privacy
Signal now blocks Microsoft Recall screenshots on Windows 11
Signal has updated its Windows app to protect users’ privacy by blocking Microsoft’s AI-powered Recall feature from taking screenshots of their conversations. This new privacy feature, dubbed “screen security,” is now enabled by default on all Windows 11 devices, where Recall continuously takes screenshots of all active windows every few seconds and analyzes them to […]
O2 UK patches bug leaking mobile user location from call metadata
A flaw in O2 UK’s implementation of VoLTE and WiFi Calling technologies could allow anyone to expose the general location of a person and other identifiers by calling the target. The problem was discovered by security researcher Daniel Williams. The flaw likely existed on O2 UK’s network since February 2023, and was resolved yesterday. O2 UK is […]
Android 16 expands ‘Advanced Protection’ with device-level security
Google is announcing improvements for the Advanced Protection feature in Android 16 that strengthen defenses against sophisticated spyware attacks. The Android platform has been a constant target for spyware campaigns and sophisticated attacks using digital forensics platforms that often rely on zero-day vulnerabilities to infect devices with minimal or no user interaction. Google already offers the ‘Advanced Protection Program‘ […]
Google to pay $1.375 billion to settle Texas data privacy violations
Google has agreed to a $1.375 billion settlement with the state of Texas over a 2022 lawsuit that alleged it had been collecting and using biometric data of millions of Texans without properly acquiring their consent. The office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced the settlement agreement, which called it a ‘historic win’ for […]
Bluetooth 6.1 enhances privacy with randomized RPA timing
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has announced Bluetooth Core Specification 6.1, bringing important improvements to the popular wireless communication protocol. One new feature highlighted in the latest release is the increased device privacy via randomized Resolvable Private Addresses (RPA) updates. “Randomizing the timing of address changes makes it much more difficult for third parties […]
Microsoft Teams will soon block screen capture during meetings
Microsoft is working on adding a new Teams feature that will prevent users from capturing screenshots of sensitive information shared during meetings. Those joining from unsupported platforms will be automatically placed in audio-only mode to protect shared content. The company plans to start rolling out this new Teams feature to Android, desktop, iOS, and web users worldwide in July […]
TikTok fined €530 million for sending European user data to China
The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) has fined TikTok €530 million (over $601 million) for illegally transferring the personal data of users in the European Economic Area (EEA) to China, violating the European Union’s GDPR data protection regulations. The administrative fines imposed by the Irish watchdog consist of a fine of €485 million for its […]
WhatsApp unveils ‘Private Processing’ for cloud-based AI features
WhatsApp has announced the introduction of ‘Private Processing,’ a new technology that enables users to utilize advanced AI features by offloading tasks to privacy-preserving cloud servers. This is required to utilize AI functionalities such as message summarization and writing suggestions on WhatsApp, which are too demanding for on-device hardware. The new feature will be entirely opt-in […]
Brave’s Cookiecrumbler tool taps community to help block cookie notices
Brave has open-sourceed a new tool called “Cookiecrumbler,” which uses large language models (LLMs) to detect cookie consent notices and then community-driven reviews to block those that won’t break site functionality. The Brave browser has been blocking cookie consent banners by default on all websites since 2022 but found that blocking consent banners may cause website problems that […]
Windows 11’s Recall AI is now rolling out on Copilot+ PCs
Microsoft has confirmed that Windows Recall is rolling out to everyone with Windows 11 KB5055627 on Copilot+ PCs. Recall is an AI-powered feature that captures your screen, so you can quickly find and jump back into what you have seen before on your PC. As Microsoft describes, you can use Recall to “recall” the moment you saw on your PC. For example, […]