Internet privacy

Screenshot: Lucas Ropek/NeopetsNeopets, the company that sells virtual pets to tweenagers (and also a weird amount of adults), suffered a pretty devastating data breach earlier this year, but a recent update seems to show it was far worse than we previously thought. 02:5710 Horror Docs You Should Watch Part 2Yesterday 6:40PMIn July, the company announced that it had been hacked and that data on its members—believed to be about 69 million people—had potentially been accessed. This week, the company divulged new details…

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…

Photo: SAVO PRELEVIC/AFP (Getty Images)Today’s kids, more online than any generation before, are paradoxically beset by a digital world that isn’t the most kid-friendly. From creeps to depression-spurring algorithms to cyberbullying, experts often link web use to skyrocketing mental health issues in young people.But help may be on the way. On Monday, the California Senate overwhelmingly voted (33 to 0) to pass a comprehensive children’s privacy bill designed to protect kids from web platforms’ most noxious and invasive…

Mark Zuckerberg, chairman and CEO of Facebook, speaks in 2016 at the CEO summit during the annual Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Lima, Peru. Photo: Andrew Harnik (AP)While news of Mark Zuckerberg’s appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience was making the rounds Friday night, eventually trending on Twitter, attorneys at his company were preparing to settle one of the biggest lawsuits he’s ever faced —ignited by one of the biggest controversies it’s ever caused.Court filings show that, at least in…

Photo: Graeme Jennings-Pool (Getty Images)The Federal Trade Commission announced a lawsuit Monday against a major data broker, accusing it of offering services that allow for the tracking of Americans at sensitive locations, such as addiction clinics or domestic violence shelters. Commissioners voted 4-1 this week to bring a suit against Kochava, Inc., which calls itself the “industry leader for mobile app attribution” and sells mobile geo-location data on hundreds of millions of people. The suit accuses the company of…

Companies use pixel trackers inside emails to tell when and where you clicked on the email, and can use other trackers to tell what websites you visit after clicking on a link.Gif: DuckDuckGoPrivacy-minded web browser DuckDuckGo has a new, free service they’re making open for all users who like the idea of stopping companies from tracking your data through emails.Companies bombarding you with promotional emails aren’t just trying to get you to click on the hottest new pair of shoes. They’re trying to get you to click on…

Whistleblower Peiter “Mudge” Zatko will testify before a U.S. Senate committee about the social media company’s alleged security failings, in accordance with a congressional subpoena. Zatko, previously Twitter’s head of security, was also subpoenaed by Musk’s legal team earlier this week, to testify in the ongoing court battle over the billionaire’s attempt to back out of his fraught $44 billion Twitter purchase.The allegations that Zatko made about his former employer, in a 200-page disclosure sent to multiple government…

Two fathers, one in San Francisco and another in Houston, were separately investigated by the police on suspicion of child abuse and exploitation after using Android phones (owned by Google) to take photos of their sons’ genitals for medical purposes. Though in both cases the police determined that the parents had committed no crime, Google didn’t come to the same conclusion—permanently deactivating their accounts across all its platforms, according to a report from The New York Times.The incidents highlight what can go…

Not a month ago, 53 House lawmakers voted, for the first time this century, to send a comprehensive federal privacy bill to the floor. It was a laudable achievement, but it’s been frozen in place ever since. Now, with fewer than 100 days until the midterm elections, any hope of getting national privacy reform done before a new Congress is sworn in is growing dimmer by the day.The American Data Privacy and Protection Act (ADPPA) may have advanced farther than any of its forerunners, but there are plenty of obstacles in…

Photo: ROBYN BECK/AFP (Getty Images)Log on to your Apple Store or Google Play account, and you’ll find dozens of apps that say they’ll keep track of your time of the month or that’ll help you know the status of your little bun in the oven. They’re also keeping track of you, and it’s become increasingly apparent since the U.S. Supreme Court ended the right to safe abortion byoverturning Roe v. Wade, many companies don’t hesitate to sell your pregnancy info to the highest bidder.Mozilla privacy researchers dove into 25…