During Apple’s WWDC 2021 event on Monday, Andrew couldn’t help but notice the new ways in which the company is competing with rival services.
WWDC 2021: New Privacy Features Coming to iOS 15 This Fall
At Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference for 2021, the company announced major privacy features coming to its operating systems like iOS 15 and iPadOS 15.
TikTok Will Collect Biometric Data From US Users
TikTok updated its privacy policy on Wednesday, adding a new section about collecting biometric data from users. This data includes “faceprints and voiceprints.”
The statement itself is vague, as it doesn’t specify whether it’s considering federal law, states laws, or both. It also doesn’t explain, as the other part did, why TikTok needs this data. It doesn’t define the terms “faceprints” or “voiceprints.” Nor does it explain how it would go about seeking the “required permissions” from users, or if it would look to either state or federal laws to guide that process of gaining consent.
PayPal Cancels Customer Who Donates to Tor Browser
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) reports that a PayPal has shut down the account of a person who had recently donated to the privacy browser Tor.
Firefox 89 Gets Design Overhaul and ‘Total Cookie Protection’ Feature
Mozilla has released Firefox version 89 on Tuesday, bringing a new design for desktop users and a privacy feature called Total Cookie Protection added to private browsing.
We’ve enhanced the privacy of the Firefox Browser’s Private Browsing mode with Total Cookie Protection, which confines cookies to the site where they were created, preventing companies from using cookies to track your browsing across sites. This feature was originally launched in Firefox’s ETP Strict mode.
More information on Total Cookie Protection can be found on Mozilla’s blog.
Facebook-Funded Study Says iOS 14 Privacy Settings are Harmful
A paper that was recently posted to Social Science Research Network says that iOS 14’s App Tracking Transparency harms competition and consumers.
Facebook Can Get Location Data From Your Photos
iOS users can limit their location exposure to apps that ask for it, but your location is leaking in another area: Your photo metadata.
I took a photo with my iPhone and then uploaded that to my Facebook account. I used Facebook’s app on my iPhone, the same app that has been told “never” to access my location, the same account that knows I have this switched off. But Facebook still collects the location tag from that photo, along with my IP address.
It’s important to note that Facebook and other companies have had this ability for years. This is not, as the Forbes article implies, a response to iOS 14.5 App Tracking Transparency. The app I use to view and edit metadata is Metapho.
Livestream Recording: Ending Child Surveillance
On Thursday I joined a livestream from Fight for the Future. Parents and experts talked about the dangers of social media and how many of these companies spy on kids the same way they spy on adults. For kids it also happens in schools with tools like proctor software. With the launch of EndChildSurveillance.com, parents and privacy advocates alike want to fight back. You can watch the livestream recording below.
New Apple 'Tracked' Ad Shows App Tracking Transparency in Real Life
Apple has released a new ad emphasizing its privacy credentials. It shows a man going about his daily life and every company he interactions with following him. It’s a humorous way of showing how App Tracking Transparancy works. The soundtrack is cleverly chosen too – Mind Your Own Business by Delta 5.
What’s Wrong With AirTags? Stalkers and Security
One report about AirTag on Thursday show that more security researchers are exploring the device, and another says it is a “gift to stalkers.”
Password Managers: How Do They Work? – TMO Daily Observations 2021-05-11
Andrew Orr and Bryan Chaffin join host Kelly Guimont dig deep into password managers, how they work, and why you need one.
These are the Most Data-Hungry Health and Fitness Apps
A recent study examined privacy policies of the top health and fitness apps to determine which ones track the most data.
Let WhatsApp Harvest Your Data or It Will Restrict Your Account
Facebook-owned WhatsApp has a controversial new privacy policy that says it will share your data with Facebook companies.
Stop Instagram for Kids, Say 44 Attorneys General
Forty-four attorneys general wrote a letter in protest of Facebook’s plans to create Instagram for Kids.
New Tool ‘Redact’ Can Remove Your Social Media Content
Redact, a tool I recently discovered, has entered beta for Windows and macOS. It helps people remove various kinds of content from their social media accounts. Old tweets, images, Discord chats, and others can be deleted manually and automatically. Redact doesn’t store your information or run on a server. Nobody on the Redact Team can see your username, password, or any other of your personal information.
Photo Ninja by DoNotPay Can Confuse Facial Recognition Algorithms
DoNotPay can perform a variety of tasks for you, like cancelling subscriptions, appealing parking tickets, and dealing with copyright protection. It has a new service called Photo Ninja that can help block facial recognition.
Photo Ninja uses a novel series of steganography, detection perturbation, visible overlay, and several other AI-based enhancement processes to shield your images from reverse image searches without compromising the look of your photo.
Cryptee Photos Adds Tagging for Better Organization
Cryptee is an online-only end-to-end encrypted storage platform, and recently added tagging to its Photos component.
First things first. All your tags and photos are encrypted and private. So we can’t see them. Now keep that in mind, and be prepared to be mind blown.
It’s 2021. We thought tagging should be as easy as typing out the tags in natural language. So we thought it would be amazing if you could tag your photos in Cryptee Photos the same way you tag your photos on Instagram or Twitter with hashtags.
What iOS Changes (Might) Mean for the Advertising Industry — Media+
Adweek’s Andrew Blustein joins Charlotte Henry to look at the dramatic impact the introduction of Ad Tracking Transparency (ATT) by Apple could have on the advertising industry.
‘The New Oil’ Website is a Resource for Privacy
The creator of The New Oil shared his website that gives people resources on privacy. But it’s not just a list of private tools to use. Instead the goal is to give people context and explain concepts like data breaches, why strong passwords matter, encryption, and more.
Most of us are not strangers to the concept of surveillance capitalism and targeted advertising. Most of us don’t particularly care, either. After all, who wouldn’t want relevant ads for movies or products that might actually appeal to you or improve your life? The thing is, most of us don’t understand the aggressive measures these companies go to to create those marketing profiles, or the devastating effects they can have on people.
Behind ‘UID2’, a Way for Advertisers to Track Your Email
The EFF wrote a detailed post about UID2, a proposed way to make it easier for advertisers to identify people via their email.
UID2s will be connected to people, not devices. That means an advertiser who collects UID2 from a website can link it to the UID2s it collects through apps, connected TVs, and connected vehicles belonging to the same person. That’s where the “unified” part of UID2 comes in: it’s supposed to make cross-device tracking as easy as cross-site tracking used to be.
But this will also create new incentives for sites, apps, and connected devices to ask users for their email addresses.
All the more reason to use Sign In with Apple wherever possible or disposable email services.
