Facebook sued for siphoning facial recognition data without consent

Ken Paxton, the Attorney General of Texas, recently filed a lawsuit against Facebooks parent company, Meta, for harvesting the facial recognition data of millions of Texan residents—for a decade. Paxton filed the lawsuit on Monday in the states Harrison County District Court. The suit contains...

Complaint Alleges Hotspot Shield VPN Engages in Deceptive Trade Practices

A complaint has been filed with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission alleging that a free VPN service marketed as a provider of secure and anonymous internet access shares user data and redirects traffic to partners, including online advertising companies. The Center for Democracy and Technology CDT...

Privacy Groups Seek to Halt Facebook Acquisition of WhatsApp

The appeal of WhatsApp, the cross-platform mobile messaging app recently acquired by Facebook for a stunning $19 billion price tag, was that it kept to its promise of not collecting user information that would be converted to ad revenue. The acquisition by Facebook, however, likely changes that...

FTC Launches Investigations into Mobile Apps for Kids

The Federal Trade Commission on Monday said it’s launching “non-public investigations” to determine if mobile application providers are violating federal laws by collecting information on children without their parents’ permission. A report indicates almost 60 percent 235 of the children-centric...