Privacy Digest 23/24
How Well Do Smart Speakers Protect Privacy While Listening to Everything?
What we don’t do for comfort... Smart speakers always listen for wake words, but built-in privacy protections mean they don’t process everything. Apple’s Siri stands out with strong on-device processing and encryption. Amazon’s Alexa stores recordings indefinitely unless users actively change settings. Google Assistant gathers extensive data, complicating privacy control. To preserve privacy, users must limit data transfer by muting microphones or deleting history. Each system offers controls to manage and reduce retained information.
howtogeek.com
Why Strava Is a Privacy Risk for the President (and You Too)
The popular app Strava uses its global heatmap to highlight running and cycling routes worldwide, but this seemingly harmless feature carries serious privacy risks. With disturbing ease, a stranger’s name and home address were uncovered using only Strava data and publicly available records. Even more alarming, Le Monde revealed that the app may have jeopardized the safety of world leaders by exposing their locations through their bodyguards' Strava accounts.
lifehacker.com
Signal introduces convenient "call links" for private group chats
The Signal messenger application has announced a set of new features aimed at making private group chats more convenient and easier for people to join. The highlight feature announced is "call links," which allow users to create and share links with other Signal users without needing to create a group chat.
bleepingcomputer.com
The WIRED Guide to Protecting Yourself From Government Surveillance
Donald Trump has vowed to deport millions and jail his enemies. To carry out that agenda, his administration will exploit America’s digital surveillance machine. Here are some steps you can take to evade it.
wired.com
Europe's DMA forces Meta toward 'less personalized ads'
Meta, under legal pressure in the European Union over a binary "pay us or consent to ad tracking" choice it currently offers regional users of its social networks Facebook and Instagram, is changing how its regional ad business works again. Little wonder when compliance failure in this context risks fines of up to 10% of its global annual turnover.
techcrunch.com