For many Westerners, China is a country associated with widespread surveillance, stringent censorship, and human rights abuses in regions such as Hong Kong and Xinjiang. Despite that, the Chinese government…
One of the surest signs that privacy is becoming a major factor in the online world is the attempt by major Internet companies to claim that they value it. Mark…
A few months ago, we wrote about dual-use surveillance systems – that is, technology that can be used for both peaceful and military purposes. The post discussed some limited efforts…
As numerous posts on Privacy News Online demonstrate, Facebook is one of the biggest problems for privacy around the world. That problem just became bigger, as the company's market capitalization…
Often it can seem that the battle to protect online privacy is hopeless, as companies gather ever-more data about us as we move around the internet. But in the background,…
Surveillance systems often use biometrics to identify key aspects of individuals. A previous blog post discussed the use of gait recognition, behavioral biometrics, and even cardiac signatures for this purpose.…
Police forces across the world have revealed details of Trojan Shield, what is probably the most successful digital sting operation yet: A series of large-scale law enforcement actions were executed…
Working from home has become the norm for millions, perhaps billions, of people around the world. This huge shift in how people spend most of their waking hours naturally brings…
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…
Back in 2018, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled that the UK's mass interception of fiber-optic cable traffic violated people's right to privacy because of insufficient safeguards. The…