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Displaying items by tag: Personal Data

Google is an odd company. They have used the personal vs corporate data ownership line like a jump rope over the years. We have watched them for a long time and all we can say is that their track record on protecting personal information and privacy has been both good and bad with them being on the bad side for most of recent history. After being a vehement opposer of bills like SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect our Intellectual Property Act) they quickly dropped those stances and started facilitating blanket takedown noticed from the MPAA (now the MPA) and RIAA. The blanket notices often came from law firms that provided little more than links to Google which Google then removed from their search engine and YouTube.

Published in Security Talk

ID.me, the private identification verification company, has become a popular go-to when it comes to governmental services. We have seen it put in play at the local, state, and federal level. The idea is to have a source of truth for someone’s identity that can be used across multiple platforms. The reality is very different as it seems you need to have a different ID.me account for different services depending on the email address used. It also seems to be going well beyond normal methods of verification as we have seen multiple state and federal agencies begin collecting biometric data through the service.

Published in Security Talk

There is a term that often gets thrown around when we talk about technology and the way we now store data, reasonable expectation of privacy. This term has been used to get around some of the basic laws we have when it comes to accessing our digital lives. According to many corporations and some law makers, when you put information into a cloud based system (including Facebook) you give up your reasonable expectation of privacy. After all you put your data in someone else’s hands. If you wanted to keep it private you would hold onto it.

Published in News

Instead of the more usual changing of their privacy terms once again, Facebook this time decided on a different approach and simply improve existing privacy features. They began testing three new options which will try to accomplish that. New options have been designed on the basis of nearly 4,000 daily testing that Facebook implemented in 27 different languages.

Published in News
googledrevil

Google at the beginning of 2012 changed their policy regarding the privacy of users of their services. Despite the fact that months earlier they warned users about future changes, users did not have too many choices, they could continue to use the service under the new rules or cancel the services.

Published in News
microsoft xbox one

If Microsoft is thinking that the Xbox One is just going to fly off the shelves and take over our living rooms they might have a nasty surprise in store for them. Despite the many positive features and aspects of the Xbox One there are some concerns (and complaints) from gamers, consumers, and now even privacy groups.

Published in News