Privacy News Online | Weekly Review: February 26, 2021
Featured: Privacy News Online – Week of February 26th, 2021
Clubhouse users are teaching each other how to stay private from Instagram
Users on the audio only social media app have been sharing instructions on how to unlink the two apps so that Instagram doesn’t get any information about your Clubhouse usage. Some even think that Instagram can listen in on Clubhouse chats with mic access. Just like with previous accusations, Instagram maintains that it is not listening to your mic. So, if you’re new on Clubhouse, make sure you think about your privacy.
The battle over the EU’s far-reaching ePrivacy Regulation enters its final and crucial stage
The Council of the European Union has finally settled on a final version of its ePrivacy Regulation which would regulate the transmission of personal data. A plus point is that personal data includes machine to machine transmissions such as those created by Internet of Things devices and even the associated metadata. On the other hand, the proposed regulation isn’t as strong on other privacy aspects such as cookies.
WhatsApp will eventually delete your account if you don’t accept their new privacy policy
Starting in May, WhatsApp users that haven’t accepted the new privacy policy will no longer be able to send or receive messages. They’ll have limited functionality in the app for a few weeks, then even that will disappear – rendering the accounts inactive. WhatsApp then deletes accounts that are inactive for over 120 days. WhatsApp users have until the 15th of May to decide whether to stay on or migrate to a different end to end encrypted messaging platform that doesn’t share location information with Facebook.
More Privacy News This Week:
Cambodia adopts China-style internet gateway amid opposition crackdown
The Cambodian government has issued a decree to establish their own version of the Great Firewall – requiring all internet service providers in the country to connect to a government controlled gateway within a year. The internet providers will also be responsible for verifying the identities of all of their customers. A spokesperson said that the government felt that there was no order on the internet and that this new decree would provide that. Human rights experts are concerned that freedom of expression is going to be stifled instead.
Kidnap Capital Mexico Eyes Biometric Phone Registry, Sparking Privacy Fears
A bill that is making its way through the Mexican legislature would force telecommunication companies to create a registry of all their customer’s phone numbers associated with their fingerprints or biometric eye scans all in the name of security. Some industry observers have raised the concern that this new law could have unintended consequences, such as increasing the amount of phone thefts or leading to wrongful convictions.
Microsoft has issued a Windows system update that removes Adobe Flash Player
Adobe no longer releases security updates for Flash and the software disabled itself on January 12th. Microsoft’s automated removal puts another nail in Flash’s coffin.
Two malware families have begun natively supporting Apple’s M1 processor
The first reported malware was already detected by Intego before details of the malware were disclosed. The second is a new malware family dubbed Silver Sparrow. It is not yet known what Silver Sparrow’s ultimate goal is since the malware has not been caught downloading a payload.
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Special thanks to Intego
Thank you to Josh Long, our cybersecurity correspondent from Intego, makers of award-winning security software.