Mastercard’s “Smile to pay” or “cry to privacy”?

Mastercard is rolling out a controversial programme that will allow shoppers to pay at the till with a mere smile or wave of the hand, as it tries to secure a slice of the $18bn (£14.4bn) biometrics market.While face recognition technology has long raised eyebrows among civil rights groups, the payments giant said it was … Read more

Launch of “The Think before you link App”

This lauched app by the UK government to prevent people falling victim to online approaches by foreign spies. MI5 says it has seen 10,000 UK nationals targeted by fake social media profiles on sites like LinkedIn and Facebook. The spies are seeking to lure people into passing on sensitive information. The Think Before You Link … Read more

Google sued over its use of confidential medical records belonging to 1.6 million individuals in the UK

Google’s artificial intelligence DeepMind received the data in 2015 from the Royal Free NHS Trust for the purpose of testing a smartphone app called Streams. The smartphone app was tested to detect acute kidney injuries. The claim alleges that Google and DeepMind “obtained and used a substantial number of confidential medical records without patients’ knowledge … Read more

Proposed guidelines on GDPR fines by European DPAs

Organizations often ask how much chance they have on data protection fines and how much financial reserve they should make for that. Unit 27 June EDPB guidelines on calculating GDPR fines are released for public consultation. Interesting is to have a look at the example for mitigating and aggravating factors that could influence the height … Read more

Did you contribute to the $54 billion of revevenue in Q1 of Google?

Each time you open an app on your phone or browse the web, an auction for your eyeballs is taking place behind the scenes thanks to a thriving market for personal data. The report of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties says hat ad platforms transmit the location data and browsing habits of Americans and Europeans about … Read more

What are the fining policies of EU Data Protection Authoritities?

Below an overview of the only comprehensive fining methodologies that were published so far by EU DPAs (specifically, by the Dutch, Danish, and Latvian DPAs), as well as the relevant draft Statutory guidance issued by the UK DPA (ICO) in 2020. Therefore, this analysis will also show how the approach of the ICO in this … Read more

Scanning of communication in order to combat child pornography

Providers of hosting services and providers of interpersonal communication services that have received a detection order shall execute it by installing and operating technologies to detect” CSAM upon request by the competent judicial authority or independent administrative authority, the draft regulation states. The obligation also requires tech platforms to conduct risk assessments and “reasonable mitigation … Read more

Web forms leak email addresses and passwords to advertisers

When internet users want to log in somewhere or fill in an online form, data such as email addresses and passwords can be sent to advertisers and other third parties before the send or log in button has been clicked, according to researchers from Radboud University, KU Leuven and the University of Leuven. University of … Read more

Data of millions of Grindr users for sale for years

The data was collected through ad networks, The Wall Street Journal reports. The information, including location data, has been for sale since at least 2017. Also “historical” data may still be available, anonymous sources tell the American newspaper. Grindr says in a response that the app changed its policy two years ago, so that location … Read more