Privacy

First Round of GDPR Fines Coming by the End of the Year, Says EU Data Regulator

The EU's privacy regulator is predicting that the first round of enforcement actions under the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will be exercised in the coming months.

Facebook Security Vulnerability Allowed Attackers to Steal User Access Tokens Affecting 50 Million

Facebook alerted users today that its engineering team on Tuesday had discovered a security issue affecting almost 50 million accounts.

New Zealand’s Domain Name Commission Wins Injunction in a Lawsuit Against DomainTools

New Zealand's Domain Name Commission today won a motion for preliminary injunction in a US lawsuit against the company DomainTools.

Study Finds GDPR Has Had Minimal Impact on Spam and Domain Registrations

Contrary to concerns regarding the effect of GDPR, "not only has there not been an increase in spam, but the volume of spam and new registrations in spam-heavy generic top-level domains (gTLDs) has been on the decline."

Special Interests Circulating Draft Legislation to Cut Short ICANN’s Whois Policy Process

Special interests who oppose privacy are circulating draft legislation to cut short ICANN's Whois policy process, warns Milton Mueller in a post published today in Internet Governance Project.

DomainTools Sued for Misusing New Zealand’s .NZ Domain Name Registration Information

Domain Name Commission Limited ("DNCL"), New Zealand's overseer for the country's .NZ domain, has filed a lawsuit against the domain name service company DomainTools.

Anti-Phishing Working Group Proposes Use of Secure Hashing to Address GDPR-Whois Debacle

The AntiPhishing Working Group (APWG) in a letter to ICANN has expressed concern that the redaction of the WHOIS data as defined by GDPR for all domains is "over-prescriptive".

European Data Regulators Throw ICANN Back to the Drawing Board for a Third Time on Whois Privacy

In a letter to ICANN, the chair of the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) makes it plain that even the organization's "interim" plan is fundamentally flawed, reports Kieren McCarthy in the Register.

ACLU Released Guide for Developers on How to Respond to Government Demands That Compromise Security

It is not uncommon for government agents to force technology companies to create or install malicious software in products in order to help them with surveillance. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has released a guide for developers that is intended to help preserve security and customers' privacy.

ICANN Files Legal Action Against Domain Registrar for Refusal to Collect WHOIS Data

Germany-based ICANN-accredited registrar EPAG owned by Tucows has informed ICANN that it plans to stop collecting Whois contact information from its customers as it violates the GDPR rules.

Major US Telcos Selling Customer Location Information to Third Party Companies, Reports Krebs

While it is a known fact that mobile phones are giving away the approximate location of users' whereabouts for better call quality and emergency calls, security reporter Brian Krebs says major mobile providers in the U.S. are overstepping the boundaries.

Internet Platforms Collecting User Data are Digital Sweat Factories, Says EU’s Data Protection Chief

"The digital information ecosystem farms people for their attention, ideas and data in exchange for so called 'free' services," says Giovanni Buttarelli, the European data protection supervisor.

Researchers Discover Over 1.5 Billion Files Exposed Through Misconfigured Data Services

Many administrators misconfigure cloud storage, such Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) buckets, resulting in the contents being publicly-accessible.

ICANN CEO “Cautiously Optimistic” EU to Provide Clear Guidance for Domain Industry GDPR Compliance

"ICANN could invoke emergency powers in its contracts to prevent Whois becoming 'fragmented' after EU privacy laws kick in next month," reports Kevin Murphy in Domain Incite.

Close to 20% VPN Providers Reported Leaking Customer IP Addresses via WebRTC Bug

Close to 20% of popular VPN services are reported to be leaking customer's IP address via a WebRTC bug known since January 2015, and which "some VPN providers have never heard of."