Friday, May 23, 2025

Apple’s iOS Lets Developers Access Your Photos & Videos

Apple’s iOS has been under fire for allowing third-party apps to access users’ location data and contacts without permission – and now it looks like photos and videos have been compromised too. The New York Times used a test app to prove that the security software had a giant loophole in its privacy settings.

WikiLeaks Begins Releasing Stratfor Internal Emails

WikiLeaks is doing stuff that doesn’t involve Julian Assange’s career as a television personality – in this case leaking a cache of over 5 million internal emails from Stratfor, a “global intelligence” company. They reveal secret intelligence services provided to Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, among others.

If You Want To Delete Your Google Web History, Do It Now

Google’s new unified privacy policy takes effect on March 1st, allowing Google to share users’ data among all of its products. This means that your entire Google Web History – everything you’ve searched for on Google, and every site you’ve visited while signed in to a Google account – will be pooled together.

Google Introduces Facial Recognition Feature

The world’s largest search engine is busy rolling out technology that can track your face. Facebook has been doing this for a while, so this sounds like Google playing catch-up, but there is a neat difference: unlike on Facebook, Google+ users get to opt-in to the facial recognition feature, instead of being automatically dragged into it.

Europe Bans X-Ray Body Scanners Used In American Airports

Yesterday the European Union prohibited the use of X-ray body scanners, the kind frequently used by airport security in United States, citing cancer risks. American airport security, meanwhile, has deployed hundreds of scanners, screening millions of airline passengers – and if the European Commission’s conclusions can be trusted, exposing a fraction of those passengers to cancer risks.

Chinese Hackers Used Fake Gmail Site To Steal Activist Data

Google announced on Tuesday that they’d been they target of a phishing scam originating in Jinan, China, aimed at the accounts of Chinese activists and senior officials in the U.S. Victims were sent fake emails with links to a fake Gmail site, which harvested the usernames and passwords of anyone trying to log in.

Texas Trying To Ban TSA Searches

Since 9/11, flying has sucked. For all of the wrong reasons, flight security has become paranoid and despotic, and nowhere worse than the USA – where TSA agents have manhandled infants and the infirm in ‘the war on terror.’ So it’s nice to see that the Texas House of Representatives just banned TSA searches without probable cause.

Facebook Apps Have Been Leaking Private Data To Advertisers For Years

Surprise! Security firm Symantec yesterday reported that a hole in the Facebook security system allowed third-parties like advertisers access to user accounts and private data – and that this hole has been in place for the past four years, since Facebook first started offering apps to its users.

Security Is Tight At Game

Game stores chose ‘Red Alert’ security for a reason. Probably because their security personnel are slightly more advanced than your average baton-wielding hack. They have computer skills, for example – which are useful for handling CCTV monitoring footage. Or, you know, solitaire. Note, this image was not taken inside a security ‘hokkie.’ That is, in […]