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.

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 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.

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.

‘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.

Chat App ‘Signal’ Beta Tests Crypto Payments With MobileCoin

For Signal users in the United Kingdom, the company is releasing a new feature for beta testing that lets people send payments to each other using the cryptocurrency MobileCoin (MOB).

There’s a palpable difference in the feeling of what it’s like to communicate over Signal, knowing you’re not being watched or listened to, versus other communication platforms. I would like to get to a world where not only can you feel that when you talk to your therapist over Signal, but also when you pay your therapist for the session over Signal.

The limitation is because MobileCoin is listed for purchase on only one exchange, FTX, which doesn’t allow trades from U.S. residents. I’ve never heard of MobileCoin before but I’d say it’s something to keep an eye on.

 

NSA Wants to Spy on Americans Because Reasons

U.S. government servers have been getting hacked left and right. In response, the NSA wants us to think that approval of domestic spying will solve the problem, despite suffering an egregious hack in 2016 where its zero-day exploits were stolen.

“We truly need to look at the ability for us to see ourselves and right now it’s difficult for us to see ourselves,” Nakasone testified on Thursday to the Senate Armed Services Committee. Adversaries like China and Russia “are operating with increased sophistication, scope [and] scale, including operations that can end “before a warrant can be issued,” he warned.

Google Bravely Blocks Apps From Scanning Your Other Apps

Google announced that it will stop Android apps from scanning the list of your other apps in Android 11. Why this behavior was accepted before is beyond me.

Google has another page that lists allowable use cases for Play Store apps querying your app list, including “device search, antivirus apps, file managers, and browsers.” The page adds that “apps that must discover any and all installed apps on the device, for awareness or interoperability purposes may have eligibility for the permission.”

Time to make a fake antivirus app which queries your list of apps to sell to other companies.