Judge rules that California can continue with its net neutrality law
Judge John Mendez of the US District Court for the Eastern District of California has ruled to let the state of California enact SB 822, a net neutrality law that…
Censorship
Clubhouse users are teaching each other how to stay private from Instagram
One of the first things that you hear to do on Clubhouse is to add your Twitter and Instagram accounts to your Clubhouse profile for discoverability because otherwise there’s really…
China releases draft of major new privacy law: why it matters to everyone online
China has frequently figured in this blog, usually in the context of its censorship, surveillance activities, and wide-ranging abuse of human rights. But there's another side to the story. Like…
Tencent has been caught spying on your web browsing history with QQ Messenger
QQ Messenger, a popular Chinese instant messaging app by Tencent, was caught scraping web browser history with their desktop client. The discovery was made by Chinese internet users on the…
Abusive surveillance in the name of public health is a widespread problem around the world, new report says
When Privacy News Online first wrote about Covid-19, in February, we noted that it would touch on key concerns of this blog: freedom of speech, surveillance and privacy. Already by…
German authorities want large porn sites to implement age verification or be blocked via DNS
Internet service providers (ISPs) in Germany may soon be forced to apply DNS blocks to stop users from accessing porn sites like Pornhub, xHamster, and YouPorn. German authorities, led by…
EU politicians want Europe’s next big digital law to tackle micro-targeted advertising, by regulating or even banning it
Although privacy is by its very nature personal, it is also something that concerns everyone. As a result, local data protection laws can have a global impact. That's certainly been…
Thailand orders ISPs to block Telegram amid ongoing protests
Thai users of Telegram will soon need a VPN to access the increasingly popular messaging app. The government of Thailand has ordered Thai internet service providers (ISPs) to block the…
Pakistan bans TikTok; calls videos “immoral and indecent”
The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) has officially banned TikTok for providing access to “immoral and indecent” videos - though it remains to be seen how permanent this ban will be.…
Russia wants to outlaw TLS 1.3, ESNI, DNS over HTTPS, and DNS over TLS
The Russian Ministry of Digital Development, Communications, and Mass Media has released a draft law which outlines plans to outlaw TLS 1.3, ESNI, DNS over HTTPS, and DNS over TLS.…