One way of looking at privacy is in terms of controlling personal data. That means stopping others from accessing existing private information or collecting new personal data; and not allowing…
A few weeks ago, Privacy News Online wrote about the Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information taking action against Facebook, in a move that signalled growing unhappiness…
The EU's main privacy law, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is three years old. Access Now has produced what it calls an "implementation report", which usefully summarizes the GDPR's…
It's no secret that many companies and governments try to collect as much personal information as possible. This might be because they believe this will improve the results of their…
Back in January, Privacy News Online wrote about China's important new privacy legislation, the Personal Information Protection Law. That post concentrated on the law's extraterritorial reach, and its likely impact…
Back in February, Privacy News Online wrote about a major change to the way WhatsApp and Facebook accounts would be managed. New terms and conditions for WhatsApp users meant that…
The modern smartphone is a wonder. In terms of raw computing power, an article on ZME Science compared an iPhone 6 with the computers used to send astronauts to the…
A recurrent theme on this blog has been the growing importance of controlling cross-border data flows, in part because of concerns about privacy. One increasingly popular approach with governments is…
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has mostly figured in this blog because of its ability to sift through information – for example, finding patterns in data, or matching faces. But one of…
One of the greatest threats to privacy online is the tracking of users across multiple sites and services. This allows companies such as Facebook and specialist data brokers to build…