Data Privacy – Page 23 – Computer Security Articles

Credit to Author: John Ribeiro| Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2017 03:45:00 -0800

Members of Congress reintroduced bills that would place curbs on warrantless access by the government to electronically generated geolocation information of Americans, including on the use of cell-site simulators that can capture cellphone data.

A bill introduced Wednesday, called the Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance Act, aims to create clear rules for when law enforcement agencies can acquire an individual’s geolocation information, generated from electronic devices like smartphones, GPS units and Wi-Fi equipped laptops.

Another bill, the Cell Location Privacy Act of 2017, requires law enforcement, including local, state and federal agencies, to obtain a warrant for the use of cell-site simulators, with exceptions such as the use of the technology in emergencies or for foreign intelligence surveillance. It also imposes a fine or imprisonment of up to 10 years, or both, for any one knowingly using a cell-site simulator, except under certain exceptions like a warrant.

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ComputerWorld Independent

February 10, 2017 admin

Privacy groups say FBI hacking operation went too far

Credit to Author: Michael Kan| Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2017 14:48:00 -0800

Privacy advocates are claiming in court that an FBI hacking operation to take down a child pornography site was unconstitutional and violated international law.

That’s because the operation involved the FBI hacking 8,700 computers in 120 countries, based on a single warrant, they said.

“How will other countries react to the FBI hacking in their jurisdictions without prior consent?” wrote Scarlet Kim, a legal officer with U.K.-based Privacy International.

On Friday, that group, along with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, filed briefs in a lawsuit involving the FBI’s hacking operation against Playpen. The child pornography site was accessible through Tor, a browser designed for anonymous web surfing. But in 2014, the FBI managed to take it over.

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ComputerWorld Independent

February 9, 2017 admin

Apple's iCloud saved deleted browser records

Apple’s iCloud appears to have been holding on to users’ deleted internet browsing histories, including records over a year old.

Moscow-based forensics firm Elcomsoft noticed it was able to pull supposedly deleted Safari browser histories from iCloud accounts, such as the date and time the site was visited and when the record was deleted.

“In fact, we were able to access records dated more than one year back,” wrote Elcomsoft’s CEO Vladimir Katalov in a Thursday blog post.

Users can set iCloud to store their browsing history so that it’s available from all connected devices. The researchers found that when a user deletes that history, iCloud doesn’t actually erase it but keeps it in a format invisible to the user.

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ComputerWorld Independent

February 9, 2017 admin

Android privacy assistant seeks to stop unwanted data collection

Not sure what your phone is collecting about you? A free Android app is promising to simplify the privacy settings on your smartphone, and stop any unwanted data collection.

The English language app, called Privacy Assistant, comes from a team at Carnegie Mellon University, which built it after six years of research studying digital privacy.

“It’s very clear that a large percentage of people are not willing to give their data to any random app,” said CMU professor Norman Sadeh. “They want to be more selective with their data, so this assistant will help them do that.”

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ComputerWorld Independent

February 9, 2017 admin

Microsoft lawsuit against indefinite gag orders can proceed

A Microsoft lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice over indefinite gag orders attached to search warrants can proceed, following a federal judge’s ruling on Thursday.

The tech titan sued last year to end the government’s practice of indefinitely blocking it from informing customers of search warrants for their information. Microsoft alleged that such orders violate its First Amendment frees speech rights and the Fourth Amendment privacy rights of its users.

The Justice Department argued that Microsoft couldn’t bring either of the claims in a motion argued in front of the judge two weeks ago.

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ComputerWorld Independent

February 9, 2017 admin

U.S. proposal to collect travelers' passwords alarms privacy experts

To better vet foreign travelers, the U.S. might demand that some visa applicants hand over the passwords to their social media accounts, a proposal that’s alarming privacy experts.

“If they don’t want to give us the information, then they don’t come,” said John Kelly, the head of the Department of Homeland Security, on Tuesday.

Kelly mentioned the proposal in a congressional hearing when he was asked what his department was doing to look at visa applicants’ social media activity.

He said it was “very hard to truly vet” the visa applicants from the seven Muslim-majority countries covered by the Trump administration’s travel ban, which is now in legal limbo. Many of the countries are failed states with little internal infrastructure, he said.

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ComputerWorld Independent

February 6, 2017 admin

Update: TV maker Vizio pays $2.2M to settle complaint that it spied on users

Popular smart TV maker Vizio will pay $2.2 million to settle complaints that it violated customers’ privacy by continuously monitoring their viewing habits without their knowledge.

Beginning in February 2014, the Irvine, California-based TV maker tracked what TV shows customers were watching on 11 million TV sets sold in the U.S., the Federal Trade Commission and the Office of the New Jersey Attorney General said in a complaint, released Monday.

Vizio smart TVs captured “second-by-second” information about video displayed, including video from consumer cable services, broadband, set-top boxes, DVDs, over-the-air broadcasts and streaming devices, according to the complaint.

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