• Nov 23, 2023
  • Glyn Moody
  • General Privacy News, Online Privacy, Online Security, Social Media, Surveillance,

Real-Time Bidding Is Bad for Your Privacy and a Serious Threat to National Security

It’s extraordinary to think that it’s been six years since this blog started warning readers about real-time bidding (RTB), the system behind most online ads. In the few hundredths of a second after you click a link on most site, the blank advertising slots are put up for an automated auction among potential advertisers. In … Continue reading “Real-Time Bidding Is Bad for Your Privacy and a Serious Threat to National Security”

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  • Mar 17, 2022
  • Glyn Moody
  • General Privacy News, Governments, Surveillance,

Drawing the Line: Are Smart Cities Compatible with Human Rights and Privacy?

PIA blog followed Google’s Sidewalk Labs project in Toronto for some years, until the plan to create a futuristic smart city was dropped in 2020. The principal problem with the project was privacy. A Guardian article quotes Jim Balsillie, co-founder of BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, as saying that the project was “a colonizing experiment … Continue reading “Drawing the Line: Are Smart Cities Compatible with Human Rights and Privacy?”

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  • Sep 27, 2021
  • Glyn Moody
  • Cybersecurity, Governments, Surveillance,

EU is Spending More Than a Billion Dollars Expanding Biometric Honeypots, Despite Risks to Privacy and Freedom

Privacy News Online has just reported on a major privacy disaster in Afghanistan, where biometric and other highly personal data is now in the hands of the Taliban. That makes clear, in a dramatic fashion, the folly of creating huge databases of unique and unchangeable personal data. Of course, it could be argued that the … Continue reading “EU is Spending More Than a Billion Dollars Expanding Biometric Honeypots, Despite Risks to Privacy and Freedom”

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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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  • Apr 13, 2021
  • Glyn Moody
  • General Privacy News, Governments, Surveillance,

Privacy organizations call for facial recognition to be regulated or even banned, as police turn to Clearview AI

At the beginning of last year, concerns about facial recognition technology increased with the appearance of the start-up Clearview AI. It was problematic for two main reasons. First, the size of its database, which the company claimed held over three billion facial images. Secondly, for its business model, which was mainly based on providing police … Continue reading “Privacy organizations call for facial recognition to be regulated or even banned, as police turn to Clearview AI”

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Privacy News Online | Weekly Review: October 2, 2020

Featured: Privacy News Online – Week of October 2nd, 2020 Russia wants to outlaw TLS 1.3, ESNI, DNS over HTTPS, and DNS over TLS A newly released draft law by the Russian Ministry of Digital Development, Communications, and Mass Media takes aim at popular encryption technologies that keep the internet secure and private. The law … Continue reading “Privacy News Online | Weekly Review: October 2, 2020”

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  • Sep 22, 2020
  • Caleb Chen
  • Censorship, Encryption, General Privacy News, Governments,

Russia wants to outlaw TLS 1.3, ESNI, DNS over HTTPS, and DNS over TLS

The Russian Ministry of Digital Development, Communications, and Mass Media has released a draft law which outlines plans to outlaw TLS 1.3, ESNI, DNS over HTTPS, and DNS over TLS. The draft law (text in Russian) “bans the use of encryption protocols allowing for hiding the name (identifier) of a web page or Internet site … Continue reading “Russia wants to outlaw TLS 1.3, ESNI, DNS over HTTPS, and DNS over TLS”

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  • Jan 31, 2020
  • Glyn Moody
  • General Privacy News, Governments, Surveillance,

What can we learn from the Clearview “end of privacy” story?

A couple of weeks ago, a story in the New York Times put facial recognition, and the serious problems it raises, firmly into the mainstream. It concerned the start-up Clearview AI, which, as the headline breathlessly informed us, “might end privacy as we know it.” The reason for this worrying description is not any breakthrough … Continue reading “What can we learn from the Clearview “end of privacy” story?”

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Russia’s “Sovereign Internet” is About Counterintelligence

Russian president Vladimir Putin signed the “Sovereign Internet” bill into law yesterday. The bill is supposed to help protect Russia’s internet infrastructure from being “cut off” by Western powers in the EU and the US. It accomplishes this by forcing Russian internet providers to prefer routing over Russian internet infrastructure and to avoid routing outside … Continue reading “Russia’s “Sovereign Internet” is About Counterintelligence”

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  • Mar 28, 2019
  • Caleb Chen
  • Censorship, General Privacy News, Governments, VPN,

Russia’s Roskomnadzor orders VPNs to censor “banned” sites

The Roskomnadzor, Russia’s government censorship agency, has issued formal notices to ten non-Russian VPN providers demanding that they “hook up” to the Roskomnadzor’s list of banned sites and start complying with said blocks within 30 business days. Vadim Ampelonsky, the Roskamnadzor’s press secretary, told Interfax that if the targeted VPN companies do not comply, they … Continue reading “Russia’s Roskomnadzor orders VPNs to censor “banned” sites”

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