Amazon’s surveillance doorbell company Ring has reached a settlement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission which will require the company to pay $5.8 million over its inability to keep private footage and audio collected from users’ homes. This action stems from a collection of privacy violations that occurred between 2017 and 2020. Ring customers brought … Read more
UK ministers have been warned that WhatsApp could disappear from the country due to privacy concerns. The warning comes as a result of a proposed new law that would require messaging platforms to allow law enforcement access to encrypted messages in certain circumstances. WhatsApp currently uses end-to-end encryption, which prevents anyone, including WhatsApp itself, from … Read more
The technofeudalist model involves establishing a monopoly position and using sophisticated data extraction to secure it. Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Amazon — have turned the slippery slope of digital surveillance into a hamster wheel, a new self-perpetuating system of exploitation. Not only does the tech oligopoly seamlessly record our preferences, habits, and choices, it also … Read more
Research drives for a driver assistance system to avoid traffic accidents are expensive for Volkswagen will cost 1.1 million Euros because the group and a service provider used in the VW test vehicle did not take data protection very seriously and used surveillance cameras without the necessary identification.
Google is using deceptive design, unclear language and misleading choices when consumers sign up to a Google account to encourage more extensive and invasive data processing. Instead of giving them privacy by design and by default as required by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)Contrary to its claims, the tech giant is thwarting consumers who … Read more
The Chinese Hikvision’s products can be found anywhere from police surveillance systems to baby monitors with 4.8 million networks of Hikvision devices in more than 191 countries. Hikvision could be sanctioned for aiding the Chinese government’s human rights violations in Xinjiang. The US Treasury is reportedly considering adding Hikvision to the Specially Designated Nationals and … Read more
Spyware installed after a WhatsApp message or iMessage on the phone of politicians, lawyers, and activists in order to know what they are saying, hearing, chatting, searching, etc. All types of government are buying such spying software but how to prevent that it is used in the wrong way?
The developers behind the speed camera app Speedcam Everywhere have come under fire from British users, who say the app leads to a surveillance state. The app turns smartphone users into a kind of walking speed camera. When users see or hear a car coming, they start the app and film the vehicle. The app … Read more
The Austrian Data Protection Authority has decided on a model case by noyb that the continuous use of Google Analytics violates the GDPR. This is the first decision on the 101 model complaints filed by noyb in the wake of the so-called “Schrems II” decision. In 2020, the Court of Justice (CJEU) decided that the … Read more
The European Parliament wants a permanent ban on the use of automated facial recognition in public areas and at border crossings. Parliament also wants a ban on private facial recognition databases, social scoring systems of citizens and behavioral data-based ‘predictive policing’. A resolution calling for this was passed with 377 votes in favour, 248 against … Read more