personal data

12 Stories

For $10K, They Got Sensitive Data on 50K Service Members

Researchers highlight potential for blackmail through sale of data for cheap

(Newser) - Personal information about active-duty US service members, from their net worth to the names of their children, is easy to buy online for as little as 12 cents per member, according to a new study. As former CIA officer Jeff Asher tells NBC News , "information on people that you...

FTC Sues Over Data That Could Track Users' Movements

Kochava says it's already enacted privacy measures

(Newser) - A government lawsuit accuses a data broker of selling geolocation information pulled from millions of mobile devices that could be used to track people seeking abortions. The Federal Trade Commission suit, filed Monday, calls for Kochava to stop the sales and delete data it's already collected about users' movements,...

Ruling Sparks Calls to Delete Period Apps

Experts caution data could be used in abortion prosecutions

(Newser) - Many users find menstrual period tracking apps helpful in trying to become pregnant, or avoid pregnancy, or just know when they're due for their next period. But the Supreme Court's rejection of Roe v. Wade increased the fear that the data collected by the apps could be turned...

T-Mobile's Data Breach Is a Sizable One

Social Security numbers of more than 40M former and prospective customers exposed

(Newser) - The names, Social Security numbers, and information from driver's licenses or other identification of just over 40 million former and prospective customers that applied for T-Mobile credit were exposed in a recent data breach, the company said Wednesday. The same data for about 7.8 million current T-Mobile postpaid...

Priest Case Shows 'Weaponization' of App Data Is Here
Priest Case Shows
'Weaponization'
of App Data Is Here
THE RUNDOWN
Jul 22, 2021 12:25 PM CDT

Priest Case Shows 'Weaponization' of App Data Is Here

Supposedly 'anonymous' data exposed his use of gay dating app

(Newser) - A Catholic priest resigned from a top role at the US Conference of Catholic Bishops this week after a news site exposed his alleged use of the Grindr gay hookup app—but Monsignor Jeffrey Burrill isn't the only person in the US with secrets to hide, and analysts say...

Apple Won't Unlock Mass Shooter's iPhones

The California company refuses to fully unlock iPhones

(Newser) - Should federal agents be hacking into iPhones? The issue came up before in a mass shooting case, and now, with the Pensacola shooting under investigation, it's back in the headlines. Attorney General William Barr asked Apple to help unlock two iPhones used by terrorist suspect Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani—who...

Turns Out Census Data Isn't That Safe

Internal Census Bureau team finds a vulnerability

(Newser) - An internal team at the Census Bureau found that basic personal information collected from more than 100 million Americans during the 2010 head count could be reconstructed from obscured data, but with lots of mistakes, a top agency official disclosed Saturday. The age, gender, location, race, and ethnicity for 138...

Hotel Knows Name of Her Child's Father. She Doesn't

Court rules hotel can keep man's identity a secret

(Newser) - A court in Munich has rejected a woman's legal bid to obtain the name of a man she spent three nights in a hotel with seven years ago, reports the AP . The unidentified woman gave birth to a son nine months after the encounter in Halle, eastern Germany, and...

Google Now Lets You Create a Data Will

You can decide what happens to your account after you croak

(Newser) - Google unveiled a new feature yesterday that will answer one of life's great burning questions: What will happen to my email when I die? Dubbed the Inactive Account Manager—"not a great name, we know," the company admits in this blog post —the feature lets Google...

Prober Posts 100M Facebook Profiles Online

Downloadable file includes names, URLs

(Newser) - A security researcher has collected and posted the details of 100 million Facebook users to highlight privacy issues. Ron Bowes of Skull Security used a piece of code to trawl the Internet for the names and unique URLs of users who didn't change their privacy levels from Facebook's default settings,...

Google Bares Government Demands for Data

New tool also reveals content-removal demands

(Newser) - Google has won the praise of privacy advocates by rolling out a tool that shows just how often governments ask for information about its users. Of the countries listed on Google Disclosure —which omits China—Brazil leads the way with 3,663 requests for data during the second half...

Critics Rip Facebook Privacy Revamp

 Critics Rip Facebook 
 Privacy Revamp 
once again...
Dec 10, 2009 8:36 AM CST

Critics Rip Facebook Privacy Revamp

Say new settings deceive, manipulate users

(Newser) - The revamped privacy features that Facebook unveiled yesterday may make it easier for you to limit who sees your beach vacation photos and thoughts on breakfast cereal—but the move actually pushes users to share their personal information with all 350 million fellow users, say privacy advocates angry over the...

12 Stories