Category: News

General news and updates about Privacy Online and Private Internet Access VPN Service.
  • Sep 19, 2017 |
  • Glyn Moody |
  • Bitcoin, Governments, News, Privacy,

Me, my data and I: Decode and the future of the personal data economy

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 make money from the detailed profiles they create of our activity as we use social networks and move around the Web. Since we don’t have … Continue reading “Me, my data and I: Decode and the future of the personal data economy”

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  • Sep 18, 2017 |
  • Caleb Chen |
  • Governments, Networking, News, Privacy, Security,

Reminder: the CIA has been able to hack your WiFi router for years

The CIA has had the tools to take over your router for over a decade, according to government documents leaked by Wikileaks. The software, CherryBlossom, is a custom Linux operating system (OS) that allows the attacker to use the device in a man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack. The attack vector itself reminds us that our unprotected internet … Continue reading “Reminder: the CIA has been able to hack your WiFi router for years”

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Call to Action: Write to the European Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee on the upcoming copyright vote

On October 10, an important committee in the European Parliament will vote on future copyright law. It hangs in the balance, and ordinary people like you and I contacting Members of the European Parliament can really make a difference, like you’ll remember we did with ACTA five years ago and won. You don’t have to … Continue reading “Call to Action: Write to the European Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee on the upcoming copyright vote”

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  • Sep 15, 2017 |
  • Glyn Moody |
  • Governments, News, Privacy, Security,

The Chinese IT giant Huawei has big plans for the cloud in Western markets, with important implications for privacy

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 not far behind, and nearly a billion people use its WeChat messaging service. Baidu is the world’s second largest search engine, and is increasingly strong … Continue reading “The Chinese IT giant Huawei has big plans for the cloud in Western markets, with important implications for privacy”

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  • Sep 15, 2017 |
  • Caleb Chen |
  • Governments, Networking, News,

President Trump wants to “cut off” the internet in response to terrorism

President Donald Trump has called (in a tweet) to “cut off” the internet following the September 15th London Tube bombing. The cited reason? Because it is a terrorist recruitment tool. The call to cut off internet access showcases President Trump’s utter lack of a handle on how the internet works – which is deeply troubling. … Continue reading “President Trump wants to “cut off” the internet in response to terrorism”

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Your phone can now be turned into an ultrasound sonar tracker against you and others

New research shows how a mobile phone can be turned into a passive indoor ultrasound sonar, locating people with high precision indoors using multi-target echolocation, and is even able to discern a rough selection of activities. It does this by overlaying imperceptible ultrasound sonar pings into played-back music, measuring the reflections coming back to the … Continue reading “Your phone can now be turned into an ultrasound sonar tracker against you and others”

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  • Sep 15, 2017 |
  • Caleb Chen |
  • Governments, News, Privacy,

California’s Senate votes today (maybe) on A.B. 375: California Broadband Internet Privacy Act

California’s State Senate will vote today on A.B. 375 – the California Broadband Internet Privacy Act. The bill forces ISPs to get a customer’s express opt-in permission before collecting sensitive information on their internet use. Additionally, the bill forbids broadband internet service providers (ISPs) from offering “pay for privacy” plans where customers that oftentimes don’t … Continue reading “California’s Senate votes today (maybe) on A.B. 375: California Broadband Internet Privacy Act”

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Equifax, yet another catastrophic leak: the old world can’t get away with this stuff anymore

Equifax leaks 143 million social security numbers, and the tech world stands jawdropped, while the mainstream press treats it as a sideline note. This treatment of security on the sidelines is exactly what caused the conditions for the leak in the first place, like last month’s catastrophic leak, and next month’s, and the one after … Continue reading “Equifax, yet another catastrophic leak: the old world can’t get away with this stuff anymore”

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A computer tells your government you’re 91% gay. Now what?

A fascinating and horrifying new AI algorithm is able to predict your sexual orientation with 91% accuracy from five photographs of your face. According to the researchers, the human brain isn’t wired to read this data from a face, but according to these results, it is there, and an AI can detect it. This raises … Continue reading “A computer tells your government you’re 91% gay. Now what?”

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Malaysia blocked Steam because of a single game, those trying to play it will need a VPN

Malaysia temporarily blocked Valve’s popular gaming engine, Steam, across the entire country on September 8th, 2017 over a 2D brawler called Fight of the Gods. The Malaysian government had given Valve a 24 hour ultimatum to remove the game or face “further action.” The American company apparently didn’t respond quickly enough and was banned for … Continue reading “Malaysia blocked Steam because of a single game, those trying to play it will need a VPN”

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