As Facebook Raised a Privacy Wall, It Carved an Opening for Tech Giants

Facebook also allowed Spotify, Netflix and the Royal Bank of Canada to read, write and delete users’ private messages, and to see all participants on a thread — privileges that appeared to go beyond what the companies needed to integrate Facebook into their systems, the records show.

Oh good.

#facebook #privacy

In follow up to June 21st’s California might fix privacy laws Trump broke

California Legislature Sells Out Our Data to ISPs

In the dead of night, the California Legislature shelved legislation that would have protected every Internet user in the state from having their data collected and sold by ISPs without their permission. By failing to pass A.B. 375, the legislature demonstrated that they put the profits of Verizon, AT&T, and Comcast over the privacy rights of their constituents.

Earlier this year, the Republican majority in Congress repealed the strong privacy rules issued by the Federal Communications Commission in 2016, which required ISPs to get affirmative consent before selling our data. But while Congressional Democrats fought to protect our personal data, the Democratic-controlled California legislature did not follow suit. Instead, they kowtowed to an aggressive lobbying campaign, from telecommunications corporations and Internet companies, which included spurious claims and false social media advertisements about cybersecurity.

Sad when the corps have more influence than the peeps.

#politics #privacynews

California may restore broadband privacy rules killed by Congress and Trump

A proposed law in California would require Internet service providers to obtain customers’ permission before they use, share, or sell the customers’ Web browsing history.

The California Broadband Internet Privacy Act, a bill introduced by Assembly member Ed Chau (D-Monterey Park) on Monday, is very similar to an Obama-era privacy rule that was scheduled to take effect across the US until President Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress eliminated it. If Chau’s bill becomes law, ISPs in California would have to get subscribers’ opt-in consent before using browsing history and other sensitive information in order to serve personalized advertisements. Consumers would have the right to revoke their consent at any time.

I hope other states follow suit.

#politics #privacynews

How Congress dismantled federal Internet privacy rules

“Trump and the Republicans are doing so many different things on parallel tracks, the news media and activists can’t follow it all,” said Trump adviser and former House speaker Newt Gingrich. “This is by design.”

…

The requirements were modeled after a law passed decades ago by Congress that prohibited telephone companies from collecting customers’ calling histories and selling the information to third parties. “There has been an expectation from the beginning of the telecommunications era that your privacy is not up for sale,” said Sen. Edward J. Markey, (D-Mass.) who fought to preserve the rules.

…

By January, trade groups for tech companies such as Facebook and Google had joined the fight to undo the privacy rules, according to records and interviews. Those companies are regulated by a different government body, the Federal Trade Commission, but they worried that Congress might someday find a way to expand the reach of the rules so that they apply to all technology companies.

Trade groups for large advertisers also got involved in the effort to repeal the law, as did the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Consumer and civil rights groups were quickly outnumbered by their opponents, by a ratio of at least 50 to 1, according to Hill staff and lobbyists.

It’s a long and in-depth but well worth reading. Afterward I felt like Trump and friends were/are engaged in a systematic war for the corporations.

#politics #privacy #facebook #google

Dear FCC

A new proposal would destroy the FCC’s net neutrality guidelines, leaving the door open to ISPs creating “Internet fast lanes” that prioritize certain websites over others.

Millions of people spoke out in 2014 to demand bright-line rules to ensure ISPs didn’t violate net neutrality. Now that victory is in jeopardy.

But you can save it. The FCC is accepting comments on this proposal. Use the link to submit comments to the FCC.

#politics #privacynews

This is an open letter to the politicians who decided it would be better if our browsing history wasn’t private.

As we all know on March 28th House Republicans outvoted the Democrats to repeal the “Protecting the Privacy of Customers of Broadband and Other Telecommunication Services” law. President Trump signed off on the bill on April 3rd.

I’ve heard and read people say that they’ve nothing to hide so why does it matter?

It matters because it’s not just us but our kids, too. If you have kids with phones or tablets, kids that get on the web and surf around — well what they do online is now up for sale. Comcast or your ISP of choice or cell phone provider can take that usage and sell it to Walmart or Target or whoever else they want.

It’s not just our browser history that we need to worry about either. Before the FCC’s privacy laws went into effect, various ISPs were actually hijacking their customer’s searches.

Imagine if you will:

1. You search for “brownies” in Google
2. Comcast intercepts your search and sends it to their partner before sending it to Google
3. The partner has a deal with Duncan Hines so the partner tells Comcast to send you to duncanhines.com
4. Comcast sends you duncanhines.com without you ever seeing Google’s search results page

ISPs were actually doing this in the past before the privacy laws took hold. Your online, personal data is no longer safe from prying eyes and people with money. We’ll now be profiled and sold and so will our kids and so will their searches.

Imagine again if you will:

1. You’re walking around in public with your cell phone
2. Verizon knows where you are based on the cell towers
3. Verizon analyzes where you went and sells all your travel/shopping patterns
4. Verizon does this every moment your phone is turned on

That’s real life but it’s no different if you swap out “walking around” with “surfing the web” or “snapchatting” or “facebooking.”

When Maggie asked me why the House voted to repeal the law, I told her that our laws often aren’t really about protecting or helping us, especially in this case. This law repeal is about helping corporations. It doesn’t serve us, the people of the United States, at all.

From the way I read S.J.Res. 34 though, we’ll have the option to opt-out instead of the more strict opt-in as before. I hope that’s the case. I couldn’t find any settings in my Comcast account on their website and I imagine it would be the last thing they’d add if they did.

Regardless, I set up PureVPN for Maggie and I to use. All our internet traffic is tunneled through it so Comcast and T-Mobile will only know we’re connecting to a VPN. Where we go from there and what we do will be off limits. PureVPN also doesn’t log our data.

And for the people who voted for Trump, Maggie and I thank you.

#politics #privacynews #maggie

Here’s How to Protect Your Privacy From Your Internet Service Provider

We pay our monthly Internet bill to be able to access the Internet. We don’t pay it to give our Internet service provider (ISP) a chance to collect and sell our private data to make more money. This was apparently lost on congressional Republicans as they voted to strip their constituents of their privacy. Even though our elected representatives have failed us, there are technical measures we can take to protect our privacy from ISPs.

Bear in mind that these measures aren’t a replacement for the privacy rules that were repealed or would protect our privacy completely, but they will certainly help.

I’ve been using PureVPN as of late on my Mac and iPhone and so far it’s pretty good.

#privacynews

Vibrator maker ordered to pay out C$4m for tracking users’ sexual activity

The We-Vibe 4 Plus is a £90 bluetooth connected vibrator, which can be controlled through an app. It is marketed as a way to “allow couples to keep their flame ignited – together or apart”. Its app-enabled controls can be activated remotely, allowing, for instance, a partner on the other end of a video call to interact.

But the app came with a number of security and privacy vulnerabilities, which added up to produce something that many would feel uncomfortable about using.

The app that controls the vibrator is barely secured, allowing anyone within bluetooth range to seize control of the device.

In addition, data is collected and sent back to Standard Innovation, letting the company know about the temperature of the device and the vibration intensity – which, combined, reveal intimate information about the user’s sexual habits.

I’d bet for sure that the Standard Innovation is selling that data to anyone and everyone.

#meanwhile #privacynews

Microsoft’s new small print — how your personal data is (ab)used

Microsoft has renewed its Privacy Policy and Service Agreement. The new services agreement goes into effect on 1 August 2015, only a couple of days after the launch of the Windows 10 operating system on 29 July.

[…]

But Microsoft’s updated privacy policy is not only bad news for privacy. Your free speech rights can also be violated on an ad hoc basis as the company warns:

“We will access, disclose and preserve personal data, including your content (such as the content of your emails, other private communications or files in private folders), when we have a good faith belief that doing so is necessary to”, for example, “protect their customers” or “enforce the terms governing the use of the services”.

#privacynews #microsoft

Google Maps is tracking everywhere you go

All of this is either fine or incredibly creepy. Luckily, it’s very easy to turn off the tracking ability on your phone. For Google to record data on your phone’s location, you must have enabled both location reporting and location history. Luckily, Google has provided step-by-step instructions for how to turn those off in case you’re entirely creeped out. And if you’re not, well, now you have Google to help you remember all those times you’ve gone down to the corner store for milk because it was the only thing open at 4 a.m.

This is one of the reasons why Google has turned my stomach in the last year or so. They’re an advertising company and that kind of business model depends on user data — whatever kind they can get.

#privacynews #google