Tag: Privacy

DHS Gave Border Agents Free Rein Over Thousands Of Warrantless Device Searches | CNET

mdbincbi

Border agents conducted more than 33,000 device searches in 2018. Court records show they were allowed to share what they found with other government agencies. Police are required to get a warrant to search through your devices, but the Department of Homeland Security’s border patrol agents haven’t been following those rules, documents show. The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed evidence in court on Tuesday detailing testimony and documents on how the DHS has allowed its agents to search through people’s phones and laptops without a…

Read More

Facebook Data Leak: Province-By-Province Breakdown Of Affected Canadians | CTV News

mdbincbi

The report was the result of a joint investigation launched a year ago by the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia. The probe was prompted by concerns that Facebook had broken Canadian privacy laws after it was revealed that the social media giant disclosed users’ personal information to a third-party app called “This is Your Digital Life” (TYDL) that was later used to deliver targeted political messaging by Cambridge Analytica. Read full story here: Facebook Data Leak: Province-By-Province Breakdown Of Affected Canadians |…

Read More

‘Is That Even Legal?’: Companies May Be Sharing New Credit Or Debit Card Information Without You Knowing | CBC News

mdbincbi

A Vancouver woman is sounding the alarm for millions of Canadians who have credit and debit cards, after information about her debit card was shared when it shouldn’t have been. Vanessa Acuña blames an “updating service” that some credit and debit card companies have that allows new account numbers and expiry dates to be shared with merchants customers have dealt with in the past. Read full story here: ‘Is That Even Legal?’: Companies May Be Sharing New Credit Or Debit Card Information Without You Knowing | CBC News

Read More

Law Enforcement Taps Google’s Sensorvault For Location Data, Report Says | CNET

mdbincbi

Police have used information from the search giant’s Sensorvault database to aid in criminal cases across the country, according to a report Saturday by the New York Times. The database has detailed location records from hundreds of millions of phones around the world, the report said. It’s meant to collect information on the users of Google’s products so the company can better target them with ads, and see how effective those ads are. Read full story here: Law Enforcement Taps Google’s Sensorvault For Location Data, Report Says | CNET

Read More

Microsoft: Hackers Compromised Support Agent’s Credentials To Access Customer Email Accounts | TechCrunch

mdbincbi

On the heels of a trove of 773 million emails, and tens of millions of passwords, from a variety of domains getting leaked in January, Microsoft has faced another breach affecting its web-based email services. Microsoft has confirmed to TechCrunch that a certain “limited” number of people who use web email services managed by Microsoft — which cover services like @msn.com and @hotmail.com — had their accounts compromised. Read full story here: Microsoft: Hackers Compromised Support Agent’s Credentials To Access Customer Email Accounts | TechCrunch

Read More

Thousands Of Amazon Workers Are Listening To What You Tell Alexa | BNN Bloomberg

mdbincbi

Tens of millions of people use smart speakers and their voice software to play games, find music or trawl for trivia. Millions more are reluctant to invite the devices and their powerful microphones into their homes out of concern that someone might be listening. Read full story here: Thousands Of Amazon Workers Are Listening To What You Tell Alexa | BNN Bloomberg

Read More

Amazon, Google, AI And Us: Are We Too Close For Comfort? | CNET

mdbincbi

Beyond facial recognition, we’re giving smart devices and platforms our intimate biometric details. Iris scanning is a powerful identification tool. Computers aren’t just getting smarter, they’re studying us more closely too. Whether it’s in the name of public safety, fraud protection or simple convenience, we’re feeding AI systems details that identify us and track our comings and goings. Read full story here: Amazon, Google, AI And Us: Are We Too Close For Comfort? | CNET

Read More

DEA Says AT&T Still Provides Access To Billions Of Phone Records | TechCrunch

mdbincbi

A program that allows drug agents to obtain a pool of billions of call records from AT&T is “still active,” according to a watchdog report. The report, published Thursday by the Justice Department inspector general, confirmed the program — named in the report only as Project C — continues to provide access to “billions” of domestic and international call records to Drug Enforcement Administration agents. The program allows agents to pull information about the callers and when and where a call was made from the telecoms provider operating the program…

Read More

House Aide: NSA Has Shut Down Phone Call Record Surveillance | Ars Technica

mdbincbi

The most controversial National Security Agency surveillance program, originally exposed by documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, has apparently ended quietly, according to the National Security Advisor to Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. In a discussion recorded for the Lawfare Podcast released on March 2, Luke Murry said that the NSA was no longer collecting call detail records—the metadata associated with phone calls and text messages—and that the Trump administration had not used the program for over six months. Read full story here: House Aide: NSA Has…

Read More

Facebook Won’t Let You Opt-Out Of Its Phone Number ‘Look Up’ Setting | TechCrunch

mdbincbi

Users are complaining that the phone number Facebook hassled them to use to secure their account with two-factor authentication has also been associated with their user profile — which anyone can use to “look up” your profile. Worse, Facebook doesn’t give you an option to opt-out. The recent hubbub began today after a tweet by Jeremy Burge blew up, criticizing Facebook’s collection and use of phone numbers, which he likened to “a unique ID that is used to link your identity across every platform on the internet.” Read full story…

Read More