How to Hide from Facial Recognition Software with Fawkes
I recently wrote about constructing a fake persona to hide your identity online. I’ll admit that for most people, it’s a lot of trouble to go through. In most cases,…
Surveillance
How to Create a Convincing Persona to Hide Your Identity Online
Peter Steiner's cartoon "On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog" is The New Yorker's most reprinted drawing since they first published it in 1993. Forget the expertly illustrated political sketches,…
If You Think Facebook is Bad for Privacy, Wait Until You See Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse
Since Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook would be rebranded as Meta to emphasize a new focus on virtual reality (VR), it has been hard to avoid hearing about the "metaverse".…
Schrems vs. DPC Battle Heats Up, as New Document Suggests Irish Privacy Body Tried to Weaken GDPR
The privacy campaigner Max Schrems has been doggedly fighting to force Facebook to respect EU users' privacy for nearly a decade now. As this blog has reported, there have been…
Tails OS: The Amnesic Operating System That Covers Your Tracks
If you've ever done something super sneaky and prayed that no one would ever find out, you're in a similar position to Edward Snowden when he leaked highly classified information…
Amazon has Been Lobbying Hard Against Privacy Protections – Mostly with Success; Who’s Smiling Now?
Recently, this blog explored the allegations by 17 US states that Google had abused its monopoly power to stifle competition, and delayed the EU's ePrivacy legislation. Hard on its heels…
Belgium, GDPR Superpower, About to Rule Leading Ad Tracking Framework is Illegal
This blog's posts can often seem a depressing series of stories about privacy loss. But there are some major fightbacks happening in the background, many of which require the slow…
“Complexity is Fraud”: Why We Must Drop Micro-Targeted Ads to Help Publishers and to Protect Online Privacy
It has been clear for years that the widespread use of micro-targeted advertising and real-time bidding represents a huge threat to online privacy. Fortunately, an alternative approach is already to…
Top Security Experts Warn: Client-side Scanning “Tears at the Heart of Privacy of Individual Citizens”
A couple of months ago, this blog wrote about Apple's Expanded Protections for Children, which turned out to mean client-side scanning (CSS). That is, code on your smartphone would be…
European Parliament Calls for Bans on AI-based Biometric Recognition in Public Spaces, Predictive Policing, and Social Scoring
Back in April, Privacy News Online reported on an important set of proposals from the European Commission to regulate the use of artificial intelligence within the EU. It contained some…