By Asa Hiken

In through the nose, out through the mouth — and into the hands of private companies. 

This could be the new fate of your breath. 

So it appears from an incipient trend in consumer tech, in which companies are creating products that target the collection of respiratory data. 

For instance, at the all-virtual 2021 Consumer Electronics Show in January, the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) showcased a clothing textile that tracked a wearer’s respiratory rate — along with other physiological conditions.

Continue reading “Wanted: Your Respiratory Data, But Not Without Privacy Risks” →

By Joanne Cleaver

Last of two parts.

Facebook’s Workplace platform has raised privacy concerns on many levels because of the parent company’s reputation for collecting and protecting data. The report examines how Workplace fits into Facebook’s ecosystem.

Facebook says that what happens in its Workplace collaboration platform stays there. 

Still, one privacy and data-security analyst said he was far from surprised when the research he conducted in his professional capacity — on a separate, employer-owned, secured computer — apparently sparked ads in his personal Facebook news feed, inviting him to learn more about Workplace. 

And, as far is it goes, Workplace’s policies and practices are in line with such competitors as Slack and Asana, said Raúl Castañón-Martínez, a senior research analyst with 451 Research, a division S&P Global Market Intelligence. 

Continue reading “‘Facebook Cross-Pollinates With Everything’ — Including Workplace” →

Facebook Workplace Has Users Worried About Privacy, Just Like With Facebook

By Joanne Cleaver 

First of two parts.

Facebook’s Workplace collaboration platform has raised privacy fears because of the parent company’s reputation for collecting and protecting data. This report examines the data-privacy issues surrounding Workplace.

The terrific thing about Facebook Workplace is that it looks, feels and operates like the Facebook used by hundreds of millions of consumers. 

But the privacy-eroding thing about Workplace is that it looks, feels and operates like the Facebook used by hundreds of millions of consumers.

It’s precisely because the Workplace platform is modeled after Facebook, which undermines the privacy of individuals trying to keep their work and personal accounts and communications separate, said Justin Antonipillai, founder and CEO of Wirewheel in Arlington, Va.

Wirewheel equips companies with workforce and enterprise privacy tools.

Continue reading “Too Close for Comfort” →

By Robert Bateman

The EU is organizing the world’s first comprehensive legal framework to regulate the development and use of AI systems, but some experts have argued that the rules do not go far enough.

The proposed regulation, presented in draft form Wednesday by the European Commission, takes aim at biometric surveillance, “social-credit” systems and other controversial implementations of AI that do not conform with “EU values.” 

The regulation would impose fines of up to 6% of annual turnover for companies that infringe its rules.

Yet some privacy and public policy experts told Digital Privacy News that, in its current form, the new law could fail to protect Europeans from many AI-driven harms.

Continue reading “EU AI Proposals May Not Protect Human Rights, Experts Warn” →

New Predictive Policing Tools Employing Surveillance, Raising Privacy Fears

By Jackson Chen

After debuting more than a decade ago as a way to stop crime before it happens, predictive policing methods are shifting toward a more surveillance-based model that could lead to greater privacy concerns, experts told Digital Privacy News.

One of the earliest instances of predictive policing showed up in 2011, when the Santa Cruz Police Department in California adopted such a program after a six-month pilot period.

The program was modeled after an earthquake-aftershock tool and was used to determine where future crimes would occur based on prior agency data.

Since then, many vendors — Geolitica, CivicScape, ShotSpotter Connect, even IBM — are being used by 152 departments across the U.S., according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Atlas of Surveillance tool that tracks which technologies police agencies use.

Continue reading “Controlling the Game” →

Calif. Bill Seeks to Stop Police From Unbridled License-Plate Data Collection

An image from the user guide for the Law Enforcement Archival Reporting Network (LEARN) system, Vigilant Solutions’ platform for law enforcement officers who access license-plate data.

By Fiona Tang

California legislators are considering a bill that would limit law enforcement’s retention of data obtained through automated license plate readers (ALPRs), hoping to quell alarms from privacy advocates after a state agency found widespread abuse among police.

Democratic State Sen. Scott Wiener introduced the License Plate Privacy Act in January after the California State Auditor released a report earlier last year revealing negligent misuse of ALPR data by authorities.

The activities, the report said, marked severe violations of an existing privacy law, S.B. 34, which had been on the books since January 2016.

“What we are seeing is agencies will maintain massive amounts of data in perpetuity — data that has nothing to do with any kind of investigation or suspected crime — and they are giving it out like candy, to basically any agency, even sometimes non-governmental agencies, anywhere in the country,” Wiener said last month in presenting the bill to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Continue reading “‘Giving It Out Like Candy’” →

By Rachel Looker 

If you haven’t recently Googled yourself, it might be time you did.

A routine search could bring up a result with your name and a “free background report” at MyLife.com.

Clicking it takes you to a page with your age, current and previous addresses, religious views, marital status, net worth, political affiliation and many other personal details.

A graphic that resembles a speedometer indicates your “reputation score” based on “background details, personal reviews and social media posts,” according to MyLife’s website.

The gauge indicates how high or low your score is versus the national average.

Each profile contains other personal details, including court and arrest records that can be viewed on the website, some of which only are accessible via a premium, paid membership.

Continue reading “MyLife’s ‘Reputation’ Practices Under Scrutiny From DOJ, FTC” →

Amazon Expands Contactless ‘Palm’ Technology During Pandemic

By Fiona Tang

Amazon.com is opening new physical retail stores so customers can make purchases by scanning their palms, a step that researchers said capitalized on consumers’ concerns about hygiene during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The technology, called Amazon One, debuted in September at an Amazon Go store in Seattle. Officials touted the technology as welcomed during the pandemic but declined to comment further to Digital Privacy News.

It uses a “biometric identification system” that includes a hand scanner that can identify a customer based on such characteristics as “lines and creases in the user’s palm, veins, bones, soft tissue or other structures beneath the epidermis of the skin,” according to a patent Amazon filed in December 2019.

To sign up for Amazon One, a customer inserts a credit card and positions their palm above the scanner. The scanner then generates a “unique palm signature” and connects the customer’s card information to their palm.

Continue reading “‘A Terrible Idea’” →

Retailers Balance Privacy While Foiling Thieves as COVID-Related Crime Rises

An alleged shoplifter caught on surveillance video at the Homestyles Gallery craft mall in North Carolina before Christmas. The video was posted to social media. Credit: Homestyles Gallery

By Joanne Cleaver 

Angie Smith noticed the red-haired woman who meandered into Homestyles Gallery, an accessories and craft mall in suburban Charlotte, N.C., days before Christmas.

But busy with customers, Smith didn’t realize until hours later that the woman had sashayed out with $700 in handcrafted jewelry from an artisan’s booth within the store. 

The incident was caught on surveillance tape: The COVID-masked woman glancing around, opening a glass case, sweeping jewelry into a tote bag and trotting off-screen. 

“We’ve had small losses before but nothing like this,” Smith, the mall’s co-owner, told Digital Privacy News. 

Infuriated at the woman’s brazen theft, she posted a clip of the video to the shop’s Facebook page — touching off a minor storm of citizen detectives determined to help a popular local business recover from a petty crime.

Continue reading “‘We Don’t Hide the Cameras’” →

By Nora Macaluso

A recent federal court ruling allowing U.S. Border Patrol agents to search travelers’ cellphones and laptops at will has privacy advocates worried about a civil rights rollback.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston found in February that warrantless searches did not violate the U.S. Constitution.

The court, in reversing a 2019 decision, said the “volume” of travelers crossing U.S. borders made warrantless searches “essential” to border protection.

Requiring warrants would “hamstring the agencies’ efforts to prevent border-related crime and protect this country from national security threats,” the court said in its Feb. 9 decision.

Continue reading “Experts Fear Civil Rights Rollback in Ruling on Border Data Searches” →