Category: News

General news and updates about Privacy Online and Private Internet Access VPN Service.

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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Your Cell Phone Carrier Is Selling Your Real-Time Location Data to Third Parties

All major cell phone carriers collect and sell their customers’ real-time location data to third-party advertisers, information disclosed in a recent court case has revealed. Krebs On Security even discovered that LocationS According to AndroidCentral, the case hearkens back to 2014 when a sheriff in Missouri began using a prison telecommunications service called “Securus” to … Continue reading “Your Cell Phone Carrier Is Selling Your Real-Time Location Data to Third Parties”

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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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In China, workers’ brainwaves are now being monitored on the factory floor

In the next installment of “how bad can things get”, Chinese factories are not content with monitoring their workers’ communications and physical location, but have found it much more efficient to monitor their worker’s brainwaves directly, writes the South China Morning Post. In a feature called “Forget about the Facebook leak”, it describes a new … Continue reading “In China, workers’ brainwaves are now being monitored on the factory floor”

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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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Why we support the Index on Censorship: 2018 Freedom of Expression Awards

Freedom of Expression is a fundamental human right as enshrined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But it sadly comes as no surprise to any of us that there are governments and others wielding power around the globe who find numerous ways in which to obstruct freedom of expression. Be that … Continue reading “Why we support the Index on Censorship: 2018 Freedom of Expression Awards”

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