privacy

Apple, Google, and Uber went on record on Friday stating that they would have no part in building or contributing to a "Muslim registry" that was proposed by President-elect Donald Trump during his election campaign. Buzzfeed received statements from spokespeople for all three tech giants, each iterating that they were against the idea of, and would in no way participate in creating such a registry for the Trump Administration.

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Well that was quick. Just as Evernote's privacy mess escalated rather quickly, its resolution came quickly as well. Whether forgiveness and redemption will also quickly follow remains to be seen. Sensing that a inconsequential apology from CEO Chris O'Neill wasn't enough to quell flaring tempers, Evernote has quickly followed with a statement that they are revising their stance. Sort of. They will still offer users the "privilege" of enhancing their experience by letting employees read snippets of notes. This time, however, they're making it optional by default rather than the other way around.

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It's my opinion that Yahoo's biggest account breach ever does not matter in the grand scheme of things. Yahoo Mail users don't seem to care - they're still searching for "yahoo mail" about 10x as much as any other term according to today's Google Trends. After the query Yahoo Mail, the most popular search term related to Yahoo is Yahoo Finance. This hack is not a big deal to Yahoo users, and I don't expect that it will be any time soon.

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This morning Evernote CEO Chris O'Neill sent an email to apologize for and clarify this week's Privacy Update blunder. This apology suggests that two factors make what they're doing OK in their eyes. One of these factors is the user's ability to opt-out. The other is the idea that "select" Evernote employees may see "random content" from Evernote users. This is not good enough.

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Yesterday was not a very good day for privacy. First was the revelation that Evernote’s new privacy policy will basically allow its engineers to take a peek at any of your notes. Then there’s Google’s lawsuit settlement, which involves still scanning your (and non-Gmail users’) e-mails. And to top it all off, Yahoo has admitted that an even more massive breach happened in 2013, affecting no less than 1 billion accounts. All this should send chills down your spine, and yet most people will probably react to the news with a shrug. Have we become accustomed, even numb, to intrusions of privacy in exchange for service? Common sense tells us we shouldn’t, and yet that might not be the case.

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A new Senate report has detailed privacy and security concerns related to so-called ‘smart toys’ — that is, Internet-connected toys for children. These toys may gather information related to children, possibly including things like their names and other details, which could then be vulnerable to data thieves. The primary concern highlighted in the report tends to be identity theft, with some worrying that vulnerable personal data on children can be used to open financial accounts and other damaging things.

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Privacy in saved information in Evernote might not be what it used to be come January 2017. According to the company itself, they'll be updating their service to "process and take action on [your thoughts] - to think." If that weren't creepy enough, they're also updating their privacy policy which now includes an opt-out provision which says Evernote Engineers wont "look at your data to improve the service."

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Aircraft carrying GSM phone-using passengers are revealed to have been targeted by the NSA for at least the past 5 years. This information comes from a newly revealed document from the National Security Agency's former contractor and infamous leaker Edward Snowden. In this document, a riddle starts off the reveal of technology which allowed and allows the NSA to listen in on phone calls and intercept messages posted to social networks - texts too, of course.

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Uber now keeps track of where you go after your ride ends. The tracking spans the first five minutes after you reach your destination. The data gathered from this monitoring is used to improve Uber's service, including pickups and drop-offs. If you, like many users, aren't happy about being surveilled by the Uber app, you can disable the feature before your next trip.

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As the presidency of Trump seems to loom ever larger, The Internet Archive has taken precautions. Precautions against a presidency that, if Trump's previous actions dictate future behavior, will attempt to control free flow of information on the internet. The Internet Archive is a nonprofit charity organization that does not want its many archived moments in internet history to be destroyed - as such, it's moved to Canada.

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Instagram recently introduced 'disappearing photos and videos' messaging, a Snapchat-'inspired' feature that allows you to send temporary content to someone directly, after which point it'll disappear. As with anything sent to someone else, though, the possibility exists that they'll save it, and the easiest way to do that is with a screenshot. Assuming someone does take a screenshot of your disappearing content, Instagram will send an alert letting you know.

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Donald Trump's impending presidency and Pompeo pick for CIA has sent downloads of secure encryption chat apps skyrocketing. According to the makers of the encrypted messaging app Signal, they've had a 400 percent growth increase since election day this month. Moxie Marlinspike, co-founder of OWS, makers of Signal, they've "never really seen any single event that's resulted in this kind of sustained, day-over-day interest." According to Marlinspike, this may be because of fears that Trump's impending control of "the least accountable surveillance apparatus in the history of the world."

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