Have you ever met someone and immediately thought “You look like a Heather,” and then it turns out they person is actually named Heather? While you might want to believe you have some kind of psychic ability, you probably don’t. Instead, a new study finds that under the right circumstances people can often correctly match names to faces based on social perceptions. [More]
Data & Privacy
FCC Chair Faces Blowback Over Decision To Undo ISP Privacy Rule
By 2.27.17
Last week, FCC Chair Ajit Pai declared that he would halt the Commission’s new privacy rule before it kicks in on March 2. That last-minute decision is now under fire from within the FCC and beyond. [More]
Here’s A Snap-On Bluetooth Skimmer Spotted Out In The Wild
By 2.27.17
Have you ever wondered how a retailer can leave a Bluetooth skimmer on a payment card terminal in its stores for weeks at a time? It’s harder to detect the devices than you might think, because crooks have their own places to shop for spare parts that snap right on a payment terminal and are hard to spot if you aren’t looking for them. [More]
Heads Up: You May Need To Change Your Passwords On Thousands Of Sites
By 2.24.17
It’s a rough day for users of, well, basically the entire internet: A major vulnerability in a huge web services company has been disclosed, and it means your personal data may have leaked into public view from a whole lot of places. [More]
New FCC Chair Plans To Block Internet Privacy Rule Before It Kicks In
By 2.24.17
Last October, the FCC adopted a rule that limits what your internet service provider — home or mobile — can do with your private data. At the time, the rule was contentious, with two FCC commissioners dissenting volubly. One of those two commissioners, Ajit Pai, is now FCC Chairman, and he’s announced his plan to stop the privacy rule from taking effect because he thinks it’s not fair to pick on the Comcasts and Charters of the world. [More]
FCC Eases Transparency Requirements For More ISPs, Hints At Coming Net Neutrality Fight
By 2.23.17
It’s been most of a month now since noted net neutrality foe Ajit Pai took over the chairman’s seat at the FCC. Today the Commission held its regular monthly open meeting — the first of Pai’s tenure — giving us a glimpse into what we’re likely to see from the Commission in coming months. [More]
Judge Blocks California Law Prohibiting IMDb From Publishing Actors’ Ages
By 2.23.17
After nearly two months of refusing to comply with a recently enacted California law that requires it remove information about actors’ ages and birthdays, Internet Movie Database (IMDb) received a bit of reprieve this week when a federal judge granted the company’s motion for an injunction, blocking the state from enforcing the new law. [More]
Feds Investigate Auto Lender For Its Use Of GPS Device To Remotely Disable Cars
By 2.22.17
Once upon a time, if you fell behind on your car loan, the repo guy came out in the middle of the night and took your collateral-on-wheels back. These days, there are small GPS devices that can remotely disable the ignition until the borrower pays up. However, one auto lender is currently facing a federal investigation for its use of this technology. [More]
Tech Industry Comes Out Against Possible DHS Collection Of Visitors’ Passwords
By 2.21.17
Earlier this month, newly confirmed Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly told a Congressional committee that one of the possible forms of “extreme vetting” for visitors to the U.S. could include requiring them to hand over their login information for websites they visit. Today, a coalition made up of human rights organizations, consumer advocates, and the tech industry penned an open letter to Kelly, calling on DHS to not go down this path. [More]
Verizon Revises Deal To Buy Yahoo At $350M Discount
By 2.21.17
If you found out after you got engaged that your soon-to-be better half had done something that made you question the impending union, what would you do — Cancel the wedding? Move the reception from the country club to your cousin’s backyard? If you’re Verizon and your betrothed is the data-breached Yahoo, you ask for a $350 million discount. [More]
German Officials Tell Parents To Destroy Doll That Records Conversations
By 2.17.17
Late last year, research indicated that certain toys may be collecting audio recording and personal information from children and sending that data to a company that used the information to improve the voice-recognition tools it sells to the military and law enforcement agencies. While consumer advocates quickly filed complaints with federal regulators in the U.S., across the pond, authorities in Germany are now directing parents to get rid of the “My Friend Cayla” doll. [More]
Dash Cams: Coming To A Dashboard Near You
By 2.16.17
You’re driving calmly along when, suddenly, a small truck sideswipes your passenger door, taking your sideview mirror with it. Your heart is pounding and you both stop, whereupon the other driver starts shouting that you swerved into his lane—when you know for a fact that you did no such thing. Now it’s just your word against his. Anticipating the headache of filing a police report and arguing over the insurance claim, you think, “If only I had a video!” [More]
Yahoo Warns Users Their Email Accounts May Have Been Hacked – Yes, Again
By 2.15.17 — Updated: 2.17.17
On the same day as a report that says Verizon is renegotiating its offer to buy Yahoo at a $250 million discount, the internet company — for the third time in less than six months — is warning users that there’s potential their email accounts may have been hacked. [More]
Lawsuit: Woman Harassed After ‘Howard Stern Show’ Airs Her Phone Call With IRS Agent
By 2.14.17
You may remember the story of the Massachusetts woman who thought she was just talking to an Internal Revenue Service agent on the phone, when really, their private call — including her personal information — was being broadcast to listeners of Howard Stern’s radio show. She’s now suing both the IRS and the show. [More]
Hackers Use College’s Connected Vending Machines To Attack Network
By 2.14.17
What do you get when you combine Internet of Things devices, an overworked network, and an over abundance of seafood-related domain searches? A university attacked by its own malware-infected connected devices. [More]
Senators Give Yahoo 10 Days To Answer For Massive Breaches
By 2.13.17
Verizon’s $4.8 billion acquisition of Yahoo might still be going forward as planned, but that doesn’t mean the latter company is exempt from answering some tough questions about its massive data breaches: Lawmakers have given Yahoo until Feb. 23 to answer for the company’s actions related to the hacks. [More]
Don’t Want Your TV To Report Back Everything You Watch? Here’s How To Turn That Off
By 2.10.17
Vizio got busted early this week for spying on users and sharing their data without permission. But the key there is the “without permission” part, because pretty much all smart TVs are collecting and sharing some kind of data on you. And so many consumers are now asking: Can I make them stop? [More]
Google Launches New Tool To Fight Toxic Trolls In Online Comments
“Don’t read the comments” is perhaps the most ancient and venerable of all internet-era axioms. Left untended, or even partially tended, internet comments have a way of racing straight to the bottom of the vile, toxic, nasty barrel of human hatred. But now, Google says it’s basically training a robot how to filter those for you, so human readers and moderators can catch a break. [More]