privacy Archive

  • Google faces multi-state investigation in the U.S. over Wi-Fi fiasco. Should it?

    Google faces multi-state investigation in the U.S. over Wi-Fi fiasco. Should it?

    Posted on June 22, 2010 | No Comments
    You know, I'm somewhat conflicted when it comes to this Google story. Yesterday it emerged that France had discovered that Google's Street View cars had surreptitiously collected private citizens' passwords and other sensitive data. Today we've learned that several states here in the U.S., led by Connecticut, plan to investigate Google over this whole Wi-Fi fiasco. Normally you don't want giant corporations driving around the countryside collecting private information on unsuspecting citizens, right? But does anyone really think that Google is “up to no good” here?

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  • iOS 4 privacy policy updated: Apple can anonymously collect location data, you can take away iAds’ cookies

    iOS 4 privacy policy updated: Apple can anonymously collect location data, you can take away iAds’ cookies

    Posted on June 21, 2010 | No Comments
    It may not be a big deal -- Android's done it for years -- but some will no doubt be interested to learn that Apple can monitor your GPS. In the latest revision of its privacy policy, presumably updated for iOS 4, it revealed the company can anonymously track the "real-time geographic location" of devices and is free to share that data with "partners and licensees" as well. In a nutshell, that means Cupertino could potentially sell location data, but don't get in a tiff just yet -- the company says it will do so anonymously and for location-based services only.

    Speaking of sales and personally identifiable data, another addition to iOS 4 is the ad network iAd, which monitors your browsing habits and interests and serves up targeted advertisements respectively. According to the updated privacy policy, however, you don't need to let the OS do that. Simply navigate to http://oo.apple.com to shut down automated cookie collection, and you'll see boring, generic ads instead.

    iOS 4 privacy policy updated: Apple can anonymously collect location data, you can take away iAds' cookies originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Jun 2010 22:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • HTC promises fix for Droid Incredible’s ne’er-to-forget browser

    HTC promises fix for Droid Incredible’s ne’er-to-forget browser

    Posted on June 19, 2010 | No Comments
    In case you missed the recent excitement, a "feature" of HTC's Droid Incredible was found whereby the Sense UI bookmarking widget would take random screenshots of your web browsing experience and put them in a folder that's nigh impossible to delete, even after resetting to factory settings. Looks like the company knows about the issue, acknowledging it in a statement and promising a fix "in the near future." It also suggests a different reset to fix the mess, which apparently is to select "Format Phone Storage" from the "SD Card and Phone Storage" settings menu. Let us know if you have any luck with this and please, be careful about your browsing habits if you're worried what might be hanging around.

    HTC promises fix for Droid Incredible's ne'er-to-forget browser originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 19 Jun 2010 03:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Droid Incredible saves browser screenshots to internal memory, turns into a privacy nightmare?

    Droid Incredible saves browser screenshots to internal memory, turns into a privacy nightmare?

    Posted on June 17, 2010 | No Comments
    June must be the month when privacy issues leave their hibernation and return to trouble our fragile minds. First we had Flash going loco, then AT&T's airwaves exploded with iPad users' email addresses, iPhone 4 pre-orders started sending people to the wrong account, and now this. Boy Genius Report has come across a rather worrying "feature" of the HTC Sense bookmarking widget on the Incredible, which takes sporadic screenshots of your browsing sessions. That wouldn't be so bothersome in itself, but try to remove said pictures, and you find where the problem lies. Ending the browsing session, deleting your history, and even a full reset to factory settings failed to eviscerate the indiscreet imagery. You have to manually discover their location and delete them by hand. Considering the high likelihood of Incredibles being sold and resold for years to come, this could turn the phone into a little cache of treasure for the proactive identity thief. And since it's a Sense issue, it might be affecting other HTC handsets as well. Wunderbar.

    Droid Incredible saves browser screenshots to internal memory, turns into a privacy nightmare? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Jun 2010 03:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • What’s cheaper than buying an anti-RFID wallet?

    What’s cheaper than buying an anti-RFID wallet?

    Posted on June 1, 2010 | No Comments
    The following is in the interest of saving you money, which is probably my number one goal here at CG: preventing you from spending money when you don't have to. I've seen ads on Drudge recently pimping RFID-blocking wallets produced by a company called Identity Stronghold. The idea behind the wallet is to block the RFID chip found in your credit card from being surreptitiously scanned. Now, I'm sure it's a fine product and one that works as advertised; I have no "issue" with said wallet. But that's partially why you can get away with not buying one: it's fairly easy to disable the RFID chip in your credit card. What do you need? Nothing more than a hammer!

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  • Netflix settles lawsuit, cancels contest

    Netflix settles lawsuit, cancels contest

    Posted on March 12, 2010 | No Comments
    Well, the lawyers have won again. Netflix settled the privacy lawsuit brought about by their last contest out of court, and canceled the next contest. Good thing we have outraged class action lawsuits to protect us!

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  • Playing both sides: Nokia sold monitoring equipment to Iran

    Playing both sides: Nokia sold monitoring equipment to Iran

    Posted on March 4, 2010 | No Comments
    Nokia Siemens makes lots of mobile networking gear. Most of it provides the connectivity we use every day. But they also make and sell equipment to monitor that connectivity. Such devices are required in the U.S. and much of Europe for law enforcement purposes, and Nokia no doubt makes a pretty penny selling this monitoring equipment to various governments. New details have emerged recently that Nokia sold the same gear to Iran, where the government used it not for law enforcement purposes but to silence dissent. Big surprise!

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  • GSM call encryption code cracked, published for the whole world to see

    GSM call encryption code cracked, published for the whole world to see

    Posted on December 29, 2009 | No Comments
    var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/security/GSM_call_encryption_code_cracked_published_for_the_world'; Did you know that the vast majority of calls carried out on the 3.5 billion GSM connections in the world today are protected by a 21-year old 64-bit encryption algorithm? You should now, given that the A5/1 privacy algorithm, devised in 1988, has been deciphered by German computer engineer Karsten Nohl and published as a torrent for fellow code cracking enthusiasts and less benevolent forces to exploit. Worryingly, Karsten and his crew of merry men obtained the binary codes by simple brute force -- they fed enough random strings of numbers in to effectively guess the password. The GSM Association -- which has had a 128-bit A5/3 key available since 2007, but found little takeup from operators -- has responded by having a whinge about Mr. Nohl's intentions and stating that operators could just modify the existing code to re-secure their networks. Right, only a modified 64-bit code is just as vulnerable to cracking as the one that just got cracked. It's important to note that simply having the code is not in itself enough to eavesdrop on a call, as the cracker would be faced with just a vast stream of digital communications -- but Karsten comes back to reassure us that intercepting software is already available in customizable open source varieties. So don't be like Tiger, keep your truly private conversations off the airwaves, at least for a while.

    GSM call encryption code cracked, published for the whole world to see originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Dec 2009 04:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Sprint handed customer GPS data to law enforcement over 8 million times last year

    Sprint handed customer GPS data to law enforcement over 8 million times last year

    Posted on December 2, 2009 | No Comments
    Privacy advocates and career criminals alike are in a lather over reports that between September 2008 and October 2009, Sprint Nextel ponied up customer location data to various law enforcement agencies more than 8 million times. Speaking at ISS World 2009 (a conference for law enforcement and telecom industry-types responsible for "lawful interception, electronic investigations and network Intelligence gathering"), Sprint Nextel's very own Paul Taylor, Manager of Electronic Surveillance, lamented on the sheer volume of requests the company's received in the past year for precise GPS data for Sprint customers. How did the company meet such high demand? Apparently, his team built a special "web interface" which "has just really caught on fire with law enforcement." We're glad that Sprint's plans to streamline the customer service experience don't stop short of those who serve and protect, but as the EFF points out, plenty of nagging questions remain, including: How many individual customers have been affected? Is Sprint demanding search warrants? How secure is this web interface? Check out an excerpt from Taylor's speech after the break.

    Continue reading Sprint handed customer GPS data to law enforcement over 8 million times last year

    Sprint handed customer GPS data to law enforcement over 8 million times last year originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Privacy versus power: smart grids are the new battlefield

    Privacy versus power: smart grids are the new battlefield

    Posted on November 19, 2009 | No Comments
    I think we can all agree that protecting our own personal privacy is a generally good idea. There are an enormous number of ways that our privacy can be encroached in a given day. Some of them are "for our own good", or "just the cost of doing business" in the modern age. Some of the ways our privacy may be violated are extremely esoteric and not very likely (hard drive activity LEDs, for example! PDF: Information Leakage from Optical Emanations). Generally speaking, what I do in my own home is largely my own business, and not the business of anyone else. But the technology behind so-called "smart grids" for delivering electricity to appliances in a way that maximizes efficiency may leak a lot of personal information about you and your domestic habits.

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  • UK T-Mobile customer data sold to cold callers, responsible staff to be prosecuted

    UK T-Mobile customer data sold to cold callers, responsible staff to be prosecuted

    Posted on November 17, 2009 | No Comments

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    Let's be honest, who here is actually surprised that underpaid and overworked data workers would sell on our details for a few extra quid? Given the number of uninvited calls to our unlisted phone numbers, we know for a fact that somebody has been dishing our personal contacts to those Nigerian princes and caring loan consolidators, so it's no shock to learn that T-Mobile employees have been fingered for committing the deed and are now facing prosecution. We're told that inappropriately leaked information made its way into the hands of brokers, who then "cold-called the customers as their contracts were due to expire" without T-Mob's knowledge. Disappointed by the failure of current fines to discourage such illegal information trade, British Justice Minister Michael Wills has even called for "custodial sentences" to be levied against the poor slobs responsible. So, if you're scoring at home, that's now two black eyes for T-Mobile when it comes to keeping our data safe. For shame.

    UK T-Mobile customer data sold to cold callers, responsible staff to be prosecuted originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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