Category: privacy

Text Messages Can Be Used Against Their Senders in Criminal Cases, Massachusetts Court Rules

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled on Tuesday that senders of text messages are not granted a right to privacy that could stop law enforcement from obtaining and using the messages against them as evidence in a criminal case. The 5-0 precedent-setting decision (pdf) came in a case involving a Massachusetts man, Jorge Delgado-Rivera, who was indicted,…


Senators Kennedy, Klobuchar Join in Bipartisan Effort to Promote Digital Consumer Privacy

Bipartisanship is increasingly rare on Capitol Hill these days, but Louisiana Republican Sen. John Kennedy and Minnesota Democrat Sen. Amy Klobuchar are co-sponsoring a measure to strengthen digital consumers’ privacy. The proposal is the “Social Media Privacy and Consumer Protection Act of 2021,” which could fundamentally change the legal landscape that currently allows social media…


Sens. Kennedy, Klobuchar Join in Bipartisan Effort to Promote Digital Consumer Privacy

In an increasingly rare act of bipartisanship on Capitol Hill, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) are co-sponsoring a measure to strengthen the privacy of digital consumers. The proposal, the Social Media Privacy and Consumer Protection Act of 2021, could fundamentally change the legal landscape that currently allows social media giants such…


Orange County to Launch Digital Vaccine Passport Pilot

California’s Orange County plans to launch a pilot program for digital CCP virus vaccine and testing passports, according to health officials. The vaccine and testing credentialing arrangement will be rolled out sometime in April, Orange County Health Care Agency officials said on Twitter. “The Digital Passport enables individuals to participate safety and with peace of mind…


California County to Launch Digital Vaccine Passport Pilot

California’s Orange County plans to launch a pilot program for digital CCP virus vaccine and testing passports, according to health officials. The vaccine and testing credentialing arrangement will be rolled out sometime in April, Orange County Health Care Agency officials said on Twitter. “The Digital Passport enables individuals to participate safety and with peace of mind…


LINE Messaging App Exposed Users to Data Access by China-Based Company

Japan’s popular messaging app LINE recently admitted that its users’ personal data stored on its server in Japan could be accessed by China-based engineers that the company had outsourced to. In an official response, LINE admitted that user data had been accessed more than 32 times and that it is now setting up a committee…


Decentralize Social Media, Wikipedia Co-Founder Says

Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger has proposed a way to decentralize social media that could defang censorship and improve privacy. Sanger, who parted ways with Wikipedia almost two decades ago over the project’s direction, is now working on developing technical standards that could strip power over social media from giant companies and give users more control…


Judge Approves $650 Million Facebook Privacy Lawsuit Settlement

SAN FRANCISCO—A federal judge on Friday approved a $650 million settlement of a privacy lawsuit against Facebook for allegedly using photo face-tagging and other biometric data without the permission of its users. U.S. District Judge James Donato approved the deal in a class-action lawsuit that was filed in Illinois in 2015. Nearly 1.6 million Facebook…


Facebook Rolls Out Prompts to Track Data After Apple Announces Privacy Change

Facebook on Feb. 1 rolled out a new security feature that requests users’ permission to let the tech company track their activity.


Popular Fertility App Sued Over Allegedly Sharing Personal Data with Chinese Firms

A popular fertility app has been sued for allegedly sending personal data to Chinese analytics firms without users’ consent. Premom, a digital ovulation tracker owned by Illinois-based company Easy Healthcare, came under scrutiny last year when a privacy watchdog group found that the app on Android devices was sharing data about the user without permission,…