Ovulation tracker app Premom charged with sharing users’ personal information

Ovulation tracker app Premom charged with sharing users’ personal information

U.S. regulators said late Wednesday that Easy Healthcare Corp.’s ovulation tracker app Premom shared users “sensitive” personal information with third parties, and users’ health data with Google and a mobile marketing-analytics company. The app also failed to notify consumers of those unauthorized disclosures, the Federal Trade Commission said. The FTC has proposed that Easy Healthcare,…

Senator’s long battle to protect kids online reaches new stage — ‘Big Tech is knowingly fueling a mental-health crisis in this country’

Senator’s long battle to protect kids online reaches new stage — ‘Big Tech is knowingly fueling a mental-health crisis in this country’

Amid an escalating bipartisan outcry about the need to protect kids’ safety online, punctuated by President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, a sequel to one of the last major pieces of tech legislation was reintroduced in the Senate on Wednesday. Sen. Ed Markey’s Children and Teens’ Only Privacy and Protection Act, or COPPA 2.0,…

Opinion: Elon Musk and others may try, but controlling AI is an impossible mission

Opinion: Elon Musk and others may try, but controlling AI is an impossible mission

As we’re constantly reminded, once something ends up on the internet, it stays there, for better or worse. You can also say that such content is largely beyond the control of any particular individual or organization.  Take, for instance, the open letter published and endorsed by more than 30,000 signers so far, including Tesla TSLACEO…

Alphabet shareholders ask Google to protect reproductive data, make algorithm more transparent

Alphabet shareholders ask Google to protect reproductive data, make algorithm more transparent

Shareholders of Google parent Alphabet Inc. are asking the search giant to take more steps to protect user privacy over reproductive rights and disclose more about its algorithms. Alphabet GOOGL GOOGsaid shareholders should vote against those proposals, which were listed Friday in a proxy filing for the company’s annual shareholder meeting on June 2. The…

Parts of Twitter’s source code reportedly posted online, putting site at risk

Parts of Twitter’s source code reportedly posted online, putting site at risk

Parts of Twitter’s source code were leaked online, possibly for months, according to a new report, presenting a massive risk for Elon Musk’s social network. The New York Times reported late Sunday that Twitter disclosed the breach in a legal filing Friday, when it sent a copyright infringement notice to software-development platform GitHub in an…

Opinion: Instead of banning TikTok, Congress should do their actual job

Opinion: Instead of banning TikTok, Congress should do their actual job

As lawmakers spent nearly five hours grilling TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew on Thursday, you could be forgiven for having a serious case of déjà vu. Congressional hearings in which social-media executives take a beating have been happening for the past five years in Washington — just ask Meta Platforms Inc. META, +2.24% CEO…

Acxiom says it doesn’t collect data that could be used for abortion prosecutions

Acxiom says it doesn’t collect data that could be used for abortion prosecutions

In what they believe to be the first proposal on the issue, shareholder advocates have asked one of the world’s largest data brokers to study and release a report on how it can protect information that could be used in abortion-related prosecutions. Open MIC (Media and Information Companies Initiative), a nonprofit investor advocacy group that focuses…

Data from 235 million Twitter users reportedly exposed by hacker

Data from 235 million Twitter users reportedly exposed by hacker

Data from 235 million Twitter accounts has been leaked and posted on an online hackers forum, free for anyone to download, according to reports late Wednesday. Researchers at Privacy Affairs reported the leaked data includes account names, handles, creation dates, follower counts and email addresses, and that the data could be used for phishing, doxxing…

FTX, Axie Infinity, and other crypto hacks and scandals that took over $3 billion from victims this year

FTX, Axie Infinity, and other crypto hacks and scandals that took over $3 billion from victims this year

A year of headline-grabbing hacks and scandals made 2022 a tough year when it comes to securing digital assets. Victims lost $3 billion to crypto hacks in 2022, according to Chainalysis, a spike from $2 billion lost in 2021. Another estimate shows that victims of major hacks and scandals have lost a total of $4.3…

As U.S. fails to crack down on Big Tech, Europe shows what progress looks like

As U.S. fails to crack down on Big Tech, Europe shows what progress looks like

With no significant antitrust legislation included in the sweeping omnibus spending bill that will wrap up this session of Congress, American lawmakers might want to look overseas, where Big Tech is briskly acting in accordance with new European laws and crackdowns. Some U.S. public policy advocates were hopeful that Big Tech’s recent cooperation with the…

TikTok CEO offers reassurances over data privacy

TikTok CEO offers reassurances over data privacy

TikTok Chief Executive Shou Chew said the video-sharing platform is taking greater steps to keep user data secure and that it needs to invest more in protecting young people from getting exposed to harmful content. “We have very rigorous data-access protocols,” he said at the New York Times’s Dealbook Summit in New York on Wednesday, adding that…

IRS should brace for ‘broad and deep’ scrutiny if Republicans win the midterms

IRS should brace for ‘broad and deep’ scrutiny if Republicans win the midterms

Less than three months ago, a bill dedicating $80 billion for sweeping technological upgrades, staff additions and more enforcement at the Internal Revenue Service passed with no Republican votes, but a lot of fiery GOP criticism. Republican lawmakers could wind up with a majority in the House of Representatives and Senate after the dust settles…

Hackers hijack Fast Company, send obscene push alert through Apple News

Hackers hijack Fast Company, send obscene push alert through Apple News

Many Apple News users received a push notification Tuesday containing racist and obscene language, the result of an apparent hack. The offensive message came in a push alert around 8:18 p.m. Eastern from the account of business news magazine Fast Company, adding that “Thrax was here.” It was unclear exactly who Thrax was, or how…

Uber says it’s investigating ‘cybersecurity incident’

Uber says it’s investigating ‘cybersecurity incident’

Uber Technologies Inc. said it was investigating “a cybersecurity incident” Thursday, and reportedly took several internal systems offline as it tried to find the extent that its network was compromised. The New York Times reported that Uber employees received a message Thursday afternoon reading:  “I announce I am a hacker and Uber has suffered a…

Zscaler stock surges 22% for best day since IPO as strong forecast leads to ‘relief rally’

Zscaler stock surges 22% for best day since IPO as strong forecast leads to ‘relief rally’

Zscaler Inc. shares posted their best one-day performance since their initial public offering Friday after the cybersecurity company forecast a strong outlook amid concerns business spending may pull back in the face of economic uncertainty. Zscaler ZS, +21.88% shares rallied more than 22% Friday to close at $188, just short of their intraday high of…

DoorDash data breach: Some customers and drivers’ information accessed

DoorDash data breach: Some customers and drivers’ information accessed

DoorDash Inc. on Thursday reported a data breach affecting its customers and delivery workers that stems from a phishing attack on a third-party vendor. The app-based delivery platform said the information accessed included customer names, email addresses, delivery addresses and phone numbers, as well as order information and partial payment-card information. Names, phone numbers or…

FTC set to launch effort to expand online privacy protection rules

FTC set to launch effort to expand online privacy protection rules

WASHINGTON — The Federal Trade Commission is expected to begin writing federal rules to expand online privacy protections as soon as Thursday, according to people familiar with the matter. If adopted, the rules could impose significant new responsibilities on businesses that handle consumer data, including potentially barring certain kinds of data collection practices, the people…

Amazon’s One Medical acquisition sparks data privacy backlash: ‘What could go wrong?’

Amazon’s One Medical acquisition sparks data privacy backlash: ‘What could go wrong?’

Amazon.com Inc.’s $3.9 billion deal to acquire the direct primary-care company One Medical marks the tech giant’s biggest move into the healthcare space, but is sparking concerns about data privacy. On Thursday Amazon AMZN, -1.77% announced an agreement to acquire One Medical, which operates under 1Life Healthcare Inc. ONEM, -0.58%, for $18 a share, or…

Opinion: Bosses need to talk with employees about abortion and women’s rights. Here’s why yours should.

Opinion: Bosses need to talk with employees about abortion and women’s rights. Here’s why yours should.

The Supreme Court Dobbs v. Jackson ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade has Americans on both sides of the abortion rights issue engulfed in high emotion. There is a lot of conjecture about how companies and their leaders should be speaking out, taking a stand and taking action. But what about “speaking in” to employees?…