Facebook’s new Portal smart speaker, an Echo Show rival that’s designed for video chat, sounds like a privacy nightmare straight out of Black Mirror.
But you know who could benefit from concerns about Mark Zuckerberg’s smart camera? Apple — and specifically the HomePod. Here’s why.
Instagram is starting to integrate more closely with Facebook when it comes to your personal location data.
The app is reportedly testing a new feature that would allow Instagram to share all of your GPS coordinates with Facebook without ever opening up the Facebook app. This would allow Facebook to gather more information on you so it can serve up more targeted ads and content, but that might piss off some Instagram fans.
Despite Apple’s denials, it’s “highly plausible” that secret spy chips could have been planted on the company’s servers, said a former Apple hardware engineer.
Anna-Katrina Shedletsky, who spent nearly six years at Apple helping build several generations of iPod, iPhone and Apple Watch, said spy chips could have been slipped into the design of servers used for Apple’s iCloud services, as alleged in a Bloomberg Businessweek story.
“With my knowledge of hardware design, it’s entirely plausible to me,” she said. “It’s very highly plausible to me, and that’s scary if you think about it.”
Update: Apple and Amazon both issued lengthy statements Thursday concerning the Chinese spy chip allegations. We updated this post to include those statements.
Apple denies that Chinese spy chips infiltrated its iCloud server hardware after claims that motherboards used by Apple, Amazon and dozens of other tech companies contained microchips used for surveillance purposes.
Cupertino insists the story is “wrong and misinformed.” Apple also says Chinese spying had nothing to do with the company’s decision to cut ties with a supplier.
Apple has joined Alphabet, Amazon, and Facebook in opposing a proposed Australian law requiring tech companies to let law enforcement access private encrypted data in suspected criminal investigations.
The law would seek to punish companies which don’t comply with $7.2 million fines, along with prison terms for individuals. It would make Australia one of the first nations to pass major legislation in this area, although other countries may be keen to follow in its footsteps.
Tim Cook went on the offensive toward competing companies like Amazon and Google in a new interview tonight on privacy.
Appearing on Vice News Tonight on HBO, the Apple CEO was asked if his company’s stance on privacy is stopping Siri from becoming more competitive with Alexa. Cook pushed back saying any company that says it needs all your data to make its service better is telling you a “bunch of bunk.”
Apple’s VP of software technology, Bud Tribble, made an appearance before the U.S. Senate’s Commerce Committee today to advocate for an overhaul of privacy laws in the country.
During the hearing, Apple was joined by other figures from tech giants like Google, Amazon, Twitter, and others to advise lawmakers on the current state of internet privacy. Tribble told lawmakers that Apple views privacy as a “fundamental human right,” but the company went short of offering solutions.
An Apple Watch Series 4 can detect if you’ve fallen and automatically call 911 to get your injuries tended to. Or get you arrested, depending on the circumstances.
That’s the warning of privacy watchdogs, who point out that 911 calls invite in more than just emergency medical personnel.
A high-level Apple executive will tell the the U.S. senate tomorrow that the iPhone maker is in favor of federal privacy regulations.
He’ll be testifying along with representatives of Google and other companies likely to argue against privacy laws.
In iOS 12 and macOS Mojave, Safari gets solid improvements that will win you back from Chrome — especially if you value your privacy. But while safeguarding your security on the web fuels many of Safari’s great new features, there’s much more goodness to anticipate on iPhone, iPad and Mac.
Let’s take a look at the Mac and iOS versions of the Apple web browser.
Apple has removed a series of apps from the Mac App Store after they were found to be accessing users’ private data and sending it to remote servers. The apps in question include Adware Doctor, Open Any Files: RAR Support, Dr. Antivirus, and Dr. Cleaner.
The apps duped users into giving them access to their macOS home directories by promising to perform functions such as scanning for viruses or clearing caches. By accessing the home directory, they were then able to gain access to information about users’ browsing history, and more.
Apple takes every opportunity to talk up its pro-privacy agenda — and if you’re a developer being hosted in the App Store you’d better show that same level of commitment to users.
According to a new report, Apple has started telling its developers that they will soon need to host a privacy policy in their apps’ metadata. This change will apply to all new apps and app updates from October 3, regardless of whether or not they connect to the internet.
Google’s claim that it allows users to completely turn off all location tracking is completely false, according to research conducted by the Associated Press.
Whether you’re using an iPhone or Android device, the AP found that many Google services store your location data, even if you’ve used a privacy setting that is supposed to prevent Google from grabbing your data.
Android 9 Pie has landed on Google Pixel devices just a month before Apple rolls out iOS 12. Both come with a long list of new features and improvements, but is one better than the other?
Here’s how Android 9 and iOS 12 compare.
Whether it’s our phones, our fitness trackers, or even something as innocuous as a dating app, much of the technology we use on a regular basis tracks our physical location.
Knowing the potential security risk this poses, the Pentagon banned deployed military personnel from using tech with active location-tracking features.
Some of the most useful apps on iOS take system features and turn them up to 11. For a few years, the photos app has had basic markup tools but it’s felt underwhelming and lacked pro features. Annotable for iPhone and iPad adds pro-level annotation and markup tools to highlight or hide whatever you want in an image.
Android has, or is soon to get, an incognito mode for the YouTube app, which will stop watched videos from showing up in your YouTube history. Google will still know exactly what you watch, of course. It’s just a way of keeping embarrassing movies out of your watched videos list.
iOS may or may not be getting the same feature, but that doesn’t matter. By using iOS’ (and the Mac’s) built-in tools, you can already watch YouTube videos without them showing up in your YouTube history. It even stops YouTube from tracking your history via cookies.
The Commerce Dept. is reportedly talking to social networking companies and consumer advocates about rules to protect online privacy. Also included are possible protections for companies that have data breeches.
This is supposedly laying the groundwork for legislation that might be proposed this fall.
Did you know that your boss can read your private Slack chats? That’s right — whenever you switch to a direct messaging session to avoid Slack’s public chat thread, you might think you are chatting away from your boss’s prying ears, the virtual equivalent of a quick word in the stairwell.
However, that’s not the case. The boss can drop in and spy on your “private” chats at any time. Luckily, there’s a way to fix that, using a tool called Shhlack.
Did you know that you can hide photos in your iPhone’s Photos library? This lets you keep photographs away from prying eyes, while still having access to them yourself. And — ironically — it also makes it very easy to find all the embarrassing/explicit photos on somebody else’s iPhone.
Ever been discussing some product to your friends and then had an ad for it appear on your iPhone the next day? It’s happened enough that people want to know “Is my phone listening to me all the time?”
A group of computer scientists decided to test this phobia, which they dubbed panoptispy: the fear that everyone is being spied on.
A Paris fashion designer, known for quirky clothing and accessories that catch eyes, uses scrap material to keep prying eyes from using webcams to spy.
Arthur Lhermitte makes webcam covers from leather offcut from his patterns. The tiny dots of leather stick to laptop webcams and smartphone cameras with a micro-suction tape that leaves no residue on the lens.
Some believe Facebook is already using our smartphones to hear our private conversations. That’s not true, but the social network is certainly considering it.
Facebook has applied for a new patent that describes a method of tapping into our microphones to listen to our reactions to TV ads. It’s just as invasive as it sounds.
Whenever Apple CEO Tim Cook weighs in on a social issue, like his recent disparaging comments about U.S. immigration policy, there are always voices urging him to be quiet and concentrate on making great products.
Speaking at a forum in San Francisco this evening, Cook said that changing the world is in his job description.
Going online is full of risks, from data and identity thieves to government snoops and content restrictions. It’s especially risky if you enjoy torrenting or other peer-to-peer sharing. So for all these reasons and more, connecting via VPN is a must.