Ars Technica: Bikini app maker draws another disgruntled developer to its Facebook fight. “In recent weeks, a dust-up between the maker of a forgotten Facebook bikini app and the social media giant has been boosted by a high-profile fight involving the British Parliament. On Friday, both sides in the Six4Three v. Facebook lawsuit, which alleges breach of contract, appeared before a San Mateo County judge for the second time in a week in a hearing that dragged on for over three hours.”
Security & Legal Issues
Security & Legal issues and news. May be about patches, hacks, or court decisions.
Wired: The Wired Guide To Data Breaches
Wired: The Wired Guide To Data Breaches. “Think of data breaches as coming in two flavors: breaches of institutions that people choose to entrust with their data—like retailers and banks—and breaches of entities that acquired user data secondarily—like credit bureaus and marketing firms. Unfortunately, you can’t keep your information perfectly safe: It is often impossible to avoid sharing data, especially with organizations like governments and health insurers. Furthermore, in cases where a company or institution gives your information to an additional party, you’ve often agreed to sharing more data than you realize by clicking ‘I accept’ on a dense user agreement.”
The Intercept: NYPD Gang Database Can Turn Unsuspecting New Yorkers Into Instant Felons
The Intercept: NYPD Gang Database Can Turn Unsuspecting New Yorkers Into Instant Felons. “As The Intercept has reported, the NYPD’s gang database was massively expanded in recent years, even as gang-related crime dropped to historic lows. The information on the secretive list is available to prosecutors but not to those named in the database, who often learn that the police have labeled them gang members only if they are arrested and slammed with inexplicably harsh charges or excessive bond. The database has been widely criticized as arbitrary, discriminatory, and over-inclusive — with no clear process in place to discover or challenge one’s alleged gang affiliation. Like [Keith] Shenery, an overwhelming majority of people in the database are young black and Latino men.”
Phys .org: Protecting our digital heritage in the age of cyber threats
Phys .org: Protecting our digital heritage in the age of cyber threats. “One of the key functions of the government is to collect and archive national records. This includes everything from property records and registers of births, deaths and taxes, to Parliamentary proceedings, and even the ABC’s digital library of Australian news and entertainment. A new report released today from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) considers the important role these records play as the collective digital identity of our nation. The report’s author, Anne Lyons, explains how an attack on these records could disrupt the day-to-day functioning of society, and why we need to do more to protect them.”
Ars Technica: 22 apps with 2 million+ Google Play downloads had a malicious backdoor
Ars Technica: 22 apps with 2 million+ Google Play downloads had a malicious backdoor. “Almost two dozen apps with more than 2 million downloads have been removed from the Google Play market after researchers found they contained a device-draining backdoor that allowed them to surreptitiously download files from an attacker-controlled server.”
Something Old, Something New: Securities Enforcement in the Age of Social Media (New York Law Journal)
New York Law Journal: Something Old, Something New: Securities Enforcement in the Age of Social Media. “At a time when breaking norms has become the new normal, the recent battle between Tesla’s charismatic chief executive, Elon Musk, and the Securities and Exchange Commission’s regulatory enforcers captured the attention of the public. Musk’s seemingly deliberate use of Twitter to pick a fight with the SEC, combined with his track record of fostering paradigm shifts in several industries, suggested to securities lawyers and white-collar practitioners that we would soon see something new under the sun. It was not to be. Although Musk himself has earned a reputation for being incredibly innovative, the SEC’s case against him was not. We believe the absence of innovation provides an important opportunity to consider the road not taken, at least not yet.”
CNET: Facebook fined $11.4M in Italy over data misuse
CNET: Facebook fined $11.4M in Italy over data misuse. “Italy’s Competition Authority on Friday slapped Facebook with two fines that total 10 million euros ($11.4M) for using people’s data for commercial purposes in ways that break the country’s laws.”
