Educational

Examples, Explainer, Educational Case Study, Course, Guide

Facebook is Providing Researchers With Mobility Data

26 Feb 2020

Facebook is providing researchers at Harvard University’s School of Public Health and National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan "aggregated and anonymized" mobility data and high resolution population density maps to help inform their forecasting models for the spread of the virus as part of our

China: Alipay Health Code app controls movement in China

01 Mar 2020

Software on smartphones dictates whether an individual should be quarantined. Chinese citizens in 200 cities, beginning with Hangzhou, are required to install the Alipay Health Code app, developed by Hangzhou's local government with the help of Alipay owner Ant Financial, on their smartphones. After

Guide step

Block Ads on Chrome (and derivatives)

Ad Blockers prevent your browser from connecting to servers that serve you ads, which can minimise the amount of data you share with third parties. In this guide, you'll learn how to install an Ad Blocker on Chrome and its derivatives (Opera, Chromium, Brave...)

Long Read

Did you know that your location could be made public when you post on apps?

Women’s Aid and Privacy International launch digital information cards to help women stay safe on Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day is traditionally a day to celebrate relationships, but many relationships that begin romantically can quickly become controlling, with partners reading emails, checking texts and locations of social media posts. This can be just the beginning.

Today, Friday 14th February, Privacy International and Women’s Aid are launching a series of digital social media cards giving women practical information on how to help stay safe digitally from control and abuse.

Explainer

Your TV is also watching you!

Targeted advertising is becoming ever more pervasive. We examine changes to TV advertising, from broadcast, to video on demand, to streaming and smart TVs - how our data may be exploited, including for political gain.

Norwegian Consumer Council complaint against Grindr and five companies

49% of Americans consider it unacceptable for companies to share smart speakers' audio recordings of their customers with law enforcement for criminal investigations

21 Nov 2019

Recent study shows that Americans are wary of data from smart speakers being used in criminal investigations, the Pew Research Center reported. A recent study showed that 49% of Americans answered that it is unacceptable for smart speakers companies to share audio recordings of their customers with

Video

reproductive rights and privacy project image

Podcast: Heartbeat International and anti-abortion data exploitation

How an anti-abortion organisation uses data and tech.

Long Read

MONITORYOU: the MilliONs beIng spenT by the eu on develOping surveillance tech to taRget YOU

The EU gives millions to surveillance companies, universities, and government agencies to develop cutting-edge surveillance technologies.

Witness "Alexa" is called to give evidence in ongoing murder investigation in Florida

01 Nov 2019

A woman was killed by a spear to the chest at her home in Hallandale Beache, Florida, north of Miami, in July. Witness "Alexa" has been called yet another time to give evidence and solve the mystery. The police is hoping that the smart assistance Amazon Echo, known as Alexa, was accidentally

Google isn't telling people if a Maps location provides abortions or is a fake clinic

01 Oct 2019

Rewire.News has reported that Google apparently remains unwilling to differentiate its Maps search results between clinics in the US that offer abortion care and faith-based organisations that do not provide abortion care. Rewire.News reports that, in contrast Yelp "made a concerted effort" to

Explainer

Research Methodology, Pre-Installed Android App Analysis

Abstract Over the past few years, smart phones have become incredibly inexpensive, connecting millions of people to the internet for the first time. While growing connectivity is undeniably positive, some device vendors have recently come under scrutiny for harvesting user data and invasive private

Anti-choice tech stalking: Activists are using GPS to track women entering Planned Parenthood

A new investigative report from Sharona Coutts at Rewire exposed how anti-choice groups, including at least one adoption agency, were resorting to using a technology called "geofencing" to find and then target individuals they believe are considering abortion, with targeted ads. Two groups, a

Google bans online ads on abortion referendum

16 Sep 2019

Ahead of the Irish referendum to amend the Constitutions of Ireland to allow the parliament to legislative for abortion which took place in May 2018, Google decided to stop all advertising relating to the referendum on all of its advertising platforms, including AdWords and YouTube. This followed

Adoption agency to send pro-life ads to smartphones inside abortion clinics

16 Sep 2019

Bethany Christian Services, an international pregnancy support and adoption agency, is launching a programme with Copley Advertising to send targeted ads to individuals visiting Planned Parenthood clinics, abortion clinics, methadone clinics and high-risk areas (AHPA). The targeting will be done

Flaws in geolocation data collection jeopardise criminal proceedings in Denmark

12 Sep 2019

Denmark released 32 prisoners as part of an ongoing review of 10,700 criminal cases, after serious questions arose regarding the reliability of geolocation data obtained from mobile phone operators. Among the various problems with the software used to convert the phone data into usable evidence, it