Music streaming service Spotify has reportedly filed a patent for new personality tracking technology that analyses a user’s emotional state and suggests music based on it. The patent, titled “Identification of taste attributes from an audio signal,” details constantly monitoring “speech content and background noise” to provide song suggestions.
A recent report from the Information claims that tech giant Facebook plans to take on rival Apple in an antitrust lawsuit related to its iOS 14 privacy features. A lawsuit would be a dramatic escalation to the war of words between the Masters of the Universe over user privacy.
Tech giant Apple has released a security update for iOS devices to patch multiple vulnerabilities, urging customers to download it immediately. According to Apple, vulnerabilities in its software “may have been actively exploited” by hackers.
An angry firestorm from both leftwing feminists and conservative constitutionalists is besieging President Joe Biden who, on Day One of his presidency, issued an executive order that removes any legal recognition of the two sexes and eradicates protections women have enjoyed in the federal government and other arenas such as bathroom privacy and sports.
Dating app Bumble has temporarily disabled a feature allowing users to filter potential matches based on their political leanings. The company cryptically announced it had disabled the feature to “prevent misuse” after social media posts indicated some users were changing their political leanings to try to locate other users who attended the Capitol Hill protest.
Telegram surpassed 500 million active users in January, according to a statement from Pavel Durov, the messaging app’s founder. Durov noted that 25 million people downloaded the platform in just 72 hours.
Recent reports claim that 70 terabytes of user data from social media network Parler have been leaked online.
The hacker group behind the suspected Russian cyberattack of Texas-based IT company SolarWinds is now suspected of also gaining access to Microsoft’s internal systems.
Throughout 2020 the world saw multiple major hacks and breaches of schools, governments, and private companies as more systems moved online and the world adapted to the coronavirus pandemic — here are five of the most notable hacks and breaches of 2020.
A 12-year-old English girl plans to take legal action against the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok, alleging that the app uses children’s data illegally.
Ticketmaster recently agreed to pay $10 million in criminal fines after they gained unlawful access to its competitor’s private data. In 2013, a former Ticketmaster executive reportedly encouraged an employee that had previously worked for a competitor to access the competitor’s internal computer data.
Police forces are reportedly using digital evidence from vehicles to investigate crimes, but many privacy activists have fears about the lack of information security in most vehicles’ computers.
Employees at Facebook are pushing back on the company’s war against Apple’s efforts to prevent data harvesting by social media companies. An update to Apple’s mobile operating system allows blocks tracking by platforms like Facebook and Google.
A recent report claims that a second hacking group was targeting the Texas-based IT company SolarWinds at the time that the first breach of the company’s systems was discovered. The SolarWinds hack resulted in large-scale intrusions into government agencies including the Treasury.
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has revealed that the recent hack of the Austin-based IT company SolarWinds was much worse than initially reported and “poses a grave risk to the federal government.” The National Nuclear Security Administration, which maintains America’s nuclear stockpile, has been targeted by the hack.
Social media giant Facebook has run another full-page ad in three major newspapers claiming that Apple’s tracking change will harm small businesses and the internet as a whole. Apple has responded to Facebook’s attack ads, stating: “Users should know when their data is being collected and shared across other apps and websites — and they should have the choice to allow that or not.”
The Texas-based IT company SolarWinds recently announced that it has suffered a “highly-sophisticated, targeted and manual supply chain attack by a nation state,” which may have left multiple U.S. government agencies vulnerable. The federal government is investigating a major hack of government agencies including the Treasury Department.
A report published on Sunday revealed that data stored by the United States Treasury was compromised by a sophisticated hacking group backed by a foreign government. The hackers also infiltrated the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration. The National Security Council launched an investigation into the incident after a meeting on Saturday at the White House.
The music streaming service Spotify has reportedly reset an undisclosed number of user passwords after claiming that a software vulnerability in its systems exposed privacte user information to its business partners.
In a recent article, BuzzFeed News claims that Facebook employees believe that the company’s global ad machine puts profits over people by allowing hackers and scammers to buy ads aimed at ripping off Facebook users and manipulating people.
In a recent article, Recode outlines how retailers track customers’ every move in exchange for providing them with coupons and convenient shopping experiences.
Senators are demanding answers from ExamSoft, an exam software company that has been widely criticized by students this year over privacy concerns and a set of bizarre rules. A student who took the bar exam using ExamSoft’s technology told reporters in October that he was forced to urinate in his pants due to the platform’s prohibition against bathroom breaks.
Amazon announced recently that it will deploy machine-learning AI technology to monitor warehouse workers. The technology is designed to ensure that workers are following social distancing guidelines during their shifts. Similar technology will also be deployed to monitor the health of warehouse machinery.
A recently discovered and patched security vulnerability in Apple devices allowed hackers to remote control iPhones within WiFi range. Unlike many hacks, this vulnerability did not require the target iPhone to be touched by its user or the hacker. As one expert explained, “This attack is just you’re walking along, the phone is in your pocket, and over Wi-Fi someone just worms in with some dodgy Wi-Fi packets.”
A recent report states that a number of “smart” doorbells featuring microphones and cameras sold on Amazon and eBay come stocked with a number of security vulnerabilities.
Facebook has reportedly patched a bug in its Messenger app for Android that allowed hackers to call unsuspecting targets and listen to them before they even pick up the audio call.
Sean Joyce, the former chief trust officer at Airbnb, resigned from his post last year over concerns about the company’s data-sharing policy. Joyce claims that the company inappropriately shares data with the Chinese government without the consent of its users. The company’s co-founder allegedly told him: “We’re not here to promote American values.”
After a coalition of eight civil and human rights organizations published an open letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook last month related to the delay of Apple’s new App Tracking Transparency features, Apple has responded to the letter doubling down on its privacy practices. The iPhone giant took a direct shot at Facebook, saying that Mark Zuckerberg’s social media giant has “made clear” its intention to “collect as much data as possible.”
As students have shifted to remote learning this year in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, educators have adopted tools that have made the transition possible. Exam monitoring software, a new tool that allows students to take exams remotely, has been criticized by students and educators over alleged privacy violations and reliability issues.
Internal documents from the European Union Council reveal that the bloc is seeking to ban end-to-end encryption on messaging services such as WhatsApp and Signal, following the recent Islamic terror attacks in France and Austria. A draft Council of the
A recent internal probe of Robinhood trading app accounts discovered almost 2,000 customer accounts were compromised in a recent hacking spree.
A recent report claims that the Xplora 4 smartwatch made by the Chinese-owned company Qihoo 360 Technology and marketed to children in the U.S. and Europe can secretly take photos and record audio when activated by an encrypted SMS message.
Wired magazine outlines in a recent article concerns about Amazon’s latest intrusive products and why privacy-focused consumers should be wary of them.
Tech giant Google has reportedly rolled out an update to its Android mobile platform that will enable devices to listen to every sound in users’ homes and alert them to certain household sounds.
E-commerce giant Amazon is testing palm-scanning payment technology at two of its Seattle convenience stores. If successful, the palm-scanning payment system could spread across the country.
Emergency 911 services in 14 states went down temporarily on Monday, putting lives at risk. Some argue that the outages, which lasted for up to an hour, were caused by technical issues at Microsoft, which provides communications products used by emergency service departments. Others believe that the shutdown was caused by an issue with an emergency telephone service called Intrado.
Universal Health Services, a major hospital system with over 400 locations, faced a cyberattack over the weekend that shut down its internal records system. Doctors and nurses have been forced to use paper and pen to record patient records since the attack began. Cybersecurity analysts believe that the attack could be the largest medical cyberattack in the nation’s history.
A judge has temporarily blocked the U.S. government from banning the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok from being downloaded from Apple and Google’s app stores.
Researchers say that a tip from a child led them to discover aggressive adware in iOS and Android smartphone apps with a combined 2.4 million downloads across the iPhone App Store and Google Play Store. The malware apps targeted young children and were promoted on social media apps including TikTok.
Amazon recently announced a number of new products at its annual hardware event, including a new Ring security camera drone that flys around your house recording you and your family.