Have you ever felt a creeping sensation that someone’s watching you? Then you turn around and you don’t see anything out of the ordinary. Depending on where you were, though, you might not have been completely imagining it. There are billions of things sensing you every day. They are everywhere, hidden in plain sight –...
Category: Privacy
Your sense of privacy evolved over millennia – that puts you at risk today but could improve technology tomorrow
Many people think of privacy as a modern invention, an anomaly made possible by the rise of urbanization. If that were the case, then acquiescing to the current erosion of privacy might not be particularly alarming. As calls for Congress to protect privacy increase, it’s important to understand its nature. In a policy brief in...
Massive online surveillance by PenLink: Google is ‘best’, Apple ‘phenomenal’
A small Nebraska company called PenLink claims it does very good business with law enforcement agencies in the US and around the world. The company specializes in helping investigators monitor users of messenger services and social networks. Acting as an intermediate instance, they collect the data streams from Facebook, Google & Co. and passes them...
AirTags have serious Privacy Issues
When Apple released AirTags last spring, many marvelled at the effectiveness of the coin-shaped trackers in locating lost items. At the same time, many early reviewers raised concerns because the AirTag's remarkable accuracy makes it a powerful stalking tool. This was proven by several cases of stalking that got a larger media coverage. There is...
What does GDPR mean in practise?
Many businesses thought that by adding Cookie consent banners to their web pages and opt-in forms for email newsletter subscriptions they have satisfied the GDPR requirements. As it turns out, this is not the case. There are rulings by the Datenschutzbehörde in Austria, CNIL in France and a court in Munich that show how far...
CNIL has ruled that Google Analytics’ use is against the GDPR
The French Data Protection Agency CNIL (Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertes) has ruled that Google Analytics' use is against the GDPR. The CNIL began issuing notices to website administrators using Google Analytics.
Cookies: I looked at 50 well-known websites and most are gathering our data illegally
Alphabet and Meta and were both heavily fined for using cookies illegally at the tail end of 2021 by the French data protection authority.
Google Analytics Now Illegal in Austria
After Max Schrems, an Austrian data protection activist, complained that Google Analytics had violated data protection regulations, the DSB (Datenschutzbehörde) ruled in against of Google.
DuckDuckGo introdudes a new function to prevent app tracking on Android
Apple’s introduction of App Tracking Transparency Tools shook the advertising industry to the core. iPhone and iPad owners can now block apps from using their data to personalize advertising and track their behavior. The revenues of Snap and Meta Platform’s Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have been reduced by almost $10 billion since the launch of...
How to Survive the Cookie Apocalypse
Google announced in August 2019 that it would be getting rid of third party cookies. This refers to any cross-website tracking, or ad tech used to store user information in order to create targeted advertisements when a user visits your site. This is commonly known Cookie Apocalypse, since ad-tech companies rely on third-party cookies as...
