Online Privacy

Australia demands answers from Twitter on how it tackles online hate

Australia's online safety watchdog has issued a legal notice to Twitter demanding an explanation of what the social media giant is doing to tackle a surge in online hate since Tesla CEO Elon Musk bought the platform. Australia's eSafety Commission describes itself as the world's first government agency dedicated to keeping people safer online. The agency said Thursday that it received more complaints about online hate on Twitter in the past 12 months than any other platform and had received an increasing number of reports of serious online abuse since Musk took over the company in October. The Australian agency's boss, eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, said she sent a notice to the San Francisco-based company Wednesday with 36 detailed questions on how Twitter's policies about hateful conduct are enforced. If Twitter does not respond with factual and truthful responses to all questions within 28 days, an Australian judge could fine the company up to 700,000 Australian dollars

WhatsApp faces issue in privacy setting for online status on iOS globally

Meta-owned messaging platform WhatsApp is facing a server-side issue, making it impossible to update the privacy setting "who can see when I'm online," globally on iOS

500 mn users, including from India, at risk in WhatsApp data breach: Report

From India, more than 6 million WhatsApp users could be at risk, the report said

Ransomware cyber attacks spike to over 1.2 mn per month in H12022

The volume of ransomware threats detected spiked to more than 1.2 million per month between the January-June period, a report revealed

Teens risk privacy breach by sharing personal information on social media

There is hope that the kids are willing to adopt secured spaces if guided well, said Tsaaro CEO

Leaving behind mixed legacy, Sandberg quits Facebook at a perilous moment

She was pivotal in helping the company reach an unparalleled scale of more than two billion active users after Zuckerberg poached her from Google in 2008

How will the new rules for VPN providers threaten user privacy?

The govt has come up with regulations requiring VPN service providers to collect and store a host of personal information from their subscribers. Can the new rules undermine your privacy?

Explained: What parents think about their children's online privacy?

A recent survey on data privacy for children found that while parents were aware of data privacy, the majority were not aware of any laws that protect children's data privacy

No intention to make social media users' verification mandatory: Govt

"This is a issue where we are actively involved with, and actively responding to," the minister said

China's TikTok faces claim for billions in London child privacy lawsuit

TikTok representative said privacy and safety were the company's top priorities and that it had robust policies, processes and technologies in place to help protect all users, especially teenage users

How to set-up Facebook tools to control comments on posts, filter News Feed

Facebook's new tools give its user more control over what they share and see on the social media platform

Terror groups in Pakistan switch to new messaging apps amid privacy debate

Amid a raging debate over privacy offered by messaging platforms like WhatsApp, terrorist groups from Pakistan are switching to new applications which include one developed by a Turkish company

Twitter says state-backed actors may have accessed users' phone numbers

The feature, which allows people with a user's phone number to find and connect with that user on Twitter, is off by default for users in the European Union where stringent privacy rules are in place

YouTube's landmark privacy upheaval on kids video content begins

These changes have been expected for months, but their impact is still unknown

IT parliamentary panel meets experts to discuss data security, privacy

It is learnt that the next meeting could be held in January, after which a report will be submitted

Online privacy: A blockchain, general data protection conundrum

The very technology that sought to maintain the integrity of data is at odds with the laws that endeavours to protect personal data

Govt must draw up norms to monitor Google, Facebook, Twitter: Mohandas Pai

Pai stressed the need for the government to draw up norms vis-a-vis functioning of such big platforms

Think twice about surrendering online privacy for sake of convenience

The more privacy conscious have to go through the trouble of using encryption for all their messages

How online privacy is linked to your pocket

Avoid using real personal data and make a separate e-mail address for free apps and services