Category: Governments

Read government privacy and censorship news on the Privacy Online News blog from Private Internet Access VPN Service.
  • Jul 22, 2018 |
  • Chris Miller |
  • Governments, Net Neutrality, News,

Net Neutrality was repealed, but the fight is far from over

The FCC repealed net neutrality, which became official on June 11th.  Every second that goes by, the internet is dying just a little bit more, as ISP’s prioritize data, raise prices and unfairly eliminate their competition. The ISP’s love to say how it won’t change anything, and how they won’t use it to their advantage … Continue reading “Net Neutrality was repealed, but the fight is far from over”

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  • Jul 21, 2018 |
  • Glyn Moody |
  • Governments, News, Privacy,

Should Facial Recognition Technologies Be Regulated by the Government? Microsoft Says ‘Yes’

Facial recognition technology represents one of the most serious threats to privacy. That’s for two principal reasons. Perhaps the most important is that it is almost impossible to change our faces: serious plastic surgery apart, there are few effective techniques to disguise our bodily appearance. Masks may hide our features, but are too cumbersome – … Continue reading “Should Facial Recognition Technologies Be Regulated by the Government? Microsoft Says ‘Yes’”

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  • Jul 15, 2018 |
  • Danica Sergison |
  • Copyright, Governments, Net Neutrality, Privacy,

Trading more than horses: Threats to privacy, net neutrality in international trade negotiations

When we’re discussing the internet, it’s not surprising that legislation and policy can have an impact that extends far beyond one country’s borders. While many of us are aware of domestic threats to fair dealing, privacy, and net neutrality, including regulator proposals and proposed legislation, it’s also important to consider the role that international trade … Continue reading “Trading more than horses: Threats to privacy, net neutrality in international trade negotiations”

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  • Jul 6, 2018 |
  • Glyn Moody |
  • Governments, News, Privacy,

The Next Frontier in Threats to your Privacy: Voice Recognition

Privacy News Online has been tracking the increasing use of facial recognition technologies for some time. Concerns about their wider deployment are growing. But the surveillance world does not stand still. While people focus their attention on facial recognition, a new form of tracking is being rolled out: voice recognition – detecting who is speaking, … Continue reading “The Next Frontier in Threats to your Privacy: Voice Recognition”

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  • Jul 4, 2018 |
  • Derek Zimmer |
  • BitTorrent, Governments, Privacy, Security,

Oppression for Pennies – The Cost of Surveillance is Falling

Oppression for Pennies – The Cost of Surveillance is Falling If there’s one thing the Internet has taught us over the last 40 years, it is that information is power. The Internet has made and ruined careers, toppled corrupt regimes, made and broken millions of relationships, disrupted entire sectors of economies and created new markets … Continue reading “Oppression for Pennies – The Cost of Surveillance is Falling”

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  • Jun 22, 2018 |
  • Glyn Moody |
  • Governments, News, Privacy, Security,

Maybe “smart” devices are too clever: they know all about your Facebook friends, and can spy on you and your family

The Cambridge Analytica scandal revealed the power of psychological profiling and hyper-targeted advertising based on personal data collected and stored by Facebook. As it became aware of these privacy violations, Facebook tightened up the rules governing what data the apps running on its platform could access. However, in a further blow to Facebook’s reputation as … Continue reading “Maybe “smart” devices are too clever: they know all about your Facebook friends, and can spy on you and your family”

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Police officer caught making over 16,000 privacy violations in police registers; charged with electronic trespassing

A Swedish police officer has been caught making 16,691 cases of unauthorized access into police case files, and is being charged with electronic trespassing. This is far more serious than if a random governmental bureaucrat was looking into random privileged databases: police officers are supposed to be the last line of defense for civil liberties … Continue reading “Police officer caught making over 16,000 privacy violations in police registers; charged with electronic trespassing”

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Politicians, about to vote in favor of mandatory upload filtering in Europe, get channel deleted by YouTube’s upload filtering

French politicians of the former Front National are furious: their entire YouTube channel was just taken down by automatic filters at YouTube for alleged copyright violations. Perhaps this will cause them to reconsider next week’s vote, which they have announced they will support: the bill that will make exactly this “arbitrary, political, and unilateral” upload … Continue reading “Politicians, about to vote in favor of mandatory upload filtering in Europe, get channel deleted by YouTube’s upload filtering”

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French president Macron pushing for pre-election censorship of all news articles to combat “fake news”

French president Macron, in an attempt to have the Power of Narrative stay with the offline-born old guard, is pushing a law that will reintroduce regular news censorship — even in old-style newspapers — in the period of time three months immediately before an election, in an effort to combat so-called “Fake News”. In this context, it’s … Continue reading “French president Macron pushing for pre-election censorship of all news articles to combat “fake news””

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Swiss vote overwhelmingly in FAVOR of Internet censorship in June 10 gambling referendum

The Swiss have held their referendum on foreign online gambling, and voted overwhelmingly in favor of Internet censorship. With 73% in favor of censorship, it’s likely that people voted “against scary foreigners” rather than “for Swiss censorship”. Even so, this is the net result: Switzerland will now create something as drastic and heavy-handed as Internet … Continue reading “Swiss vote overwhelmingly in FAVOR of Internet censorship in June 10 gambling referendum”

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