technology news
Twitter Faces FTC Probe, Likely Fine Over Use of Phone Numbers For Ads
Twitter’s use of the data for advertising purposes was discovered in 2019.
Technology
Texting App with Ties to Trump Campaign to Be Repurposed for Contact Tracing
A mobile app once used by the Trump campaign and other partisan interests has been rebranded and is now part of an “approved” national app database specifically designed for use by public health and safety agencies.
Why Did a Tech Executive Install 1,000 Security Cameras Around San Francisco?
Chris Larsen knows that a crypto mogul spending his own money for a city’s camera surveillance system might sound creepy. He’s here to explain why it’s not.
Police Are Buying Access To Hacked Website Data
The sale is “an end-run around the usual legal processes.”
US Senate Amends EARN IT Act — To Transfer the Fight Over Section 230 to the States to Let Them Restrict Encryption
The Senate Judiciary Committee passed the amended version on July 2.
How Police Secretly Took Over a Global Phone Network for Organized Crime
Police monitored a hundred million encrypted messages sent through Encrochat, a network used by career criminals to discuss drug deals, murders, and extortion plots.
IBM’s New Differential Privacy Library Works With Just a Single Line of Code
On Friday, IBM Research updated their open source “IBM Differential Privacy Library,” a suite of new lightweight tools offering “an array of functionality to extract insight and knowledge from data with robust privacy guarantees.”
Firm That Tracked Protesters Targeted Evangelicals During 2016 Election
The CEO of data broker Mobilewalla, which worked with Republican SuperPACs, says it tracked Evangelicals’ cell phone locations for six months.
Facial Recognition Bill Would Ban Use By Federal Law Enforcement (VIDEO)
The bill would also make federal funding for state and local law enforcement contingent on the enactment of similar bans.
Charter Seeks FCC Permission to Impose Data Caps and Charge Fees to Video Services
Charter wants TWC merger conditions to expire in May 2021, two years early.
Just Turning Your Phone On Qualifies As Searching It, Court Rules
Location data requires a warrant since 2018; lock screen may now, too.
Congress Has No Idea How Much Web Browsing Data the FBI Collects
The Patriot Act is about to be reauthorized, but we still don’t know basic facts about how our web browsing habits are being collected.
Mystery Data Breach Dubbed ‘db8151dd’ Exposes Records of 22 Million People
A massive data breach dubbed db8151dd has exposed the records of 22M people – including addresses, phone numbers, and social media links. But the source of the data is a mystery.
California Police Used Military Surveillance Tech at Grad Student Strike
UC Santa Cruz police utilized military surveillance equipment to surveil and police the graduate student ‘wildcat’ strike earlier this year.
Israeli Researchers Brag of Having Found a Way to STEAL Computer Data by Listening to Fan Vibrations
A new and unconventional way of stealing data from highly-secured computers, by tampering with its cooling-system fans, is possible, according to Israeli scientists.