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ComputerWorldIndependent
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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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Court orders Google to produce emails stored abroad

A federal court in Pennsylvania has ordered Google to comply with search warrants and produce customer emails stored abroad, in a decision that is in sharp contrast to that of an appeals court in a similar case involving Microsoft.

Magistrate Judge Thomas J. Rueter of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania ruled Friday that the two warrants under the Stored Communications Act (SCA) for emails required by the government in two criminal investigations constituted neither a seizure nor a search of the targets’ data in a foreign country.

Transferring data electronically from a server in a foreign country to Google’s data center in California does not amount to a seizure because “there is no meaningful interference with the account holder’s possessory interest in the user data,” and Google’s algorithm in any case regularly transfers user data from one data center to another without the customer’s knowledge, Rueter wrote.

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Google ordered by U.S. court to produce emails stored abroad

Google has been ordered by a federal court in Pennsylvania to comply with search warrants and produce customer emails stored abroad, in a decision that is in sharp contrast to that of an appeals court in a similar case involving Microsoft.

Magistrate Judge Thomas J. Rueter of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania ruled Friday that the two warrants under the Stored Communications Act (SCA) for emails required by the government in two criminal investigations constituted neither a seizure nor a search of the targets’ data in a foreign country.

Transferring data electronically from a server in a foreign country to Google’s data center in California does not amount to a seizure because “there is no meaningful interference with the account holder’s possessory interest in the user data,” and Google’s algorithm in any case regularly transfers user data from one data center to another without the customer’s knowledge, Judge Rueter wrote.

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5 shocking new threats to your personal data

I’m not paranoid. Tinfoil hats aren’t my scene.

But watch out! In just the past month, the internet and smartphones have come up with five new and surprising ways to steal or expose our personal data.

Of course, these new concerns can now be added to all the old ones. Companies like Google and Facebook still track you and harvest personal data. Hackers still want to steal your data. And the National Security Agency is still out there doing its thing.

And now, these five new trends reveal that your security and privacy could be compromised in ways you probably never imagined.

1. Fingerprints can be stolen from selfies

Researchers at Japan’s National Institute of Informatics (NII) announced recently that your fingerprints could be stolen from photos of your fingers, and the prints could then be re-created and used to bypass biometric security systems.

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WhatsApp reduces spam, despite end-to-end encryption

Can a spam filter work even without reading the content of your messages?

WhatsApp thinks so. Since last April, the messenger app has been successfully fighting spam abuse, even as it’s been using end-to-end encryption.

That encryption means that no one — not even WhatsApp — can read the content of your messages, except for the recipient.

More privacy, however, can raise issues about spam detection. If WhatsApp can’t scan your messages for suspicious content, say for advertisements peddling cheap Viagra, then how can it effectively filter them out?

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Privacy worries are on the rise, new poll of U.S. consumers shows

A recent IDC survey found 84% of U.S. consumers are concerned about the privacy of their personal information, with 70% saying their concern is greater today than it was a few years ago.

These concerns of consumers should also alarm businesses: Consumers are willing to switch to another bank, medical center or retailer if they feel their personal information is threatened, the survey found.

“Consumers can exact punishment for data breaches or mishandled data by changing buyer behavior or shifting loyalty,” said Sean Pike, an analyst at IDC, in a statement. The survey, released last week, polled 2,500 U.S. consumers about their privacy concerns across four verticals: Financial services, healthcare, retail and government.

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