At this point, most travelers know that your electronics, your shoes, your food, and your liquids are going to have to come out of your bag (or off your person) and get extra screening just so you can get on a flight. But now, it seems books — good, old-fashioned paper books — may be joining that list. [More]
Data & Privacy
Google Will Stop Scanning The Contents Of Your Gmail Messages To Sell Ads
By 6.23.17
If you use one of Google’s many services then you’ve probably come to the realization that the tech company has a lot of your personal information and data, which it uses to sell ads. Now, after years of debate on whether or not it’s okay for Google to read users’ private emails, the tech giant says it will stop scanning Gmail messages, but only for the purpose of personalizing ads. [More]
Google Wiping Private Medical Records From Search Results
By 6.23.17
If the thought of a stranger accessing your medical history online gives you the creeps, you’re not alone: In an effort to tamp down on the spread of such private information, Google has started wiping private medical records from its search results. [More]
Walmart Telling Some Vendors To Stop Using Amazon’s Web Services
By 6.21.17
You may not know it, but a large number of websites use Amazon Web Services cloud servers to host their online content. Even though Walmart doesn’t offer anything that competes with this aspect of Amazon’s business, the retailer apparently dislikes the online giant so much that it doesn’t want its tech vendors supporting Amazon by using AWS. [More]
TransUnion Must Pay $60M For Mistakenly Tagging People As Possible Terrorists
By 6.21.17
A federal jury in California has ordered credit reporting agency TransUnion to pay $60 million to individuals it wrongly tagged as terrorists or drug traffickers. [More]
Man Admits He Helped Steal 94,000 Credit, Debit Card Numbers From Michaels Stores
By 6.20.17
If you can stretch your memory all the way back to the spring of 2011, before data breaches seemed commonplace, perhaps you will recall when Michaels warned customers that PIN pad information at some of its stores might have been exposed. Now, a California man has admitted his role in a conspiracy to swipe 94,000 credit and debit card numbers from customers at around 80 Michaels stores. [More]
The Acting Chairman Of The FTC Does Not Want Your Bank Info
By 6.20.17
While you may be flattered to receive an email that’s purportedly from Maureen Ohlhausen, the acting chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, we’ve got to break it to you: She isn’t going to email you, and even if she did, she would definitely not ask you for your bank account information. [More]
Personal Info For 200 Million U.S. Voters Left Unsecured Online
By 6.19.17
A cybersecurity firm says that a database of registered voter information containing personal data on nearly 200 million Americans was left online without proper security by a contractor hired by the Republican National Committee. [More]
Netflix Changes Its Mind, Decides Maybe It Does Care About Net Neutrality Again
By 6.15.17
Netflix, once a loudmouthed supporter of net neutrality — the concept that your internet service provider should no say in what you do or where you go online — but Netflix CEO Reed Hastings recently shrugged off the need for neutrality as something that was important to the company a decade ago, but which it not longer really needs. Either not everyone at Netflix is as flippant as their CEO or Hastings has had a change of heart. [More]
Report: Feds Investigating Uber Over Privacy Violations
By 6.14.17
Uber’s awful week month year may have just gotten a bit worse, as sources report the ride-hailing company is now in the crosshairs of federal regulators. [More]
Bank Of America To Pay $2M Over Calls Recorded Without Customer Consent
By 6.14.17
Bank of America has agreed to pay $2 million to settle allegations that it violated California law by failing to alert some customers that their phone calls to the bank were being recorded. [More]
Video Game Studio Says Upcoming Game Files Being Held For Ransom
June 8, 2017
The video game studio behind the popular Witcher series of games says that files for an upcoming release have been stolen and are being held for ransom. [More]
Tweeting Before The Big Game Is Not Going To Help You Win
By 6.6.17 — Updated: 6.9.17
Staying up late and failing to get enough sleep can impair your performance the following day. This includes NBA players who stay up Tweeting, a new report finds. [More]
Why Won’t Macy’s Tell Me If Password Reset Email Is Legit Or Not?
By 6.6.17
Someone (either Macy’s or perhaps a mysterious third-party) is confusing shoppers by blasting out emails telling them to either change their Macy’s passwords… or just ignore the email altogether because maybe they don’t have an account and shouldn’t be worried. [More]
Your Car Could Be The Next Ransomware Target
By 6.5.17 — Updated: 6.6.17
The recent “WannaCry” ransomware attack that crippled computer systems around the globe has highlighted the digital vulnerabilities in our daily lives. [More]
At Least 10 Students Lose Harvard Acceptance For Posting Ill-Advised Memes On Facebook
By 6.5.17
At least 10 students who had been accepted as members of Harvard’s Class of 2021 have already learned an important lesson about real-life consequences for online behavior. They had their offers of admission rescinded after the college learned that they had been posting wildly inappropriate memes on a private Facebook group. [More]
Supreme Court Will Decide If Your Mobile Phone Location Data Is Private
By 6.5.17 — Updated: 6.9.17
It’s a funny thing about the 21st century: Nearly all of us carry location trackers on us, voluntarily, every single place we go. They’re our phones, and we carry them with us when we shop, while we work, while we exercise, while we sleep, and even when we use the bathroom. And that leaves an incredibly valuable, intimate trail of location data that businesses use basically however they want. But as far as your legal rights are concerned, is that personal data actually private? [More]
AGs: Ringless Robocalls Are Still Robocalls, Shouldn’t Be Allowed
The Republican National Committee and the lobbyists at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce might think that “ringless” robocalls — automated, prerecorded phone calls that go straight to voicemail — are just fine, but the top legal advisors in several states believe the opposite. Now they’re urging the Federal Communications Commission to oppose a petition that would allow telemarketers to use them. [More]