Privacy

As wildfires rage for the third consecutive day through parts of Los Angeles, now including the Hollywood Hills, several neighborhoods have been forced to evacuate for safety purposes. But on Thursday afternoon, a wildfire evacuation alert was mistakenly sent to the smartphone of every resident in

It took a lot more than the initially slated few weeks to arrive, but a pivotal privacy decision that’s been hanging over Sam Altman’s World (aka Worldcoin) for months has finally landed, via a late December decision from the Bavarian data protection authority enforcing the bloc’s

The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) published an opinion on Wednesday that explores how AI developers might use personal data to develop and deploy AI models, such as large language models (LLMs), without falling foul of the bloc’s privacy laws. The Board plays a key steering role in th

Meta has been fined €251 million (around $263 million) in the European Union for a Facebook security breach that affected millions of users, which the company disclosed back in September 2018. The penalty, issued on Tuesday by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) enforcing the bloc&#

The European Union’s executive body is facing an embarrassing privacy scandal after it was confirmed on Friday that a Commission ad campaign on X (formerly Twitter) breached the EU’s own data protection rules. The finding by the EU’s oversight body, the European Data Protection S

Right after BeReal got acquired by French mobile games publisher Voodoo this summer, the candid selfie-sharing app that has been popular with Gen Zers changed how it asks users to consent to tracking. The resulting pop-up is now the target of a privacy complaint in Europe. Confirmed breaches of the

Two U.S. data brokers have agreed not to collect private location data on Americans as part of a pair of settlements with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which accused the companies of unlawfully tracking millions of people near to sensitive locations like healthcare facilities and military base

Meta, under legal pressure in the European Union over a binary “pay us or consent to ad tracking” choice it currently offers regional users of its social networks Facebook and Instagram, is changing how its regional ad business works again. Little wonder when compliance failure in this

Qwant, France’s privacy-focused search engine, and Ecosia, a Berlin-based not-for-profit search engine that uses ad revenue to fund tree planting and other climate-focused initiatives, are joining forces on a joint venture to develop their own European search index. The pair hopes this move

A new data bill from the U.K. Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) aims to revive several measures that failed to pass under the prior government, while rowing back on some controversial post-Brexit reforms proposed by conservative ministers. The government reckons the “D

Bad news for LinkedIn in Europe, where the Microsoft-owned social network has been reprimanded and fined €310 million for privacy violations related to its tracking ads business. The administrative penalties, which are worth around $335 million at current exchange rates, have been issued by Irel

When it comes to privacy nightmares, Pinterest is unlikely to be the first social app that springs to mind. But the visual discovery engine’s use of tracking ads is the target of the latest complaint from European privacy rights nonprofit noyb, which accuses it of breaching the bloc’s G

VPNs are practically everywhere. In editorials, in advertorials, and featured by influencers on your favorite YouTube shows. There are ads for VPNs on websites, during television commercials, plastered on billboards, and on subway ads. There might even be a VPN ad somewhere on this very webpage rig

Reset your clocks: Meta has been hit with yet another privacy penalty in Europe. On Friday, Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) announced a reprimand and a €91 million fine — around $101.5 million at current exchange rates — after concluding a multiyear investigation into