• Dec 6, 2023
  • Glyn Moody
  • General Privacy News, Governments, Online Privacy, Social Media,

Meta’s New Ad-Free Subscriptions Are Already Under Legal Attack from Privacy Activists

Back in August we wrote about Meta’s surprise announcement that it would seek consent from users in the EU, EEA, and Switzerland before showing them behavioral advertisements. A few weeks ago, Meta provided more details of the proposed change. It turned out that users would be required to pay a substantial subscription fee – €120 … Continue reading “Meta’s New Ad-Free Subscriptions Are Already Under Legal Attack from Privacy Activists”

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  • Sep 13, 2023
  • Glyn Moody
  • Cybersecurity, General Privacy News, Online Privacy, Online Security, Surveillance,

Google Built a Surveillance System Into Its Chrome Browser to “Improve Privacy”

Google has announced that its Privacy Sandbox for the Web is now generally available to anyone using Chrome browser. It’s the latest iteration of Google’s efforts to improve online privacy without harming its digital advertising ecosystem, which currently provides around $30 billion of its revenue each year. This blog first wrote about Google’s Privacy Sandbox … Continue reading “Google Built a Surveillance System Into Its Chrome Browser to “Improve Privacy””

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  • Mar 9, 2022
  • Glyn Moody
  • General Privacy News, Genetics, Governments, Social Media, Surveillance,

The Ultimate Privacy Betrayal: Personal DNA Used for Undisclosed Purposes, without Permission

As this blog has reported, one of the biggest threats to privacy is surveillance advertising. It works by tracking everything people do online — which sites they visit, what they do there. It draws its power from aggregating these tiny pieces of seemingly innocuous information to build up a detailed profile of what we do, … Continue reading “The Ultimate Privacy Betrayal: Personal DNA Used for Undisclosed Purposes, without Permission”

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  • Feb 10, 2022
  • Glyn Moody
  • General Privacy News, Surveillance,

Gambling with Our Privacy: New Report Shows the Reality of Surveillance Advertising

This blog has written many times about the risks to privacy of surveillance advertising. Nonetheless, it can be hard to appreciate what that might mean in real life. A new report from Cracked Labs helps flesh out what pervasive tracking online really means. It comes from the researcher, Wolfie Christl, who five years ago, wrote … Continue reading “Gambling with Our Privacy: New Report Shows the Reality of Surveillance Advertising”

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  • Nov 4, 2021
  • Glyn Moody
  • General Privacy News, Social Media, Surveillance,

“Complexity is Fraud”: Why We Must Drop Micro-Targeted Ads to Help Publishers and to Protect Online Privacy

It has been clear for years that the widespread use of micro-targeted advertising and real-time bidding represents a huge threat to online privacy. Fortunately, an alternative approach is already to hand. Using contextual advertising, where ads are placed according to the editorial material, rather than based on who is viewing it, would allow the entire … Continue reading ““Complexity is Fraud”: Why We Must Drop Micro-Targeted Ads to Help Publishers and to Protect Online Privacy”

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  • May 13, 2021
  • Glyn Moody
  • Cybersecurity, Encryption, General Privacy News, Governments, Social Media,

Anthropologists say smartphones are now “the place where we live”: what does that mean for privacy?

The modern smartphone is a wonder. In terms of raw computing power, an article on ZME Science compared an iPhone 6 with the computers used to send astronauts to the moon: the iPhone 6’s clock is 32,600 times faster than the best Apollo era computers and could perform instructions 120,000,000 times faster. You wouldn’t be … Continue reading “Anthropologists say smartphones are now “the place where we live”: what does that mean for privacy?”

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  • Apr 30, 2021
  • Glyn Moody
  • General Privacy News, Governments, Social Media, Surveillance,

Facebook and publishers sour about Apple’s new privacy controls that stop apps tracking users across sites without consent

One of the greatest threats to privacy online is the tracking of users across multiple sites and services. This allows companies such as Facebook and specialist data brokers to build up highly-revealing profiles of our interests and concerns. The profiles are then used to display micro-targeted ads, typically bought as the result of real-time bidding. … Continue reading “Facebook and publishers sour about Apple’s new privacy controls that stop apps tracking users across sites without consent”

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Privacy News Online | Weekly Review: March 19, 2021

Featured: Privacy News Online – Week of March 19th, 2021 Algorithmic bias: how automated decision making has become an assault on privacy An automated decision-making system was employed in The Netherlands to detect people who are likely to commit benefit fraud. The system could cross-reference data about work, fines, penalties, taxes, properties, housing, education, retirement, … Continue reading “Privacy News Online | Weekly Review: March 19, 2021”

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

Time to get rid of pervasive online ad tracking once and for all: the alternative is simple, effective, and fully respects privacy

This blog has been pointing out for years the fundamental incompatibility between privacy and the current online advertising model. Today, most Web sites seek to gather as much personal information about visitors as possible, and then sell advertisers access based on people’s data. Until recently, there has been little effort to change that system. The … Continue reading “Time to get rid of pervasive online ad tracking once and for all: the alternative is simple, effective, and fully respects privacy”

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  • Nov 24, 2020
  • Glyn Moody
  • Cybersecurity, General Privacy News, Governments, Surveillance,

Amazon’s Ring moves even closer to becoming the perfect urban police surveillance system

Back in July last year, this blog wrote about Amazon’s Ring series, whose key product is a small Internet-connected camera built into a doorbell. At that time, it was already clear that the system posed a serious threat to privacy, particularly in the urban context. Since then, there has been a massive rise in the … Continue reading “Amazon’s Ring moves even closer to becoming the perfect urban police surveillance system”

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