Tag Archives: Privacy
Hacked vs. Hackers: Game On
by Nicole Perlroth, The New York Times
The impact on consumers has been vast. Last year, over 552 million people had their identities stolen, according to Symantec, and nearly 25,000 Americans had sensitive health information compromised — every day — according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Over half of Americans, including President Obama, had to have their credit cards replaced at least once because of a breach … . But if there is a silver lining to the current predicament … security experts say it is that computer security, long an afterthought, has been forced into the national consciousness. Read More ›
Uber’s Android App Is Reportedly Collecting a Huge Amount of Data Without Your Knowledge
by Chris Smith, BGR
Uber has been recently hit by various controversies, and it looks like the company’s PR team will have one more thing to clean up: its Android application. According to a report from Joe’s Security Blog and a post on Y Combinato’r Hacker News further detailing the matter, the official Uber Android app might be spying on users, collecting various data that it shouldn’t have access to in the first place. Read More ›
Uber and a Fraught New Era for Tech
by Christopher Mims, Wall Street Journal
So, really, why should Uber care about privacy? … I’d like to argue that a company doesn’t have to be like Uber to experience its success. But the evidence is that tech has changed. As more tech companies in name only emerge—think of all the food, infrastructure and other startups for which tech is merely an enabler—they are subject to the same savage market forces that shape every industry they attempt to disrupt. The days when we could just trust the geeks to have more or less our best interests in mind are gone. Read More ›
Big Data, Big Money Collide with Privacy
by Dan Morain, The Sacramento Bee
The Chamber of Commerce and other trade groups opposing the bill spent $2.5 million on California campaigns in the 2013-14 election cycle, by my count. Three Internet companies that would have been affected, Facebook, Google and eBay, spent a combined $502,000 on California campaigns in 2013 and 2014. … Maybe some legislator will take it up in 2015. Members of Atkins’ new Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee might craft a thoughtful solution that guards consumers’ privacy. Or any protections will get buried beneath the mounds of money the industry can spend. Read More ›
Uber Clueless On Women, Privacy, The Press And Taking The ‘God View’
Forbes reports: “Julia Allison, an attendee at a launch party in Chicago in September 2011, says Uber treated guests to Creepy Stalker View, showing them the whereabouts and movements of 30 Uber users in New York in real time. She recognized half of the people listed and texted one of them, entrepreneur Peter Sims, revealing that she knew his current whereabouts.” Read More ›
Uber and Other Tech Firms Know Lots About You — Should You Worry?
by Carolyn Said, San Francisco Chronicle
“The Internet relies on highly targeted ads based on massive surveilliance of everything we do online,” [said law professor Neil Richards]. Companies like Uber that provide real-world services have even greater treasure troves of data. “Under the happy facade of the ‘sharing economy’ are incredibly powerful information-fueled entities with an enormous amount of information about individuals. … The vast amount of information being captured, assessed and monetized changes the relationship between companies and individuals. It gives them much more power.” Read More ›
If You Didn’t Change the Default Password on Your Security Camera, Someone’s Probably Watching It Stream
by Kate Cox, Consumerist
Commandeered cameras are incredibly intrusive, but as far as poor default security goes, they’re only the tip of the iceberg. Every wifi router ships with a default password, and it’s super easy to look those up by make and model. Securing your router, on the other hand, takes more work. Your remotely-accessible multifunction printer might use a weak default password or in fact not have a password at all, meaning anyone with know-how could get in. Read More ›
Whose Privacy Will Uber Violate Next? Why Its Latest Bad Behavior Matters
by Alexander B. Howard, Wired
Think through the potential issues of Uber knowing who its riders are, when, and where, and what they are likely to have been doing. … Strong conclusions can be drawn from the details of an Uber travel log, as Uber has itself noted when discussing what it calls a “Ride of Glory,” defined as “anyone who took a ride between 10pm and 4am on a Friday or Saturday night, and then took a second ride from within 1/10th of a mile of the previous nights’ drop-off point 4-6 hours later (enough for a quick night’s sleep).” Read More ›
CFC Addresses Benefits and Risks of Driverless Cars
Noting that the technology could reduce accidents if it’s widely adopted, CFC Executive Director Richard Holober stressed the need to ensure that any savings get passed along to consumers under Proposition 103. He also cited concerns about who would have access to data from the vehicles, and of possible meddling by hackers. Read More ›
Americans Say They Want Privacy, but Act as if They Don’t
by Claire Cain Miller, The New York Times
Pew offered some evidence that people are inured to the trade-offs of using digital services: Ninety-one percent agree or strongly agree that consumers have lost control over how their personal information is collected or used by companies. They are unsure what to do about it, though. Nearly two-thirds say they would like to do more to protect the privacy of their personal information online. About the same number think the government should do more to protect them. Read More ›
Internet of Things Will Transform Life, But Experts Fear for Privacy
by Steve Johnson, San Jose Mercury News
Although people already reveal much about themselves through their Internet searches and social media posts, that’s nothing compared with the trove of personal data likely to be disclosed by the Internet of Things. … The personal data revealed could include everything from your friends, hobbies and daily routines to your political views, religious affiliation and even your sexual activities. Your politics might be disclosed if you routinely watch like-minded programs on your Web-connected TV and use your personal robot’s videoconferencing capabilities for online meetings with a group that shares your views. Read More ›
Data Breaches in California Jump and Are Expected to Keep Climbing
by Andrew Khouri, Los Angeles Times
Security experts predict that the number of breaches, especially on a big scale, will keep growing. “The data breaches are going to continue and will probably get worse with the short term,” said Jim Penrose, former chief of the Operational Discovery Center at the National Security Agency. … Another vulnerable sector is the healthcare industry. Stealing medical records can be more “insidious” than stealing other data because they can be used for identity theft and fraud over a longer stretch of time. Read More ›
AB 2667 Update: State Settles with RTO Computer Firm over Consumer Protection Violations
“Aaron’s violated California state privacy laws by permitting its franchised stores to install spyware on laptop computers rented to its customers. A feature in the spyware program … allowed the Aaron’s franchisees to remotely monitor keystrokes, capture screenshots, track the physical location of consumers and even activate the rented computer’s webcam,” the announcement alleges. Gov. Jerry Brown last month signed CFC-sponsored Assembly Bill 2667 (Bloom) to expressly outlaw such computerized snooping in the rent-to-own computer industry in California in the future. Read More ›