• Aug 18, 2021 |
• Glyn Moody |
• General Privacy News, Governments, Social Media, Surveillance,

Will Privacy Activist Max Schrems’ New Legal Action Against Facebook at EU’s Highest Court Prove to Be His Most Important Yet?

Given the by-now inarguable importance of data protection to the online world today, it is extraordinary that one person and his organization have almost single-handedly shaped the privacy landscape there. The lawyer and activist Max Schrems, along with his NOYB.eu group, have featured many times on this blog. So many times, in fact, that it … Continue reading “Will Privacy Activist Max Schrems’ New Legal Action Against Facebook at EU’s Highest Court Prove to Be His Most Important Yet?”

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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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• Jul 22, 2021 |
• Glyn Moody |
• Censorship, Encryption, General Privacy News, Governments, Social Media, Surveillance,

What the Pegasus Spyware Leak Means for Surveillance, Smartphones & Encryption Backdoors

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 by the EU to prevent such technologies from being abused. A major new leak of alleged targets of one of the leading spyware companies, the … Continue reading “What the Pegasus Spyware Leak Means for Surveillance, Smartphones & Encryption Backdoors”

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• Jun 14, 2021 |
• Glyn Moody |
• General Privacy News, Governments, Surveillance,

Yet another biometric surveillance system: using a person’s “micro-movements” to detect emotions

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. But without doubt, the main technique here is facial recognition, and this has been discussed many times on this blog. The problems with this approach … Continue reading “Yet another biometric surveillance system: using a person’s “micro-movements” to detect emotions”

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• Jun 8, 2021 |
• Glyn Moody |
• General Privacy News, Governments, Social Media,

Antitrust investigations on both sides of the Atlantic emerge as an important new way of protecting privacy

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 with how the GDPR is being enforced. Two years ago, there was another move in Germany against Facebook, by Germany’s competition authority, the Bundeskartellamt, that … Continue reading “Antitrust investigations on both sides of the Atlantic emerge as an important new way of protecting privacy”

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• Jun 1, 2021 |
• Glyn Moody |
• General Privacy News, Governments, Social Media, Surveillance,

Major fightbacks against “cookie banner terror” and facial image scraping launched across Europe by privacy activists

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 achievements and problems. One of the latter is the lack of enforcement by the Irish Data Protection Commission. Another is the continuing use by Web … Continue reading “Major fightbacks against “cookie banner terror” and facial image scraping launched across Europe by privacy activists”

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

Better than the EU’s GDPR? China’s new privacy law includes a rule for handling personal information after death

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 on non-Chinese companies, and referred to the first draft of the law. The second version has just been released, and an article on the Protocol … Continue reading “Better than the EU’s GDPR? China’s new privacy law includes a rule for handling personal information after death”

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• May 18, 2021 |
• Glyn Moody |
• General Privacy News, Governments, Social Media, Surveillance,

Bad news for Facebook on two fronts – and for Ireland’s role as EU’s privacy enforcer

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 service is granting itself the right to share users’ data with other Facebook companies. Since Facebook’s privacy policy also allows a more general cross-company … Continue reading “Bad news for Facebook on two fronts – and for Ireland’s role as EU’s privacy enforcer”

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• May 11, 2021 |
• Glyn Moody |
• Encryption, General Privacy News, Governments, Social Media, Surveillance,

Privacy concerns cause tensions over data localization and data transfers to rise

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 to require data localization, whereby a country’s personal data remains within its borders. Although some companies like Facebook have been fighting this tendency, others providing … Continue reading “Privacy concerns cause tensions over data localization and data transfers to rise”

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• May 7, 2021 |
• Glyn Moody |
• General Privacy News, Governments,

McKinsey & Company agrees that the time is up for the current model of online advertising: here’s what it thinks comes next

Highly-paid management consultants are generally regarded with a certain suspicion and perhaps envy by many people. A popular joke has it that a management consultant is someone who borrows your watch to tell you the time, and then keeps your watch. Whatever your views on management consultants, there is no denying their influence on businesses. … Continue reading “McKinsey & Company agrees that the time is up for the current model of online advertising: here’s what it thinks comes next”

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