Surveillance
Discord is looking into potential violations of its terms of use
A publically-accessible website appears to be selling a colossal database of Discord chats to the highest bidder.
The site is called Spy.pet, and claims to have obtained more than four billion public messages, made by roughly 620 million users, logged into more than 14,000 servers.
On the surface, it would seem that there was no foul play, as the data was already public-facing, as Discord is essentially an IRC, meaning that with the right bots and automation, all of the information could be harvested.
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Read MoreConsumer neurotechnology is booming. You can buy a funky-looking headband for $500 on the internet if you want your own personal EEG to track your brain data. But before you click purchase, you might want to check out the device’s privacy policy.
These consumer devices are unlikely to include any protections or restrictions around how companies can employ or sell a user’s neural data, according to a new report from the Neurorights Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates for the ethical development of neurotechnology.
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Read MoreThe United States government wanted a so-called “backdoor” in to Telegram to potentially spy on its users, according to the messaging app’s founder.
Pavel Durov, who launched Telegram in 2013 and currently serves as its CEO, made the claim during an interview with Tucker Carlson that aired on Tuesday night.
“Backdoor” is a term for a method used to bypass authorization in order to access protected data.
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Read MoreWeb and mobile services try to understand the desires and goals of users by analysing how they interact with their platforms. Smartphones, for instance, capture online data from users at a large scale and low cost.
Policymakers have reacted by enforcing mechanisms to mitigate the risks inherent in tech companies storing and processing their citizens’ private information, such as health data.
Wearable devices are now becoming a more significant element in this discussion due to their ability to collect continuous data, without the wearer necessarily being aware of it. Wearables such as smart watches gather an array of measurements on your wellbeing, such as sleep patterns, activity levels and heart fitness.
Today, there are portable devices to obtain high-quality data from brain activity, eye trackers, and the skin (to detect temperature and sweat). Consumers can buy small devices to measure the body’s responses that were exclusively available only to research institutions a few decades ago.
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Read MoreThis year, over half the world’s population will head to the ballot box. At a time when, in many nations, democracy is already under acute pressure, ensuring these elections are free and fair is of paramount importance.
In the context of this political instability, deepfakes have entered the stage – and this year they are poised to play a larger role than ever before.
Governments, either through a lack of ability or will, have failed to sufficiently defend democracy against deepfakes. However, where the public sector fails, there’s an opportunity for the private to step in – both to safeguard democracy and reap financial rewards in the process.
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Read MoreLeaked documents suggest EU officials seek immunity from their own controversial online surveillance laws, raising accusations of hypocrisy.
Do as I say – not as I do. That’s the essence of a leak that claims to expose high-ranked EU officials as more than simply politicking hypocrites when it comes to implementing the extremely controversial legislation affecting online privacy and encryption.
Namely, interior ministers from EU member countries reportedly want to exempt themselves – but not only – from the looming Child Sexual Abuse (CSAM) Regulation (aka, “chat control“), expected to be adopted as early as in June.
Pushed by supporters as being exactly what it says on the tin – the proposed new rules are at the same time criticized as a vehicle for indiscriminate mass surveillance of everyone’s online communications, and a way to weaken true encryption deployed by platforms – a vital component of internet security, once again, affecting everyone who goes online, children included.
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Read MoreThe FISA 702 bill has been described by critics as a “dramatic and terrifying” expansion of the United States government’s surveillance powers.
The United States National Security Agency (NSA) is only days away from “taking over the internet” with a massive expansion of its surveillance powers, according to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
In an April 16 post to X, Snowden drew attention to a thread originally posted by Elizabeth Goitein — the co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice — that warned of a new bill that could see the U.S. government surveillance powers amplified to new levels.
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