This month it’s mostly about data ending up in rather places it has no business being. 1. Weaponised Information In The Bay Area This month the great and good of the world of information security gathered for their annual knees-up, the RSA Conference in San Francisco. This was, of course, shortly after the inauguration of…
Tube Tracking Lessons Learned [KitBits 17.3]
Gizmodo obtained documents under the Freedom of Information Act relating to the tracking of commuters’ phones and other devices on the London Underground last November and December and did a thorough write up, complete with pretty heat maps and pictures. The whole piece is worth reading carefully, but here are a few points for anyone…
Salman Rushdie: Keeping My Life Private [Video]
Some brief Sunday morning viewing. Salman Rushdie talks about privacy. This is one of a series of interviews and articles the Goethe Institute in Washington has produced on the topic ‘What Does Privacy Mean To You?’.
Are You Really Going To Install That? [KitBits 17.2]
If you’re at all active on social media there’s a very strong chance you saw a few fancy anime up selfies floating around in your feeds recently. These are made using an app called Meitu, which has mushroomed in popularity in the west over the last week or two. There’s a lot more to Meitu…
This Is The Difference [KitBits 17.1]
Here’s something you can do in ten minutes or less which will give you a helpful illustration of the differences between US and EU privacy laws and show you the power of combining multiple databases which contain crumbs of personally identifying information. Do you know someone who lives in the US? You probably do. Click…
November Roundup
If you plan on spending any time in the UK in the near future, do be aware that staff of the Postal Services Commission will be able to look at everything you’ve been browsing on the Web. No, that’s not a somewhat strange hypothetical situation constructed to make you think a bit about digital privacy,…
October Roundup
This month you’re in a police line up and your DNA information is held offshore by a third party. Well, maybe neither of those things are true yet, but they’re certainly perfectly possible. Google and Facebook are still profiling you, but are entirely determined to profile you more, and harder. 1. DNA Genealogy There was…
September Roundup
If last month‘s roundup was a bit of a Facebook special, this month is more about that other slavering data monster, Google, and perennial favourites here, eHealth Ireland. However, let’s get started with an update on last month’s story about Facebook’s announcement it would start gently quaffing the delicious personal information it had found on the…
August Roundup
Highlights. Or perhaps lowlights, if you will. 1. How Much For A Phone Number? The biggest story of the month was that Facebook finally got around to cracking open the piggybank of personal data it splashed out nineteen billion on last year. In other words, connecting WhatsApp user data with Facebook user data. Despite denying…