman’s suit argues that one of its subsections …