Chrome vs. Firefox: A Comparison of Speed, Privacy, and More
Choosing the right web browser is a balancing act. You want something fast and reliable, but you also need strong privacy protections and security features. With both Chrome and Firefox…
Online Privacy
Children Disagree with Chat Control: They Want Privacy, Not Surveillance
One of the laziest justifications for more surveillance is that we must “think of the children,” i.e. it is acceptable to reduce or even abolish privacy in some contexts in…
Meta Hit With 1.2 Billion Euros Fine For Violating the GDPR – Time It Adopted a Federated Approach
Meta has been ordered to pay a fine of 1.2 billion euros (around $1.3 billion) for violating the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by sending personal data of EU…
The EU’s GDPR Is 5 Years Old and Still Not Working Properly: How Can It Be Fixed?
The European Union’s flagship law on privacy, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), is five years old. It has undoubtedly had a dramatic impact on the privacy world, as the…
How the World’s Leading Academic Publishers Became Surveillance Publishers
We've written on PIA blog about the rising use of workplace surveillance to keep tabs on what people are doing in offices and elsewhere. But that’s nothing compared to what…
Privacy-Invasive Proctoring Software Declared Unconstitutional by US Court
During the Covid-19 pandemic we avoided most forms of person-to-person interaction unless absolutely necessary. That was deeply problematic for education, which is based on the idea of a teacher interacting…
How a New UN Cybercrime Treaty Could Lead to the Repression of Civil Liberties
Spyware is arguably one of the most insidious threats to privacy today. While other forms of privacy invasion – CCTV surveillance or even browser cookies – are more or less…
Data Protection Authorities Around the World Investigate ChatGPT Over Privacy Concerns
At the beginning of February, when the excitement over generative AI systems like ChatGPT was starting to build, I warned on the PIA blog “it seems certain that much of…
AI-Based Chat is Coming for Your Privacy: Should We Pause Development of Large Language Models?
Back in February, we noted on PIA blog that the growing excitement about large language models (LLMs), for example in the form of ChatGPT, overlooked the serious privacy dangers they…
Meta, WordPress, and Others Explore Mastodon: What Does This Mean for Privacy and the Fediverse?
In November last year, I pointed out that the outages and uncertainty plaguing Twitter under the ownership of Elon Musk had led many people to look at alternatives. One in…