6 private links
Brands are seeking new ways to customize messages. A startup that gathers data on when you pick up your phone, or when you go out on a run, can help.
And don't forget to limit ad tracking. Advisory contains a host of recommendations.
Lemmy
For 35.000 kroner solgte britisk selskap data om bevegelsene til titusenvis av nordmenn.
Xiaomi is collecting users’ browser habits and phone usage, raising red flags for privacy researchers.
Isolate your Big Brother Apps. Contribute to PeterCxy/Shelter development by creating an account on GitHub.
App users will get a random request for a selfie and they have 20 minutes to upload it or else the police will pay them a visit
The FBI suggested that people stuck indoors during the coronavirus pandemic download its workout app, but users questioned why it collected so much data.
Gael Duval, the head of the /e/ mobile OS, shares the progress on his mission to create an open source Android fork that is free from Google.
Federal agencies have big contracts with Virginia-based Babel Street. Depending on where you've traveled, your movements may be in the company's data.
We know our digital devices are logging our every move, yet we still trust in Apple, Facebook and Android. What if we "unGoogled" ourselves and took back control of our data? Two startups hope we will do just that.
A year later. Getting by without a SIM card in my smartphone.
Two Times Opinion writers answer readers’ questions on their investigation into how companies track smartphone users and profit off their data.
ToTok, an Emirati messaging app that has been downloaded to millions of phones, is the latest escalation of a digital arms race.
The apps and companies profiting from your every movement.
What we learned from the spy in your pocket.
Just by downloading an app, you’re potentially exposing sensitive data to dozens of technology companies, ad networks, data brokers and aggregators.
Context
The idea that FaceApp is somehow exceptionally dangerous threatens to obscure the real point: All apps deserve this level of scrutiny.
New study reveals scary, sneaky tactics
Security researchers say they have uncovered a massive espionage campaign involving the theft of call records from hacked cell network providers to conduct targeted surveillance on individuals of interest. The hackers have systematically broken in to more than 10 cell networks around the world to d…
It used a Shazam-like technology to identify soccer games
Most phones that ship with Google’s Android operating system also come with a bunch of Google apps and services installed. But Android is open source software, so independent developers have been finding ways to de-Google Android for years. One of the more recent options comes from developer Gaël Duval and the /e/ Foundation. The /e/ …
Key points:
Seeing your favorite band live will probably cost you more in data than in dollars.
The privacy crisis Apple and Google need to fix—now
The tech giant records people’s locations worldwide. Now, investigators are using it to find suspects and witnesses near crimes, running the risk of snaring the innocent.
Objectives To investigate whether and how user data are shared by top rated medicines related mobile applications (apps) and to characterise privacy risks to app users, both clinicians and consumers.
Design Traffic, content, and network analysis.
Setting Top rated medicines related apps for the Android mobile platform available in the Medical store category of Google Play in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, and Australia.
Participants 24 of 821 apps identified by an app store crawling program. Included apps pertained to medicines information, dispensing, administration, prescribing, or use, and were interactive.
Interventions Laboratory based traffic analysis of each app downloaded onto a smartphone, simulating real world use with four dummy scripts. The app’s baseline traffic related to 28 different types of user data was observed. To identify privacy leaks, one source of user data was modified and deviations in the resulting traffic observed.
Main outcome measures Identities and characterisation of entities directly receiving user data from sampled apps. Secondary content analysis of company websites and privacy policies identified data recipients’ main activities; network analysis characterised their data sharing relations.
Results 19/24 (79%) of sampled apps shared user data. 55 unique entities, owned by 46 parent companies, received or processed app user data, including developers and parent companies (first parties) and service providers (third parties). 18 (33%) provided infrastructure related services such as cloud services. 37 (67%) provided services related to the collection and analysis of user data, including analytics or advertising, suggesting heightened privacy risks. Network analysis revealed that first and third parties received a median of 3 (interquartile range 1-6, range 1-24) unique transmissions of user data. Third parties advertised the ability to share user data with 216 “fourth parties”; within this network (n=237), entities had access to a median of 3 (interquartile range 1-11, range 1-140) unique transmissions of user data. Several companies occupied central positions within the network with the ability to aggregate and re-identify user data.
Conclusions Sharing of user data is routine, yet far from transparent. Clinicians should be conscious of privacy risks in their own use of apps and, when recommending apps, explain the potential for loss of privacy as part of informed consent. Privacy regulation should emphasise the accountabilities of those who control and process user data. Developers should disclose all data sharing practices and allow users to choose precisely what data are shared and with whom.
Eiere av Nokia 7 Plus kan i flere måneder ha fått sendt sensitive opplysninger til en server i Kina. Datatilsynet i Finland vurderer gransking etter NRKs avsløring.
Many major companies, like Air Canada, Hollister and Expedia, are recording every tap and swipe you make on their iPhone apps. In most cases you won’t even realize it. And they don’t need to ask for permission. You can assume that most apps are collecting data on you. Some even monetize…
A new start-up company called eelo wants to provide you with an alternative version of Android. What makes this different than the version of the mobile OS that you are familiar with is that this version is de-Google-ized. The goal is to allow users to have more privacy than they currently do with the Google Play Services version of the open source OS...
Nick Winke, a photographer in the Pacific northwest, was perusing internet forums when he came across a complaint that alarmed him: On certain Samsung Electronics Co. smartphones, users aren’t allowed to delete the Facebook app.