Online privacy
A Likely Chinese Hacker Crew Targeted 10 Phone Carriers to Steal Metadata
On June 24, researchers at Boston-based cybersecurity firm Cybereason revealed the results of tracking a years-long cyberespionage campaign they've called Operation Soft Cell, which they say targeted the networks of at least 10 cellular providers around the world. And while researchers' visibility into that hacking campaign is incomplete, they say it appears to be a prolific but highly targeted espionage campaign likely based in China.
Events like the Edward Snowden leaks, massive data breaches, and the Cambridge Analytica scandal have increased awareness of the data we generate from our devices and our daily lives. We have visibility into some of this data use; social media is very much in the spotlight, and users often wonder what personal information accounts for the advertisements that they are served online. But much less is known about other ways that personal information is collected and shared to support e-commerce, cloud services, business planning, and research of all kinds.
PrivaxcyCon will focus on the latest research and trends related to consumer privacy and data security.
FTC Chairman Joe Simons will provide opening remarks for PrivacyCon 2019, which will be followed by four sessions of presentations and discussions on research submitted for the event.
AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile Hit With FCC Complaint Over Sale of Phone Location Data
Public interest groups and telecommunications experts filed a complaint with the Federal Communication Commission centering on how AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon sold their customers' real-time location data to third parties without those customers' informed consent. The complaint reads:
Facebook Worries Emails Could Show Zuckerberg Knew of Questionable Privacy Practices
Apparently, Facebook uncovered emails that appear to connect Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg to potentially problematic privacy practices at the company. Within the company, the unearthing of the emails in the process of responding to a continuing federal privacy investigation has raised concerns that they would be harmful to Facebook—at least from a public-relations standpoint—if they were to become public. The potential impact of the internal emails has been a factor in the tech giant’s desire to reach a speedy settlement of the investigation by the Federal Trade Commission.
Service Meant to Monitor Inmates’ Calls Could Track You, Too
Thousands of jails and prisons across the US use a company called Securus Technologies to provide and monitor calls to inmates. But the former sheriff of Mississippi County (MO) used a lesser-known Securus service to track people’s cellphones, including those of other officers, without court orders, according to charges filed against him in state and federal court. The service can find the whereabouts of almost any cellphone in the country within seconds.
Commissioner O'Rielly Remarks Before American Society of Civil Engineers Conference
Unlike many of the distinguished panelists and engineers in this room who will be actively involved in planning and deploying the next-generation networks, smart cities, and connected transportation systems of the future, the Federal Communications Commission’s role is to provide the environment that will allow much of the relevant technology to happen.
Reps. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), Robin Kelly (D-Ill.) as well as leading advocates for digital privacy and civil rights will brief Hill staff and the press on how people of color, women, immigrants, the LGBTQ community and other marginalized groups are harmed by the commercial surveillance system and suggest possible remedies.
Any privacy legislation must be grounded in civil rights and focused on minimizing the disparate and discriminatory impacts of data, digital and algorithmic practices.
Fresh Hurdle for Bipartisanship on Privacy
Two House lawmakers looking to craft a consensus data privacy bill found themselves on opposite sides of an emerging debate: whether legislation should create a new privacy division at the Federal Trade Commission. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), who heads the House Commerce Committee's Consumer Protection Subcommittee, said she’ll pursue that option.