As preparation for the UK’s planned social media ban, Ofcom has set out four ways social media platforms could check whether users are aged 16 or over. The government and Parliament will decide how the ban works in practice. Ofcom is the regulator for the communications services in the UK. The BBC reports that Ofcom identified four ways to check someone’s age that it considers “highly effective.” Here’s what those checks would involve: Photo ID matching: Comparing a live image of you with the…
Norway’s privacy regulator Datatilsynet has fined advertising technology company Xandr 92 million Norwegian kroner, approximately $9.6 million, for unlawfully processing and sharing sensitive information about Grindr users. While the decision concerns users in Norway, the data-sharing practices were not confined to Norwegian users. BleepingComputer reports that information about Grindr users in other countries was also exposed through the advertising system. Between July 2018 and April 2020,…
Most industries manage one major compliance framework. Universities might manage four simultaneously, each bringing with it unique requirements, enforcement mechanisms, and consequences for failure. Here's what that actually looks like in practice. In Part 1 of this series, we laid out the scale of the threat facing higher education: 4,388 cyberattacks per organization per week, a 24% year-over-year increase, and the fundamental architectural flaw of defending each campus independently. If the…
Automated license plate readers (ALPRs) are cameras that photograph passing vehicles, read their number plates, and typically log the time, location, and vehicle details. On their own, the images might be used to find a stolen car or locate a suspect. But lately there have been a lot of concerns raised about the way they are used. The main worry is caused by what happens when many cameras feed data into a shared, searchable network: it can create a detailed record of where ordinary people…
The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) has fined Google €403 million ($459 million) for violating European privacy law. The penalty follows a six-year inquiry into Google’s management of user location data between May 2018 and February 2020. During that time, Google collected users’ location data without making clear that it could be used to infer their interests and shape the ads they saw. Google’s location history keeps track of users’ locations when using their devices. It’s an opt-in…
The investigation, announced Monday, will probe IDScan’s security practices and whether victim notifications were adequate under Canada’s federal private-sector privacy law, the regulator said in a press release.
Apart from the privacy concerns around smart glasses, researchers have found that some cheap brands come with barely any security at all. ABC Australia reports that researchers from NSB Cyber and Abstract Shield tested two inexpensive pairs, costing A$60 and A$110 (around US$42 and US$78), and found more than a dozen flaws across the smart glasses themselves, their app, and an associated website. The main problem they uncovered was insecure Bluetooth pairing: If the glasses were powered on and…
Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC) has fined Google €403 million ($463M) for multiple GDPR violations related to processing users' location data. [...]
Ukraine’s parliament has approved tougher criminal penalties for involvement in fraudulent call centers and the theft of personal data, following a corruption scandal in which prosecutors were accused of taking bribes to protect scam operations.
Remember when social media was filled only with posts from your friends, rather than what an algorithm decided you wanted to see? So does the Australian government, and it wants that internet back. Yesterday, the government released draft legislation outlining a Digital Duty of Care. The proposal includes a measure that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese labeled “My Feed, My Way.” It would allow Australians over 16 to switch off the algorithmic feed that social media platforms deliver…
First, the good news: If you use a Linux-based operating system, you may not be asked your age in a few months. The bad news is that Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android users in California will be. California has passed a law that requires a range of operating systems to start collecting your age when you first set them up. Under the state’s Digital Age Assurance Act (DAAA), signed into law in October 2025, Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android will all have to do this from January 1, 2027. Operating…