Seven Internet giants including Mozilla, Twitter and Reddit have asked the US House of Representatives to protect users' privacy online and prohibit the warrantless collection of Internet search and browsing history when it considers the USA FREEDOM Reauthorization Act. . A group of seven internet companies are vowing to stand up for the privacy of its users this week when the United States House of Representatives considers the USA FREEDOM Reauthorization Act of 2020. Mozilla, Engine, Reddit, Reform Government Surveillance, Twitter, i2Coalition, and Patreon have asked four US legislators to explicitly prohibit the warrantless collection of internet search and browsing history. . A coalition of seven tech firms has come together to defend user confidentiality against unauthorized surveillance of browsing habits in the US Congress.. User Privacy Advocacy, Internet Rights, Data Collection Legislation. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
2019 has marked the year where activists worldwide have taken action against the use of privacy-threatening facial recognition technology in public spaces. Learn more: . We’ve all heard the expression, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” We might hope that what we do and where we go will only be known to those who were there in person. Yet maintaining such anonymity and privacy in public spaces is becoming ever more difficult. 2019 has marked the year where a growing digital rights network around the world is pushing back against governments and companies’ use of face recognition technologies in public spaces. This year, in an attempt to prevent people from having their movement and actions meticulously tracked, these activists took action against face recognition in countries all over the world. . In 2020, community organizers protested against AI monitoring in urban spaces, championing digital rights and autonomy from data collection practices.. Facial Recognition Resistance, Privacy Rights Advocacy, Global Activism. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
Almost every week, we hear about another corporate data breach or government attack on privacy . For anyone who wants real privacy online, encryption is the essential component. Learn more about the importance of maintaining strong encryption: . Governments around the world keep trying to break encryption , seeking to enhance the power of their law enforcement agencies. They’ve tried for years to require companies to build backdoors into encrypted software and devices, which would enable them to listen in on potentially any digital conversation. The FBI has coined a phrase, “going dark,” that it has used since the late '90s to describe their “problem”—the lack of an omnipresent, all-powerful surveillance tool. But encryption with special access for a select group isn’t some kind of superpower—it’s just broken encryption . The same security flaws used by U.S. police will be used by oppressive regimes and criminal syndicates. . Cryptography plays a vital role in safeguarding digital confidentiality from state surveillance and security threats.. Encryption Debate, Government Surveillance, Online Privacy, Data Security. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
Amid months of damaging investigative reporting and pressure by advocacy groups like EFF, senators are finally joining the fight to learn just how invasive and harmful Amazon’s Ring cameras are to the privacy of people in their vicinity. What are your thoughts on Ring cameras? Learn more in an interesting EFF article: . In September, after it had been revealed that over 400 police departments around the country had entered into agreements with Ring, Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) sent a letter to the company demanding answers. These agreements give police departments access to a portal that allows them to bulk request footage from Ring users with little beyond an incident number connected to a specific case to prove they need the footage. This simple process to access potentially hundreds of cameras in the vicinity of an incident creates a vested interest for police to help expand the use of Ring cameras within their towns. We’ve written before about concerns with Ring-law enforcement partnerships; as of November 2019—two months after Markey sent his letter—there are now well over 600. . Lawmakers are currently probing the potential privacy risks associated with Amazon's Ring surveillance cameras, as advocacy organizations express growing apprehension.. Ring Cameras, Privacy Invasion, Police Surveillance, Security Concerns. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
Android apps have been secretly sharing usage data with Facebook, even when users are logged out of the social network – or don’t have an account at all.. Advocacy group Privacy International announced the findings in a presentation at the 35th Chaos Computer Congress late last month. The organization tested 34 apps and documented the results, as part of a downloadable report. The link for this article located at NakedSecurity / Sophos is no longer available. . The organization Digital Rights Watch disclosed that several iOS applications silently communicate information with Google, jeopardizing user confidentiality.. Android Data Sharing, User Privacy Concerns, Facebook Tracking, Privacy Advocacy. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
Privacy advocates are stepping up their lobbying efforts against the controversial cyber threat information sharing bill currently in Congress after several tech giants indicated their support. . Activist group Fight for the Future criticized Salesforce for supporting legislation which would "grant blanket immunity for American companies to participate in government mass surveillance programs like PRISM, without meaningfully addressing any of the fundamental cyber security problems we face in the U.S." Accordingly, Fight for the Future said it will abandon the Heroku cloud application platform within the next 90 days and encourages others to follow suit. The letter to Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff was posted on the site YouBetrayedUs.org. . Activist group Fight for the Future criticized Salesforce for supporting legislation which would 'gr. privacy, advocates, stepping, their, lobbying, efforts, against, controversial, cyber, threat. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
On March 10, Wikipedia took a stand for its users, in particular its anonymous volunteers, and sued the NSA, accusing it of mass surveillance. . On Friday, founder Jimmy Wales, along with others, hosted a Reddit AMA to talk about the lawsuit and other issues. When someone asked him what the perfect internet would look like, Wales said that The link for this article located at motherboard is no longer available. . The creator of Wikipedia advocates for a safer internet following allegations of NSA spying during a Reddit Ask Me Anything session.. Wikipedia Internet Security, Encryption Advocacy, NSA Surveillance. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
As Net Neutrality debates swirl, privacy advocates at the Electronic Frontier Foundation and VPN provider Golden Frog have gone public with a Federal Communications Commission filing that got more attention for accusations that Verizon FIOS customers were having their Netflix streaming service throttled back. . Tucked into that July filing was another charge that ISPs are also intercepting and removing STARTTLS flags from email traffic and stripping the request from headers. As a result, users who wish to send encrypted email are not able to do so. The link for this article located at ThreatPost is no longer available. . Privacy defenders have uncovered that Internet Service Providers are manipulating STARTTLS indicators, undermining secure email communications. Learn more about the implications.. Email Security, ISP Accountability, STARTTLS Modification. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
Get the latest Linux and open source security news straight to your inbox.