Singapore wants every resident to wear a COVID-19 tracing device

Posted on 05/06/2020 by Engadget RSS Feed

For Singapore, contact tracing apps might not be enough to help reopen the economy as the COVID-19 pandemic eases. Smart nation minister Vivian Balakrishnan has revealed that the city-state is close to releasing a wearable contact tracing device that...

France releases a voluntary contact tracing app

Posted on 02/06/2020 by Engadget RSS Feed

The French government has released a contract tracing app, called StopCovid, to notify people when they’ve been in contact with someone who is later diagnosed with COVID-19, as reported by Bloomberg. Usage of the app is entirely voluntary in France,...

Facebook’s Manage Activity tool helps clean up your social media history

Posted on 02/06/2020 by Engadget RSS Feed

Let’s face it: many of us have posted stupid, embarrassing or plain bad things online over the years. Until now, getting rid of those on Facebook has meant either trawling back through up to 16 years worth of posts on your profile or your Activity Lo...

ACLU sues Clearview AI over alleged privacy violations

Posted on 28/05/2020 by Engadget RSS Feed

Clearview AI is about to deal with more pushback beyond corporate objections and occasional bans. The American Civil Liberties Union has sued Clearview AI for allegedly violating Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act with its combination of fac...

Arizona sues Google claiming it illegally tracked Android users

Posted on 28/05/2020 by Engadget RSS Feed

Arizona has sued Google over claims that it illegally collected location data from users without their permission, according to the Washington Post. The state’s attorney general Mark Brnovich argued that Google kept location tracking running in the b...

Brave’s browser now includes a privacy-focused video calling app

Posted on 27/05/2020 by Engadget RSS Feed

If there’s one thing we’re all painfully familiar with these days it’s video calling. What was once an activity generally reserved for the occasional remote team get-together or long-distance family catch-up has become a daily occurrence for many, an...

Qatar’s contact tracing app put over one million people’s info at risk

Posted on 26/05/2020 by Engadget RSS Feed

Contact tracing apps have the potential to slow the spread of COVID-19. But without proper security safeguards, some fear they could put users’ data and sensitive info at risk. Until now, that threat has been theoretical. Today, Amnesty International...

House amendment would require warrants for web history searches

Posted on 26/05/2020 by Engadget RSS Feed

A new House deal has the potential to prevent the nightmare scenario in which Feds might not need a warrant to see what sites you’ve visited, videos you’ve watched and searches you’ve made. Earlier this month, we learned that the Senate was preparing...

Israel restricts COVID-19 phone tracking to ‘special cases’

Posted on 24/05/2020 by Engadget RSS Feed

Israel’s original plan to track the phones of COVID-19 sufferers won’t get very far. The country’s cabinet has restricted the use of the Shin Bet security agency’s phone surveillance to “specific and special cases” where officials can’t determine an...

Google is working on end-to-end encryption for RCS texts in Messages