privacy

Although the chatter, whistleblowing, and mudslinging revolving around data privacy and security have somewhat died down, it hasn't completely vanished and is perhaps more critical than ever before. That is perhaps why Purism, the folks behind the privacy-focused Librem Laptops, have decided to take a more mainstream approach to their sales, shipping the laptops in just weeks after paying for one instead of the months-long waiting period before.

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Personal medical records showing up in search results is a big problem, and now Google is addressing it. The Internet giant will start pulling these records from results when someone asks them to, helping individuals maintain privacy in a world where hackers are increasingly breaching medical facilities' networks. This marks a change in policy for the company, which recently updated its policy page to reflect the new removal category.

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As part of an effort to focus on what people in individual countries expect of Facebook, today the company announced new controls for users in India. These controls almost entirely concern profile pictures, allowing users to control who can download them, tag themselves in them, or even screenshot them. The hope is that more people will feel comfortable uploading profile pictures, thus helping grow that aspect of community.

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Late last year, Mozilla launched Firefox Focus, basically the closest you could get to a "burner" browser that kept your online dealings private and erased your footprints after you close the app. Back then, it was made available only for iOS, which was a bit ironic considering it was the last platform Firefox was officially and natively available on. Half a year later, Mozilla has finally decided to grace the Android platform with its single-tabbed focus on privacy.

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The US government has approved social media background checks applied to individuals applying for a visa, it has been announced. The controversial move will require visa applicants to provide a list of their social media handles from the past half-decade, as well as 'biographical information' from the past 15 years. The decision to approve this new vetting method was made by the Office of Management and Budget.

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The implicit promise of password management and single sign-on services like OneLogin is that they keep your credentials safe and private so you won't have to worry about remembering them or writing them down somewhere insecure. As such, it isn't uncommon for these services themselves to be become the target of malicious attacks in order to pilfer their customers' data. It is somewhat rare, however, for such services fall victim to a very serious breach of security, like just what happened to OneLogin at the end of last month.

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Late last month, restaurant franchise Chipotle Mexican Grill revealed that it had suffered a security breach affecting its POS system. The company has released an update on that revelation, saying that 'most' of its stores in the US were affected by the malware. Chipotle says the investigation into the breach, which involved both law enforcement and security firms, has been completed.

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Vine may be dead, but it's still managing to cause headaches for some former users, with warnings that some registered email addresses were inadvertently exposed. Twitter, Vine's owner, announced it was pulling the plug on the six-second video clip social network back in October 2016, though it still maintains an online archive of all the publicly shared footage. It's that Vine Archive that is causing headaches now.

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You may be the product when you're using Twitter, but the social network is adding new privacy and advertising settings to help those tweeting adjust who gets their data. Launched today, and joined by an updated Privacy Policy, the suite of new tools will roll out to Twitter users over the next few days. It also allows some insight into what Twitter has decided your interests are.

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Facebook has been accused of tracking emotionally-vulnerable teenagers and opening up that data to advertisers hoping to cash in on insecure kids. The social network has been pushing its advertising platform in recent years, chasing ad revenue that might once have gone straight into Google's pockets. However, while it has access to a whole host of personal information, Facebook has found itself in hot water for how it apparently uses that data.

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Those who know John McAfee before his brush with the long arm of the law will remember him for his eponymous security suite. Back then, McAfee competed with the likes of Norton for supremacy in the anti-virus market. These days, however, McAfee has involved himself in more than just software security. In fact, his latest endeavor is less about software. It is, however, still focused on security. The man whose name has become synonymous with that industry has just revealed his plans to introduce the world to the most secure and most private smartphone. One that uses hardware switches instead of software to implement that security.

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The folks at Unroll.Me are in hot water for selling user data to Uber this week - but as they are, I'm reminded to do a check. "Check yourself before your data gets sold to Uber" - that's as good credo for the modern digital person. While it does not appear that Unroll.Me really sold any personal data to Uber, the angry mob has spoken. If you're going to sell user data to 3rd-party companies, you need to make that clear in the user agreement nobody reads anyway!

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