Is it possible to comply with the GDPR?
about 4 days ago
Expert: EU privacy laws may ‘destroy’ free-to-user business models
about 4 days ago
Report: Data breaches comprising more than 50 million records cost organizations at least $350 million
Data breaches comprising more than 50 million records, so-called “mega breaches,” can cost organizations as much as $350 million, according to a new report by the Ponemon Institute. The findings of the report were based on interviews with more than 2,200 IT, data protection and compliance professions from 477 organizations. The report also analyzed 11 […]
Anonymous woman whose chance interaction on an airplane was shared with millions of social media users speaks out about privacy
A woman whose chance interaction with a male on an airplane was subject to a real-time commentary published to millions of prying social media users has referred to the incident as a “digital-age cautionary tale about privacy, identity, ethics and consent”. The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, met a man on an airplane on […]
Facebook “fine”: Lawmakers and regulators demonstrate worrying inability to understand data protection legislation
In a series of announcements and comments about a notice of intent served by the UK’s data protection authority to Facebook, British lawmakers and regulators have demonstrated a worrying lack of understanding about data protection legislation and the specifics of the cases they are commenting on. Yesterday David Lammy, a British politician, publicly criticized the […]
UK authorities propose fining Facebook £500,000 over Cambridge Analytica incident
The Information Commissioner’s Officer (ICO), The UK’s data protection authority, is proposing fining Facebook £500,000 over the Cambridge Analytica incident that led to the alleged misuse of an estimated 87 million users’ personal data. The ICO revealed the extent of the fine in an announcement declaring it has sent the social network a “notice of […]
Latest revisions to EU privacy law (ePrivacy) address ad networks, browsers, cookies, web measurement and ‘consent fatigue’
The Council of the European Union, currently led by Austria, has published revisions to a proposal for a new ePrivacy regulation likely to come into force in 2019. According to an announcement (PDF) on the Austrian Parliament’s website, the revisions will be discussed in a meeting of the Working Party on Telecommunications and Information Society […]
Timehop announces data breach affecting 21 million users
Timehop, an application that archives social media posts, has announced a data breach affecting 21 million users. The breach occurred on 4th July 2018 and was reported by Timehop on 8th July 2018. Timehop detected the “network intrusion” as it occurred and two hours and nineteen minutes later managed to “lock out the attackers”. However, […]
European web host announces data breach comprising passwords, bank accounts and credit scores
A German web hosting company, Domain Factory, has announced a data breach that may have compromised its customers’ DomainFactory phone passwords, bank account numbers and credit scores, as well as other personal data. DomainFactory is a subsidiary of Host Europe Group, which owns a number of other web hosting companies including 123-Reg and Heart Internet. […]
Malaysia has announced it’s repealing its anti-fake news law
Malaysia has announced it’s repealing the Anti-Fake News Act 2018. The announcement was made in a letter sent by an Ambassador of Malaysia, Dato’ Amran Mohammed Zin, to the UN’s Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, David Kaye, on 11th June 2018. According to the announcement, the repeal is underway however it hasn’t […]
Cryptographer sells Crypto.com to cryptocurrency firm for undisclosed sum
Matt Blaze, a cryptographer, has sold the highly prized domain name Crypto.com to Monaco, a “cryptocurrency and financial services firm,” for an undisclosed sum. Since the advent of cryptocurrencies, Blaze has been inundated with enquiries as to the availability of the highly brandable domain name. In a tweet published on 5th January 2018, he stated, “For anyone else trying to contact me […]
Lawmaker without privacy policy criticizes platforms with privacy policies over ‘exploiting’ users’ data
It takes at least 30 minutes to read the privacy policies of some of the world’s most popular tech platforms and some of them require a university education “to be properly understood,” according to research by the BBC. Commenting on the research, Damian Collins MP, whose constituency website we discovered doesn’t contain a privacy policy, […]
Vote by EU lawmakers puts EU-US data sharing agreement in jeopardy
A vote in the EU Parliament has put a data sharing agreement between the European Union and the United States, the EU-US Privacy Shield, in jeopardy. The Privacy Shield is an adequacy agreement that came into force in July 2016 and defines how EU citizens’ personal data should be protected when transferred between the EU and […]
The European Parliament rejects the proposed copyright directive
The European Parliament rejected a controversial copyright directive that, according to some commentators’ interpretations and in its existing form, would have imposed a “link tax” on search engines and demanded online platforms “filter” uploaded content for copyright infringements. According to Julia Reda, an MEP of the Pirate Party and a critic of the proposal, the […]
Wikipedia Founder accuses EU Commission of ‘deeply inappropriate’ behavior over proposed copyright directive
Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, has accused the EU Commission of “deeply inappropriate” behavior and “lobbying” in favor of the EU’s proposed copyright reforms. He also claimed the institution is “misleading” the public. Wales’ comments come after Wikipedia instituted site-wide protests over the proposed directive across the Italian, Polish and Spanish versions of its […]
Facebook marked posts containing excerpts from the US Declaration of Independence as hate speech
Facebook marked posts containing excerpts from the US Declaration of Independence as hate speech two days before the United States’ annual Independence Day holiday. The posts were published in celebration of Independence Day by The Vindictator, a news organization based in Texas. It had encouraged its Facebook followers to read the Declaration of Independence and […]
Sony ‘mistakenly’ uploads a new film to YouTube
Despite seemingly only intending to upload a trailer, Sony Pictures Entertainment uploaded the full version of a new film, Khali the Killer, to its official YouTube channel. The mistake prompted a viral thread to appear on Reddit which, at the time of writing, has amassed 31,000 upvotes. The video was live on YouTube for a […]
Alibaba claims its new copywriting tool can produce 20,000 words per second
The digital marketing arm of Alibaba, Alimama, claims it has developed a copywriting tool that can produce 20,000 words of content per second. According to an announcement posted on Alizila, the tool leverages natural language processing to learn from millions of content examples published across Alibaba’s network of web properties. The group also claims the […]
Court reverses decision ordering Yelp to remove negative consumer reviews
California’s Supreme Court has reversed a decision that ordered consumer reviews website Yelp to remove negative reviews from its platform. The decision is of importance to online platforms that host user generated content, partly because it upholds section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which states, “No provider or user of an interactive computer service […]
Wikipedia Italy launches site-wide protest against the EU’s proposed copyright reforms
Wikipedia Italy has launched a site-wide protest over the EU’s proposed copyright directive. The proposal has met fierce criticism from online commentators in recent weeks and the criticism has largely been reserved for Articles 11 and 13, which some commentators believe amount to a “link tax” and a demand that online platforms filter uploaded content […]
Homeland Security serves Twitter a subpoena demanding anonymous data breach finder’s personal data
Homeland Security issued a subpoena to Twitter on 24th April demanding it hand over the personal details of an anonymous Twitter user who identifies data breaches, according to a report on ZDNet. The Twitter user, who operates under the handle @s7nsins and the moniker “Flash Gordon,” has historically unearthed a large number of breaches including […]
Two British political parties have announced suspected data breaches
Two British political parties, The Liberal Democrats and the Welsh Conservatives, have announced suspected data breaches. The data breach that may have affected members of the Welsh Conservative party involves an anonymous email that was sent soliciting members’ support for an “open and honest debate” about the future of its party. It was sent on […]