December 10, 2023

The PrivaSeer Project In 2023: Access To 1.4 Million Privacy Policies In One Searchable Body Of Documents (Future of Privacy Project)

Future of Privacy Project: The PrivaSeer Project In 2023: Access To 1.4 Million Privacy Policies In One Searchable Body Of Documents. “In the summer of 2021, FPF announced our participation in a collaborative project with researchers from the Pennsylvania State University and the University of Michigan to develop and build a searchable database of privacy policies and other privacy-related documents, with the support of the National Science Foundation. This project, PrivaSeer, has since become an evolving, publicly available search engine of more than 1.4 million privacy policies.” I did mention this project a couple of years ago but it seems to have grown considerably since then.

New Resources 0
December 9, 2023

Noupe: How to make WordPress GDPR-compliant

Noupe: How to make WordPress GDPR-compliant. “GDPR(General Data Protection Regulation) is a set of European regulations designed to protect your data. It gives you control over how your data is used and ensures that businesses handle it by stringent guidelines. Before using your data, they must obtain your consent and notify you in case of a data leak. Businesses that violate these regulations risk incurring hefty fines. These guidelines apply to any business, regardless of location, that handles information from individuals in Europe. Similar to a global norm, GDPR protects the privacy of your data.”

Useful Stuff 0
December 9, 2023

Krebs on Security: ICANN Launches Service to Help With WHOIS Lookups

Krebs on Security: ICANN Launches Service to Help With WHOIS Lookups. “More than five years after domain name registrars started redacting personal data from all public domain registration records, the non-profit organization overseeing the domain industry has introduced a centralized online service designed to make it easier for researchers, law enforcement and others to request the information directly from registrars.”

Tweaks & Updates 0
December 8, 2023

TechCrunch: Millions of patient scans and health records spilling online thanks to decades-old protocol bug

TechCrunch: Millions of patient scans and health records spilling online thanks to decades-old protocol bug. “Thousands of exposed servers are spilling the medical records and personal health information of millions of patients due to security weaknesses in a decades-old industry standard designed for storing and sharing medical images, researchers have warned.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
December 6, 2023

CNBC: Can an AI chatbot be convicted of an illegal wiretap? A case against Gap’s Old Navy may answer that

CNBC: Can an AI chatbot be convicted of an illegal wiretap? A case against Gap’s Old Navy may answer that. “According to AI experts, a likely outcome of the lawsuit is less intriguing than the charges: Old Navy and other companies will add a warning label to inform customers that their data might be recorded and shared for training purposes — much like how customer service calls warn users that conversations may be recorded for training purposes. But the lawsuit also highlights some salient privacy questions about chatbots that need to be sorted out before AI becomes a personal assistant we can trust.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
December 4, 2023

TechCrunch: 23andMe confirms hackers stole ancestry data on 6.9 million users

TechCrunch: 23andMe confirms hackers stole ancestry data on 6.9 million users. “On Friday, genetic testing company 23andMe announced that hackers accessed the personal data of 0.1% of customers, or about 14,000 individuals. The company also said that by accessing those accounts, hackers were also able to access ‘a significant number of files containing profile information about other users’ ancestry.’ But 23andMe would not say how many ‘other users’ were impacted by the breach that the company initially disclosed in early October. As it turns out, there were a lot of ‘other users’ who were victims of this data breach: 6.9 million affected individuals in total.”

Tweaks & Updates 0
December 1, 2023

Vice: ChatGPT Can Reveal Personal Information From Real People, Google Researchers Show

Vice: ChatGPT Can Reveal Personal Information From Real People, Google Researchers Show. “Previous work has already shown that image generators can be forced to generate examples from their training data—including copyrighted works—and an early OpenAI LLM produced contact information belonging to a researcher. But Google’s new research shows that ChatGPT, which is a massively popular consumer app with millions of users, can also be made to do this. Worryingly, some of the extracted training data contained identifying information from real people, including names, email addresses, and phone numbers.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
November 29, 2023

Gothamist: 4M NYers’ data and medical records were exposed in a breach. Here’s how to protect against ID theft.

Gothamist: 4M NYers’ data and medical records were exposed in a breach. Here’s how to protect against ID theft.. “At least 4 million New Yorkers’ private information could be at risk of identity theft after a data breach at a medical transcription company that works with hospitals in New York, state Attorney General Letitia James said Tuesday. The company, Nevada-based Perry Johnson & Associates, works with Northwell Health, which has hospitals and clinics across the five boroughs and Long Island, as well as Crouse Health in Syracuse. About 9 million patients nationwide are affected by the breach, according to the attorney general’s office.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
November 26, 2023

WIRED: How to Make Your Web Searches More Secure and Private

WIRED: How to Make Your Web Searches More Secure and Private. “There are ways to increase your privacy on Google’s platforms, like using privacy-focused browsers, privacy-focused alternatives to Google Maps, auto-deleting your web history after a certain time period, or simply limiting the amount of data the company collects in the first place by opting out of features like web-based email and location awareness. (And you should know that using your browser’s incognito mode isn’t as sneaky as you think it is.) If you’re serious about getting off the data collection grid, there’s a bevy of other privacy focused search options at your disposal. So if you want to use a search engine that doesn’t keep track of your queries, serve your data to advertisers, or change your search results based on what it thinks you’ll like, you’ve got some options.”

Useful Stuff 0
November 20, 2023

WIRED: Secretive White House Surveillance Program Gives Cops Access to Trillions of US Phone Records

WIRED: Secretive White House Surveillance Program Gives Cops Access to Trillions of US Phone Records. “A little-known surveillance program tracks more than a trillion domestic phone records within the United States each year, according to a letter WIRED obtained that was sent by US senator Ron Wyden to the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Sunday, challenging the program’s legality.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
November 15, 2023

Techdirt: Unsealed FTC Complaint Shows Data Broker Kochava Hoovered Up Oceans Of Sensitive Data On Millions Of Americans

Techdirt: Unsealed FTC Complaint Shows Data Broker Kochava Hoovered Up Oceans Of Sensitive Data On Millions Of Americans. “According to the amended complaint, the scope of the data Kochava was casually collecting and monetizing is massive. It includes detailed movement data of consumers down to the meter, as they visited sensitive locations like hospitals, temporary shelters, abortion clinics and places of worship. Kochava then made it easy for advertisers to target consumers based on sensitive metrics.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
November 15, 2023

Denver 7: New research shows your car is spying on your every move, including your sex life

Denver 7: New research shows your car is spying on your every move, including your sex life. ” If you thought your cell phone, Alexa or Google device were the worst about spying on you — think again. It turns out your car is one of the worst offenders when it comes to protecting your privacy. Mozilla, the company that built the Firefox internet browser and is now a leading watchdog for consumer privacy data, found cars are the worst product category they have ever reviewed for privacy.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
November 9, 2023

Ars Technica: Data broker’s “staggering” sale of sensitive info exposed in unsealed FTC filing

Ars Technica: Data broker’s “staggering” sale of sensitive info exposed in unsealed FTC filing . “One of the world’s largest mobile data brokers, Kochava, has lost its battle to stop the Federal Trade Commission from revealing what the FTC has alleged is a disturbing, widespread pattern of unfair use and sale of sensitive data without consent from hundreds of millions of people.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
November 3, 2023

News18: India’s Biggest Data Leak So Far? Covid-19 Test Info of 81.5Cr Citizens With ICMR Up for Sale | Exclusive

News18: India’s Biggest Data Leak So Far? Covid-19 Test Info of 81.5Cr Citizens With ICMR Up for Sale | Exclusive. “In what is suspected to be the biggest data leak case in the country so far, details of 81.5 crore Indians with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) are on sale. Given the grave nature of the incident, India’s premier agency Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is likely to probe the matter once ICMR files a complaint.”

COVID-19 0

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