Tag: privacy
Why not Google
Marco Arment wrote about Google. We agree on the broad strokes, but the reason I choose to minimize Google’s access to me is that my balance of utility versus ethical comfort is different. Both companies do have flaws, but they’re different flaws, and I tolerate them differently: Apple is always arrogant, controlling, and inflexible, and…
Safari users win right to sue Google over privacy
BBC reported on Safari users winning the right to sue Google over privacy. The case revolves around a so-called Safari workaround, which allegedly allowed Google to avoid the Safari web browser’s default privacy setting to place cookies, that gathered data such as surfing habits, social class, race, ethnicity, without users’ knowledge. Users prefer Safari because…
The inside story of how Apple’s new medical research platform was born
Fusion reported on how Apple’s new medical research platform was born. “No one wants to entrust their health data to a company that’s going to sell them to the highest bidder, and the highest bidders usually include the worst privacy abusers. Apple has taken a very principled stance,” Munos added. “It’s the kind of reassurance…
Samsung warns customers over listening TV
BBC reported on Samsung’s listening TV. Samsung is warning customers about discussing personal information in front of their smart television set. The warning applies to TV viewers who control their Samsung Smart TV using its voice activation feature. When the feature is active, such TV sets “listen” to what is said and may share what…
Is Uber’s rider database a sitting duck for hackers?
Craig Timberg wrote for The Washington Post about Uber’s vulnerable database. Imagine further that there existed a database that collected daily travel information on such people with GPS-quality precision– where they went, when they went there and who else went to those same places at the same times. Now add that all this location data…
Customer data collection: why choose Apple Pay over CurrentC
John Gruber wrote about Target’s customer data collection. This is what retailers like Target want to preserve, or even improve upon, with CurrentC. And this is exactly the sort of thing that Apple Pay, with its per-purchase unique tokens — is designed to prevent. So you think it is reasonable for retailers to collect data…
Uber executive suggests digging up dirt on journalists
BuzzFeed wrote about Uber executive Emil Michael suggesting that the company should dig up dirt on journalists who criticise Uber. By now, you probably have read about the comments by the Michael, the backlash and Uber’s response to the incident. If you haven’t, the following sums up what he said: Over dinner, he outlined the…
US law enforcement seeks to halt Apple-Google encryption of mobile data
Bloomberg reported on US law enforcement officials seeking to halt smartphone encryption. “This is a very bad idea,” said Cathy Lanier, chief of the Washington Metropolitan Police Department, in an interview. Smartphone communication is “going to be the preferred method of the pedophile and the criminal. We are going to lose a lot of investigative…
Compromise needed on smartphone encryption?
Washington Post wrote about the need for a compromise on smartphone encryption. How to resolve this? A police “back door” for all smartphones is undesirable — a back door can and will be exploited by bad guys, too. However, with all their wizardry, perhaps Apple and Google could invent a kind of secure golden key…