Topic: Privacy

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    Facebook kills off exact location sharing in Nearby Friends, adds “Wave” | TechCrunch (Dec 22, 2016)

    In a world in which it seems threats to privacy get steadily stronger over time, this is an unusual retrenchment. Facebook will now share less detailed information in its Nearby Friends feature, though arguably to make the feature more appealing rather than out of any sense of altruism. It’s an interesting example of dialing back user data sharing to win user trust.

    via Facebook kills off exact location sharing in Nearby Friends, adds “Wave” | TechCrunch

    Government requests for Facebook user data up 27 percent in first half of 2016 | TechCrunch (Dec 22, 2016)

    As more and more communication takes place on online platforms, law enforcement agencies will inevitably shift their data gathering to those platforms too, and we’re seeing this play out here. The more data these platforms have on us, of course, the more meaningful that is, and Facebook is a treasure trove.

    via Government requests for Facebook user data up 27 percent in first half of 2016 | TechCrunch

    Google facing FTC scrutiny over privacy — yet again | The Washington Post (Dec 19, 2016)

    The alleged privacy violations at issue here aren’t new, but the threat of formal action over them is. But of course this also taps into the long-running narrative about advertising and privacy and Google’s role in particular. Whether you care or not depends on your overall view of the tradeoffs between business models and privacy, though awareness of (and to some extent concern over) these is rising.

    via Google facing FTC scrutiny over privacy — yet again – The Washington Post

    Hackers can remotely steal fingerprints from Android phones | ZDNet (Aug 5, 2015)

    This sort of thing is exactly why Apple makes such a big deal about the secure enclave on iPhones (and the new MacBook Pro) – fingerprint security is only as secure as the encryption and protection for the sensor data on the device. The biggest issue for Android vendors here is that this isn’t really the kind of vulnerability that can easily be patched after the fact.

    via Hackers can remotely steal fingerprints from Android phones | ZDNet