A major privacy issue surrounding the website Translate.com has highlighted the need to be careful about which online services you use for sensitive information. Translate.com, as its name suggests, is an online destination where anyone can translate text from one language to another. It recently came to light that Translate has left countless private documents exposed on the Internet.
Another Equifax portal was found to be negligent in keeping up with security protocol this week. This portal was discovered by Hold Security LLC, which found a new online portal for Equifax employees to manage credit report disputes (with personal info inside). This portal was guarded only by a single name/password digital doorway whose name and password were both "admin".
The US isn't just being rocked by disastrous hurricanes, it also beset by what is probably the biggest and most disturbing hacking incident in its history. How big? Nearly half of the country's entire population has had their private information stolen from under Equifax's nose. At that scale, it's not surprising that lawsuits are being thrown at it like a Game of Thrones battle scene. But it seems that not only is Equifax pointing the finger at possibly unrelated parties, it might also be prepping to make a profit out of its own "cybersecurity incident".
It’s hard, but not impossible, to escape Google these days. From Android phones, to the Chrome browser, to Google Search, to Gmail, almost everything that comes into our digital lives has a trace of Google, one way or another. That also means that it is ultimately harder to escape Google’s tracking systems, especially when it’s hard to see what Google is tracking, much less stop it. Google released a variety of functionality on its Google Dashboard for that very purpose (and to fend off complaints and lawsuits), and it is now making it even easier to use that Dashboard on mobile devices.
![Equifax security breach 2017: The Fine Print [UPDATED]](https://c.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/protection.jpg)
Equifax members sought information today after the credit reporting firm revealed an unprecedented company-wide security breach. There are approximately 323.1 million people in the United States according to the United State Census Bureau's 2016 census. Equifax announced that their cybersecurity incident (read: hack) impacted approximately 143 million US-based users.
Over the past several weeks I've been using the FlexSafe portable safe whenever my family heads to the beach. The FlexSafe is a tiny three-digit code-locking pack for valuable items, made to keep items safe whilst traveling. The FlexSafe is designed in a way that lends itself well to attaching to a bar - or a chair arm - or any one of a wide variety of larger items. It's made to lock down.
Uber is putting an end to a controversial practice that involved tracking its riders for a brief period of time after they left the car. The practice kicked off late last year, and though users could disable the functionality if they preferred, many customers were unaware that the tracking was taking place. Concerns over user privacy even prompted a letter from a US senator.
![Weather app AccuWeather caught red-handed sharing your info [UPDATE]](https://c.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/spy.jpg)
AccuWeather was just caught sending GPS coordinates, Bluetooth switch, and BSSID of local Wi-Fi routers to a third party. Granting this app access to location information on an iPhone has been found to send several pieces of information to data monetization group Reveal Mobile. While AccuWeather has an extremely large userbase with a strong rating on the Apple App Store, its innards seem to be doing something of which users aren't fully aware.
UPDATE: AccuWeather and Reveal Mobile have released a joint statement which includes the following: "Despite stories to the contrary from sources not connected to the actual information, if a user opts out of location tracking on AccuWeather, no GPS coordinates are collected or passed without further opt-in permission from the user." Further info can be found at the end of this article.
The Federal Trade Commission and Uber announced a settlement today which allows the FTC two decades of privacy and security audits. This announcement is the next step in Uber settling disputes with the FTC - the second settlement they've made this year. In January of this year, Uber agreed to a settlement of $20-million for exaggerating potential earnings in effort to draw in drivers.
There are pros and cons to the way Apple screens apps that go into its App Store and the way Google prefers to rely on automation to preserve the quality and security of Android apps. The latter methods is more efficient and more open to the hundreds of apps submitted to the Google Play Store. Unfortunately, that does mean that some less than innocent apps do slip in through the cracks. Case in point is a family of spyware collectively named “SonicSpy”, which was able to bypass Google’s automated bouncer, allowing infected apps to join the Google Play Store list, potentially infecting unsuspected Android users.
The whole situation with AdUps, the Chinese company that provides affordable firmware update software to countless budget Android phones, has somewhat turned into an ugly mess. Although less dramatic than last year’s knee jerk reaction, the latest report coming from Kryptowire, who broke the news last year, has resulted in BLU’s smartphones being suspended by Amazon once again. BLU already made its defense, which seems to have fallen on deaf ears. So it is now trying again to make it painfully clear that they are, in fact, free of any wrongdoing.
Karma, the company that offers mobile data plans and the hardware to go with them, has announced a new hotspot product designed specifically for those who care a lot about their privacy. Called Karma Black, this upcoming mobile hotspot will feature a built-in VPN to help protect its user's browsing habits, as well as some other features like blacklisting.
