The FBI has cracked the iPhone at the center of the Pensacola naval base shooting case, but the agency still slammed Apple’s stance on encryption. This time, Apple didn’t pull any punches in its rebuttal.
David Shayer, who has worked as a software engineer at Apple and other companies, explains Apple’s internal approach to privacy and contrasts it with other companies, all with an eye toward showing why we should trust the current draft of the COVID-19 exposure notification proposal from Apple and Google.
The tech rivals are working together on a secure, opt-in, and privacy-focused method of letting people report a COVID-19 diagnosis that would be pushed to everyone they passed near in the previous two weeks.
Apple is now equipping iPads with a feature that cuts off the microphone at the hardware level when an attached case is closed, preventing apps from spying on you.
Location tracking, facial recognition, and app-based tracking have become tools in fighting the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. But will these uses start a conversation about how to safeguard personal privacy or result in it being further exploited?
Motherboard and PCMag have teamed up to expose antivirus maker Avast’s practice of collecting and selling data on millions of users. The harsh light of media coverage worked as it's supposed to, and Avast's CEO has announced that the company is eliminating the program and shutting down the subsidiary that sold the data.
Reuters is reporting that Apple dropped plans to offer a stronger encryption option for iCloud backups under pressure from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Apple claims to be a guardian of consumer privacy, but the company does little to regulate what third-party iPhone apps do with the data they collect. The Washington Post’s Geoffrey Fowler asks if Apple could do more to protect our privacy.
Forget Big Brother. We have much more to worry about from the numerous “Tiny Brother” location data companies that track our every movement via software embedded in smartphone apps.
The iPhone 11 models are regularly gathering location data, even when location access is turned off for all apps and services. Why? Security researcher Brian Krebs has received answers from Apple, but they’re not entirely satisfactory.
Apple has updated its privacy page with explanations of the specific privacy measures taken in its most popular apps, but questionable partnerships and sloppy programming hurt the company’s privacy-focused image.
In the wake of mass shootings in the United States, schools are spending millions on surveillance systems to find out what their students are thinking and saying. The legitimate benefits come with troubling questions of privacy.
After a whistleblower revealed that Apple contractors were listening in on Siri conversations, Apple shut down the program and promised improvements. Here they are.
A security researcher has discovered that many popular iOS robocall-blocking apps share your data with third parties, often in violation of App Store guidelines.
Apple took well-deserved flak in the press for having contractors listen to Siri conversations—and inadvertent initiations where people didn’t know they were being recorded. But Adam Engst suggests that we users should instead teach Siri about its mistakes.