Privacy
Domestic Fliers Will Need Real ID Compliant Identification in 2023
Can I get a Real ID regardless of where I live? Real ID-compliant licenses and identification cards are now being issued in all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia and the majority of U.S. territories. American Samoa is not yet issuing them. What do I need to get a Real ID? Each […]
Know More
A Cyberattack Illuminates the Shaky State of Student Privacy
The software that many school districts use to track students’ progress can record extremely confidential information on children: “Intellectual disability.” “Emotional Disturbance.” “Homeless.” “Disruptive.” “Defiance.” “Perpetrator.” “Excessive Talking.” “Should attend tutoring.” Now these systems are coming under heightened scrutiny after a recent cyberattack on Illuminate Education, a leading provider of student-tracking software, which affected the […]
Know More
3 Senate Hopefuls Denounce Big Tech. They Also Have Deep Ties to It.
For Republicans running for the Senate this year, “Big Tech” has become a catchall target, a phrase used to condemn the censorship of conservative voices on social media, invasions of privacy and the corruption of America’s youth — or all of the above. But for three candidates in some of the hottest races of 2022 […]
Know More
The Default Tech Settings You Should Turn Off Right Away
There’s a catchy saying going around with a valuable lesson about our personal technology: The devil is in the defaults. The saying refers to the default settings that tech companies embed deep in the devices, apps and websites we use. These settings typically make us share data about our activities and location. We can usually […]
Know More
China’s Surveillance State Encounters Public Resistance
Chinese artists have staged performances to highlight the ubiquity of surveillance cameras. Privacy activists have filed lawsuits against the collection of facial recognition data. Ordinary citizens and establishment intellectuals alike have pushed back against the abuse of Covid tracking apps by the authorities to curb protests. Internet users have shared tips on how to evade […]
Know More
In a Post-Roe World, the Future of Digital Privacy Looks Even Grimmer
Some location data analytics companies, including Foursquare, recently announced that they were restricting the use, sharing and sale of data on consumers’ visits to sensitive locations like reproductive health clinics. But law enforcement agencies with warrants may still obtain such location records. The phone carriers that operate the backbone of the wireless internet for smartphones […]
Know More
Google Says It Will Delete Location Data When Users Visit Abortion Clinics
SAN FRANCISCO — Google said on Friday that it would delete abortion clinic visits from the location history of its users, in the company’s first effort to address how it will handle sensitive data in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. The location data change will take place in the coming […]
Know More
TikTok tells Republican senators how it plans to keep American data away from China.
TikTok gave U.S. lawmakers more details in a letter dated Thursday about how it plans to keep data about its American users separate from ByteDance, its Chinese parent company, aiming to combat concerns that the video app poses a national security risk. In a letter to nine Republican senators, Shou Zi Chew, TikTok’s chief executive, […]
Know More
Payment Data Could Become Evidence of Abortion, Now Illegal in Some States
Digital payments are the default for millions of women of childbearing age. So what will their credit and debit card issuers and financial app providers do when prosecutors seek their transaction data during abortion investigations? It’s a hypothetical question that’s almost certainly an inevitable one in the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade […]
Know More