Identity management

Meta’s avatars are heading to WhatsApp, though they won’t have the cross-connectivity with other Meta apps that also feature avatars.Image: MetaMeta has taken its (in)famous avatars out of the “metaverse” and has been dropping them into its social apps, hoping personalized cartoon versions of people will generate enough interest in the company’s flagging metaverse project. After adding them to Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger, the company has finally come for the “no gimmicks” WhatsApp.On Wednesday, the company shared a…

Photo: Sergei Elagin (Shutterstock)Privacy regulators in the European Union have ruled that Meta, parent company of Facebook and Instagram, can’t make giving up data for targeted ads a condition of joining the social networks, according to reports published Tuesdayin the Wall Street Journal and Reuters. The decision threatens to upend the social media giant’s business model and alter the financial underpinnings of the internet. Signing up for Facebook or Instagram means clicking past a privacy policy and consenting…

View of the Apple Store on Rosenstrasse in Munich.Photo: Frank Hoermann/Sven Simon (AP)Attorneys general in nine states and the District of Columbia are urging Apple this week to introduce new App Store requirements designed to safeguard sensitive health data linked to reproductive care.In a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, the dozen chief law enforcement officials accused the company of leaving open a “gap” in its data protection policies that, they said, “threatens the privacy and safety of App Store consumers, and runs…

Photo: Florence Ion/GizmodoGoogle’s new watch is the company’s latest smart device, and our crack product review team says it’s an elegant, if simple, device. But, of course, Google doesn’t exactly have a stellar privacy reputation. The Pixel Watch collects a wide variety of information that the company uses for advertising and other purposes. When the device collects a variety of health information, like heart rates and menstrual cycles, it’s enough to pause and think about whether you want to strap iton your body.…

It’s very naughty to ask about Santa’s privacy policy.Photo: Roman Samborskyi (Shutterstock)It’s hard to believe, but 2022 is almost over, and that means it’s time to start thinking about holiday shopping. If gadgets are on your shopping list this year, you might want to consider that when you give a tech gift you’re also giving a present to the tech industry: mountains of your loved-ones’ personal data. Mozilla, maker of the Firefox browser, just released a privacy-minded holiday gift guide examining the data…

Image: DisconnectThere’s a law in the United States that says companies aren’t supposed to track young children, but they do it anyway. More than two thirds of the most popular kids’ iPhone apps collect and share personal information, according to a recent study from Pixalate. By some estimates, digital ad firms have collected an average of 72 million data points about every kid by the time they turn 13, the age legal data collection is supposed to start. A new app from the security firm Disconnect aims to do something…

Image: TurboYoda (Shutterstock)In 1987, Ronald Reagan nominated Robert Bork to the Supreme Court. Bork was an extreme, hard-line conservative whose views included the idea that Roe v. Wade should be overturned because he believed there was no constitutional right to privacy whatsoever. In response, a Washington, DC video store leaked a list of his movie rentals, which includedfilms like A Day At the Races and The Man Who Knew Too Much. It was nothing salacious, but Republicans were furious. Bork’s nomination was…

Image: CHRISTOPHE SIMON / Contributor (Getty Images)This week Meta revealed the Meta Quest Pro, a new virtual reality headset that costs about as much as a pre-inflation mortgage payment. It’s a sleek device, with upgraded hardware, advanced features—and cameras that point inward to track your eyes and face. To celebrate the $1,500 headset, Meta made some fun new additions to its privacy policy, including one titled “Eye Tracking Privacy Notice.”The company says it will use eye-tracking data to “help Meta personalise…

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and general manager of avatars Aigerim Shorman show off the functions of “legs” during the Meta Connect conference keynote.Gif: Meta“Legs,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg exclaimed during his 2022 Meta Connect keynote. The camera then zoomed back to show his Horizon World avatar standing, actually standing. Truly, it’s a new era.Meta’s Reality Labs showed off its first preview of Horizon World’s new avatars, with Zuckerberg himself again forcing his “I was human” image to be the face of Meta’s attempt…

Photo: Zach Gibson (Getty Images)Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, holds the undesirable title of undisputed privacy settlement king, and no other company really even comes close.The Federal Trade Commission, which is currently investigating Meta on antitrust grounds, slapped the company with a $5 billion penalty in 2019—the largest of its kind—following a lengthy probe into its privacy practices stemming from the company’s notorious 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal, where as many as 50 million users…