Popular Mechanics: Facebook Admits Its New Gadget Might Use Your Data for Ads After All. “The debut of Portal, Facebook’s video chatting device, sparked an obvious question: Does this camera-enabled home assistant manufactured by a company attached to numerous privacy scandals keep your private data private? Facebook was quick to note that Portal wouldn’t feed your data to advertisers — ‘Portal conversations stay between you and the people you’re calling,’ last week’s announcement said — but that reassurance has already proven false: Facebook might use your calls and Portal app usage as queues for its advertising network, a company spokesperson told Recode.”
privacy
Tumblr turns stumblr, left humblr: Blogging biz blogs bloggers’ private info to world+dog (The Register)
The Register: Tumblr turns stumblr, left humblr: Blogging biz blogs bloggers’ private info to world+dog . “Tumblr today reveal it has fixed a security bug in its website that quietly revealed private details of some of its bloggers. This is quite an interesting bug. The desktop version of Tumblr shows a list of recommended blogs for logged-in users to check out. According to Tumblr, ‘it was possible, using debugging software in a certain way, to view certain account information’ associated with the blogs shown in the box of recommendations.”
Bloomberg Quint: Why You Should Ditch Google’s Favorite Data Collection Tools
Bloomberg Quint: Why You Should Ditch Google’s Favorite Data Collection Tools. “On Tuesday, Google proposed a remedy to comply with a July European Commission ruling that came with a $5 billion fine. The proposal confirms the validity of the European antitrust regulators’ complaint: The search giant really wants consumers to use only two of its mobile apps — Google Search and Google Chrome. That’s a good reason not to use them.”
BetaNews: Goodbye noisy neighbors, I quit Nextdoor
BetaNews: Goodbye noisy neighbors, I quit Nextdoor. “Six days ago, Facebook notified me that my personal information had been pilfered in a recently revealed hack affecting tens of millions subscribers. Lovely. Why don’t you kick me in the head, too, Mark Zuckerberg? Perhaps you would prefer a baseball bat, so you can beat me to death instead? I responded by removing most of the same information from my FB and started a content purge ahead of possible account deletion. Since then, I have been on a social media account rampage, which turned my sights to Nextdoor, where I joined on Aug. 29, 2017 (my Facebook is 12 years old, for comparison). ”
Forbes: Millions of Voter Records Are For Sale On Hacker Forums
Forbes: Millions of Voter Records Are For Sale On Hacker Forums. “In total, the hacked data includes records from 19 states: Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming. Researchers at Anomali Labs believe that the data includes records for more than 35 million U.S. voters.”
CNET: Facebook breach hit 3 million in EU, putting new privacy law to test
CNET: Facebook breach hit 3 million in EU, putting new privacy law to test. “Facebook may have a run-in with Europe’s new privacy law. The Irish Data Protection Commission said Tuesday that roughly 3 million Facebook users living in Europe were affected by a data breach at the social network in September, according to CNBC.”
Digital Trends: Your ‘Do Not Track’ tool might be helping websites track you, study says
Digital Trends: Your ‘Do Not Track’ tool might be helping websites track you, study says. “Millions of people are using ‘Do Not Track’ tools which do nothing, according to a recent study done by Forrester Research. The ‘Do Not Track’ features embedded in popular browsers are being ignored, opening up the possibility of consumers having their browsing information picked up by specific ads on the web.”
