It's no secret that personal data has become the key commodity of the online business world. The Internet giants - Facebook, Google, etc. - all provide their services "free", but…
Some Chinese high-tech companies may be bigger than you think. The e-commerce giant Alibaba has a market capitalization of over $400 billion. The social media and gaming company Tencent is…
The 'creator' of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, has been identified. That, at least, is the claim in a recent article by Alexander Muse on Medium. But don't get too excited. The…
As the Internet of Things (IoT) begins to enter the mainstream, concerns about the impact such "smart" devices will have on users' privacy are growing. Many of the problems are…
As readers of this blog know, VPNs are a great way to protect your privacy and security. But they address only some of the online threats we all face every…
There's a new frontier for digital privacy: home devices that understand spoken commands. That's impressive and convenient, but it comes with definite risks, as Rick Falkvinge pointed out earlier this…
When what evolved into modern copyright was first drawn up in the eighteenth century, it was designed as a legal weapon to be deployed against printers that made infringing copies…
Here on Privacy News Online, we often write about the impact on privacy of technologies such as facial recognition, iris scans, DNA databases, and drones. Individually, those powerful and rapidly-advancing…
The name "Palantir" bespeaks mystery. Its original meaning is the powerful artefact in Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" that allows direct communications with distant lands. It is now also the…
Facial recognition has matured sufficiently that it is cropping up in real-world applications with increasing frequency, as recent Privacy News Online stories attest. There's one well-known company that is more…