A massive database containing contact information of millions of Instagram influencers, celebrities and brand accounts has been found online. The database, hosted by Amazon Web Services, was left exposed and without a password allowing anyone to look inside. At the time of writing, the database had over 49 million records — but was growing by ...

This week could mark a significant setback for Amazon’s ****** recognition business if privacy and civil liberties advocates — and some shareholders — get their way. Months earlier, shareholders tabled a resolution to limit the sale of Amazon’s ****** recognition tech giant calls Rekognition to law enforcement and government agencies. It followed accusations of bias ...

It’s a year since Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force and leaky adtech is now facing privacy complaints in four more European Union markets. This ups the tally to seven markets where data protection authorities have been urged to investigate a core function of behavioral advertising. The latest clutch of GDPR complaints ...

From 6PM-730PM this Thursday, May 23, I'm presenting at the Exposition Park Library (Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Regional Library, 3900 S Western Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90062) on the problems of Big Tech and how the problems of monopolization (in tech and every other industry) is supercharged by the commercial surveillance industry -- and ...

Google knows what you bought, and when you bought it.  This fact is made painfully clear by the Gmail purchases page — a detailed list, pulled from your inbox, of everything you've purchased over the years that came with a confirmation ema... ...

Economist international editor Edward Lucas devotes 4,000+ words in the new issue of Foreign Policy to the changing landscape of state espionage in the 21st century; it's not particularly well-organized (if there's a reason for the order in which his thoughts are laid out, I couldn't find it), but despite that, it's well worth a ...

Reports emerged a year ago that all the major cellular carriers in the U.S. were selling location data to third party companies, which in turn sold them to pretty much anyone willing to pay. New letters published by the FCC show that despite a year of scrutiny and anger, the carriers have only recently put ...

Donald Trump wants you to know that he totally understands your online struggle.  The 45th President of the United States is famous for complaining about the perceived censoring of conservatives on social media, and, in an effort to ride that wa... ...

On Tuesday, San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors voted to approve a ban on the use of ****** recognition tech by city agencies, including the police department. The Stop Secret Surveillance Ordinance, introduced by San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin, is the first ban of its kind for a major American city and the seventh major surveillance ...

Facebook is bringing back a highly useful feature that ended up causing a huge problem for the company and its users. On Tuesday, Facebook announced that it was reinstating the "View As Public" functionality. This is a security feature that allows us... ...