EFF

The EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) revealed a study this week which showed the Ring Doorbell app for Android to be tracking users with 3rd-party systems. Included in the mix are four "analytics and marketing companies" that received information not explicitly sent by the user of the Ring app. This is not the first time Ring has exposed user data to 3rd-party groups - it's not even really all that rare.

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DreamHost has revealed that the US Justice Department is demanding the records of visitors to a certain anti-Trump website on its network. The website in question is Disrupt J20, which helped organize inauguration day protest to oppose the Trump administration. According to DreamHost, the amount of data the Justice Department is demanding could infringe the rights of those Disrupt J20 visitors.

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Few things in the world of technology anger people more than ink cartridges for printers. We have all been trying to print a document only to have the printer stop and force you to replace the cartridge to keep printing. Often that happens well before any print issues like streaks or faded color happens. HP really got itself into the muck with a firmware that bricked some third party ink cartridges recently and is now asking forgiveness of its customers.

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The Digital Millennium Copyright Act or DMCA has been one of the most debated laws affecting the tech industry. While the intention to protecty copyright in this modern age is commendable, the DMCA has often been waved around by giant companies, like record labels, as a threat to those who make even the slightest error in using, say, music in a YouTube video. That law happens to also impose restrictions in security research, which digital rights advocate Electronic Frontier Foundation or EFF is now challenging by suing the US government.

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T-Mobile CEO John Legere isn't known for holding back when it comes to press statements, and especially when it comes to less formal channels like social networks. While sometimes entertaining, it does come at the cost of sometimes muddling issues and even turning away allies. That's is certainly what the outspoken Legere experienced after he had publicly lashed out at privacy advocacy group EFF over the carrier's Binge On video streaming feature. And, uncharacteristic of the chief exec, he does acknowledge his error and even apologizes for it.

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Things at the US Federal Trade Commission could take a sharp turn toward pushing privacy, as the government agency makes a high-profile EFF member its Chief Technologist. Lorrie Cranor, who sits on the board of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), has been named the new Chief Technologist for the FTC, where she will be "primarily responsible for advising Chairwoman Ramirez and the Commission on developing technology and policy matters."

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This is quickly going to be a he/she said, he/she said case. Google has naturally responded to privacy watchdog EFF's accusations that the search company is semi-secretly tracking students' online comings and goings, despite promising not to do so and going against the law. Google even cites the support of some of the very people who penned the Student Privacy Pledge, saying it is confident that it isn't doing anything illegal or even morally long. And naturally, the EFF has also responded, saying its critics are missing some critical points.

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The FCC may have decided not to impose any standard Do Not Track rules on services like Google or Facebook, but that doesn't mean that their tracking activities will remain unfettered, especially from the sanctions of a different government agency. Privacy watchdog Electronic Frontier Foundation or EFF has filed a formal complaint against Google with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). It's beef? That Google has been collecting students' private information through devices like Chromebooks and services like Google Apps for Education (GAFE), despite promising not to do so.

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It's not time to panic just yet, but there could one day be a fundamental change to the JPEG image format that would have a significant impact on the way we view and use images on the web. The committee behind the format, the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG), is now holding discussions on the topic of privacy and security, and considering the idea of bringing digital rights management (DRM) to the popular image type.

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While a "Do Not Track" setting has become standard in most browsers today, including Chrome, Safari, and Firefox, it's commonly known that internet advertisers still have ways of tracking users. Advertisers profit from tracking the browsing history of users, and whether users have turned the Do Not Track setting on or not, many will ignore it altogether in their quest for data. That's why the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has announced it's building a stronger standard for the setting, aimed to protecting user privacy.

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The US government seems to really have a thing about backdoors, which doesn't sound good whether or not you have an overactive mind. It is almost understandable that the CIA and the NSA and the FBI would want such kind of access to software, but now even the Navy seems to be in on the scheme. Advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation or EFF discovered that the Navy posted, and later took down, an online solication that, in essence, was trying to buy zero or N day security bugs from widely used software.

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The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is continuing to make its best efforts at ensuring the act of jailbreaking devices like smartphones and tablets remains a legal act. The organization said this week that it has filed a petition with the U.S. Librarian of Congress and the Copyright Office, arguing that jailbreaking is not a crime, and that it should not be seen as a violation of the U.S.'s Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA).

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