Kyle Rankin @kyle@librem.one

"A new technology can inconspicuously scan the same surface [a blank wall] for shadows and reflections imperceptible to the human eye, then analyze them to determine details, including how many people are in the room—and what they are doing." #privacy https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-blank-wall-can-show-how-many-people-are-in-a-room-and-what-theyre-doing/

Samsung can remotely brick TVs it believes are stolen once they reconnect to the Internet, which is required to enable smart TV features. ⁨#privacy https://gizmodo.com/samsung-smart-tvs-can-be-remotely-bricked-if-stolen-1847557228

My biggest worry about Apple crossing the Rubicon with client-side searches is all the other vendors that inevitably copy Apple innovations, but poorly. Even if Apple can keep their promises, others won't. Imagine a home (and car) full of devices searching for crimes. ⁨#privacy⁩

Criminals and students always face the bleeding edge of surveillance tech, because neither group has enough agency to resist it. ⁨#privacy⁩ ⁨https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-tech-prison-idUSKBN2FA0OO

iPhone users don't live in a walled garden, they live in a digital nursing home. They are well taken care of, but Apple controls the property, activities and visitors. Apple plans to search residents regularly for contraband. #privacy https://www.apple.com/child-safety/

Amazon will pay you $10 to join their palm pilot. You really have to hand it to them... #privacy
https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/02/amazon-credit-palm-biometrics/

"Anonymized" location data, isn't. Catholic priest resigns after legally-obtained Grindr app data from a broker correlated location data with his and relatives' homes, his place of work, and gay bars. #privacy https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/07/catholic-priest-quits-after-anonymized-data-revealed-alleged-use-of-grindr/

"Tom Burt...revealed that Microsoft is presented with 7-10 secrecy orders per day from federal law enforcement. These comprise a quarter to a third of all legal demands Microsoft receives, he said." #privacy https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/02/us_government_cloud/

Why is it so hard for people to have #privacy? Because a TV company can make almost as much profit selling customer data as it can selling the TVs. https://www.engadget.com/vizio-q1-earnings-inscape-013937337.html

This is the key point and the reason FOSS means better #privacy: "The joy of open source means that users can, if they wish, verify Audacity's claims for themselves before deciding that the time has come for a fork." https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/07/audacity_telemetry/

Apparently the future of clothing is "smart fabric": shirts that act like computer displays, microphones stitched into single strands of fabric, clothing full of sensors and semiconductors. All I can think of is how this will be abused. #privacy https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/05/03/smart-fabric-future-of-clothing/

"Ulysses claims it can currently access more than 15 billion vehicle locations around the world every month, and it estimates that, by 2025, 100 percent of new cars will be connected and transmitting gigabytes of collectible data per hour." #privacy https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/03/one-company-wants-to-sell-the-feds-location-data-from-every-car-on-earth/

Old and Busted: "If you aren't paying for something, you are the product."

New Hotness: "You are the product."

Check out my post about companies across industries who double dip by collecting and selling data on their paying customers. ⁨#privacy

https://social.librem.one/@purism/105877195253681981

Pretty messed up that a mom had to have this conversation w/ their 7-yr-old: "Every time you ride your bike down this block, there are probably 50 cameras that watch you going past. If you make a bad choice, those cameras will catch you." #privacy https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/03/02/ring-camera-fears/

In particular I appreciated the discussion on the responsibility everyone has not just for their own #privacy, but the privacy of everyone else they connect with. When you give up your privacy to an app, you are also selling out your friends, family and colleagues.

Michigan police solved a murder with recordings of the suspect's voice stored on the victim's truck infotainment system. Michigan police pull data from cars "sometimes two to three times a week." #privacy https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/snitches-wheels-police-turn-car-data-destroy-suspects-alibis-n1251939

"The device, stationary, with all apps closed, transferred data to Google about 16 times an hour, or about 389 times in 24 hours. Assuming even half of that data is outgoing, Google would receive about 4.4MB per day or 130MB per month..." #privacy https://www.theregister.com/2020/11/14/google_android_data_allowance/

“I’d be more worried about the camera on your phone than I would be about a drone,” #whynotboth #privacy https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/25/21455197/amazon-ring-drone-home-security-surveillance-sidewalk-halo-privacy

This Blacklight #privacy tool by The Markup is great. While https://puri.sm got a clean score, it took us a lot of effort over years to get there. Tracking visitors is the industry default for web tools and I only wish this tool existed years ago. https://themarkup.org/blacklight/

The issue with these situations is you must rely on your credibility to get the benefit of the doubt. FB's history with similar #privacy "bugs" erased that credibility.

Good ad for iOS 14 privacy features though. No wonder FB and adtech apps are worried.
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/iphone-instagram-ios14-lawsuit-spying-camera-facebook-b481554.html