Apple has launched a new privacy site allowing users of iPhone, macOS, and other products to see just what data the Cupertino firm has on them. The US expansion of the service follows its debut in Europe earlier this year, as Apple complied with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) rules imposed by the European Union.
You don't have to be a politician or a celebrity to worry about email privacy these days, but if you're starting to eye your Gmail account with suspicion, startup Helm thinks it has the answer. The company's personal email server may look like a router, but in fact it's a standalone hub for your messages that puts security to the fore.
Video doorbells are increasingly our first point of contact with the modern smart home, and now SimpliSafe is joining the party with its new Video Doorbell Pro. Designed to integrate with a SimpliSafe security and home automation system, the new camera allows for two-way audio as well as getting a glimpse of who is standing at your door.
Almost all smartphones these days, even some budget-friendly ones, have a fingerprint scanner, though some are even moving beyond it now. Laptops are just getting started on that trend but those could only protect what's stored in the computer. Your data in external hard drives and USB flash drives? Ripe for the picking (unless they've been heavily encrypted). Enter Lexar's newest USB flash drive designed to protect your files in the same way that smartphones do: with your fingerprint.
The TSA wants to widely expand the use of facial recognition technology in US airports, revealing the plan in a newly published roadmap. According to the agency, this plan will "modernize" passenger screening in airports in the relatively near future, using biometric data to identify travelers while speeding up the entire screening process.
The issue of law enforcement and their need to unlock someone's smartphone is a complicated one, both technically and ethically. It turns out Apple's Face ID devices, like the iPhone X and iPhone XS, are only making this more difficult. A new leak has revealed that a forensics company is teaching police to not look at the screens of suspects' iPhones with Face ID, in turn ensuring they get as many chances as possible to unlock the device.
Yes, Adobe Flash is still around, unfortunately, and that means it's still used as a way to target unknowing users with malware. As you'd expect, the latest malware to gain attention disguises itself as an update to Flash to trick users into installing malicious software. This time around, the malware is a cryptocurrency mining bot that uses system resources to mine for Monero. But there's an interesting twist: it actually does update the Flash software. Thanks, malware!
Google is shutting down Google+ for consumers, axing the little-loved social network in the aftermath of a huge privacy flaw it failed to reveal until months later. Launched in 2011 to great fanfare, Google+ was to be not only a social networking site to compete with Facebook, but a mechanism to authenticate identity online.
Facebook wants to put an internet-connected smart camera into your home, that knows where you are in the room, and has access to your friends list, and no this isn't a Black Mirror episode. The new Facebook Portal and Portal+ video calling devices picked an awkward time to launch today, given recent disclosures by the social network about lapses in account security. That said, you could well argue that there really isn't a good time for Facebook to try to put cameras in your kitchen or living room.
PCs, both laptops and even desktops, are finally getting on the biometrics bandwagon. While most new laptops mostly use Windows 10’s Hello face recognition, there is a growing number that use fingerprint sensors as well. They’re still not as numerous as, say, the fingerprint scanners found on almost every smartphone (except newer iPhones). Wouldn’t it be nice if you could use your phone’s fingerprint sensor to unlock your PC? Well, you actually can, if you’re willing to play with some third-party apps on both Android and Windows PC sides.
The Seattle Police Department has launched a new registry that will help it deal with potential swatting calls. The tool, which is open to the public, allows anyone in the city to register swatting concerns with the PD, helping shed light on what may be future prank calls directed at them. This will help police make informed decisions when dealing with possible swatting situations.
Both Apple and Amazon have denounced a report by Bloomberg claiming Chinese intelligence managed to compromise them via a tiny malicious microchip fixed to server motherboards. The report was published today, citing both "government and corporate sources," followed by statements from both companies. The chips were allegedly implanted on the server hardware at factories in China where the products were manufactured.