Given the increasing need to keep private data private in a world of habitual over-sharing on social media and the burgeoning internet of…
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Ind.ie scales back, focuses on Heartbeat social networking client
The pro-privacy project Ind.ie, which I covered a couple times last year, has scaled back its ambitions due to a lack of…
Read MoreEU legal advisers cast doubt on data retention legality
The European Parliament’s legal advisors have issued a report into the repercussions of last year’s ruling by the Court of Justice of…
Read MoreCharlie Hebdo murders are no excuse for killing online freedom
There’s been a predictable split in the reactions to Wednesday’s slaughter of the staff of French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, along with…
Read MoreUK watchdog: Public should wise up about surveillance cameras
The U.K.’s surveillance camera commissioner has warned that British citizens don’t seem to be aware of the implications of being constantly monitored…
Read MoreTutanota releases iOS encrypted email app after notifying NSA
The German encrypted email service Tutanota has released its iOS app, weeks after its Android app came out. The delay in the…
Read MoreFeds issue final order over Snapchat privacy incidents, but no fine
What do regulators do when a popular app deceives users about photos that “disappear forever” and scrapes their contact list without permission? Not much.…
Read MoreHow the internet’s engineers are fighting mass surveillance
The Internet Engineering Task Force has played down suggestions that the NSA is weakening the security of the internet through its standardization…
Read MoreOnline privacy will still be a mess a decade from now, experts say
Most experts surveyed by the Pew Center for its latest report on the future of the internet said that they expect online privacy will still be a battleground with constantly shifting expectations a decade from now…
Read MoreGoogle could face €15M privacy fine in the Netherlands
Google has been threatened with yet another fine in Europe over its cavalier approach to EU privacy laws. However, while previous fines…
Read MorePolice can search cell phones without warrant, Canada rules
Police in Canada don’t need a judge’s permission to search a suspect’s cell phone so long as they follow certain steps, the Supreme…
Read MoreWeb report: Online surveillance and censorship are getting worse
Mass online surveillance and censorship of what people see on the web appear to be getting worse, according to the latest Web…
Read MoreBlackphone to get privacy app store and self-contained ‘spaces’
The anti-surveillance Blackphone handset is about to get what its makers are billing as the world’s first privacy-focused app store, along with…
Read MoreShould we expect every messaging app to offer full privacy?
Earlier this week a bunch of former Skype employees launched a new app called Wire, which offers Skype-esque voice calls, messaging, and…
Read MoreUK cable-tapping programs are legal, spy court rules
The U.K.’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), a semi-secret court that deals with complaints over the authorities’ surveillance activities, has declared that the…
Read MoreGoogle’s cars return to German roads, but not for Street View
Yesterday, when I was walking down to my local Berlin food market at lunchtime, I saw a child pointing at a strange…
Read MoreBluetooth Low Energy gets new security features
Bluetooth Special Interest Group has ratified a new version of the Bluetooth Low Energy standard that adds new security features preventing people from sniffing out your Bluetooth signal.…
Read MoreWhy privacy is like the frog in the pot of boiling water
The growth of internet-funded businesses, software as a service, data as a service and other models have slowly and steadily changed the circumstances of our personal privacy online.…
Read MoreSocial media terms and conditions are way too complex, say UK MPs
The British Parliament's Science and Technology Committee seized on Facebook's emotion-manipulation study as a perfect example of why people need to be more aware of how their personal data is used.…
Read MoreTheGoodData wants your browsing data to benefit good causes
The data cooperative, owned by its users, combines privacy protection with a way of monetizing browsing and search data for the benefit of microloans in developing countries.…
Read MoreWhy the EU’s “right to be de-linked” should not go global
Google and other search engines should remove links to out-of-date or unwelcome personal information from all of their search results around the world – not just in specific European countries – when people in Europe ask for them to be taken down and there's no good reason not to, EU data protection officials have decided.…
Read MoreUnited Nations to vote on resolution condemning mass surveillance
The resolution cleared committee stage on Tuesday and will now go before the General Assembly in December.…
Read MoreUK soldier murder report blames Facebook for not policing users
The Intelligence and Security Committee report into the murder of Lee Rigby claimed that the failure of the firm to alert authorities to the killer's murderous desires was the "single issue" that stopped MI5 stepping up surveillance on him.…
Read MoreDelete Uber if you want, but it still has your data
The ongoing uproar over the ethically challenged Uber has brought about calls to delete the service. And to my surprise, some people are actually doing this: I've already seen a few friends boast on Facebook that their Uber app is no more.…
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