Category: Governments

Read government privacy and censorship news on the Privacy Online News blog from Private Internet Access VPN Service.
  • May 28, 2018 |
  • Glyn Moody |
  • Governments, News, Privacy, Security,

In China’s footsteps: Amazon and US schools normalize automatic facial recognition and constant surveillance

Amazon has developed a powerful cloud-based facial recognition system called “Rekognition”, which has major implications for privacy. It is already being used by multiple US police forces to carry out surveillance and make arrests, the ACLU has learned. Amazon claims that Rekognition offers real-time face matching across tens of millions of individuals held in a … Continue reading “In China’s footsteps: Amazon and US schools normalize automatic facial recognition and constant surveillance”

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May 25: The General Data Protection Regulation takes effect today

It’s May 25, and the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into effect. It contains such a shocking amount of common sense, that companies worldwide have been scrambling in confusion to comply with its requirements. Here’s a small amount of that common sense, to give you a feel for what GDPR means. In its … Continue reading “May 25: The General Data Protection Regulation takes effect today”

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Switzerland holds referendum on Internet censorship — to protect domestic gambling

The Swiss Pirate Party reports that there is a Swiss referendum coming on June 10 to introduce Internet censorship for the first time. The purpose of the censorship is to protect domestic gambling from the horrible horrible Internet. The censorship law initially passed in September 2017, as reported on this blog last year, but was … Continue reading “Switzerland holds referendum on Internet censorship — to protect domestic gambling”

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  • May 18, 2018 |
  • Glyn Moody |
  • Governments, News, Privacy,

The growing threat to privacy from big data forensics and false positives

The cost of sequencing the DNA found in genomes has been decreasingly rapidly in recent years. Since 2008, it has been falling even faster than the well-known Moore’s Law for semiconductor prices, and today a human genome can be sequenced in its near-entirety for $1000 or less. Similarly, partial sequencing costs have dropped dramatically, allowing … Continue reading “The growing threat to privacy from big data forensics and false positives”

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  • May 16, 2018 |
  • Caleb Chen |
  • Governments, Net Neutrality, News,

Today, the Senate Votes to Save Net Neutrality

Today, the United States Senate will vote on whether or not to save net neutrality.  All 49 Senate Democrats, with the support of key Republican Senators, have successfully forced a Resolution of Disapproval vote regarding the FCC’s 3-2 repeal of net neutrality in December of 2017. Since the FCC decision, activists have been working hard to restore net neutrality … Continue reading “Today, the Senate Votes to Save Net Neutrality”

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  • May 9, 2018 |
  • Glyn Moody |
  • Governments, News, Privacy, Security,

Crypto backdoors are in the news again, and as bad for privacy as ever

VPNs are an indispensable part of online life, and they protect many aspects of privacy. But there’s a class of threats that VPNs can’t defend against: crypto backdoors, which allow even the strongest encryption to be bypassed. That’s why it’s important for everyone who cares about their privacy and security to be aware of any … Continue reading “Crypto backdoors are in the news again, and as bad for privacy as ever”

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European Commission expands planned copyright auto-censorship machines to also include censorship of unwanted political opinions

The European Commission is expanding its plans for proposed automated censorship: from only having concerned copyright infringements, which is bad enough and cannot nearly be determined by a machine, the automated censorship is also going to suppress any speech with the wrong political opinion. The political term for the wrong political opinion is “terrorist propaganda”, … Continue reading “European Commission expands planned copyright auto-censorship machines to also include censorship of unwanted political opinions”

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The European Commission’s “Upload Censorship for Copyright” is already obsolete

As Julia Reda has continuously reported from inside the European Parliament, the European Commission is pushing for an update to copyright monopoly laws that would introduce upload-time censorship on copyright grounds. It would not only make sites like GitHub illegal, be ineffective, and apply law incorrectly in its automated censorship; with yesterday’s piece of news, … Continue reading “The European Commission’s “Upload Censorship for Copyright” is already obsolete”

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Japan ISP to Voluntarily Block Pirate Sites Despite Censorship Prohibition

One of Japan’s largest internet service providers (ISPs) says that it will begin blocking pirate sites of its own volition, despite constitutional prohibitions on censorship. Industry publication TorrentFreak reports that NTT Communications Corp., along with its subsidiaries, will block access to websites that host pirated content in response to government requests. Other major Japanese ISPs … Continue reading “Japan ISP to Voluntarily Block Pirate Sites Despite Censorship Prohibition”

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German Supreme Court: Adblocking does not violate copyright

German newspapers had sued AdBlock Plus for everything including the kitchen sink, such as “unfair competition” and copyright violation, for letting users opt out of the newspapers’ annoying and insecure advertising. This week, those newspaper publishers lost decisively in the German Supreme Court. The Reuters article is a little short on details, with the original … Continue reading “German Supreme Court: Adblocking does not violate copyright”

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