Americans who say their phones and laptops were seized by US border agents filed a lawsuit in Massachusetts on Wednesday arguing that their First and Fourth Amendment rights had been violated.
The widespread use of facial recognition technology is almost upon us. A new iPhone is on the horizon, and it might not even have a fingerprint reader—instead, you could be unlocking your phone with your face.
If you’ve ever considered sharing your every move with a significant other, you probably have an opinion about location-sharing apps. “This is great! I’ll always know where they are!” is one opinion. “This is creepy! I’m not trying to stalk someone I could easy talk to instead!” is another. I’m of that second opinion.
Bad news, Sonos customers: to lay the groundwork for its upcoming voice assistant support, the company is asking users to agree to an updated privacy policy, one that includes both mandatory data collection rules and a mention about future device functionality. Should you disagree with said policy update, your…
The US Department of Justice is rescinding its request for IP logs that would have revealed visitors to a website used to plan a protest during Donald Trump’s inauguration.
AccuWeather sneakily got access to your location data, even when you turn off location access to its app. But after getting called out by a security researcher, the company is going to knock it off.
A leading US supplier of voting machines confirmed on Thursday that it exposed the personal information of more than 1.8 million Illinois residents.
Uber has agreed to implement a “comprehensive privacy program” as part of a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, which alleged that the ride-hailing company stored data in an unsecured cloud service and didn’t monitor how often its employees looked at user data.
Android users are facing new threats to their privacy with the recent discovery of over a thousand spyware apps on the loose. A security firm found that at least three of these apps—which are capable of covertly taking photos, recording audio, retrieving call logs, and more—were available for download on Google Play.
As Russia transitions into an internet dystopia, it appears that Snapchat has been dragged right in. Today, Snapchat’s parent company Snap was registered as an “information distribution organizer.” And by July 1st, 2018, an amended law will require “information distribution organizers” to store months of user data,…
The Walt Disney Company is facing a lawsuit alleging it violated federal law aimed at protecting children’s online privacy. The company allegedly allowed ad tech companies to embed software in its apps, enabling the collection of children’s personal information.
Love makes people do dumb stuff. But there are practical, easy steps we can take to maintain our privacy during romantic relationships, and changing one simple behavior now could keep us safe later on if the relationship ends badly.
iRobot, the maker of Roomba, made big news this week when an interview with its CEO mentioned plans to sell the map data of customers’ homes to third parties. Today, the company launched damage control measures and the CEO is spreading assurances that this is all just a big misunderstanding.
A month after I ordered prenatal vitamins on Amazon, I started hearing an ad on Spotify that featured the sound of a baby’s heartbeat. It was an ad for a prenatal doctor.
The Roomba is generally regarded as a cute little robot friend that no one but dogs would consider to be a potential menace. But for the last couple of years, the robovacs have been quietly mapping homes to maximize efficiency. Now, the device’s makers plan to sell that data to smart home device manufacturers, turning…
The Indian government spent seven years compiling a national database that includes citizens’ iris scans, fingerprints, addresses, and phone numbers—and now Airbnb, Uber, and India ride-hailing service Ola are all interested in incorporating the system into their services, according to a report from BuzzFeed News.
Since the Echo’s release in 2014, millions of people have given in to Amazon’s nonstop advertising and welcomed Alexa into their homes. Amazon’s original sell for the always-on, voice-activated device was that users could “ask Echo for information, music, news, sports scores, and weather from across the room and get…
I’m listening to Lana Del Rey right now. Her first album dropped during an emotional phase of my life, and while I’m sometimes embarrassed to admit it, I really like Born to Die. But, until a week ago, I avoided listening to it because my listening activity flipped a switch with my friends who could see me listening…
Cloudflare and Credo Mobile today lost their fight to speak publicly about the National Security Letters they and other tech companies receive, which demand user data and frequently forbid companies from ever disclosing the demands to their users.
