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BIG BROTHER ALERT: CBDC projects around the world not installing privacy safeguards, British privacy organization finds

January 17, 2024 -

A CBDC is a blockchain-based digital form of fiat currency that is issued and managed by a national – or, in the case of the European Union, a supranational – central bank.

CBDCs draw significant inspiration from cryptocurrencies but differ in the aspect of decentralization. By their very nature of being managed by central banks, CBDCs are under the direct control of national financial institutions. These central banks can pass a variety of control measures such as approving ...

THE PRICE OF GUILT: Amazon agrees to pay $30.8 million for violating child privacy laws and other privacy lapses – but denies any wrongdoing

June 02, 2023 -

The federal agency filed a lawsuit against Amazon several months ago alleging Amazon's Ring doorbell product violated a part of the FTC Act that prohibits unfair or deceptive business practices. Amazon agreed to settle this potential violation by paying $5.8 million in customer refunds. (Related: FTC to sue Amazon for illegally harvesting data of children via smart speakers.)

As part of the settlement, Amazon is also required to delete any customer videos and data collected ...

UNESCO: Combination of neurotechnology and AI threatens mental privacy

July 17, 2023 -

UNESCO has started developing a global "ethical framework" to address human rights concerns posed by neurotechnology, such as brain implants or scans that can increasingly peek inside minds.

Neurotechnology is a growing field that aims to connect electronic devices to the nervous system for purposes like treating neurological disorders and restoring movement, communication, vision or hearing.

But enhancing it with AI can harm a person's mental privacy.

Mariagrazia ...

Google settles $5 billion privacy washing lawsuit for undisclosed amount

January 05, 2024 -

A corporation under the Alphabet family of companies, Google recently settled a case for an undisclosed amount that sought $5 billion in damages for the tech giant's Chrome spying functionality while in private mode, which tricks users into thinking that their web-browsing habits are a family affair.

If a web browser such as Chrome tells a user that he or she is "incognito" and can "browse privately," as Chrome promises, then this should be what happens, both plaintiffs ...

Why the Mimblewimble protocol makes other privacy coin protocols obsolete

May 12, 2023 -

(Article republished from TB358DE.Substack.com)

Monero, the oldest private and anonymous blockchain, uses the CryptoNote protocol based on Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), a well-understood and proven cryptography. Ring signatures are used in a way where a user can create a transaction and automatically use the output of other similar transactions on the blockchain to form the input for a ring signature transaction, making it unclear which input belongs to the person performing ...

Chilling report: Smart toys pose privacy risk to children and families

December 15, 2023 -

"The riskiest features of smart toys are those that can collect information, especially without our knowledge or used in a way that parents didn't agree to," Teresa Murray, Consumer Watchdog at the U.S. PIRG Education Fund and author of the report said via a press release. "It's chilling to learn what some of these toys can do." She told Defender they are also watching for developments with artificial intelligence (AI) built into toys. PIRG added that smart toys include stuffed ...

Binance is delisting privacy tokens in France, Spain, Poland and Italy

June 04, 2023 -

Starting June 26, Binance users in Spain, France, Poland and Italy will no longer be permitted to buy and sell enhanced anonymity crypto assets (CAE). The platform identified 12 coins that will be affected: Dash, Firo, XMR, Monero, Beam, Horizen, ZEC, Decred, Verge, Secret, MobileCoin, and PIVX.

These tokens are designed to hide information about their transactions to give users a greater level of privacy. Although cryptocurrencies are generally considered pseudonymous, ...

Doug Casey on the death of privacy… and what comes next

May 29, 2023 -

(Article by Doug Casey republished from InternationalMan.com)

Further, rampant currency debasement is lowering the real value of these ridiculous limits.

Why are governments so intent on phasing out cash? What is really behind this coordinated effort?

Doug Casey: Let me draw your attention to three truths that my friend Nick Giambruno has pointed out about money in bank accounts.

#1. The money isn’t really yours. You’re just another unsecured creditor ...

Government claims Americans have 'no reasonable expectation of privacy' with cell phone usage

in 3069 years - naturalnews.com printable article

Government claims Americans have 'no reasonable expectation of privacy' with cell phone usage

..."...

One state’s collection of health data sparks privacy and digital ID concerns

December 15, 2023 -

(Article republished from YourNews.com)The State of Nebraska’s recent decision to centralize health data for all its residents has sparked a wave of criticism and concern. This initiative, led by the newly established state Health Information Technology (HIT) Board, aims to compile patient health and medical records into a single, centralized system. Critics are decrying this move as a significant breach of privacy and are alarmed at what they see as a step towards the ...

Electronic Frontier Foundation: Latest draft of UN Cybercrime Treaty threatens online privacy

December 14, 2023 -

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a prominent U.S. digital rights group, has described the latest draft of the United Nations (UN) Cybercrime Treaty as "a significant step backward" and a warning of a dangerous broadening of its scope beyond cybercrimes defined in the convention.

Initially, the UN Cybercrime Treaty seeks to combat global cybercrime, yet in its latest draft, it transforms into an "expansive surveillance treaty." The revised ...

Hunter Biden sues IRS whistleblowers for BREACH OF PRIVACY over tax probe

September 22, 2023 -

The 27-page lawsuit filed on Sept. 18 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia named IRS agents Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler as plaintiffs. The two whistleblowers appeared before Congress and the media, accusing the Department of Justice (DOJ) of deliberately delaying and obstructing the investigation of Hunter's case.

The younger Biden's lawsuit focused on testimonies by the two defendants before the House Ways and Means Committee (WMC) in relation ...

TSA’s use of FACIAL RECOGNITION tech in US airports rouses privacy concerns

May 30, 2023 -

"What we are trying to do with this is aid the officers to actually determine that you are who you say you are," Jason Lim, TSA identity management capabilities manager, told reporters during a demonstration of the technology at Baltimore-Washington International (BWI) Thurgood Marshall Airport.

A presentation of the technology posted by the Associated Press shows a female passenger walking up to a security checkpoint. She inserts an identification card into a slot and looks ...

EU authorities slap Meta with record $1.3B fine for data privacy law violations

May 26, 2023 -

The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) announced the decision to penalize Meta on May 22. It followed an extensive investigation into the operations of Facebook in the continent. The investigation was launched by the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) back in August 2020.

The DPC is in charge of regulating all of Meta's operations within Europe. Its May 22 ruling, however, alleged that the parent company of Facebook and Instagram violated Article 46(1) of the General ...

BRAVE ACT: Brave Search cuts ties with Big Tech to ensure user privacy

May 08, 2023 -

Privacy-focused search engine Brave Search has completely removed all its third-party indexes like Bing, and will now rely solely on its proprietary index to fully achieve independence and provide a real alternative to Big Tech search engines.

When Brave Search was initially launched in 2021, it acknowledged its reliance on other indexes for approximately 13 percent of search queries. However, the company has since made substantial progress in reducing this dependency, ...

Automotive journalist reveals how smart technologies in modern vehicles cost you privacy and control

9 days ago -

In recent years, the automotive industry has undergone notable technological strides, equipping modern vehicles with features that "bolster safety and efficiency." Cars manufactured since the mid-2010s are integrated with so-called "Trojan Horse" technologies that are capable of dictating the operational parameters of vehicles, impacting auto insurance rates, monitoring driver gaze, recording in-car conversations, gathering genetic and health data, collecting other biometric data ...

Crazy invasion of PRIVACY: Is your car tracking your “genetic information” and “sexual activity?”

September 07, 2023 -

Vehicular computers have become so advanced that some car companies are tracking consumers' "preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities and aptitudes" in order to sell that information to third parties.

In addition to tracking "predispositions," some "smart" cars also track users' "genetic information" and even "sexual activity." If someone gets it on in the back seat, for instance, the peeping ...

Senators call for FTC investigation into Google over YouTube ads that violate children’s privacy

August 24, 2023 -

In the letter written by Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, they said that this alleged behavior by YouTube and Google "is estimated to have impacted hundreds of thousands, to potentially millions, of children across the United States."

"YouTube and Google shouldn’t treat young people’s information as something they can profit from without any limits," the letter continued. "We need laws to protect young people’s ...

Decentralize.TV interviews LocalMonero co-founder “Alex” about acquiring privacy crypto without using centralized exchanges

July 13, 2023 -

As a disclaimer, I personally hold various amounts in all the top privacy coins, including Monero, as I'm engaged in testing the coins and wallets. My company has also acquired some amount of privacy coins as part of a marketing effort to give away many of them to Brighteon.com users who enable crypto tipping on their accounts. (See this story for a full explanation.)Decentralized acquisition can protect your privacy

For many people, acquiring crypto through centralized ...

The government has a “solution” for your loneliness: forced removal of freedom and privacy

June 05, 2023 -

Millions of Americans are now hopelessly lonely, according to reports. And the only way to fix it, according to the government, is to control from the top down every facet of social interactions by "building a social infrastructure."

"Social infrastructure," as defined by the globalists who came up with the term, means every aspect of community life, including housing, libraries, parks, recreation spaces, transportation systems, and the like.

An 81-page report from ...