There is an interesting “partnership” between Apple and Google brewing. If they are working on a privacy-centric solution to contact tracing in pandemic times, then I am all for it. Apple’s involvement gives me some sort of assurance that privacy will be preserved, compared to a Google only initiative. The draft specifications are already out for everyone to check out. This “collaboration” is not different from Google’s support of Apple’s SMS-based OTP proposal, nor is it any different from both companies agreeing on open standards.

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Is it the users’ fault? Of course, not! However, if the users push back by not participating and contributing to these companies’ revenue generator, then it will help change something, until governments do their job at regulating (as in enforcing the law to its fullest - as I have seen governments with privacy laws that are not being implemented!). www.fastcompany.com/90447583/…

The new Chrome has a setting that will check URLs in real-time, i.e., Google will know each and every URL that you visit. They claim to anonymize it, but don’t fall for it. Security != Privacy. They will offer topnotch security, but privacy is another matter (they need the data to earn revenue). I ditched Chrome a long time ago, you should, too. www.zdnet.com/article/c… notochrome.org

This is actually why I am overly concerned about the Philippine National ID initiative. Knowing how the government works - budget, personnel, procurement - there is a high chance of citizens’ data will be breached/hacked/exploited externally, or worse, internally (think of one of the gov’t owned and controlled corporations). If I am not mistaken, the model used by lawmakers is India’s Aadhaar, which does not have a great track record in securing their data as well.

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Viber CEO, Djamel Agaoua, wrote an op-ed, “Do The Right Thing”, technology.mb.com.ph/2019/04/1… , with a proposed Privacy Pledge and calling on Facebook and the rest of the industry to join him. While it is a start, the fact that he did not include “NO collection of personal data”, and “NO collection of METADATA, including, but not limited to location”, just goes to show that unnecessary data collection is still the norm for his company, and the encourages the rest of the industry to continue doing surveillance.

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Accounts from Dubsmash, MyFitnessPal, ShareThis, Animoto, EyeEm, and 500px, among others, are available on the dark web. Tsk tsk. Some accounts’ passwords were hashed by MD5 only. NOOOOO. Change your passwords immediately. https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/02/11/620_million_hacked_accounts_dark_web/