#Microsoft Used China-Based Engineers to Support Product Recently Hacked by #China
==

Microsoft announced that Chinese state-sponsored hackers had exploited vulnerabilities in its popular #SharePoint software but didn’t mention that it has long used China-based engineers to maintain the product.

#News #Tech #Cybersecurity #Government #Safety #privacy

propublica.org/article/microso…

SharePoint Exploit: Microsoft Used China-Based Engineers to Maintain the Software

Microsoft announced that Chinese state-sponsored hackers had exploited vulnerabilities in its popular SharePoint software but didn’t mention that it has long used China-based engineers to maintain the product.

^ProPublica

Age verification laws are a trojan horse, endgame is destroying anonymity.

The path seems clear: normalize checks -> ban circumvention tools (VPNs) -> roll out state-controlled digital IDs -> build a permanent record of your digital life for corporations and "pre-crime" analytics.

You are trading a free, open internet for digital chains. If there ever was a moment to defend decentralized and anonymous systems, it is this.

#enshittification #privacy #surveillance #infosec #artist #music #vpn

Nice - glad to see Proton add a standalone 2FA authenticator to their apps, as I hate the idea of storing TOTP in the same place as passwords.

the 2FAS app has been good for this as well, fwiw. But this is a good and laudable move by Proton to increase security and decrease app spread.

#privacy

proton.me/blog/authenticator-a…

Introducing Proton Authenticator: Secure 2FA, your way | Proton

We're launching a secure, independent authenticator app available on desktop and mobile, to help you secure your online accounts.

^Proton

⚡Nia Òla 🎙️

✨"Whoever controls the internet, controls the future of the world..."

✨"this has nothing to do with child safety and everything to do with both surveillance and capital..."

#UK #UKOnlineSafetyAct #Canada #US #EU
#Privacy #RightToPrivacy #OnlineSafety
#Censorship #Surveillance #DataMining #DataMiningChildren #MediaLiteracy #SexWorkersRights #RightsNotRescue

LA Times: How ICE is using the LAPD to track down immigrants for deportation

"...Of particular concern, he said, is the LAPD’s handling of data collected from automated license plate readers, devices deployed around the city that track the movements of vehicles. Police officials have insisted that the information is not shared with ICE. But other local law enforcement agencies have flouted their own similar rules in the past, raising concerns that the LAPD may not keep its word...."

latimes.com/california/story/2…

#ice #fascism #alpr #licenseplatereaders #privacy

How ICE is using the LAPD to track down immigrants for deportation

LAPD leaders say the department has strict limits on cooperating with immigration officials, but court records show federal authorities are nevertheless using local police information sent to national databases to find new targets.

^{Libor Jany (Los Angeles Times)}

no more music for U-18s in UK 🙃

#OnlineSafetyAct #OSA #AgeVerification #Spotify #Tech #Technology #Privacy #Censorship #Surveillance

Don't trust cloud services with your creative work.

#enshittification #privacy #infosec #security #cybersecurity #writing #art

Buried in Proton's AI announcement today is a pretty shocking detail about their service 👀

Because of legal uncertainty around Swiss government proposals to introduce mass surveillance — proposals that have been outlawed in the EU — Proton is moving most of its physical infrastructure out of Switzerland. Lumo will be the first product to move.

#Proton #Switzerland #Privacy #EuroStack #ProtonMail

Surveillance: le géant des mails cryptés Proton prêt à quitter Genève

Andy Yen, patron du service de courriel et Cloud aux 100 millions d’utilisateurs, refuse l’espionnage que veut imposer la Confédération.

^{Pierre-Alexandre Sallier (Tamedia Publications romandes S.A.)}

We can now add #Switzerland to the list of things that aren't like they used to be.

"Switzerland plans surveillance worse than US"

tuta.com/blog/switzerland-surv…

#privacy

Switzerland plans surveillance worse than US | Tuta

Revision of Swiss surveillance law VÜPF would directly target VPN & encrypted chat and email providers based in Switzerland.

^Tuta

New Privacy Guides tutorial " title=""/> ✅
by me:

This article is now a series of two articles on Privacy and Security on Mastodon.

This tutorial is a step-by-step guide
to help Mastodon users make the most of the privacy and security features the platform offers.

The first article of this series was divided to better segment the information for readers who might prefer to read or share each part independently.

How To Improve Your Privacy and Security on Mastodon

#PrivacyGuides #Mastodon #Privacy #Security #Tutorial #Fediverse #TinyMastodonTip

How To Improve Your Privacy and Security on Mastodon

This article is a tutorial on how to improve your Mastodon account's security, and how to adjust the different privacy features to your preferences.

^{Privacy Guides}

🚨⚠️ Canada issues warning about North Koreans posing as remote IT workers
👉Never give permission to anyone to remotely access your personal computer, tablet, or phone

Canadian authorities say suspected sanctions violations should be reported to the RCMP, either by phone at 1-800-420-5805 or online at rcmp.ca/report-it, while suspicious transactions should be reported to FINTRAC.

“They should be reported so that law enforcement can do their job,” Immler said. “I don’t think any company should be afraid of reporting this sort of activity and making sure that those folks are rooted out the best they can.”

#Privacy #Security #Computer #NorthKorea #Tech #Business

ctvnews.ca/canada/article/cana…

Canada issues warning about North Koreans posing as remote IT workers

Canadian authorities are warning businesses to beware of hiring North Koreans posing as remote IT workers.

^{Daniel Otis (CTVNews)}

EFF: When Your Power Meter Becomes a Tool of Mass Surveillance

"...For a decade, the Sacramento Municipal Utilities District (SMUD) has been searching through all of its customers’ energy data, and passed on more than 33,000 tips about supposedly “high” usage households to police. .... This scheme has targeted Asian customers. SMUD analysts deemed one home suspicious because it was “4k [kWh], Asian,” and another suspicious because “multiple Asians have reported there.”"

eff.org/deeplinks/2025/07/when…

#privacy #surveillance

When Your Power Meter Becomes a Tool of Mass Surveillance

Sacramento’s power company and law enforcement agencies have been running an illegal mass surveillance scheme for years, using our power meters as home-mounted spies.

^{Electronic Frontier Foundation}

I saw someone wearing the Facebook glasses at a party recently.

I asked him in (I swear) a nonjudgmental tone, "Oh, are those the glasses that record everything? Are you going to post this later?"

This creepy, sad Stephensonian gargoyle, too prurient *not* to record but too ashamed to hold a camera in everyone's face, was suddenly awkward.

His answer to my simple question was mumbled, while walking away---I didn't catch it.

#privacy

Anyone wearing one of these things should be required to display a warning sign.

“Bee makes a $49.99 Fitbit-like device that listens in on your conversations while using AI to transcribe everything that you and the people around you say, allowing it to generate personalized summaries of your days, reminders, and suggestions from within the Bee app.”

#AI #Privacy #SurveillanceCapitalism

theverge.com/news/711621/amazo…

Amazon buys Bee AI wearable that listens to everything you say

Amazon is acquiring Bee, an AI startup that created a wrist-based device that listens to everything you say and creates AI-generated transcripts.

^{Emma Roth (The Verge)}

#DatingApps Need to Learn How #Consent Works

Staying safe whilst #dating online should not be the responsibility of users—dating apps should be prioritizing our #privacy by default, & laws should require companies to prioritize user privacy over profit. But dating apps are taking shortcuts in safeguarding the privacy & #security of users in favour of developing & deploying #AI tools on their platforms, sometimes by using your most personal info to train their AI tools.

eff.org/deeplinks/2025/07/dati…

Dating Apps Need to Learn How Consent Works

Staying safe whilst dating online should not be the responsibility of users—dating apps should be prioritizing our privacy by default, and laws should require companies to prioritize user privacy over their profit.

^{Electronic Frontier Foundation}

Last year, Republican Sen. Susan Collins supported a Maine electric company's proposal to report high electric bills to police to root out marijuana grow operations in homes. oldfriends.live/@paul/11292420…

#privacy #law
An article pops up every now and then in Ohio. I remember reading recently about it.

A search led back more than a decade to this article:

🔗 High electric bills led investigators to Cuyahoga Falls [Cleveland] marijuana growing operation
cleveland.com/akron/2015/05/hi… archive.ph/njHoO

🤖 Gemini’s Gmail summaries were just caught parroting phishing scams. A security researcher embedded hidden prompts in email text (w/ white font, zero size) to make Gemini falsely claim the user's Gmail password was compromised and suggest calling a fake Google number. It's patched now, but the bigger issue remains: AI tools that interpret or summarize content can be manipulated just like humans. Attackers know this and will keep probing for prompt injection weaknesses.

TL;DR
⚠️ Invisible prompts misled Gemini
📩 AI summaries spoofed Gmail alerts
🔍 Prompt injection worked cleanly
🔐 Google patched, but risk remains

pcmag.com/news/google-gemini-b…
#cybersecurity #promptinjection #AIrisks #Gmail #security #privacy #cloud #infosec #AI

ALERT for Bluesky Bridge Users 🚨 🦋

If you are using a Bluesky bridge on Mastodon, DO NOT TAG Mastodon accounts in your posts without prior informed consent from this person.

This could end up showing a preview of this person's profile picture and bio on Bluesky without their consent.

Additionally, be careful about how the upcoming Quote Post feature could behave with Bluesky bridges.

Some of us don't want our information shared with commercial platforms like Bluesky, and have not consented to this bridge.

This practice can even endanger some Fediverse users.

If you have chosen to share your
own data with commercial platforms, make sure you leave the same choice to others.

This is important.

#Privacy #Mastodon #Bluesky #BlueskyBridge #Fediverse #Consent

If you are enabling an AI feature scanning all your emails, consider this will also scan the emails people have sent you. This information could include personal or otherwise legally protected information.

If this data leaks later (as it regularly happens with these systems), this could mean severe legal consequences for you down the road.

YOU are responsible for protecting the data of others under your custody.

This includes the messages and emails others send to you.

#NoAI #AI #Privacy

Want to know how to keep me on #linux? This is how you keep me on #linux!

Now Microsoft’s Copilot Vision AI can scan everything on your screen

Copilot Vision will be able to look at your whole desktop.

theverge.com/news/707995/micro…

#windows #copilot #privacy #security #cybersecurity

Now Microsoft’s Copilot Vision AI can scan everything on your screen

Microsoft is rolling out an update to Copilot Vision for Windows Insiders that lets the AI tool see everything that’s on your screen. 

^{Jay Peters (The Verge)}

For what it's worth, #AI has now made it unsafe to ever have a confidential conversation with your #doctor.

There are just too many reports I'm hearing about AI #DictationSoftware listening in at all times, even when people haven't specifically given permission for it.

Having an open relationship with your doctor is apparently now fully over.

#privacy #medicine #doctors #llms

are you German?
do you browse the web?
are you interested in €5000?
then consider suing Facebook for violating your privacy.

"The ruling in favor of the plaintiff sets a precedent which the court acknowledged will allow countless other users to sue without 'explicitly demonstrating individual damages'."
German court rules Meta tracking technology violates European privacy laws | The Record from Recorded Future News
therecord.media/german-court-m…

#privacy #GDPR #Facebook #Meta #Germany

German court rules Meta tracking technology violates European privacy laws

The court in Leipzig ruled that Meta must pay €5,000 ($5,900) to a German Facebook user who sued the platform for embedding tracking technology in third-party websites — a ruling that could open the door to other lawsuits.

^{Suzanne Smalley (The Record)}

Using #Signal groups for #activism

micahflee.com/using-signal-gro…

#privacy #politics

Using Signal groups for activism

Things are heating up. Millions of people are taking to the streets against Trump's rising authoritarianism.

^{Micah Lee (micahflee)}

📢 Today, TekSavvy published a Quarterly Transparency Report about requests we got from police and how we handled them.

Today, we’re reporting on October to December, 2024 and as usual, I’m summarizing that report here 🧵👇🏼

#Privacy #Transparency #TransparencyReport #Telecom
1/9

Something fun to peruse over the weekend...we've started a daily dose of the top 500 #DNS domains seen on the Quad9 recursive resolver on #GitHub.

We're excited, are you? github.com/Quad9DNS/quad9-doma…

Still #privacy preserving and shared with y'all to improve the #security and #integrity of Internet.

Enjoy #infosec!

*** So much for "don't worry about this privacy violating technology! It's against the law to abuse that data!"

#privacy

"Automated license plate readers, also known as ALPRs, are usually installed at intersections and capture images of every license plate passing through. The data is stored with law enforcement agencies and can be used to find a vehicle owner’s information.

State law limits who can access the information, who it can be shared with, and how long the data can be kept. However, police agencies in California — including the L.A. Police Department — have illegally shared ALPR data with federal immigration agents, CalMatters reported.

laist.com/news/transportation/…

#privacy #alpr #licenseplatereaders #police #ice #fascism #immigration

License plate readers coming to West LA's Cheviot Hills amid privacy and immigration concerns

People living in the West L.A. community requested the cameras because of recent home burglaries and calls for more safety measures.

^{Destiny Torres (LAist)}

I see so much disinformation being spread around about privacy-focused technologies and products.

This is incredibly detrimental to people seeking to improve their data privacy.

Please make sure to verify your sources before spreading information, and remain skeptical of anyone without supporting expertise or evidence.

The result of this negligent or malicious disinformation is keeping people on horribly invasive platforms, for fear of making the wrong move.

Please think carefully before sharing information that might be inaccurate, false, or misleading.

We all need to work together to help people improve their privacy online.
Thank you 💚🔒

#Privacy #Disinformation

Finally got through the process of downloading my old Facebook and couple of Instagram accounts data today. Pretty extensive! Had wait several days on Facebook alone.

Just clicked to confirm deletion of ALL my Meta accounts and couldn't be happier!

I have also mostly finished moving all +200 online accounts using my various gmail and outlook emails over to Proton Mail aliases! Coming for you next Google and Microsoft, so watch out!

It's hard work, but take back your data, privacy, and peace of mind from these big tech companies that profit from your doomscrolling and selling your data!

Thanks to all the folks on here, Reddit, and YouTube that have given insight, especially @techlore. Thank you!

#privacy #dataprivacy #demeta #degoogle #degoogled #defacebook #deinstagram #deletefacebook #deletegoogle #digitalrights #mydatamychoice #privacyisahumanright #surveillancecapitalism #optout #protonmail #FOSS #fediverse

You have a legal right to object to your personal data being used for the purpose of targeted advertising.

Meta even admitted they must respect this right when they settled Tanya O’Carroll's case against them.

So why gaslight the rest of us?

#StopStalkerAds

techcrunch.com/2025/03/21/meta…

#adtech #meta #zuckerberg #facebook #instagram #threads #privacy #dataprotection #gdpr #advertising #data #ukpolitics #ukpol #digitalrights

Meta profits by using your personal data for advertising.

By crunching your data into profiles, you become a target for advertisers and a cash cow for Meta.

Their latest attempt to claim to have honoured people's opt out request while ignoring the actual issue is shady stuff.

#StopStalkerAds

#adtech #meta #zuckerberg #facebook #instagram #threads #privacy #dataprotection #gdpr #advertising #data #ukpolitics #ukpol #digitalrights

Don't you know that you're toxic... Meta goes from ghosting to gaslighting.

After our direct action last week, Meta is now replying to 10k requests to opt out of Stalker Ads.

And it's a fudge... they talk about not using personal data for some direct marketing. But don't mention targeted ads!

#StopStalkerAds

#adtech #meta #zuckerberg #facebook #instagram #threads #privacy #dataprotection #gdpr #advertising #data #ukpolitics #ukpol #digitalrights

A reasonably good piece on device checks by customs officials at the US border, an outline of risks, preparation strategies and outcomes.

I would have liked to see a little more as to the escalations of handing over a powered-off disk-encrypted device,, as I do hear far too many falsely recommending travellers are safest doing so; you are not, you will be against the wall for denying access.

Good to see nonetheless.

rnz.co.nz/news/world/565568/ca…

#privacy

The court says that the #Texas #law "simply requires proof of age to access content that is obscene to minors" & therefore "does not directly regulate the protected speech of adults."

The court doesn’t seem to have considered the violation of #privacy implications .

#porn #SCOTUS #FirstAmendment
🧵