A new class‑action lawsuit alleges WhatsApp’s end‑to‑end encryption is ineffective, claiming Meta can access users’ supposedly private chats despite long‑standing privacy assurances. 📱🔒
https://www.heise.de/en/news/Class-action-lawsuit-WhatsApp-encryption-allegedly-ineffective-11156940.html
#WhatsApp #Encryption #Meta #Privacy #TechNews

#SIgnal is the better #WhatsApp ✅ 💡

https://signal.org/download/

"A 1988 VHS privacy law could block how advertisers get your data"

"The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a lawsuit from a man alleging that using email credentials for targeted advertising violates a law passed in 1988 to keep consumers' VHS rentals and purchases private."

https://www.techspot.com/news/111090-1988-vhs-privacy-law-could-block-how-advertisers.html

#Privacy

Presently #whatsapp is under scrutiny, but people forget that the CEO of WhatsApp stepped down due to privacy concerns back in 2018.

#Meta owns WhatsApp. It's part of their intention economy, as is #Facebook, #Instagram,...

And that intention economy, first optimistic *for* users, is weaponized against users. Anyone remember the Cambridge Analytica scandal?

Understand the #IntentionEconomy.

It likely already understands you.

#privacy

https://knowprose.com/2025/05/introducing-the-intention-economy/

Daily Digest | Jan 28, 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

Really wish we could get some privacy and data security laws on the books.

149M logins exposed in unsecured database, inc 900k Apple accounts

https://9to5mac.com/2026/01/26/149m-logins-exposed-in-unsecured-database-inc-900k-apple-accounts/

#Privacy #Data #Security #Tech

Happy Privacy Day to all of you!

Don't forget to celebrate even the smallest victories - the big tech services you've ditched, every single person you've taught how to protect their privacy, the talks you've given, the blog posts you've written.

We still have much to do, and the situation right now is going from bad to worse. But we must not forget that everything we do can make a difference!

Thank you all for what you're doing! And please keep doing it!
--
#privacy #DataProtection

Data Protection Day 2026: 45 years since Convention 108.

63% of orgs lack AI governance
Only 31% of Europeans know all GDPR rights

@EDPS @Supervisor "Data protection often becomes a safeguard for democracy itself."
Reset or refine?

Refinement, not regression.
🔗 https://www.nicfab.eu/en/posts/data-protection-day-2026/

#DataProtectionDay #GDPR #Convention108 #Privacy #DigitalRights #FundamentalRights #DataProtection

Zahlreiche Journalist:innen und Aktivisti im Visier bei Attacke über Signal-Messenger

Mit einem Phishing-Angriff versucht ein bislang unbekannter Akteur offenbar gezielt Zugriff auf die #Signal-Konten von Journalist:innen und Aktivist:innen zu bekommen.

@netzpolitik_feed erklört wie der Angriff funktioniert und wie man sich vor ihm schützen kann.
(English below)

https://netzpolitik.org/2026/phishing-angriff-zahlreiche-journalistinnen-im-visier-bei-attacke-ueber-signal-messenger/

#Phishing #Überwachung #Datenschutz #Daten #Datensicherheit #Privacy #Signal #Messenger

Happy Data Protection Day!

20th anniversary online event: https://www.coe.int/web/data-protection/data-protection-day

#Data #DataProtection #DataPrivacy #Privacy #InfoSec #InformationSecurity #CyberSecurity #Encryption #E2EE #Security #PasswordManager #SelfHost #SelfHosted #SelfHosting #Linux #DataSovereignty #CouncilOfEurope #CoE #EDPS #EuropeanDataProtectionSupervisor #DPD #DPD2026 #OpenPGP #PGP #GnuPG #GPG #VeraCrypt #Tomb #LUKS #AES #P2P #VPN #LetsEncrypt #Argon2 #Tor #XMPP #OMEMO #TorBrowser #Tails #PrivacyBadger #JShelter

Alt...

Data Protection Day banner.

RE: https://mastodon.thenewoil.org/@thenewoil/115971195227745876

Next up will be a VPN ban. Many tech-y people will see that and think “lol yeah well that’s not going to stop *me* from using a VPN”

A VPN ban isn’t really stop you from using one. It means when they catch you doing so, they’ll use the fact you’re using this harmless technology itself as a *pretense* to lock you up without needing to do any “hard work” (i.e. an investigator’s job) like actually confirming whether you committed a real crime.

Don’t think you won’t be impacted just because you know how to outsmart an ISP filter! This is not a plan to protect children or stop you from consuming adult media. It is a ploy to eventually eliminate ALL freedom of expression and free access to information in the UK.

And the same goes for Chat Control and encrypted messengers, btw

#UKpol #VPNban #PornHub #ChatControl #Privacy #FreeSpeech #SocialMedia

Question about the data used by AI models. Specifically #ChatGPT and the #Google #Gemini offerings.

In 2005 I helped expose a group of Dutch neo-nazis / POS. As some kind of retribution I got targeted online. The only bit close to a "big deal" was a clumsy attempt at doxing using a combo of -then- public photos and embellished facts shared in simple websites.

I got most of it removed quickly, and the remainders in ~2014/5 (thanks GDPR).

SO COLOR ME SURPRISED WHEN ... ->

1/2

#privacy

It's Data Privacy Week ✨

There's never been a better time to take back your privacy, that's why we'll be sharing new tips every day that'll help you improve your privacy & security posture. 🔒

#DataPrivacyWeek #Privacy #PrivacyTips #PrivacyGuides

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An image of a lock on a keyboard, and a message: Happy data privacy week from Privacy Guides!

Call your Florida lawmakers and tell them you oppose SB 1722, the Florida App Store Accountability Act!

https://www.miamitech.club/oppose-the-florida-app-store-accountability-act/

#Florida #Privacy #Cybersecurity #AgeVerification #DigitalRights #Tech #Apple #Google

Microsoft Gave FBI Keys To Unlock Encrypted Data Exposing Major Privacy Flaw
#privacy #survelliance

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lJH9B0Ft07o

404 Media: Police Told to Be ‘as Vague as Permissible’ About Why They Use Flock
Jan 27, 2026 at 9:26 AM

The documents show law enforcement sees themselves as being consistently and universally under threat from the people it is supposed to protect.

https://www.404media.co/police-told-to-be-as-vague-as-permissible-about-why-they-use-flock/

#flock #privacy #policing #surveillance #bigbrother

"Supreme Court to decide how 1988 videotape privacy law applies to online video"

"Paramounthinges on video privacy law's definition of "consumer." Salazar v."

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/supreme-court-to-decide-how-1988-videotape-privacy-law-applies-to-online-video/

#Privacy

Legal action and renewed public criticism are once again putting WhatsApp’s privacy and encryption claims under the spotlight. Recent developments raise questions about how secure large-scale encrypted messaging platforms really are.

The debate gained momentum after high-profile commentary pushed the issue into the mainstream, drawing attention to concerns around metadata, transparency, and user trust.

🔗 https://digital-escape-tools-phi.vercel.app/2026/01/news23.html

#Privacy #Encryption #WhatsApp #DigitalRights #OpenWeb #DeGoogle

Google agreed to pay $68 million to settle a lawsuit claiming that its voice-activated assistant spied inappropriately on smartphone users, violating their privacy

https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/google-settles-google-assistant-privacy-lawsuit-68-million-2026-01-26/

#Google #privacy #surveillance #enshittification #dystopia #technology #Apple

🚨 Episode 11 of Impractical Privacy drops tomorrow: “The HIPAA Myth.”

We rip apart the illusion that HIPAA = secrecy and show how discount‑card coupons, tele‑health pixels & data aggregators turn your prescription into a marketable data point.

👉 impracticalprivacy.com

#PrivacyFirst #DigitalRights #SurveillanceState #Privacy #HealthData #HealthTech

State of California just launched a site to have an easy way to request that data brokers delete your info with a single request. (Deletions won't start until summer [data brokers are still registering with the state for compliance].)

I tend to trust State of California with this stuff under its current administration. If privacy experts have caveats, I'd love to hear in the replies.

https://privacy.ca.gov/ #California #Privacy

Lawsuit Claims Meta Can See WhatsApp Chats in Breach of Privacy

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/lawsuit-claims-meta-see-whatsapp-013745124.html

#security #privacy #tech #technology #news #technews

"Meet Roomy: An Open-Source Discord Alternative for the Decentralized Web"

"Roomy is an open-source, decentralized platform built for communities that value privacy and control. Looking for a Discord alternative?"

https://itsfoss.com/roomy-discord-alternative/

#Privacy

Does #Mastodon make it possible to prevent a subset of users from seeing certain posts, while still allowing those users to follow you and remain unblocked? #privacy

Google Gemini Prompt Injection Flaw exposed Private Calendar Data via Malicious Invites.

The vulnerability, Miggo Security's Head of Research, Liad Eliyahu, said, made it possible to circumvent Google Calendar's privacy controls by hiding a dormant malicious payload within a standard calendar invite.

⚠️"This bypass enabled unauthorized access to private meeting data and the creation of deceptive calendar events without any direct user interaction," Eliyahu said in a report.⚠️

https://www.miggo.io/post/weaponizing-calendar-invites-a-semantic-attack-on-google-gemini

#google #calendar #gemini #llm #ai #security #privacy #engineer #media #tech #news

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👾Although the issue has since been addressed following responsible disclosure, the findings once again illustrate that AI-native features can broaden the attack surface and inadvertently introduce new security risks as more organizations use AI tools or build their own agents internally to automate workflows.👾 ⁉️"AI applications can be manipulated through the very language they're designed to understand," Eliyahu noted. "Vulnerabilities are no longer confined to code. They now live in language, context, and AI behavior at runtime."⁉️

Alt...

[ImageSource: Miggo Security] 👾The starting point of the attack chain is a new calendar event that's crafted by the threat actor and sent to a target. The invite's description embeds a natural language prompt that's designed to do their bidding, resulting in a prompt injection.👾 The attack gets activated when a user asks Gemini a completely innocuous question about their schedule [e.g., Do I have any meetings for Tuesday?], prompting the artificial intelligence [AI] chatbot to parse the specially crafted prompt in the aforementioned event's description to summarize all of user’s meetings for a specific day, add this data to a newly created Google Calendar event, and then return a harmless response to the user. ⁉️"Behind the scenes, however, Gemini created a new calendar event and wrote a full summary of our target user's private meetings in the event's description," Miggo said. "In many enterprise calendar configurations, the new event was visible to the attacker, allowing them to read the exfiltrated private data without the target user ever taking any action."⁉️