Glyn Moody is a freelance journalist who writes and speaks about privacy, surveillance, digital rights, open source, copyright, patents and general policy issues involving digital technology. He started covering the business use of the Internet in 1994, and wrote the first mainstream feature about Linux, which appeared in Wired in August 1997. His book, "Rebel Code," is the first and only detailed history of the rise of open source, while his subsequent work, "The Digital Code of Life," explores bioinformatics - the intersection of computing with genomics.
At the beginning of this year Privacy News Online wrote about how people were waking up to the dangers of micro-targeted advertising. Despite that, nothing much happened – until now.…
Last week, Google announced that it would be buying Fitbit, valuing the 12-year-old company at $2.1 billion. Many have seen this as an attempt to boost Google's position in the…
Two years ago, Privacy News Online wrote about Aadhaar, India's billion-person biometric database, used to check identity, and its potential to become the world's biggest privacy disaster. Barely six months…
Tracking vehicles as a way of carrying out surveillance has been used by governments around the world for years. When exactly it should be allowed is still a hot topic,…
Two years ago, Privacy News Online wrote about Ireland's plans to introduce an identity card by stealth. The Irish government pretended that its Public Services Card (PSC) was not an…
The protests in Hong Kong are much in the news. But for readers of this blog, there's a particular reason why they are of interest. Mainland China is well known…
Last week we wrote about two important judgments from the EU's top court – the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). It has just released another long-awaited ruling…
One of the more controversial elements of EU data protection law is the so-called "right to be forgotten" (RTBF), which dates back to 2014. This allows EU citizens to request…
One of the principal concerns of privacy is to prevent others – typically governments or companies - from monitoring what we think. They have to do that indirectly, by spying…
Back in January, Privacy News Online wrote about some important research from Privacy International. It found that 61% of the Android apps it investigated automatically transfer data to Facebook the…