Open Source Code – The Future of User Privacy
Will we see more and more open source software in the future, or is this a passing trend that will die off eventually? According to survey data, open source is…
General Privacy News
How can we protect privacy during a crisis like Covid-19, when “health surveillance” is on the rise around the world?
A couple of weeks ago, this blog looked at the use of smartphones to track people so that contact tracing can be carried out to slow the spread of Covid-19.…
Telecoms across Europe are sharing phone location data with governments as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic
A telecommunications lobbying group, the GSMA, has confirmed that several telecom companies in Europe are providing mobile phone location data with the European Union as a way to track the…
Taiwan is using a phone location “electronic fence” to help police track quarantined individuals
The government in Taiwan has rolled out an “electronic fence” to keep quarantined individuals in their homes. The “electronic fence” uses mobile phone data to notify police if the cell…
Unpatched bug in iOS 13.3.1 and later stops VPNs from encrypting all connections
An ongoing security vulnerability in iPhones and iPads is keeping VPN applications from doing their job. For iOS versions 13.3.1 and later, this bug remains unpatched and has been rated…
Coronavirus delays the passage of the world’s most important new privacy law
For obvious and justified reasons, the coronavirus pandemic dominates the news currently. One of the latest developments is that India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has put his entire country on…
Poland’s COVID-19 “selfie app” raises privacy questions – will everyone eventually be tracked?
People in Poland under a mandatory 14-day quarantine have an interesting way to prove that they are following the quarantine. Usually, such mandatory quarantines are checked on by local authorities…
Toronto, Canada is now using phone location data to track if people are congregating
This past Monday, Toronto Mayor Tory announced at a virtual TechTO meetup that the government has been receiving location data from wireless carriers and telecommunication companies in the area to…
Activists in Minecraft made a digital library to bypass government censorship
Media freedom activists have built a 125 million block library in a Minecraft map called the “Uncensored Library” which contains a world’s worth of information and is available to read…
Jordan uses internet throttling instead of internet shutdowns and blocks to censor websites
Internet blocking by governments is evolving at a fast pace, and new research shows that one government in particular, Jordan, has decided to start internet throttling instead of blocking to…