Governments May Spy on You by Requesting Push Notifications from Apple and Google

Unspecified governments have demanded mobile push notification records from Apple and Google users to pursue people of interest, according to U.S. Senator Ron Wyden. "Push notifications are alerts sent by phone apps to users' smartphones," Wyden said. "These alerts pass through a digital post...

How Did Facebook Beat a Federal Wiretap Demand?

This is interesting: Facebook Inc. in 2018 beat back federal prosecutors seeking to wiretap its encrypted Messenger app. Now the American Civil Liberties Union is seeking to find out how. The entire proceeding was confidential, with only the result leaking to the press. Lawyers for the ACLU and t...

Apple Transparency Report Now Includes App Store Takedown Requests

For the first time Apple added to its transparency report the number of App Store takedown requests it has received from governments. The report, released Tuesday, also puts some hard numbers on how often law enforcement and governments request device and user data. App Takedown Request Apple’s...

Consumers have few legal options for protecting privacy

There are no promises in the words, “We care about user privacy.” Yet, these words appear on privacy policy after privacy policy, serving as disingenuous banners to hide potentially invasive corporate practices, including clandestine data collection, sharing, and selling. This is no accident. It ...

Google Pleads for Better Cross-Border Exchange of Digital Evidence

Google said it is receiving a growing number of cross-border requests for user data to be used as evidence in criminal prosecutions. The volume of requests is also exposing weaknesses in the existing process for exchanging data between countries called the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties MLAT,...

Google Retreats on Some Allo Privacy Promises

Google released its Allo messenger application today, and right along with it a measure of controversy that has critics urging potential users to stay away. The angst stems from what seems to be a reversal on Google’s part to start logging chats in the app’s non-incognito mode by default, somethi...

Apple Transparency Report Government Requests for Data

Apple’s latest transparency report published on Wednesday shows a big increase in the number of law enforcement and government requests for account and device data. Publication of the report comes on the heels of the latest chapter in the Apple-FBI tussle over encryption and privacy. Tuesday’s...

Google has also been Ordered to Unlock 9 Android Phones

The legal battle between Apple and the FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation over a locked iPhone that belonged to one of the San Bernardino shooters may be over, but the Department of Justice DoJ are back in front of a judge with a similar request. The American Civil Liberties Union ACLU has...

Requests for Yahoo User Data Spiked After Paris Terror Attacks

Yahoo’s latest transparency report, published today, reflects a spike in government and law enforcement requests for user data following the Paris terrorist attacks of Nov. 13. The attacks resulted in the deaths of 130 people and injuries to more than 350 others; the situation remains fluid with...

WhatsApp Ranked Worst at Protecting Your Privacy and Data

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has released its annual report card of tech companies for 2015 based upon how much they keep your personal data secure from government snoops. And the Worst Companies Award goes to… 1. At&T 2. WhatsApp 3. Verizon Yes, you heard right! WhatsApp is one of the thre...

U.S. Government Requests for Yahoo User Data Drop

Yahoo received nearly 5,000 requests for user data from the United States government in the last six months of 2014 and disclosed some content in nearly 25 percent of those cases. The company said in its new transparency report that it received between 0-999 National Security Letters from the U.S...

Facebook Transparency Report: Government Requests Down

Facebook today reported a slight drop in government requests for user data, bucking a trend that peaked during the first half of 2014 with the highest numbers the company had seen. Its latest transparency report covers the second half of last year, and shows slight dips in requests for user data,...

Government Requests for Twitter User Data Continue to Grow

The appetite for Twitter user data from governments around the world continues to grow, with the volume of such requests increasing by 40 percent in the second half of 2014. Requests from the United States government alone went up 29 percent, the company said in its latest transparency report...

Cheezburgers, Warrant Canaries and Cat Memes

Surveillance, privacy and security are serious subjects. So too, for some people, are cat memes and GIFs of screaming goats. And Cheezburger Inc., the premier purveyor of said memes and GIFs, wants its users to know that the company is standing up for their rights. The folks at Cheezburger have...

Reddit Publishes its First Transparency Report

Reddit on Thursday published its first transparency report, joining the litany of technology and online service providers who have already shed light on their privacy practices, and the extent to which governments makes requests for user information. Reddit thrives on user-submitted content...

Government Requests for Facebook User Data Increasing

Facebook’s latest transparency report shows that U.S law enforcement agencies issued a greater number of total requests for user data related to criminal investigations in the first six months of 2014 than they have over any previous such period. This report, per Justice Department reporting...

Apple CEO Tim Cook Says Company Dedicated to Protecting Users' Privacy

While much of the tech community is still swooning over the iPhone 6, Apple Pay and Apple Watch, the company’s top executive is spending a lot of time and energy trying to reassure customers that Apple is doing everything it can to protect their privacy and the security of their data. Apple CEO T...

2014 Google Transparency Report Requests for Data Up Again

Against a backdrop of new surveillance programs being uncovered in New Zealand and allegations of the NSA and GCHQ’s penetration of Deutsche Telekom in Germany, Google yesterday published its biannual Transparency Report for the first half of 2014. Google’s numbers reflect not only a continually...

Dropbox Reports 80 Percent of Subpoenas Contain Gag Request

Most U.S. government subpoenas for data on Dropbox users are accompanied with a request not to inform the user in question. Dropbox legal counsel Bart Volkmer said those gag orders are repelled unless there is a valid court order. The revelation accompanied the release of the cloud storage...

New Verizon Transparency Report Shows Large Government Appetite for Location, Content Data

Verizon said in a new transparency report that though the number of some kinds of orders dropped–including wiretap orders and warrants–others rose, including general orders and pen register and trap and trace orders, and the company received nearly 150,000 total orders in the first half of 2014...