Tag: law enforcement
FTC bans spyware maker SpyFone, and orders it to notify hacked victims
The Federal Trade Commission has unanimously voted to ban the spyware maker SpyFone and its chief executive Scott Zuckerman from the surveillance industry, the first order of its kind, after the agency accused the company of harvesting mobile data on thousands of people and leaving it on the open internet.…
Read More
Google says geofence warrants make up one-quarter of all US demands
For the first time, Google has published the number of geofence warrants it’s historically received from U.S. authorities, providing a rare glimpse into how frequently these controversial warrants are issued. The figures, published Thursday, reveal that Google has received thousands of geofence warrants each quarter since 2018, and at times…
Read More
Interview: Apple’s Head of Privacy details child abuse detection and Messages safety features
Last week, Apple announced a series of new features targeted at child safety on its devices. Though not live yet, the features will arrive later this year for users. Though the goals of these features are universally accepted to be good ones — the protection of minors and the limit…
Read More
This Week in Apps: In-app events hit the App Store, TikTok tries Stories, Apple reveals new child safety plan
Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. The app industry continues to grow, with a record 218 billion downloads and $143 billion in global consumer spend in 2020. Consumers last year also spent 3.5 trillion minutes using…
Read More
Maine’s facial recognition law shows bipartisan support for protecting privacy
Alison Beyea Contributor Michael Kebede Contributor Maine has joined a growing number of cities, counties and states that are rejecting dangerously biased surveillance technologies like facial recognition. The new law, which is the strongest statewide facial recognition law in the country, not only received broad, bipartisan support, but it passed…
Read More
UK’s ICO warns over ‘big data’ surveillance threat of live facial recognition in public
The UK’s chief data protection regulator has warned over reckless and inappropriate use of live facial recognition (LFR) in public places. Publishing an opinion today on the use of this biometric surveillance in public — to set out what is dubbed as the “rules of engagement” — the information commissioner,…
Read More