A Californian plaintiff says that nobody at Apple ever told her about tracking her whereabouts, nor did anybody ever ask for her permission. She says she only found out about it by watching a recent Chinese state TV report about iPhone being a security risk to the state. 
Tag Archives: surveillance
US Senator takes a swing at the NSA
If it emerges unscathed from the chamber, it could mean an end to bulk metadata collection, an end to the secrecy the government’s been operating under, and reform of the USA Patriot Act that’s been used to grant it vast surveillance rights. 
Germany considers replacing email with typewriters to evade spying
The country’s pondering manual typewriters, however, unlike Russia’s reported embrace of electric typewriters last year. Russia should be well aware that you can plug a keylogger into those e-typewriters, given that it pulled that stunt on IBM Selectrics back in the 70s!
iPhones are a security threat to the state, China claims
China has cited Apple iPhone’s ability to track and time-stamp users’ whereabouts as reason to declare the mobile phone hazardous to state security. 
UK to rush through “emergency” phone and internet data retention law
The UK is rushing through Parliament what it calls an emergency law that will ensure it retains access to people’s phone and internet records, in spite of the European Court of Justice having said in April that data retention violates human rights. It’s not a rehash of the Snooper’s Charter, politicians claim, but there’s not a lot of time to eyeball it to make sure that’s true. 
Australian police using tower dumps to slurp mass phone data
Australian federal and state police have joined the ranks of mega-data slurpers – namely, the US, where 1 in 4 law enforcement agencies have reportedly used a “tower dump” – ordering phone providers to hand over personal information about thousands of mobile phone users, regardless of whether or not those people are under investigation.
NSA catches only 10% of data legally, but is it a fair trade off?
That leaves large-scale privacy invasion on 90% of 160,000 analysed messages swept up illegally by the NSA. But credit where credit is due: the legal 10% of intercepts have significant intelligence value, including data about a secret overseas nuclear project and double-dealing by an ostensible ally.
EFF sues NSA over hoarding of zero days
Wouldn’t it be nice to know just how, exactly, the spy agency decides whether to silently exploit zero days for snooping purposes while leaving businesses and individuals in the dark with their bellies exposed? The EFF has filed a FOIA lawsuit to help find answers. 
Facebook’s facing a losing battle to protect users’ privacy
Last year, prosecutors in Manhattan held Facebook up by the ankles and shook out personal data on 381 users. A judge last week said that it’s up to the targeted users to complain about privacy invasion, not data-repository Facebook. But how are they supposed to stand up for their rights if they’re never told about the sealed warrants to begin with? 
US House votes “overwhelmingly” to cut funding of NSA surveillance
A strong majority of the US House have voted to cut funding for surveillance on citizens or for planting backdoors that let the government slip past encryption that’s supposed to shield communications. 