RE: https://mastodon.social/@404mediaco/116403536497971801

With this 404 Media news today about
webXray's audit finding that Google, Microsoft, and Meta, unsurprisingly (but still disappointingly), are ignoring opt-out signals,

It seems like a good timing to post again about my article on Privacy Washing: https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/08/20/privacy-washing-is-a-dirty-business/

#Privacy #PrivacyWashing #DigitalRights

#Google , #Microsoft , #Meta All #Tracking You Even When You #OptOut , According to an Independent #Audit

The #webXray #California #Privacy Audit viewed web traffic on more than 7,000 popular websites in California in the month of March & found that most tech companies ignore when a user asks to opt-out of #cookie tracking. California has stringent & well defined privacy legislation thanks to its California Consumer Privacy Act (#CCPA )…opt out of the sale of their info

https://www.404media.co/google-microsoft-meta-all-tracking-you-even-when-you-opt-out-according-to-an-independent-audit/

Hot Off the Press: #EFF's Updated Guide to Tech at the US-Mexico #Border

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/04/hot-press-effs-updated-guide-tech-us-mexico-border

#privacy #surveillance #politics #US #Mexico

New Booking(dot)com #DataBreach forces reservation PIN resets

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/new-bookingcom-data-breach-forces-reservation-pin-resets/

#BookingCom #travel #cybersecurity #privacy

'Serious #privacy concerns': #Library leaders raise alarm over proposed government restrictions

https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/serious-privacy-concerns-library-leaders-raise-alarm-over-proposed-govt-restrictions

#Canada #Calgary #AgeVerification

#Meta Is Warned That #FacialRecognition Glasses Will Arm Sexual Predators

https://www.wired.com/story/meta-ray-ban-oakley-smart-glasses-no-face-recognition-civil-society/

#AI #SmartGlasses #RayBan #Oakley #privacy

War as a Pretext: Gulf States Are Tightening the Screws on Speech—Again

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/04/war-pretext-gulf-states-are-tightening-screws-speech-again

#FreeSpeech #privacy #politics

#WebinarTV Secretly Scraped #Zoom Meetings of Anonymous Recovery Programs

https://www.404media.co/webinartv-secretly-scraped-zoom-meetings-of-anonymous-recovery-programs/

#AA #12Step #privacy #addiction

Irish Times: Facial recognition trial on Dublin-Holyhead route scans thousands but finds no matches. “Thousands of passengers on the ferry route to the Welsh port were scanned in February as part of a UK immigration enforcement pilot scheme. Over three days, passengers were checked against a watch list of 6,535 suspected immigration offenders, with no matches detected.”

Daily Digest | 14 April 2026

Your daily dose of Privacy, Data Protection, AI & Cybersecurity news.

5 stories you should not miss.

Read more: https://www.nicfab.eu/daily-digest/

#Privacy #AI #GDPR #Cybersecurity #TechLaw

🤔 🚸 💻 🚸 📲 🧒 📱

The "War on Youth and Social Media "
is the same as
The "War on Drugs"
It is a cover for something very nefarious--very bad intentions
👉 Reality: 👇
Control ✅
Censorship ✅
Endless Curated Advertising ✅
Your Official ID at Risk of Data Breaches ✅
👉 and exposed on the dark web --Scammers love this legislation,🔍 lawyers ⚖️ as well, because you will go broke 💸 after years of fighting accusations of fraudulent activities🚔 , and paying to get your identity back
🧒 💻 🪓 Young folk will learn to circumvent (hack) the ID requirement
🤔 So, How do age verification laws help you or youngsters?

They don't.

#Children #Parenting #AgeVerification
#Privacy #Government #Censorship #Resist
#SocialMedia #Legal #Law

🤔 🚸 💻 🚸 📲 🧒 📱

The "War on Youth and Social Media "
is the same as
The "War on Drugs"
It is a cover for something very nefarious--very bad intentions
👉 Reality: 👇
Control✅
Censorship✅
Endless Curated Advertising✅
Your Official ID at Risk of Data Breaches ✅
👉 and exposed on the dark web --Scammers love this legislation,🔍 lawyers⚖️ as well, because you will go broke💸 after years of fighting accusations of fraudulent activities🚔 , and paying to get your identity back
🧒 💻 🪓 Young folk will learn to circumvent (hack) the ID requirement
🤔 So, How do age verification laws help you or youngsters?

They don't.

#Children #Parenting #AgeVerification
#Privacy #Government #Censorship #Resist

ICYMI: W3C's smart voice agents report flags fragmentation, privacy gaps: W3C's February 2026 voice agents workshop flagged eight unresolved standards gaps covering interoperability, privacy, hallucination control, and accessibility. https://ppc.land/w3cs-smart-voice-agents-report-flags-fragmentation-privacy-gaps/ #W3C #VoiceTechnology #Privacy #Interoperability #Accessibility

Michigan ‘digital age’ bills pulled after privacy concerns raised

https://www.aol.com/news/michigan-digital-age-bills-pulled-181500448.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAFtXfDwaYA9MuLylHNt_XucKKytBG7sHO8PRXHm0C0Mjvz1hctfQggbAIhowfChbhqE2Pcq3J2NQ9RTpbr7GO9ZE_suiKEEPKDi3NILVoqYwO2_jp-KbEke1HIqdX41bBEsexUxOZcFrJdi3YsEtFI5N6JtPF8rt045PMInTLuEy

#AgeVerification #IDVerification #privacy #surveillance #technology #activism #Michigan #USA

"...And while Democrats helped back the renewal of the law during its last reauthorization in 2024, several are expected to flip their votes this time amid fear the Trump administration could abuse the program to spy on Americans as part of its immigration crackdown..."

Yup. Again and again over the years. Privacy concerns have been a bipartisan problem. 🙄

https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2026/04/13/congress/caine-letter-fisa-702-reauthorization-00870208

#privacy #fisa

Useful-looking Android #privacy advice (from Threads): https://www.threads.com/@heyshrutimishra/post/DXCvesNiMxm?xmt=AQF0H_tNxTbLvW0YqJxmHZkZI2EXuGCuIZq_URvXPQGSyzvUMF9uPdaqmo_cdRvYYY_ZWqKy

Alt...

Your Android phone is sending data to Google every 4.5 minutes. Even when you're not touching it. Even when the screen is off. A peer-reviewed study from Trinity College Dublin confirmed it. 12 settings to change right now: 1/15

PicoShare is a minimal, open-source file sharing tool you can self-host.

Upload a file and get a direct download link — no ads, no accounts, no nonsense.

Lightweight, Docker-friendly, and keeps your files fully under your control.

👉 https://github.com/mtlynch/picoshare
👉 More privacy-friendly tools: https://digital-escape-tools-phi.vercel.app/

#OpenSource #SelfHosting #Privacy #FileSharing #Homelab #DigitalMinimalism

Alt...

Screenshot showing PicoShare project stats: version v1.5.1, 1M Docker pulls, 7 commits per month, last commit last Saturday, 14 contributors, AGPL license. Below, the overview text reads: "PicoShare is a minimalist, self-hosted web app that makes it easy to share files on the web without restrictions on size, file type, or media format."

"EFF 🤝 HOPE: Join Us This August!"

"Conferences like HOPE are where that community comes together to learn, connect, and push these ideals forward. Protecting privacy and free speech online takes more than policy work—it takes community."

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/04/eff-hope-join-us-august

#Privacy

More than 70 organizations, including the ACLU, EPIC, and Fight for the Future, say the AI smart glasses feature would endanger abuse victims, immigrants, and LGBTQ+ people.

Alt...

Meta Is Warned That Facial Recognition Glasses Will Arm Sexual Predators

Twenty is a modern, open-source CRM built as an alternative to tools like Salesforce.

It offers customizable workflows, kanban and table views, automation, and a clean UI inspired by Notion/Airtable.

Self-host it and keep full control over your data without the usual CRM bloat.

👉 https://github.com/twentyhq/twenty
👉 More privacy-friendly tools: https://digital-escape-tools-phi.vercel.app/

#OpenSource #SelfHosting #CRM #Productivity #Privacy #DigitalMinimalism

Alt...

Screenshot of the Twenty CRM homepage with a dark-themed interface. At the top is the Twenty logo and the headline “The #1 Open-Source CRM.” Below are navigation links including Website, Documentation, Roadmap, Discord, and Figma. The lower section shows a preview of the CRM dashboard with a table-style interface displaying companies, contacts, and data fields, along with floating icons of popular tools like Notion, GitHub, Slack, LinkedIn, Google, and Stripe, highlighting integrations.

Your AI chats are being stored and read. Privacy settings are the new spellbook. Always check for hidden runes. https://lifehacker.com/tech/what-not-to-share-with-ai-chatbot #AI #privacy #writinglife

Does ‘federated unlearning’ in AI improve data privacy, or create a new cybersecurity risk?
#AI #Tech #Privacy #AIEthics #Cybersecurity #DataPrivacy #DigitalSecurity #MachineLearning #Canada #PrivacyRights #DataProtection #NationalSecurity #CyberRisk
https://the-14.com/does-federated-unlearning-in-ai-improve-data-privacy-or-create-a-new-cybersecurity-risk/

There are many reasons why I'm against age verification and social media bans for teens.

Youth is part of society and their voices should be heard. When we take a look on how they use social media, we can see they use them for expressing themselves, mobilizing for important causes such as climate action and fair wages.

Imposing restrictions on young people is not the way to protect them. In fact, it's taking their right to freedom of expression and speech. It also harms society as young people very often have smart and accurate ideas on how to make society better.

Another reason is that to verify age, you need to collect ID. This exposes people to risks such as exploitation, identity theft, fraud, scams, etc. Breaches are happening, we saw many severe breaches in the past. Making the use of ID documents mandatory for age verification would make life easier for cybercriminals.

There are more reasons.

Yes, we need to act to protect children and fight against child abuse. There is no doubt about it. But what we need to do it in a reasonable, safe and transparent way that is not cutting young people from social media, or exposes people to risks to their privacy.

#AgeVerification #privacy #HumanRights #SocialMedia #security #youth #activism #democracy #technology #internet #SocialWeb

Michigan 'digital age' bills pulled after privacy concerns raised

https://www.thecentersquare.com/michigan/article_7ca4e268-4a68-42fb-9042-f9d8604ebd7f.html

#HackerNews #Michigan #Privacy #DigitalRights #Legislation #TechNews #DataProtection

The next few years will see the European Commission's EU-U.S.

Where would eu-us privacy shield vs. binding corporate rules: th... break first in your environment?

Read more: https://steelefortress.com/fortress-feed/eu-us-privacy-shield-vs-binding-corporate-rules-the-battle-for-transatlantic-data-protection-supremacy

CyberSecurity #Privacy #InfoSec #Security

🎥 Watch Teaser: https://steelefortress.com/6gxyt7

W3C's smart voice agents report flags fragmentation, privacy gaps: W3C's February 2026 voice agents workshop flagged eight unresolved standards gaps covering interoperability, privacy, hallucination control, and accessibility. https://ppc.land/w3cs-smart-voice-agents-report-flags-fragmentation-privacy-gaps/ #W3C #VoiceAgents #SmartTechnology #Interoperability #Privacy