privacy
The fightback against Facebook is getting stronger
Facebook leader Mark Zuckerberg recently took the unusual step of visiting lawmakers in Washington, including President Donald Trump in the White House. The reason? Congress’s anti-trust sub-committee has started demanding documents from Facebook and other big tech firms
We street-proof our kids. Why aren’t we data-proofing them?
Google recently agreed to pay a US$170 million fine for illegally gathering children’s personal data on YouTube without parental consent, which is a violation under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The United States Federal Trade Commission and the New York State Attorney General — who together brought the case against Google — now require YouTube to obtain consent from parent...[Read More]
In a virtual universe of ‘perfect’ bodies, Instagram’s new policy offers important protection for young users
Instagram recently announced posts promoting diet products and cosmetic procedures will no longer be visible to users under the age of 18. While the initiative is being led by Instagram, the policy will also be in place on Facebook.
Facebook announces Portal TV, yet another device they couldn’t pay us to keep in the house
We haven't seen any numbers about sales but Facebook's Portal must have done okay. Why else would they announce a slightly different version, called the Portal TV, for connecting to your television set?
Zao’s deepfake face-swapping app shows uploading your photos is riskier than ever
The effect is startlingly realistic and shows just how far this sort of “deepfake” technology has come. But it also highlights how great the risks have become of making your photos available online where anyone can use or abuse them – and the limitation of the law in dealing with this issue. One of the key problems...
Five ways AI could make your car as smart as a human passenger
Research on driverless cars is well underway, but less is heard about the work being done to make cars a smart companion for drivers. In the future, the cars still driven by humans are likely to become as sensitive and attentive to their driver’s needs as another person. Sound far-fetched? It’s closer than you might think.
Facial recognition: ten reasons you should be worried about the technology
Facial recognition technology is spreading fast. Already widespread in China, software that identifies people by comparing images of their faces against a database of records is now being adopted across much of the rest of the world. It’s common among police forces but has also been used at airports, railway stations and shopping centres. The rapid growth of this technology has triggered a much-ne...[Read More]
Silicon Valley wants to read your mind – here’s why you should be worried
Silicon Valley companies (and governments) already surreptitiously gather as much data on us as they can and use it in ways we’d rather they didn’t. How sure can we be that our random and personal thoughts won’t be captured and studied alongside the instructions we want to give the technology?
A preferred partner ripped off Instagram user data, right under Facebook’s nose
Facebook’s decision to rebrand its Instagram and WhatsApp apps as part of the Facebook empire, seems ironically well-timed as the data privacy sins of the parent were revealed to be as common at the photo-sharing app. Last week it emerged that Instagram allowed its users’ personal data to be violated by an outside company which harvested large amounts of info it wasn’t supposed t...[Read More]
Instagram adds to Facebook’s rash of privacy failures after now-former marketing partner sucked up huge amounts of user data
Faceboook-owned Instagram has terminated its relationship with a marketing company called Hyp3r after it was found that the company was ignoring privacy rules and collecting user data it wasn't supposed to have. What makes this worse is that the company was listed as a preferred Facebook Marketing Partner for the past year.
5 ways to protect yourself from cybercrime
Cybercrime is not just a concern for corporate technology departments. Schools, scout troops, Rotary clubs and religious organizations need to know what to look for and how to handle it.
Anonymous apps risk fuelling cyberbullying but they also fill a vital role
The explosive popularity of YOLO has led to warnings of the same problem that led to Yik Yak’s shutdown, namely that its anonymity could lead to cyberbullying and hate speech. But in an age of online surveillance and self-censorship, proponents view anonymity as an essential component of privacy and free-speech. And our own research on anonymous online interactions among teenagers in the UK and Ir...[Read More]