News

• Telstra in the sights of Privacy Commissioner

  Australian Privacy Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim has begun an investigation after some Telstra customer’s phone numbers, names and home addresses contained in spreadsheets were found online during a Google search.

• Texas drone bill sparks a battle

  The battle to find a balance between privacy concerns and the beneficial use of drones for commercial and law enforcement purposes is in sharp focus in a bill that's winding its way through the Texas legislature.

• How to keep the feds from snooping on your cloud data

  A growing number of SaaS providers offer secure encryption log-in to Dropbox and other cloud storage vendors, meaning even they can't access the data you store. And neither can the government.

• Google allowing Android app vendors to illegally collect user data, lawsuit alleges

  Several users of devices running Google's Android operating system have filed an amended version of an earlier lawsuit accusing the company of illegally collecting, and allowing others to collect, extensive amounts of mobile user data without proper notice or consent.

• Russia signs international privacy pact

  Russia on Wednesday took a step toward protecting private data by ratifying the so-called Convention 108, established in 1981 and legally binding in 45 countries.

• First California lawsuit over mobile privacy issues crashes

  A California state court has dismissed a closely watched lawsuit charging that Delta Air Lines failed to comply with state privacy laws for mobile applications

• Lookout will intercept privacy-invading mobile ad networks, apps

  Mobile security vendor Lookout plans to start flagging as adware mobile apps that use aggressive ad networks if they don't obtain explicit consent from users before engaging in behavior that potentially invades privacy.

• Bill would put mobile app vendors on the hook for privacy

  The mobile industry's efforts to convince lawmakers that self-regulation alone is the best way to address growing concerns over privacy-invading mobile applications appears to be running into some headwind.

• US lawmakers introduce apps privacy bill

  New legislation introduced by a group of U.S. lawmakers would require mobile application developers to obtain consent from consumers before collecting their personal data and to secure the data they collect.

• Name.com forces customers to reset passwords following security breach

  Domain registrar Name.com forced its customers to reset their account passwords on Wednesday following a security breach on the company's servers that might have resulted in customer information being compromised.

• Privacy sweep underway for popular websites

  Fifty of the most popular websites visited by Australians will be searched by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) to see if their privacy policies can be easily understood and accessed.

• FTC sends warning letters to 10 data brokers

  More than 20 percent of data brokers checked by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission allegedly violated a U.S. privacy law when sharing personal data with agency workers posing as companies wanting to purchase information.

• EU data protection vote delayed again

  An important vote on the future of the European Union's privacy laws has been delayed again.

• Apple's privacy policy violates German data protection law, Berlin court rules

  Apple violates German data protection law by asking for users' broad, overall consent in its privacy policy, the Regional Court of Berlin ruled.

• Spy court OK'd all U.S. wiretap requests it received in 2012

  A special court established to review government requests for warrants to conduct electronic surveillance of suspected foreign spies received close to 1,900 warrant requests last year -- all of which it approved.