• Aug 23, 2023
  • Glyn Moody
  • General Privacy News, Governments, Online Privacy, Social Media, Surveillance, VPN,

Canada’s New C-18 “Link Tax” Law Tackles the Wrong Problem. The Real Solution Would Enhance Privacy.

In June, Canada passed the Online News Act, commonly known as C-18. It’s framed as a law that’s designed to help Canadian news publishers financially, as it forces large tech companies to pay when they link to news stories. What Is C-18? The Canadian government describes the key element of the new law as follows: [C-18] … Continue reading “Canada’s New C-18 “Link Tax” Law Tackles the Wrong Problem. The Real Solution Would Enhance Privacy.”

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  • Jul 28, 2023
  • Glyn Moody
  • General Privacy News, Governments, Online Privacy, Online Security, Surveillance,

The Latest Threat to Privacy: CBDCs – Central Bank Digital Currencies

There’s a huge new threat to privacy, and most people aren’t aware of it: the rise of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). These are digital currencies issued by central banks, rather than by a commercial bank or company. Around 100 countries are looking at the idea, and several – such as China and Nigeria – … Continue reading “The Latest Threat to Privacy: CBDCs – Central Bank Digital Currencies”

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  • Nov 28, 2022
  • Glyn Moody
  • Cybersecurity, Online Privacy, Social Media, Surveillance,

Is Elon Begging Us to Look for Twitter Alternatives? The Silver Lining of Twitter’s Deepening Woes

Whether or not you use the service, most of you are probably aware by now that Twitter is going through a tumultuous period following its purchase by Elon Musk. An article in the New York Times with the headline “Two Weeks of Chaos” runs through some of the changes that Musk has already instituted. Perhaps … Continue reading “Is Elon Begging Us to Look for Twitter Alternatives? The Silver Lining of Twitter’s Deepening Woes”

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  • Dec 16, 2021
  • Glyn Moody
  • General Privacy News, Governments, Social Media, Surveillance,

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”. It’s surprising that the idea has been picked up in such a big way, since it is hardly new. The concept of the metaverse — … Continue reading “If You Think Facebook is Bad for Privacy, Wait Until You See Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse”

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  • Nov 16, 2021
  • Glyn Moody
  • General Privacy News, Governments, Social Media,

Google Allegedly Boasted of Slowing Down and Delaying ePrivacy Regulation, Accused of Colluding with Facebook

Back in December last year, Texas and nine other US states sued Google alleging that the company enjoys monopolistic power, and that it is stifling competition. Google called this a “misleading attack“, and insisted that the allegations were “wrong”. The move by the US states is of great relevance to this blog because it concerned … Continue reading “Google Allegedly Boasted of Slowing Down and Delaying ePrivacy Regulation, Accused of Colluding with Facebook”

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  • Oct 20, 2021
  • Glyn Moody
  • General Privacy News, Governments, Social Media, Surveillance,

Facebook’s Very Bad, No Good Week: What It Means for Privacy, and How to Make Things Better

On 5 October, Mark Zuckerberg sent a note to Facebook employees, beginning: “Hey everyone: it’s been quite a week, and I wanted to share some thoughts with all of you.” That’s something of an understatement in the wake of not one, but two, devastating blows to the company, both with important implications for privacy. The … Continue reading “Facebook’s Very Bad, No Good Week: What It Means for Privacy, and How to Make Things Better”

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  • Jul 29, 2021
  • Glyn Moody
  • General Privacy News, Governments, Social Media, Surveillance,

How Discussions at the World Wide Web Consortium Could Undermine Efforts to Strengthen Privacy

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 Zuckerberg proclaimed that “The future is private“, while Google wrote that “Privacy is paramount to us“. As part of that attempt to jump on the … Continue reading “How Discussions at the World Wide Web Consortium Could Undermine Efforts to Strengthen Privacy”

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  • May 25, 2021
  • Glyn Moody
  • Censorship, Encryption, General Privacy News, Governments, Social Media, Surveillance,

How data minimization can protect privacy and reduce the harms of collecting personal information

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 analyses, or simply “just in case” they need something at a later date. According to a new paper from the digital rights organization, Access Now, … Continue reading “How data minimization can protect privacy and reduce the harms of collecting personal information”

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  • Jan 6, 2021
  • Glyn Moody
  • General Privacy News, Governments, Social Media, Surveillance,

Today’s online advertising not only seriously harms privacy, but is seriously broken in other ways; we need to fix it

For three and half years now, Privacy News Online has been warning about the huge, and largely ignored, danger of micro-targeted ads and real-time bidding (RTB). The approach sounds plausible. Advertisers bid in real time to place ads on sites that are tailored to the person who is loading a Web page. But the price … Continue reading “Today’s online advertising not only seriously harms privacy, but is seriously broken in other ways; we need to fix it”

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  • Dec 10, 2020
  • Glyn Moody
  • General Privacy News, Social Media, Surveillance,

New report shows Google tracks 80% of the Web, with Amazon likely to overtake Facebook as second-worst privacy threat

It’s no secret that practically every Web page we visit is infested with trackers. On its own, that would be bad enough. But most trackers are used in order to aggregate enormous quantities of data. Taken together, these create extremely detailed profiles that reveal many things about us, include some pretty private and intimate ones. … Continue reading “New report shows Google tracks 80% of the Web, with Amazon likely to overtake Facebook as second-worst privacy threat”

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