privacy (Page 2)

Latest in privacy

A Human Rights Watch report reveals that the popular LAOIN-5B image-text dataset includes traceable, web-scraped images of real kids.

Artificial Intelligence

AI Is Being Trained on Images of Real Kids Without Consent

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

In response to a lawsuit, Google is going to delete billions of data points from users who browsed on Chrome's Incognito mode.

Good News, Sickos! Google Says It’s Deleting Records of Your Incognito Searches

By Noor Al-Sibai

The college students discovered that the facial recognition software was part of the vending machine's "demographic profiling" feature.

Students Horrified When Error Message Appears on Vending Machine, Revealing Something Dark

By Frank Landymore

Plex, which earned its rep as a way to stream your own media, added a new feature that shares what users watch, often without them knowing.

Users Horrified as Streaming Service Tells Friends and Family What They’re Watching

By Frank Landymore

Nothing Chats was taken down less than 24 hours after researchers discovered that the system was plagued with egregious privacy issues.

App That Turned Android’s Texts Blue Taken Down After Researchers Discover Something Horrible

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

AI chatbots may, as new research suggests, be able to infer information about you based on small things you mention to them.

Artificial Intelligence

Researchers Just Found Something Terrifying About Talking to AI Chatbots

By Noor Al-Sibai

Bad news for techie kinksters: a company that sold internet-connected chastity cages has exposed itself online.

Internet Of Things

Internet-Connected Chastity Cage Reportedly Leaks Detailed Private Info About Users

By Noor Al-Sibai

After reports revealed that Tesla employees shared "intimate" customer images taken by the cars' cameras, someone is now suing the company over it.

Tesla Hit With Lawsuit Over Reports About Employees Watching Car Cameras

By Noor Al-Sibai

Employees at Tesla have secretly been watching and passing around "intimate" videos recorded by Tesla car cameras, Reuters reports.

Tesla Employees Have Secretly Been Sharing “Intimate” Car Camera Videos

By Victor Tangermann

As Wired reports, a facial recognition search site called PimEyes has been using stolen photos of dead people to train its algorithms.

Creepy App Used Stolen Pictures of Dead People to Train Its Facial Recognition Algorithm

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

We're closer than ever to a dystopian future where corporations can read our thoughts without our permission using brain-computer interfaces.

Legal Expert Proposes “Cognitive Liberty” to Avoid Corporate Brain Spying

By Noor Al-Sibai

A new lawsuit against the NFL alleges that the league keeps a massive database of lewd shots of women — both cheerleaders of fans — captured at games.

Lawsuit Accuses NFL of Compiling Huge Database of Lewd Photos of Women

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

Your robot vacuums are watching you — and it's possible for the photos and videos to be leaked online without your consent.

Artificial Intelligence

Intimate Photos by Roomba Vacuums Leaked Online

By Noor Al-Sibai

Google is embroiled in a lawsuit that alleges its private browsing mode isn't very private, a sentiment apparently shared by the jokes of Google employees.

Google Engineers Joked About How Incognito Mode Isn’t Very Incognito

By Frank Landymore

Facebook provided Nebraska police with private data that led to the arrest and prosecution of a teenage girl who underwent an at-home abortion.

Facebook Just Sold Out Abortion Rights to Cops in Nebraska

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

Protecting children online has never been easy. With the advent of facial recognition search engine PimEyes, the safety of children is even more at risk.

Facial recognition

Experts Horrified by Facial Recognition Site That Digs Up “Potentially Explicit” Photos of Children

By Frank Landymore

The Facebook whistleblower is back — and this time, she's implicating the Metaverse.

Facebook Whistleblower Warns That Zuckerberg Wants to Fill Your House With Microphones

By Noor Al-Sibai

Crisis Text Line, one of the most popular suicide crisis hotline chat sources, is capitalizing on data collected from people experiencing true trauma and depression.

Health & Medicine

A Suicide Hotline Is Sharing People’s Data With a For Profit Company

By Lonnie Lee Hood

When announcing his company's latest processor chip, one tech company executive seemed excited by the prospect of Android phones with always-on cameras.

Robots and Machines

Tech Exec Brags That New Phone’ Cameras Will Always Be Watching You

By Noor Al-Sibai

A top Catholic official resigned on Thursday after hackers revealed that he frequented gay bars and used Grindr, raising questions about digital privacy.

Science & Energy

Top Catholic Bishop Resigns After Hackers Expose That He Was on Grindr

By Dan Robitzski

A man was charged with rape after uploading his genetic code to a genaelogy site, giving police the DNA match they needed for a case from 2007.

Man Charged With Rape After Uploading His DNA to Ancestry Site

By Dan Robitzski

Senator Ron Wyden wrote a letter urging the Defense Department to come clean about the various ways it secretly spies on Americans.

Senator Says the Military Is Secretly Spying on Americans

By Dan Robitzski

As Neuralink continues to develop its neural implant technology, experts have concerns about what that would mean for personal privacy.

Neuroscience and Brain

Expert: Neuralink Could Sell Your Private Thoughts to the “Highest Bidder”

By Dan Robitzski

A pilot program in Jackson, Mississippi would give police real-time access to participants' Amazon Ring security cameras.

Amazon Will Let Police Livestream Your Ring Doorbell Camera

By Dan Robitzski

The X4, a smartwatch designed for kids, has a disturbing number of cybersecurity vulnerabilities that could put children at risk.

Robots and Machines

This Smartwatch Lets Creeps Take Pics of Kids

By Dan Robitzski

Amazon is launching a Alexa for Residential service that makes it easier for landlords to convert units into smart apartments.

Amazon Promises Its Alexa For Landlords System Doesn’t Spy on Tenants

By Dan Robitzski

After news broke of the scope of China's DNA-collecting program, scientists and experts warn of enhanced surveillance and persecution.

Scientists Speak Out Against China’s GATTACA-esque DNA Collection

By Dan Robitzski

Last month, San Diego police repeatedly tapped streetlight cameras to surveil BLM protestors: a chilling use of smart city tech that threatens public trust.

Oh No, Spying on Protestors Might Make the Public Distrust Surveillance

By Dan Robitzski

A federal appeals court just ruled that the Facebook's practice of collecting data through its "like" widgets could be considered wiretapping.

Court Says Facebook has Been Wiretapping for Years

By Dan Robitzski

North Dakota's coronavirus contact-tracing app was send data to third-party groups in violation of its own privacy policy.

Science & Energy

Gov Contact-Tracing App Sends User Data to Foursquare, Google

By Dan Robitzski

After the Senate voted to reauthorize the Patriot Act, House Democrats have one last shot to introduce an amendment that would preserve American's privacy.

This Is the Last Chance to Keep Cops From Seeing Your Web History

By Dan Robitzski

GOP Majority Leader Mitch McConnell introduced two provisions to the Patriot Act that would give the government broad new powers to spy on every American.

The US Government Is Seizing Huge New Surveillance Powers

By Dan Robitzski

With companies operating remotely than ever, bosses, managers, and executives are flocking to spy with disturbingly-invasive workplace surveillance tech.

Your Bosses Are Trying To Spy On You Now More Than Ever

By Dan Robitzski

Many countries hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic are tapping citizens' phone data to track the outbreak — and enforce quarantine.

A Growing Number of Countries Tap Phone Data to Track COVID-19

By Dan Robitzski

A group called the Earnest Project claims it took DNA samples from world leaders who went to the World Economic Forum in Davos. It's planning an auction.

Privacy Activists Plan to Auction Off Trump, Other World Leaders’ DNA

By Dan Robitzski

In a letter to Senators, Ring confirmed at least four instances of employees abusing their power to watch customers' video footage.

Amazon Employees Were Watching Ring Footage For Fun

By Dan Robitzski

Pentagon officials signed a memo earlier this week urging members of the military to stop using consumer DNA tests, calling them a security threat.

Pentagon Urges Military Members to Skip At-Home DNA Tests

By Dan Robitzski

Baltimore police will spend half of 2020 surveilling the entire city with a network of spy planes, putting everyone under constant monitoring.

Baltimore Police Plan to Monitor the Whole City With Spy Planes

By Dan Robitzski

A major investigation reveals two terrifying truths: your phone is constantly tracking and sharing your location, and you have no control over it.

Phone Location Tracking Is Way Worse Than We Thought

By Dan Robitzski

Unless it's particularly old, your car is likely spying on you, sending an unsettling amount of information about you and your behavior to the manufacturer.

Advanced Transport

Cars Are Secretly Spying on Us

By Dan Robitzski

Creeps have used Ring cameras to hack into customers' homes, using the internet-connected cameras to spy on and harass families and children.

Watch Terrifying Creeps Hack Ring Cameras and Spy on Families

By Dan Robitzski

Toys "R" Us has opened two new stores after closing hundreds in 2018, and these ones are equipped with sensors that spy on every move shoppers make.

Artificial Intelligence

Toys “R” Us Says Tech Used to Spy on Shoppers Ignores Children

By Kristin Houser

Four Japanese people agreed to give up their privacy and let cameras record their every move at home for a month for 200,000 yen, or $1,830.

This Company Is Paying People $1,830 to Film Them Constantly

By Kristin Houser

Uber is trialing a new feature giving drivers and passengers the option of recording audio of their rides in a purported attempt to increase safety.

Advanced Transport

Uber Is Going to Start Recording Audio During Rides

By Kristin Houser

People are creating realistic avatars of celebrities or their own exes and having sex with them in virtual reality, raising issues of consent and privacy.

People Are Selling 3D Virtual Sex Models of Celebs, Exes

By Dan Robitzski

A man removed a GPS tracker he found on his car, but because it belonged to police, they were able to search his house for the "stolen" device.

Cops Charge Man With Theft For “Stealing” Their Secret GPS Tracker

By Kristin Houser

A Florida detective was granted a warrant to access the entire database of a DNA website — and experts say the situation sets a dangerous precedent.

Cops Can Now Get Warrants for Entire DNA Websites

By Kristin Houser

An experimental TikTok feature available in China lets users highlight someone's face and search for any other time it appears in a post.

Science & Energy

TikTok Tracks Users With Facial Recognition

By Dan Robitzski

Facebook released a new data policy for its Portal devices that reveals the company will occasionally store audio recordings of Portal users.

Facebook: Actually, We Do Listen to You Sometimes

By Dan Robitzski

A security company's investigation debunks the theory that a mobile phone listens to its user's conversations for ad-targetting purposes.

Robots and Machines

Experts Insist: No, Your Phone Isn’t Secretly Listening to You

By Kristin Houser

U.S. Senator Ron Wyden suggests sending Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to prison for the lies he has told the American people.

Senator Suggests Sending Mark Zuckerberg to Prison

By Kristin Houser

A non-profit group called Privacy International found that mental health-focused websites in Europe are selling user data to third-party advertisers.

Mental Health Sites Sell Your Psychological Data to Advertisers

By Dan Robitzski

Microsoft says humans no longer review audio of Xbox users for "product improvement purposes" — but that doesn't mean they aren't still listening.

Artificial Intelligence

Microsoft: We Stopped Listening to Your Xbox Convos “Months Ago”

By Kristin Houser

In an attempt to convince its two billion users that it truly cares about their privacy, Facebook is opening a number of pop-up privacy check-up cafes.

Facebook is Opening Privacy Check-Up Cafes, for Some Reason

By Victor Tangermann

Facebook paid third-party contractors to write up transcriptions of user's conversations, despite the company's insistence that it doesn't record us.

Facebook Has Been Secretly Transcribing Your Conversations

By Dan Robitzski

Apple has suspended a program that let humans review Siri recordings, including private conversations never meant for the digitial assistant.

Artificial Intelligence

Apple: Humans Will No Longer Review Siri Recordings

By Kristin Houser

The Pentagon has 25 mass surveillance balloons that can monitor and track individual vehicles as they travel across states.

The Pentagon Is Launching Mass Surveillance Balloons Over America

By Dan Robitzski

A decade after Google was caught wiretapping unencrypted WiFi networks with its Street View cars, a court ordered the stolen data deleted.

Google to Delete Private Data Captured by Street View Cars

By Dan Robitzski

The Chinese city Guangzhou gave 17,000 GPS-tracking wristwatches to elementary schoolchildren. The watches let parents monitor what their kids are up to.

China Gives GPS-Tracking Wristwatches to 17,000 Kids

By Dan Robitzski

Casinos in China are using artifiical intelligence and facial recognition tools to track and cater to gamblers who are more likely to make riskier bets.

Facial recognition

Chinese Casinos Use AI, Facial Recognition to Spot Suckers

By Dan Robitzski

Surveillance cameras will only get more sophisticated and harder to avoid, so privacy expert William Webster calls for increased transparency.

Artificial Intelligence

Privacy Expert: Surveillance Cams Will Soon Be Impossible to Spot

By Dan Robitzski

The ACLU published a new report warning about the rise of AI-driven surveillance systems, which could strip away our privacy and cause overpolicing.

Artificial Intelligence

AI-Aided Video Surveillance Will Watch and Silently Judge Us

By Dan Robitzski

US Gov Now Collecting Social Media Handles of Visa Applicants

US Gov Now Collecting Social Media Handles of Visa Applicants

By Kristin Houser

Facebook's plan to block revenge porn by storing digital fingerprints of lewd photos to cross-reference new uploads doesn't involve informing victims.

Facebook Knows When Someone Posts Your Nudes — but Won’t Tell You

By Dan Robitzski