Cybersafety Sentinel July 2023 Week 3
Claudiu’s Top Post
Google indicates 31,600,000 hits on the unhyphenated phrase WhatsApp switch to Signal. Many of these have popped up in the past week, riding a wave of concern about a Privacy Policy update from Facebook indicating that its WhatsApp data would be accessible to the company that owns it. There is nothing new here, other than an announcement by Facebook that – as any other commercial company – it is collecting user information in exchange for providing a free method of global communication. Read More
Ransomware Attackers Getting More Sophisticated
The head of the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security says ransomware attacks are getting more common and sophisticated, but there’s a lot the country could do to better defend itself. “The threat is real, the threat is growing and we can’t talk enough about it,” said Sami Khoury, whose organization is aimed at providing the federal government with information technology security and foreign signals intelligence. Read More
Meta Faces $100K Daily Fine
Meta Inc. will face a hefty fine over advertising practices that violate user privacy, Norway’s data protection authority said July 17, unless the Facebook and Instagram owner takes action to comply with the law. Norwegian regulator Datatilsynet says that behavioural advertising — a common marketing model that profiles users by collecting information such as their physical locations, among other data — without consent is illegal. Read More
FTC Investigates Open AI: ChatGPT’s Greatest Threat
OpenAI may need a good team of lawyers — presumably ones who don’t use ChatGPT to write their briefings — fast. The Federal Trade Commission launched an investigation into OpenAI to determine whether the company violated consumer protection laws through its lack of transparency regarding data collection and privacy, according to documents published by The Washington Post. Read More
Instagram to Pay $68.5M in Biometric Privacy Settlement
Millions of Illinois Instagram users may be eligible for a cut of a new $68.5 million class-action biometric privacy settlement. The lawsuit alleges facial recognition technology used on the app until November 2021 violated Illinois’ biometric privacy law, which is considered the strictest in the nation. Read More
Biden Announces Smart Device Cybersecurity Program
The Biden administration and major consumer technology players on Tuesday launched an effort to put a nationwide cybersecurity certification and labelling program in place to help consumers choose smart devices that are less vulnerable to hacking. Officials likened the new U.S. Cyber Trust Mark initiative — to be overseen by the Federal Communications Commission, with industry participation voluntary — to the Energy Star program, which rates appliances’ energy efficiency. Read More
