56 posts tagged ‘Privacy’
Opting Out of “Help Apple Improve Search”
mjtsai,
Norbert Heger: Apple has recently shown a noticeable tendency to collect, gather, transmit, and sometimes even store privacy-sensitive data – despite repeatedly emphasizing the importance of protecting such data and ensuring it remains solely on the user’s device. […] macOS Sequoia introduces another new feature labelled Help Apple Improve Search, which sends and stores various […]
OpenAI Failed to Deliver Opt-out Tool
Kyle Wiggers (Hacker News): Back in May, OpenAI said it was developing a tool to let creators specify how they want their works to be included in — or excluded from — its AI training data. But seven months later, this feature has yet to see the light of day.Called Media Manager, the tool would […]
Apple Settles Siri Spying Lawsuit
Adi Robertson (Hacker News): Apple has agreed to a $95 million settlement with users whose conversations were inadvertently captured by its Siri voice assistant and potentially overheard by human employees. The proposed settlement, reported by Bloomberg, could pay many US-based Apple product owners up to $20 per device for up to five Siri-enabled devices. It […]
Privacy of Photos.app’s Enhanced Visual Search
Jeff Johnson (Mastodon, Hacker News, Reddit, 2, The Verge, Yahoo): This morning while perusing the settings of a bunch of apps on my iPhone, I discovered a new setting for Photos that was enabled by default: Enhanced Visual Search. […] There appear to be only two relevant documents on Apple's website, the first of which […]
Meta’s iOS Interoperability Requests
Juli Clover: Apple today said that Meta has made 15 interoperability requests under the Digital Markets Act (DMA) in the European Union, which is more than any other company.In a statement provided to Reuters, Apple said that Meta is asking for changes that could compromise user security and privacy.[…]In response to Apple’s comments on Meta’s […]
WhatsApp v. NSO Group
Reuters (via Hacker News, Court Listener): U.S. judge ruled on Friday in favor of Meta Platforms’, WhatsApp in a lawsuit accusing Israel’s NSO Group of exploiting a bug in the messaging app to install spy software allowing unauthorized surveillance.[…]WhatsApp in 2019 sued NSO seeking an injunction and damages, accusing it of accessing WhatsApp servers without […]
Firefox Removes “Do Not Track”
Venkat (via Hacker News): According to Wikipedia, DNT was introduced in 2009 by researchers Christopher Soghoian and Sid Stamm, and Mozilla Firefox was the first browser to implement this feature.However, as we approach 2025, with growing concerns about online privacy and data protection, Mozilla believes that DNT is no longer an effective privacy measure. Many […]
FTC and CFPB Reining in Data Brokers
FTC (tweet): The Federal Trade Commission will prohibit data broker Mobilewalla, Inc. from selling sensitive location data, including data that reveals the identity of an individual’s private home, to settle allegations the data broker sold such information without taking reasonable steps to verify consumers’ consent. Under the FTC’s proposed settlement order, Mobilewalla will also be […]