FBI: Spike in Hacked Police Emails, Fake Subpoenas

The Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI is urging police departments and governments worldwide to beef up security around their email systems, citing a recent increase in cybercriminal services that use hacked police email accounts to send unauthorized subpoenas and customer data requests to...

YouTube makes sweeping changes to tackle spam on Shorts videos

YouTube is rolling out unclickable links. Video portals like YouTube have had to deal with spam comments and bogus links for many years. With new additions to a platform come new places for scammers to go about their business. YouTube is now cracking down on links posted to the comments section o...

YouTube transparency report shows battle against misinformation

Statistics for YouTube community guidelines enforcement are now available for the period April to June 2022, via Googles Transparency Report. YouTube channels are terminated if they accrue three community guideline strikes in 90 days, have a case of severe abuse predatory behaviour, for example, ...

Twitch's First Transparency Report Is Here—and Long Overdue

The decade-old streaming platform has for the first time detailed its efforts to safeguard its user base in one place...

TikTok Banned By U.S. Army Over China Security Concerns

With backlash swelling around TikTok’s relationship with China, the United States Army this week announced that U.S. soldiers can no longer have the social media app on government-owned phones. TikTok, a social media app used to create and share short form videos, is owned by Beijing-based parent...

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...

SpiderOak's Warrant Canary Died

BoingBoing has the story. I have never quite trusted the idea of a warrant canary. But here it seems to have worked. Presumably, if SpiderOak wanted to replace the warrant canary with a transparency report, they would have written something explaining their decision. To have it simply disappear i...

March-April 2018 test results: More insights into industry AV tests

In a previous post, in the spirit of our commitment to delivering industry-leading protection, customer choice, and transparency on the quality of our solutions, we shared insights and context into the results of AV-TESTs January-February 2018 test cycle. We released a transparency report to help...

Adding transparency and context into industry AV test results

Corporate Vice President Brad Anderson recently shared his insights on how Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection Windows Defender ATP evolved to achieve important quality milestones. Our Windows Defender ATP team is committed to delivering industry-leading protection, customer choice, and...

Pursuing The Right to be Left Alone

The three pillars of privacy, defined in “The Right to Privacy” 4 Harvard L.R. 193 Dec 15, 1890, are 1 the right to know what information is gathered about you, 2 the right to know how it will be used, and 3 the right to be left alone. The European Union has incorporated these principles into the...

Apple Receives First National Security Letter

Apple revealed this week that it received a National Security Letter during the last six months of 2016. The news, which came as part of the company’s latest biannual transparency report, marks the first NSL Apple has reported receiving. The iPhone manufacturer released the report via a portal on...

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,...

Cloudflare Shares National Security Letter It Received in 2013

Thanks to the lifting of a gag order, on Tuesday security firm Cloudflare was finally able to post a National Security Letter it received from the Federal Bureau of Investigation back in 2013. Cloudflare’s counsel Kenneth R. Carter acknowledged the lifting of the order and said the letter is part...

Google Handles Record Number of Government Requests for Data

Google fielded a record number of government requests for user data during the first half of 2016, according to its updated Transparency Report. It was also able to report that it received at least one National Security Letter during the six months between July and December 2015. “Pursuant to the...

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...

Reddit Removes NSL Warrant Canary from Transparency Report

Reddit’s latest transparency report is missing a nugget of information that was present in a previous report. Last year’s report included a warrant canary which stated that as of Jan. 29, 2015, Reddit had never received a National Security Letter, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court order or...

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...

Yahoo Transparency Report Shows Requests for Data Up

Yahoo this week published its transparency report for the first six months of the year and the numbers indicate that government requests for data on its users are up slightly after sharp dropoff for the report covering the last six months of 2014. Yahoo said that it received 5,221 government data...

Twitter Adds Email Privacy Data to Transparency Report

The number of information requests Twitter is receiving from the United States government is increasing steadily, having risen roughly 50 percent in the first six months of this year compared to the last six months of 2014. In its latest transparency report, Twitter said that it received 2,436...

CloudFlare Transparency Report Shows Spike in Court Orders

In its latest transparency report, CloudFlare says that the number of subpoenas it has received has remained steady since last year, but the volume of court orders has more than doubled since the second half of last year. While much of the data from CloudFlare’s report for the first half of 2015...