How to stop your mobile phone number and location from being sold
Smartphone users are becoming aware that their phone number and location isn't private when they use the internet on their data plans thanks to the selling of your mobile advertising…
Cybersecurity
WPA2 KRACK leaves your device vulnerable on every WiFi network
Wi-Fi Protected Access II (WPA2) has been proven to be insecure - leaving your device vulnerable on pretty much all wireless networks, whether they are public or private. The WPA2…
The UK home secretary still doesn’t know how encryption works, and she’s not ashamed
Railing against the use of encryption by criminals has always been an exercise in futility, but it's a great way to sound tough. What better way to assert your power…
Stunning: Taser wants to turn the public and their smartphones into its big data posse of police informants
Last month we wrote about the increasing application of big data analysis by police forces, often using software from the shadowy outfit Palantir. But it's by no means the only…
The race to save online privacy: what happens when quantum computers can break all our crypto?
Although many people are well aware of the many threats to their privacy, there is an underlying assumption that the use of strong encryption will always be available to mitigate…
Opening the black boxes: algorithmic bias and the need for accountability
Here on Privacy News Online we've written a number of stories about the privacy implications of DNA. There's an important case going through the Californian courts at the moment that…
With the World Wide Web Consortium captured by the copyright industry, who will step up to lead web development next?
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which used to develop standards for the Web, has been captured by the copyright industry. In a doubly controversial vote, the W3C decided that…
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…
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…
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…