Tag: privacy
Apple issues 'Commitment to Customer Privacy' statement
Earlier this month a top-secret PowerPoint presentation was released that leaked the existence of the US government's PRISM program. The program is a surveillance program that gives the US government a backdoor into user accounts at major technology companies such as Microsoft, Facebook, Google ...
DevJuice: Is your app watching you?
The PRISM project is hitting the news just now, with the Director of National Intelligence issuing statements, and people talking about what privacy means in a free society. This morning, our backchannel discussion about PRISM drifted to the topic of user privacy in apps. Specifically, we've ...
Apple denies involvement in US government communication surveillance
Apple has told CNBC that it does not provide the US government with direct access to its servers, contradicting a Washington Post report that the company, among others, is knowingly participating in a secret program that is allowing the government to monitor the activity of US residents. The ...
German court tells Apple to change rules for handling customer data
A German court has ruled that Apple must change its company policies for handling customer data after finding the policies violate the country's privacy laws. In the suit, brought by the group Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband (VZBV), it took issue with eight of the provisions in Apple's data-use ...
Path spam mishap brings renewed attention to privacy concerns
It seems that just when Path was emerging from one privacy PR nightmare, another one landed on its doorstep. The day after the company reached 10 million users, The Verge related the story of digital marketer Stephen Kenwright who had an unpleasant experience with the app. Kenwright downloaded the ...
Securing your iOS device for your children, Part 3: removing apps, limiting social features and other safety options
There has been a string of high-profile cases where children have racked up thousands of dollars in credit card charges through in-app purchases. In these cases and others like them, the iOS devices used by the children have not been properly locked down by the parents. In the first post of ...
Judge Paul S. Grewal has strong words for Apple's legal team
When you're in the midst of a series of court battles around the world, it seems like the last thing that you want to be doing is angering judges. Unfortunately for Apple, that's just what they seem to have done, as US Magistrate Judge Paul S. Grewal (at right) invited plaintiff's lawyers in a ...
ACLU: court document shows how invasive cell phone searches can be
The American Civil Liberties Union stumbled upon a document submitted to the court during a drug investigation headed up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The document lists the data that ICE officials were able to pull off an iPhone, and it's striking how much information that one small ...
Apple falls from the privacy trust tree
Over the past few years, Apple has been perched atop the list of the 20 most trusted companies for privacy. The list, published annually by the Ponemon Institute (link to PDF), is based on a survey in which participants are asked to name companies that they feel can protect the privacy of their ...
Google accused of tracking iPhone users, up to 10m could sue in the UK
The Guardian is reporting that Google may be hit with a slew of lawsuits over the company's clandestine monitoring of Britons who use the Safari web browser on iPhones, iPads and Macs. Google admits that it bypassed Safari security settings that blocked sites from tracking user habits through ...
iOS privacy sleuth Clueful returns as a web app
After having been yanked from the App Store by Apple in July, an app called Clueful has found a second chance at life on the web. Created by Bitdefender, the app was designed to present a searchable database of other iOS apps and information on what ways they share your personal data. Neither ...
A look at Apple's security efforts in 2012
Digital security is a topic that always seems to grow in importance, and with each wave of new Apple hardware, security sleuths go back to work examining what new exploits exist and what old holes have been patched up. Rich Mogull of TidBITS recently took an exhaustive look at Apple's 2012 ...
Simple app shares SSL vulnerability with other banking sites, sends personal data on login (Updated)
Update: Good news for Simple customers, the company has already removed your SSN from its encrypted communications and is actively working on a fix to the SSL issue (but it will likely require an app update). Just this past May, Simple Finance launched its iOS app -- also called Simple -- to ...
FTC says Apple isn't responsible for child privacy in apps
App makers and not Apple itself must ensure that their software gets parental permission before sharing private information of minors, the Federal Trade Commission has decided. The final wording of the FTC's Children's Online Privacy Protection Act says that Apple won't have to actively police ...
FTC looking into privacy issues relating to childrens apps
With more and more kids using smartphones these days, the issue of digital privacy for the younger generation is reaching a fever pitch. As The Associated Press reports, the Federal Trade Commission recently investigated approximately 400 smartphone apps aimed at children to see just what kinds of ...
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TUAW (or The Unofficial Apple Weblog) is a website devoted to tips, reviews, news, analysis and opinion on everything Apple.