privacy Latest news (2)

Jacob Blazewicz, 02 March 2020, 23:51

Representatives of Microsoft and IBM signed Pope Francis' document on the ethical development of artificial intelligence. The companies have undertaken to promote the development of technology with respect for human rights, with particular emphasis on the face recognition system.

Bart Swiatek, 25 February 2020, 22:39

Researchers at Trinity College Dublin have conducted a test to see which browsers provide the most privacy for their users. Brave was the best, and Microsoft Edge was the worst.

Bart Swiatek, 21 February 2020, 13:00

Facebook will pay users for voice recordings. The aim of the initiative is to improve speech recognition technology. In the past, the company was caught eavesdropping on customers without their knowledge.

Bart Swiatek, 31 January 2020, 13:41

Avast's CEO has apologized to his customers and informed them that the company's subsidiary, Jumpshot, has been closed. The case is related to recent controversy over the sale of user data. The information was collected by the plug-in installed with the Avast antivirus software.

Bart Swiatek, 28 January 2020, 17:26

Avast, developer of the popular free Avast and AVG antivirus software, used the browser plug-in installed with them to collect private user data. The information was then sold to third parties by Avast's subsidiary Jumpshot.

Bart Swiatek, 27 January 2020, 11:39

Google has begun to require public services such as the police and the prosecutor's office to pay for the handling of court orders in the USA. Access to user data subject to a process or investigation was priced at USD 45-245, depending on the type of request and the amount of information requested.

Bart Swiatek, 20 January 2020, 10:54

According to reports from Reuters, the European Union is considering a five-year ban on the use of face recognition technology in public places. This would prevent abuse and allow for working out solutions to protect citizens. The idea appeared in an extensive report created by the European Commission.

Bart Swiatek, 15 January 2020, 12:43

Jason Schuh, director of the engineering team responsible for the Chrome browser, said in a blog note that the said app will prevent companies from tracking web traffic using cookies in the future. The idea would come into effect in two years' time and is currently being consulted with representatives of other companies.

Krzysztof Kaluzinski, 15 November 2019, 21:12

Brave 1.0 Browser is a proposal for people who want to protect their privacy. According to its creators, it works faster and offers more security than some of its competitors. It can be downloaded for free on PC and mobile devices.

Bart Swiatek, 13 November 2019, 13:17

In one of the latest versions of the Facebook app for iOS, there was a bug, which in some cases resulted in the camera starting automatically. There is no evidence that the program was recording or taking pictures of something. The error was fixed in yesterday's update.

Bart Swiatek, 11 October 2019, 19:30

The recently published „EU coordinated risk assessment of the cybersecurity of 5G networks” report summarises the most important risks associated with the implementation of the new communication standard. One of the issues raised is the danger of entrusting the development of infrastructure to a single company, which may be under the influence of an external state.

Bart Swiatek, 04 October 2019, 12:06

Problems with the FIFA Global Series gameplay registration system that launched yesterday led to a serious leak of user data. The registration website has been taken offline. Electronic Arts is in the process of analyzing the situation.

Bart Swiatek, 02 October 2019, 09:57

The recently announced new connectivity standard called Sidewalk can enable Amazon to track millions of users of its mobile devices. This also applies to people who do not intend to use the network created by the company.

Barth Faryna, 27 September 2019, 14:04

It's confirmed - today Facebook starts tests of a tool that allows you to hide like counts under Facebook posts. Initially, the option will be made available to residents of Australia. In addition, Facebook recently confirmed that politicians are a privileged group on the portal.

Paul Wozniak, 22 September 2019, 22:02

A few days ago a closed beta of incognito mode in Google Maps has begun. Currently, it is only available to owners of Android devices and members of Google Maps Preview.

Julia Dragovic, 19 September 2019, 18:47

SORM, a system used to monitor the Internet and telecommunication activity of Russians, has once again become a subject of controversy. The disclosed Nokia documents show how the system helps Russia to keep track of its citizens. One might start asking some uncomfortable questions about human rights violation.

Barth Faryna, 17 September 2019, 13:32

The iOS 13 system, which is due to be launched this week, offers many new measures to protect users' privacy. One of them is to notify people when applications try to secretly spy without their consent. People who downloaded early versions of the software are warned about Facebook.

Paul Wozniak, 12 September 2019, 11:14

Donald Trump's government is considering a new proposal to combat mass shootings, whereby the phones of people with mental health problems would be tracked to prevent acts of aggression.

Barth Faryna, 06 September 2019, 22:03

Facebook's got another big flop. A total of 419 million Facebook user phone numbers were found on a server, which could be accessed by almost anyone because it was not even password-protected.

Julia Dragovic, 04 September 2019, 22:14

Facebook has changed its facial recognition settings - the option will no longer be active by default. As before on Instagram, the corporation is also conducting tests to remove the like counter and reactions to posts.

Konrad Serafinski, 02 September 2019, 11:12

The Federal Trade Commission ruled that YouTube had violated the Children's Online Privacy Act by displaying advertisements personalised for children. It is said that Google may have to pay a $200 million fine. Many people think, however, that this amount is hardly enough.

Julia Dragovic, 29 August 2019, 23:25

Apple apologizes for having outsourced the listening of user conversations recorded by Siri and promises to improve. Now the company will do it by itself. And only if we want it to.

Barth Faryna, 23 August 2019, 17:34

First Facebook, Apple, Google and Amazon, and now it's time for Microsoft. The Redmond giant openly admitted that it eavesdropped on Xbox users and then shared these recordings with third parties. The best part, however, is that the company sees nothing wrong with it.

Conrad Hazi, 16 August 2019, 14:00

Microsoft has recently updated its privacy policy and clarified how Cortana and Skype recordings are used. As it turns out, the company from Redmond also uses third parties to assess the quality of the speech recognition mechanism and provides them with fragments of recordings.

Bart Swiatek, 14 August 2019, 12:54

Zuckerberg's social networking website commissioned external companies to transcribe private voice messages of its users. The official objective was to check the effectiveness of the AI developed by the company.

Bart Swiatek, 02 August 2019, 11:35

The German Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information has banned Google from listening to sound material recorded through the use of Smart Assistant app. The company agreed and offered to refrain from this practice throughout the European Union for a certain period of time.

Bart Swiatek, 26 July 2019, 12:09

Google has decided to change the policy for Chrome browser extensions. Add-ons will only be able to request user data that is necessary for their operation. The changes will enter into force in October. Extensions that are not adapted to the new requirements will disappear from the Chrome Web Store.

Julia Dragovic, 18 July 2019, 11:52

Wireless Lab, the owner of FaceApp, is registered in Russia, which raises some doubts among its users. The developers have already made an official statement, and in the United States, Senator Chuck Schumer has written a letter to the FBI asking for an investigation into the processing of user data.

Barth Faryna, 11 July 2019, 14:19

Microsoft account activity policy will be updated soon. Until now, the regulations provided for the permanent removal of the user's account after five years. Now the period has been reduced to two years. However, there is a number of exceptions.

Bart Swiatek, 22 May 2019, 12:43

Epic Games Support has mistakenly sent private information about one user to another person. The injured party was informed of the leak. Representatives of the company also contacted the user who received the problematic message asking for its removal.

Bart Swiatek, 20 May 2019, 13:05

The CNBC TV station reports that Google collects data about purchases we make on the Internet. Information is collected through messages sent to Gmail mailboxes.

Milosz Szubert, 08 May 2019, 13:02

During the I/O 2019 conference, Google announced the extension of incognito mode to other applications, which will allow more private use. This feature will soon appear in Google Maps and Google search engine.

Jakub Mirowski, 01 May 2019, 20:36

During the Facebook developers' conference, Mark Zuckerberg announced a new direction of development for the platform. The popular social website will now focus on protecting the privacy of users and small communities.

Bart Swiatek, 30 April 2019, 13:38

Researchers at the Oxford Internet Institute show that in 2070 the number of Facebook profiles of dead users will be greater than the number of living people using the website. The situation raises numerous questions about the privacy of deceased people's data.

ElMundo, 19 April 2019, 12:42

Facebook user data managing gets another black eye – this time, a representatives of the service admitted that the service used data obtained from e-mail accounts of about 1.5 million users without the consent of individual persons.

Bart Swiatek, 12 April 2019, 00:06

Bloomberg Agency reports that special teams hired by Amazon are assigned to listening and analyzing fragments of conversations recorded by the AI assistant Alexa.

Frozen, 22 March 2019, 22:17

Passwords of hundreds of millions of Facebook users were stored on company servers in unencrypted form since at least seven years, reports KrebsOnSecurity.

Michael Kulakowski, 17 March 2019, 00:45

Valve has answered the controversies related to Epic Games Store client, which allegedly downloads sensitive user data related to their Steam account.

Jacob Blazewicz, 15 March 2019, 21:23

Another day, another Epic Games Store controversy. The online community believes that the platform downloads sensitive user data from Steam files, including friend lists and stats on the games they have played. Epic Games denied the accusations.

Bart Swiatek, 11 February 2019, 14:18

In the mobile edition of Opera browser appeared an interesting feature known from its "big," computer variety – a VPN, totally for free. The function is available in the beta version dedicated to Android devices.

Bart Swiatek, 31 January 2019, 13:57

Tech Crunch reports that Facebook used a special app to collect the data of its users for money.

Bart Swiatek, 22 January 2019, 12:48

The French Data Protection Authority has fined Google for insufficient transparency when handling user's private data.

Frozen, 18 January 2019, 23:38

The file containing data of almost 773 million e-mail addresses was available to the public on a popular hosting service. The information came from attacks on thousands of different websites.

Conrad Hazi, 04 January 2019, 17:37

The default application for sending SMS on Android receives an anti-spam filter. To protect us from unwanted content, it will analyze incoming and outgoing messages and phone numbers, which raises understandable concerns about privacy protection.