Europe Is Building a Huge International Facial Recognition System

Lawmakers advance proposals to let police forces across the EU link their photo databases—which include millions of pictures of people’s faces...

US senators introduce the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA)

US Senators Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee have introduced the Kids Online Safety Act KOSA, legislation that aims to enhance childrens safety online. This follows the The Wall Street Journal WSJs reporting on the harm Instagram can inflict on teens, which was...

Microsoft exec reveals “routine” secrecy orders from government investigators

Microsoft executive Tom Burt told Congressional lawmakers Wednesday that Federal law enforcement agencies send “routine” secret orders for customer information from the Seattle-based company, numbering anywhere from 2,400 to 3,500 such requests a year. “While the recent news about secret...

Lawmakers Take Aim at Insidious Digital ‘Dark Patterns’

A new California law prohibits efforts to trick consumers into handing over data or money. A bill in Washington state copies the language...

Govt.-Backed Contact-Tracing Apps Raise Privacy Hackles

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is echoing lawmaker concerns that California is not taking privacy seriously enough, as state legislators mull launching a COVID-19 exposure-notification app based on Apple and Google’s smartphone technology. The U.S. nonprofit, which is aimed at protecting...

Amazon Says It Didn’t Mean to Ban Employees From Using TikTok

US lawmakers have repeatedly raised security concerns over the app's Chinese ownership. Are US businesses next?...

Body Cameras Haven't Stopped Police Brutality. Here's Why

Amid worldwide protests over racism and police violence, lawmakers are once again turning to the devices as a tool for reform...

Lawmakers Prod FCC to Act on SIM Swapping

Crooks have stolen tens of millions of dollars and other valuable commodities from thousands of consumers via "SIM swapping," a particularly invasive form of fraud that involves tricking a target's mobile carrier into transferring someone's wireless service to a device they control. But the U.S...

ACCESS Act might improve data privacy through interoperability

Data privacy is back in Congressional lawmakers’ sights, as a new, legislative proposal focuses not on data collection, storage, and selling, but on the idea that Americans should be able to more easily pack up their user data and take it to a competing service—perhaps one that better respects...

Privacy Experts: Facebook's $5B Fine Unlikely to Do Much

The $5 billion fine that the Federal Trade Commission has slapped on Facebook for privacy violations may be the largest ever levied by the agency, but it’s being derided as “chump change” and ineffective by lawmakers and privacy analysts. The settlement, reported Friday evening, stems from...

Senators Grill Facebook, Google, and Apple Over Invasive Apps

Lawmakers want more information about Facebook’s Project Atlas program, which collected data from teens and sidestepped device makers’ privacy policies...

Merging Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram: a technical, reputational hurdle

Secure messaging is supposed to be just that—secure. That means no backdoors, strong encryption, private messages staying private, and, for some users, the ability to securely communicate without giving up tons of personal data. So, when news broke that scandal-ridden, online privacy pariah...

Privacy Law Showdown Between Congress and Tech Looms in 2019

Lawmakers spend the better part of 2018 talking tough to tech companies. Now the pressure is on for Congress to act...

Lawmakers Asking What ISPs Can Do About DDoS Attacks

IoT botnets and DDoS attacks have prominent lawmakers asking government agencies some probing questions about what can be done. Sen. Mark Warner D-VA on Tuesday sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission—as well as the Federal Trade Commission and Homeland Security—querying among othe...

'Software Liability Is Inevitable'

LAS VEGAS–The push for some form of liability for vendors who sell faulty or insecure software is nearly as old as software itself. Software makers have pushed back hard against it for decades, but the day may soon come when software liability is a reality. Bugs, defects, and security...

New Bill Would Grant Lifetime Credit Monitoring to OPM Victims

A group of lawmakers are proposing victims of last month’s expansive Office of Personnel Management hack receive lifetime fraud protection and credit monitoring. Democratic lawmakers on Monday presented the Reducing the Effects of the Cyberattack on OPM Victims Emergency Response, or RECOVER Act...

The Controversial CISPA Is Back in Congress

Updated 4/10/13: The U.S. House Intelligence Committee voted 18-2 for the new version of CISPA, with the two dissents coming from Democrat members of the committee. “This is clearly not a theoretical threat – the recent spike in advanced cyber attacks against the banks and newspapers makes that...

Attorney General Holder Announces Probe Into Cyberwar Leaks

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has issued an assignment to the U.S. District Attorneys to start an investigation into possible leaks of classified information, presumably by individuals within the Obama administration who recently spoke anonymously about the administration’s ties to the...

Japan under Heavy Cyber Attack !

Japan under Heavy Cyber Attack ! In last two days several Cyber attacks breach corporate and National Security of Japan. First, Japanese parliament hit by cyber attack from China according to Report. A server located in China was used for the attack on the Japanese Lower House. This led to an...

Sony Apologizes, Offers $1 Million Insurance After Hacking !

Sony Corp. 6758 Chairman Howard Stringer apologized and offered U.S. customers of PlayStation Network and Qriocity online entertainment services a year of free identity- theft protection after the system was crippled by hackers. Japan's biggest consumer-electronics exporter will offer a $1 millio...