Category: Privacy

Privacy \ Technology
New deepfake app Zao prompts privacy concerns
September 9, 2019

A viral Chinese app that lets users swap their faces with film or TV characters has sparked a privacy row. Users provide a series of selfies in which they blink, move their mouths and make facial expressions. The app, which has now gone viral, morphs the person’s animated likeness on to movies, TV shows and pictures. The Zao app has become the country’s most downloaded app at the moment but has raised concerns over potential...

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GDPR \ Privacy \ Technology
iPhones "silently" hacked for years
September 3, 2019

iPhone users have been “quietly” hacked by rogue websites, according to Google. The tech giant warned that hackers compromised iPhones after users simply visited certain affected websites and security experts have called it “an alarming security failure”. Initially, it was thought that either China or Russia were likely targeting an ethnic minority within their respective domains. TechCrunch have even gone so far to claim that:...

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GDPR \ Privacy \ Technology
Sweden has issued its first fine under GDPR
August 29, 2019

The Swedish data protection agency (DPA) has issued the country's first GDPR fine, after a school was found improperly using facial recognition technology to monitor the attendance of its students. The Swedish watchdog fined the school in Skellefteå, which is in the north of Sweden, 200,000 Swedish Krona (£16,800) for flouting privacy laws. Interestingly, the DPA indicated that the fine would have been bigger had the trial...

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Business \ Legal \ Privacy \ Technology
Data breach of possible 14 million users at Hostinger
August 28, 2019

Usernames, emails, first names and IP addresses have been breached at web hosting provider and internet domain company Hostinger International, affecting a possible 14 million customers. The company said it has reset user passwords as a “precautionary measure” after it detected unauthorised access to a database containing sensitive information. Hackers breached its internal system API and gained access to data of the Lithuanian...

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Legal \ Privacy \ Technology
Campaigners warn of facial recognition “epidemic”
August 21, 2019

Privacy group Big Brother Watch (BBW) has warned that the use of facial recognition technology across public spaces is becoming more widespread. It was revealed recently that hundreds of thousands of visitors to the King’s Cross area of London were being covertly scanned. Public spaces including museums and shopping centres are rife with the technology and that increasingly, private companies were installing cameras, according to BBW....

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Business \ GDPR \ Legal \ Privacy
One of the “Big 4” fined under GDPR
August 20, 2019

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is the first of the “Big 4” to be fined under GDPR. The Greek Data Protection Authority (DPA) recently fined the audit group €150,000 for wrongly using “consent” as a basis for processing personal data on staff. The DPA have now given PwC three months to implement corrective measures and comply with GDPR. An investigation was made into the lawfulness of the processing of personal data of PwC...

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Business \ CCPA \ GDPR \ Legal \ Privacy
CCPA vs GDPR
August 16, 2019

The GDPR, which went into effect in May 2018, is one of the most comprehensive data protection laws in the world. The CCPA’s impact is expected to be huge, given California’s status as the fifth largest global economy. The CCPA will take effect on 1 January 2020, however, organizations have to provide consumers with information regarding the preceding 12-month period. Therefore, some actions may need to be done before the launch date. Both...

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GDPR \ Privacy \ Technology
ICO privacy concerns over digital currency Libra
August 14, 2019

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) have raised concerns over Facebook’s plans to launch their new digital currency, Libra. The UK’s data watchdog has joined forces with an international group of privacy authorities who want to know "how customers' personal data will be processed in line with data protection laws". The ICO has signed a joint statement with European and US calling for more transparency around Facebook’s proposed...

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Business \ GDPR \ Legal \ Privacy
Researcher exposes serious flaws within businesses to adequately deal with GDPR.
August 12, 2019

University of Oxford-based researcher James Pavur contacted UK and US-based firms to test how they would handle a "right of access" request made in someone else's name. For the purposes of his investigation, he asked each of them for all the data that they held on his fiancée, citing the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). He found that an astonishing one in four companies revealed personal information about his partner – even...

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Privacy \ Technology
Data breach affects university accounts
August 5, 2019

London based educational software maker Pearson, has revealed that thousands of school and university accounts have been compromised due to a data breach. Users of the accounts, mostly in the United States, have since been notified and the vulnerability has been rectified. According to the Wall Street Journal, the data breach happened in November 2018 and Pearson was notified by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in March. School...

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