Category: Privacy

Online Privacy news and articles on the Privacy Online News blog from Private Internet Access VPN Service.

Behavioral biometrics: Websites and apps are learning from how you type, hold your phone, and use your mouse

How often do you hold your phone in your left hand?  How big are your hands?  Do your hands shake when you type or move a mouse?  If your pointer disappears from your screen, what do you do?  You might not know the answers to these questions – but chances are, your bank does.  These details … Continue reading “Behavioral biometrics: Websites and apps are learning from how you type, hold your phone, and use your mouse”

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  • Aug 18, 2018 |
  • Glyn Moody |
  • Governments, News, Privacy, Programming, Security,

After call to implant microchips in people awaiting trial, are they about to become the next threat to our privacy?

Last year, Privacy News Online wrote about the Swedish SJ Railways allowing customers to use under-the-skin microchip implants for “easy” ticket purchases. That might have seemed a one-off bad idea, but such implants have a surprisingly long history. More worryingly, they seem to be gaining in popularity, and cropping up increasingly in everyday situations, with … Continue reading “After call to implant microchips in people awaiting trial, are they about to become the next threat to our privacy?”

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  • Aug 15, 2018 |
  • Derek Zimmer |
  • Governments, Networking, Privacy, Security,

TLS 1.3 is Coming – an Opportunity for Amazon, Google and Microsoft to End Censorship

A new standard for cryptography is on the horizon, called Transport Level Security 1.3 (TLS 1.3). TLS 1.3 is a major update to cryptography, and fundamentally changes how websites and services will handle negotiating and executing encrypted services. Among the big improvements are faster handshakes with websites (meaning faster page load times), new ciphers (new … Continue reading “TLS 1.3 is Coming – an Opportunity for Amazon, Google and Microsoft to End Censorship”

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5 tips for helping children think critically about privacy

Navigating our increasingly connected digital world can be difficult for the privacy-conscious parent.  There are many decisions to make about how children engage safely and protect their privacy online, including whether and to what extent children are allowed to participate in social media and games.  Fortunately, there are a lot of resources out there, including … Continue reading “5 tips for helping children think critically about privacy”

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  • Aug 11, 2018 |
  • Glyn Moody |
  • Governments, News, Privacy,

US politicians discover personally the pitfalls of facial recognition: is it time to ban it completely?

For all the theoretical concerns about the limitations of facial recognition systems, there’s nothing like personal experience to hammer the point home. That was confirmed recently when the ACLU ran an interesting experiment using Amazon’s cloud-based Rekognition system, which Privacy News Online discussed a couple of months back: Using Rekognition, we built a face database … Continue reading “US politicians discover personally the pitfalls of facial recognition: is it time to ban it completely?”

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PMKID Dumping: WiFi Password Attacks are Easier Than Previously Thought

It’s a little easier to attack some wireless networks than previously thought. That’s because Jens Steube, the developer of the popular password cracking tool hashcat, has found a new way to make the process easier, under the right conditions. We've developed a new attack on WPA/WPA2. There's no more complete 4-way handshake recording required. Here's … Continue reading “PMKID Dumping: WiFi Password Attacks are Easier Than Previously Thought”

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Big Telecoms with Questionable Motives are Starting VPN Services

We are in a world where everyone is trying to get a hold of your information. Corporations and governments want to know what you’re buying, what you’re saying, and essentially what you’re thinking. The world is waking up to the Internet’s privacy problem, and an arms race has started between groups trying to harvest your … Continue reading “Big Telecoms with Questionable Motives are Starting VPN Services”

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Smart cities raise important questions about our privacy rights at home and on the streets where we live

In the era of artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things, our municipalities have an increasing array of tools available to make the places where we live smarter and safer.  By collecting and analyzing live data, AI can help cities and towns more efficiently manage things including utility load and distribution, street traffic, deployment of … Continue reading “Smart cities raise important questions about our privacy rights at home and on the streets where we live”

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  • Aug 4, 2018 |
  • Glyn Moody |
  • Governments, Net Neutrality, Networking, News, Privacy, Security,

Dedicated first responder network raises privacy, transparency and net neutrality issues

Providing first responders such as the police, fire services and paramedics with the best available technology makes sense. Lives can be saved and disasters averted if action is taken as promptly as possible, and key information shared widely among relevant personnel. But as previous posts on Privacy News Online have noted, the enhanced capabilities of … Continue reading “Dedicated first responder network raises privacy, transparency and net neutrality issues”

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