UK Leads the Charge Against End-to-End Encryption, Calls on Tech Companies to “Nerd Harder”
As Privacy News Online has reported, for years governments around the world have kept up a constant assault on end-to-end encryption. One of the leaders of this attempt to demonize…
What The West’s Disorderly Withdrawal from Afghanistan Tells Us About Privacy and its Preservation
In the wake of the West's chaotic withdrawal from Kabul, and the rapid takeover of the country by the Taliban, Afghanistan continues to dominate the headlines. Given the major geopolitical…
50 Key Stats About Freedom of the Internet Around the World
Almost every part of our everyday lives is closely connected to the internet – we depend on it for communication, entertainment, information, running our households, even running our cars. Not…
Apple Has Betrayed Its Privacy Legacy – and Will Undermine End-to-end Encryption Everywhere
Apple is a company that has always made much of its commitment to privacy, and has succeeded in turning it into a unique selling point of its products. That proud…
Chile is Passing a Neuro-Rights Law to Protect Mental Privacy. It’s Time for Other Nations to Do the Same.
Two years ago, this blog wrote about the privacy implications of the exciting new field of brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). The approach discussed there involved implanting tiny threads directly into the…
Will Privacy Activist Max Schrems’ New Legal Action Against Facebook at EU’s Highest Court Prove to Be His Most Important Yet?
Given the by-now inarguable importance of data protection to the online world today, it is extraordinary that one person and his organization have almost single-handedly shaped the privacy landscape there.…
The Tiny Nation of Luxembourg Slaps Amazon with the Biggest GDPR Fine Yet: Nearly $900 Million
As Privacy News Online has noted, one name that crops up frequently in the context of the EU's General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR) is the privacy expert and activist Max…
Shenzhen, the Silicon Valley of Hardware, Sets a Global Standard with China’s Toughest Local Privacy Law
For many Westerners, China is a country associated with widespread surveillance, stringent censorship, and human rights abuses in regions such as Hong Kong and Xinjiang. Despite that, the Chinese government…
How Discussions at the World Wide Web Consortium Could Undermine Efforts to Strengthen Privacy
One of the surest signs that privacy is becoming a major factor in the online world is the attempt by major Internet companies to claim that they value it. Mark…
What the Pegasus Spyware Leak Means for Surveillance, Smartphones & Encryption Backdoors
A few months ago, we wrote about dual-use surveillance systems – that is, technology that can be used for both peaceful and military purposes. The post discussed some limited efforts…
How Do You Solve a Privacy Problem Like Facebook? Two New Ways Emerge
As numerous posts on Privacy News Online demonstrate, Facebook is one of the biggest problems for privacy around the world. That problem just became bigger, as the company's market capitalization…
Multiple European Attempts to Strengthen Online Privacy Are Likely to Have Global Impact
Often it can seem that the battle to protect online privacy is hopeless, as companies gather ever-more data about us as we move around the internet. But in the background,…
Markpainting: how to fight deceptive AI-manipulated images with a sprinkle of digital cleverness
One way of looking at privacy is in terms of controlling personal data. That means stopping others from accessing existing private information or collecting new personal data; and not allowing…
Yet another biometric surveillance system: using a person’s “micro-movements” to detect emotions
Surveillance systems often use biometrics to identify key aspects of individuals. A previous blog post discussed the use of gait recognition, behavioral biometrics, and even cardiac signatures for this purpose.…
What does the recent Trojan Shield sting tell us about privacy, trust and surveillance?
Police forces across the world have revealed details of Trojan Shield, what is probably the most successful digital sting operation yet: A series of large-scale law enforcement actions were executed…