Digital Trends: Apple might be sending your browsing data to China’s Tencent by default. “A safe browsing feature, intended to increase online security within Apple’s Safari app, has instead raised privacy concerns as it has been recently discovered that the app is sending user browsing data to a company headquartered in China.”
Security & Legal Issues
Security & Legal issues and news. May be about patches, hacks, or court decisions.
Reuters: Google’s fight against EU antitrust fine to be heard February 12-14 at EU court
Reuters: Google’s fight against EU antitrust fine to be heard February 12-14 at EU court . “Alphabet unit Google’s fight against a 2.4-billion-euro ($2.64 billion) EU antitrust fine will be played out over three days in February 2020 at Europe’s second-highest court, according to parties involved in the case.”
Wall Street Journal: Congress Probes Bot-Generated Social-Media Messages About E-Cigarettes
Wall Street Journal: Congress Probes Bot-Generated Social-Media Messages About E-Cigarettes. “A congressional committee and the Massachusetts attorney general are investigating whether millions of bot-generated social-media messages about e-cigarettes have been misleading consumers about safety and health issues.”
Ars Technica: Activists’ phones targeted by one of the world’s most advanced spyware apps
Ars Technica: Activists’ phones targeted by one of the world’s most advanced spyware apps. “Mobile phones of two prominent human rights activists were repeatedly targeted with Pegasus, the highly advanced spyware made by Israel-based NSO, researchers from Amnesty International reported this week.”
ZDNet: Brazilian government to create single citizen database
ZDNet: Brazilian government to create single citizen database. “The Brazilian government will create a single citizen database that will contain a wide range of personal information about the country’s population of over 200 million people, to be fully shared across departments.”
Washington Post: Chinese app on Xi’s ideology allows data access to 100 million users’ phones, report says
Washington Post: Chinese app on Xi’s ideology allows data access to 100 million users’ phones, report says. “The Chinese Communist Party appears to have ‘superuser’ access to all the data on more than 100 million cellphones, owing to a back door in a propaganda app that the government has been promoting aggressively this year.”
Bloomberg: Google’s $2.6 Billion Looker Deal Said to Get Closer DOJ Review
Bloomberg: Google’s $2.6 Billion Looker Deal Said to Get Closer DOJ Review. “U.S. antitrust enforcers have started an in-depth review of Google’s $2.6 billion planned acquisition of a data analytics company, a further sign of greater scrutiny on big technology companies, according to people familiar with the situation.”
