Privacy

"Researchers recently caught Meta using an egregious new tracking technique to spy on you. Exploiting a technical loophole, the company was able to have their apps snoop on users’ web browsing. This tracking technique stands out for its flagrant disregard of core security protections built into phones and browsers. The episode is yet another reason to distrust Meta, block web tracking, and end surveillance advertising.

Fortunately, there are steps that you, your browser, and your government can take to fight online tracking."

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/protect-yourself-metas-latest-attack-privacy

#SocialMedia #Meta #Facebook #Instagram #Surveillance #AdTracking #Privacy #DataProtection

Such a wild technical achievement in privacy invasion: Facebook app runs a localhost server so their tracker on web pages can ping it with session id and identify you -- even in Incognito or on VPN.

Don't trust apps with excessive permissions!

https://www.zeropartydata.es/p/localhost-tracking-explained-it-could

#privacy

Schwab IRA Rollover Account Review

• blah blah blah boilerplate letter
• opt-out of having us share your financial information with our Affiliates!
• unless we hear from you in writing we'll assume you're totally ok with this violation of privacy!
• oooh, or you can call and give a stranger on the phone your super important identity information to maybe opt out
• ooh, or you could fax the same form!

wtf. even worse, these are California mandated requirements... other states don't require the financial institutions to offer an opt-out, and federal privacy laws for finance, they're not even as usefully useless as HIPAA.

#privacy #wtf #gtfo

Some thoughts on the challenges of adding reliably-private social networking to the fediverse;

https://socialhub.activitypub.rocks/t/the-challenges-of-adding-reliably-private-social-networking-to-the-fediverse/5386

#privacy #SocialNetworking #fediverse

#Reddit in talks to embrace Sam #Altman’s iris-scanning #Orb to verify users

https://www.semafor.com/article/06/20/2025/reddit-considers-iris-scanning-orb-developed-by-a-sam-altman-startup

#privacy #WorldCoin

7 steps to ensure online #privacy protection

https://bitwarden.com/blog/7-steps-to-create-a-secure-and-private-profile-online/

#cybersecurity #guide

#Chrome Tracking #Privacy Concerns

https://hushed.com/chrome-tracking-privacy-concerns/

#California #police are illegally sharing license plate data with #ICE and #BorderPatrol

https://themarkup.org/privacy/2025/06/18/california-police-are-illegally-sharing-license-plate-data-with-ice-and-border-patrol

#privacy #politics

GrapheneOS version 2025062000 released:

https://grapheneos.org/releases#2025062000

See the linked release notes for a summary of the improvements over the previous release.

Forum discussion thread:

https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/23292-grapheneos-version-2025062000-released

#GrapheneOS #privacy #security

Vanadium version 138.0.7204.35.0 released:

https://github.com/GrapheneOS/Vanadium/releases/tag/138.0.7204.35.0

See the linked release notes for a summary of the improvements over the previous release and a link to the full changelog.

Forum discussion thread:

https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/23290-vanadium-version-13807204350-released

#GrapheneOS #privacy #security #browser

#Meta unveils its #Oakley #SmartGlasses

https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/20/meta-unveils-its-oakley-smart-glasses/

#privacy #IoT

‘Martyrdom or Bust:’ #Texas Man Caught Plotting #Terror Attack Through #Roblox Chats

https://www.404media.co/martyrdom-or-bust-texas-man-caught-plotting-terror-attack-through-roblox-chats/

#privacy #OPSEC

GrapheneOS version 2025061900 released:

https://grapheneos.org/releases#2025061900

See the linked release notes for a summary of the improvements over the previous release.

Forum discussion thread:

https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/23279-grapheneos-version-2025061900-released

#GrapheneOS #privacy #security

👀 YouTube’s new anti-adblock measures

｢ One thing that people have ran into is “fake buffering”, where videos will take a while to load due to a lot of buffering, but only at the very start of the video (there’s no mid-video fake buffering). As I’ll explain, the fake buffering is 80% of the length of the ads you would’ve seen, so even with fake buffering you’re still saving time using an adblocker ｣

https://iter.ca/post/yt-adblock/

#youtube #adblocking #privacy

#SocialMedia Ban Moves Closer in #Australia After Tech Trial

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-19/teen-social-media-ban-moves-closer-in-australia-after-tech-trial

#privacy #politics #AgeVerification

Neues Format: Wir greifen drei aktuelle Themen aus IT-Sicherheit und Datenschutz auf – kurz, pointiert, mit Einordnung. Welche Themen sollen wir behandeln? Schickt uns eure Vorschläge! 👇

#blog #sicherheit #datenschutz #security #privacy

New #US #visa rules will force foreign students to unlock #SocialMedia profiles

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/18/social-media-student-visa-screening

#privacy #politics

Toy-maker #Mattel accused of planning “reckless” #AI social experiment on kids

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/06/mattel-sparks-fear-that-planned-chatgpt-fueled-toys-will-warp-kids/

#privacy

#Healthcare #SaaS firm says #DataBreach impacts 5.4 million patients

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/episource-says-data-breach-impacts-54-million-patients/

#Episource #privacy #cybersecurity

Austrian government agrees on plan to allow monitoring of secure messaging

https://www.reuters.com/world/austrian-government-agrees-plan-allow-monitoring-secure-messaging-2025-06-18/

#Austria #privacy #Europe #cybersecurity

#SmartTV OS owners face “constant conflict” between #privacy, advertiser demands

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/06/tv-brands-face-inherent-conflict-over-user-privacy-advertiser-data-demands/

#IoT #advertising

"In an industry full of grifters and companies hell-bent on making the internet worse, it is hard to think of a more impactful, worse actor than Meta, whose platforms have been fully overrun with viral AI slop, AI-powered disinformation, AI scams, AI nudify apps, and AI influencers and whose impact is outsized because billions of people still use its products as their main entry point to the internet. Meta has shown essentially zero interest in moderating AI slop and spam and as we have reported many times, literally funds it, sees it as critical to its business model, and believes that in the future we will all have AI friends on its platforms. While reporting on the company, it has been hard to imagine what rock bottom will be, because Meta keeps innovating bizarre and previously unimaginable ways to destroy confidence in social media, invade people’s privacy, and generally fuck up its platforms and the internet more broadly.

If I twist myself into a pretzel, I can rationalize why Meta launched this feature, and what its idea for doing so is. Presented with an empty text box that says “Ask Meta AI,” people do not know what to do with it, what to type, or what to do with AI more broadly, and so Meta is attempting to model that behavior for people and is willing to sell out its users’ private thoughts to do so. I did not have “Meta will leak people’s sad little chats with robots to the entire internet” on my 2025 bingo card, but clearly I should have."

https://www.404media.co/meta-invents-new-way-to-humiliate-users-with-feed-of-peoples-chats-with-ai/

#AI #GenerativeAI #Meta #Facebook #MetaAI #Chatbots #LLMs #DataProtection #Privacy

Makers of air fryers and smart speakers told to respect users’ right to #privacy

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jun/16/air-fryers-smart-tv-speakers-user-data-privacy-ico

#UK

#TheMarkup caught 4 more states sharing personal #health data with #BigTech

https://themarkup.org/pixel-hunt/2025/06/17/we-caught-4-more-states-sharing-personal-health-data-with-big-tech

#privacy #healthcare

Strategies for Resisting Tech-Enabled Violence Facing #Transgender People

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/strategies-resisting-tech-enabled-violence-facing-transgender-people

#privacy