Facebook and Google both announced huge changes with major privacy implications in the past 48 hours. Once again, both companies have made subtle steps designed to erode your privacy to benefit their invasive business models. Here’s what happened: Facebook made it easier for strangers to search for you and find [Keep reading]
You can feel the desperation in the woman’s short message. “My boyfriend posted sexually explicit photos of me on an ‘ex-girlfriend’ porn site,” she wrote on a legal advice website, AVVO.com. “I want them removed, but the website charges $500. Can I take legal action? Against the website or my [Keep reading]
Consumers who have been lulled in to a false sense of security over credit card fraud could be in for a rude awaking. That was the message delivered at Visa’s Global Security Summit held in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. Disclosure last week of a serious data theft involving some of [Keep reading]
You know those annoying reminders you keep getting from Adobe to update your Acrobat or Flash software? Now would be a good time to pay attention to them. Brian Krebs at KrebsOnSecurity.com discovered last week that computer criminals had gained access to Adobe’s servers and stole a treasure trove of [Keep reading]
When consumers try to sign up at just-launched health care exchanges next week, they might be surprised that credit bureau Experian and its telephone help desk may stand in the way. And those seeking a subsidy will be confronted by Equifax’s controversial The Work Number product, a massive database the [Keep reading]
The scary thing about large commercial data brokers, other than their collection of your personal information without your permission, is the possibility that their enormous hoards of data can be stolen. Despite all promises of care and security, hacks happens. Privacy advocates always warn about this when discussions about large-scale [Keep reading]
You’d be hard pressed to find a sadder story of life in the digital age. The picture of a Canadian girl who committed suicide earlier this year after a horrific cyberbullying incident was used in a singles’ advertisement shown on Facebook. Facebook has apologized and the firm responsible for the [Keep reading]
Consumers can now get a peek under the hood of the secretive database that marketing companies use to profile them, under a new initiative launched last week by data warehouser Acxiom. U.S. adults who visit AboutTheData.com can sign up and get a general idea of the dossier that marketing firms [Keep reading]
Apple’s biggest contribution to the technology world has been its ability to bring order to chaos. The iTunes music service is the best example of this: before iTunes, the world of music downloads was the Wild West. There were outlaws, like Napster and its rivals, who ran clunky attempts [Keep reading]
Yes, Virginia, people do care about their privacy. Pew research released this week showed than fully 86 percent of U.S. adults had done something to try to protect their privacy…and 1 out of 5 had suffered either a social media or e-mail account hijacking. I discussed the study on various [Keep reading]
Bob Sullivan