Caitlin Seeley George

Google announced changes to the way it harvests your location data this week that will finally put a stop to its compliance with geofence warrants, a police surveillance technique that many say circumvents the Constitution.No Google AI Search, I Don’t Need to Learn About the “Benefits of Slavery” On Tuesday, the company published a blog post explaining that over the next year, Google Maps will stop sending data about your every move back to the mothership. Instead, Google Maps will keep the location data stored on your…

New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority has admitted it uses cameras equipped with AI software to scan riders believed to have jumped subway turnstiles without paying fares. The MTA, which says it collects the scans “as a counting tool” plans to expand the system to more than two dozen more stations by the end of the year.“Dungeons & Dragons is My Nerdy Obsession” | First FandomsAn MTA official speaking with Gizmodo said the tools are only intended for “research purposes” but civil liberties groups fear…

A coalition of over 90 organizations protested outside of Slack’s San Francisco headquarters Wednesday, driving mobile billboards around Slack’s offices in a protest-style rally and calling on the company to enable end-to-end encryption and add blocking and reporting features. Why Banning TikTok Won’t Protect Our PrivacyFor certain kinds of white collar jobs, life revolves around Slack, the messaging app that’s managed to completely entwine itself into the culture of American knowledge work. With that kind of market power…

ID.me, the controversial biometric identification verification company whose facial match technology provoked a major privacy backlash at the IRS earlier this year, may have misled the public and lawmakers when its CEO claimed the U.S. lost $400 billion to fraudulent pandemic unemployment claims. Its biometric services, billed as a convenient and secure way to reduce pandemic related unemployment fraud, may have actually made it more difficult for those most in need of assistance to receive their aid. That new evidence,…

Photo: Jimmy Tudeschi (Shutterstock)Period tracking app Flo ishoping its newly released “Anonymous Mode” will give users the confidence to continue using their product even as state law enforcement authorities around the country appear increasingly interested in soliciting data from apps to prosecute alleged abortion seekers. Privacy experts speaking with Gizmodo welcomed Flo’s update but warned it still falls short of meeting the definition of fully anonymous. Similarly, the experts said privacy-preserving features like…