Is your phone listening to you? (re-air) (Lock and Code S07E03)

This week on the Lock and Code podcast … In January, Google settled a lawsuit that pricked up a few ears: It agreed to pay $68 million to a wide array of people who sued the company together, alleging that Google's voice-activated smart assistant had secretly recorded their conversations, which...

Your Meta AI conversations may come back as ads in your feed

Meta has announced that conversations with its AI assistant will soon be used for targeted advertising. If you’re the kind of person that notices ads for products just after you spoke about them, you won't be happy about this update. Meta AI is the company’s generative AI assistant, built into...

WhatsApp to start targeting you with ads

WhatsApp has announced that it will start to show you targeted ads on the app. The ads, it says, will appear under the Updates tab. WhatsApp launched the Updates tab a year ago, and now 1.5 billion people visit it every day. Updates has historically been a place for users to follow news and updat...

Irish Watchdog Imposes Record €310 Million Fine on LinkedIn for GDPR Violations

The Irish data protection watchdog on Thursday fined LinkedIn €310 million $335 million for violating the privacy of its users by conducting behavioral analyses of personal data for targeted advertising. "The inquiry examined LinkedIn's processing of personal data for the purposes of behavioral...

E.U. Court Limits Meta's Use of Personal Facebook Data for Targeted Ads

Europe's top court has ruled that Meta Platforms must restrict the use of personal data harvested from Facebook for serving targeted ads even when users consent to their information being used for advertising purposes, a move that could have serious consequences for ad-driven companies operating ...

How the Pentagon Learned to Use Targeted Ads to Find Its Targets—and Vladimir Putin

Meet the guy who taught US intelligence agencies how to make the most of the ad tech ecosystem, "the largest information-gathering enterprise ever conceived by man."...

Meta and TikTok consider charging users for ad-free experience

According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Meta is considering charging its European users around $14 a month if they don't agree to personalized ads on Facebook and Instagram. On mobile devices, the price for a single account would be higher because Meta would factor in commissions...

A week in security (April 3 - 9)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: TikTok: Whats going on and should I be worried? Super FabriXss: an RCE vulnerability in Azure Service Fabric Explorer Big changes to Twitter verification: How to spot a verified account New macOS malware steals sensitive info, including a user's entire Keychain...

Consumer privacy and social media

Looking at the privacy related stories of 2022, its not hard to see that much of the focus was on the social media giants. Banning TikTok is slowly becoming a trend among US states. Google and Facebooks owner Meta was fined on several occasions for amounts that would have put other companies out ...

Researchers Expose Mars Stealer Malware Campaign Using Google Ads to Spread

A nascent information stealer called Mars has been observed in campaigns that take advantage of cracked versions of the malware to steal information stored in web browsers and cryptocurrency wallets. "Mars Stealer is being distributed via social engineering techniques, malspam campaigns, maliciou...

ICO challenges adtech to step up privacy protection

The UK Information Commissioners Office ICO wants the advertising industry to come up with new initiatives that address the risks of adtech, and take account of data protection requirements from the outset. The ICO is an independent body set up to uphold information rights. The technology that is...

Will Google’s Privacy Sandbox take the bite out of tracking cookies?

Third-party cookies have been the lynchpin of online advertising for many years. Plans to phase cookies out forever continue to run at a steady pace, with Google in the driving seat. In 2019, it announced its vision for a “Privacy Sandbox”. The building blocks for this were essentially: 1. Most...

Companies Can Track Your Phone’s Movements to Target Ads

Brands are seeking new ways to customize messages. A startup that gathers data on when you pick up your phone, or when you go out on a run, can help...

No more targeted ads on iPhone after new iOS 14 update – Facebook

By Deeba Ahmed Apple’s new anti-tracking tools on iOS 14 will render Facebook’s Audience Network ineffective. This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: No more targeted ads on iPhone after new iOS 14 update - Facebook...

Bucking the Norm, Mozilla to Block Tracking Cookies in Firefox

Web tracking has long been in the cross-hairs of privacy advocates, who say that marketers know entirely too much about individuals’ online activities. And to add insult to injury, the ubiquitous cookie system used to enable tracking also presents potential security threats, including cross-site...

Facebook agrees to Stop using UK Users' WhatsApp Data for Targeted Ads

In August, Facebook introduced a hugely controversial data sharing plan to start harvesting data from its WhatsApp messaging app from September 25 for delivering more relevant ads on the social network. Many users were not happy with the move, because there was no real way of opting out from the...

Have you ever suspected that Facebook is listening to your conversations through Microphone?

Have you ever felt Facebook is showing you very relevant ads about topics you’re only discussing around your phone? If yes, then you may find this news worth reading. Communications Professor Kelli Burns from the University of South Florida claims that Facebook is listening to all conversations...

Facebook Ads now Tracks you, Even if you don't have an Account

There's nowhere to hide across the web, especially from the marketing and advertising companies. If you are paranoid about your privacy, you may get upset to know that Facebook will now track and deliver targeted Ads on other apps and websites for everyone, even if you do not have Facebook...

Searches for Pirated Content Lead to Pain and Little Gain

People love to try and get something for nothing, especially on the Internet where there’s all kinds of things available for nothing. But a lot of those free things are illegal and attackers have become very adept at taking advantage of users’ desire for free episodes of Gilmore Girls or bonus...

Twitter will now Track EVERY App You have Installed on Your Smartphone

Like Facebook and Google, Twitter will soon be collecting your smartphone data in order to provide a "more personal Twitter experience" by serving targeted advertisements. The popular microblogging service Twitter said Wednesday that it will start collecting information about the other applicatio...