
CategoryData Privacy


Will Facebook’s New Focus on “Community” Groups Prevent Abuses?
When you look a little closer at the proposal, you will see that the answer is noFacebook's move to a more group-focused interface gives the appearance of stronger privacy and community orientation but the structure and logic of social media ensure that these are appearances rather than realities.
Read More ›
A Scientist’s Nightmare: Doxxed on Twitter
The surprisingly good news is that online riots may be hurting the Twitter brand
I spy AI. And AI spies on me…
The true threat posed by AI is the greatly reduced cost and risk of mass surveillance and manipulationSome people are quite sure that the world would be a better place if they knew more about our business and policed it better. Mass snooping creeps up unnoticed and becomes a way of life. Then it explodes.
Read More ›
Your Phone Is Selling Your Secrets
You’d be shocked to know what it tells people who want your moneyBig tech companies have an ambiguous relationship with online invasions of privacy. The companies may be able to make much more money selling information about you than you would pay them to use their medium.
Read More ›
Your Phone Knows Everything Now
And in a world where no data is anonymous, yours may be sold to the highest bidder
Canada demands intimate banking data from a half million citizens
The goal of the program, recently uncovered by media, is to develop a “new institutional personal information bank” for government use.A Canadian TV station recently provided a dramatic insight into how far Western governments are prepared to go, using advanced data gathering techniques, to surveil the lives of citizens: Statistics Canada is asking banks across the country for financial transaction data and personal information of 500,000 Canadians without their knowledge. Global News has learned. Documents obtained by Global News show the national statistical agency plans to collect “individual-level financial transactions data” and sensitive information, like social insurance numbers (SIN), from Canadian financial institutions to develop a “new institutional personal information bank.” Andrew Russell and David Akin, “EXCLUSIVE: Stats Canada requesting banking information of 500,000 Canadians without their knowledge” at Global News Further investigation showed that the government agency has already…

Life after Google: More private and more profitable?
Reviewing Gilder’s Life after Google, Ralph Benko asks, If our attention is worth billions, shouldn’t we market it?
The $60 Billion-Dollar Medical Data Market is Coming Under Scrutiny
As a patient, you do not own the data and are not as anonymous as you think
Google is collecting data on schoolkids
Some say it’s okay because the firm supplies a lot of free software and hardware to schools
Our anonymity may be an illusion
Because we talk about ourselves so much online, few leaked pieces may even be required to identify us.
AI can mean ultimate Big Surveillance
That’s what we should really worry aboutThe celebrity worry about superintelligent AI taking over and getting rid of us humans distracts our attention from a real-world fact: Artificial intelligence (AI) maximizes the opportunities while crashing the costs of corporate and government surveillance. Both have grown massively in recent years, with predictable results. The surveillants don’t by any means want to get rid of us. They want to take over and run our lives, ostensibly for our own good but certainly for theirs.
Read More ›