Confidential Archives

Over A Million Fingerprints Exposed In Data Breach

It has been reported that more than one million fingerprints have been exposed online by biometric security firm Suprema which appears to have installed its standard Biostar 2 product on an open network. Suprema and Biostar 2 Suprema…

Artificial Intelligence, Confidential, Security

Facial Recognition at King’s Cross Prompts ICO Investigation

The UK’s data protection watchdog (the Information Commissioner’s Office i.e. the ICO) has said that it will be investigating the use of facial recognition cameras at King’s Cross by Property Development Company Argent. What…

Confidential

Opting Out of People Reviewing Your Alexa Recordings

Amazon has now added an opt-out option for manual review of voice recordings and their associated transcripts taken through Amazon’s Alexa but it has not stopped the practice of taking voice recordings to help develop new Alexa features. Opt-Out…

Confidential, Google

Google Offers Auto-Delete of History After Three Months

Google is joining tech giants Facebook and Microsoft by offering users greater privacy of their data which for Google will give its users the option to automatically delete their search and location history after three or eighteen months. What’s…

Confidential, GDPR, Law

GDPR Says HMRC Must Delete Five Million Voice Records

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has concluded that HMRC has breached GDPR in the way that it collected the biometric voice records of users and now must delete five million biometric voice files. What Voice Files? Back in…

Confidential, GDPR, Law

Millions of Taxpayers' Voiceprints Added to Controversial HMRC Biometric Database

The fact that the voiceprints of more than 2 million people have been added to HMRC’s Voice ID scheme since June 2018, to add to the 5 million plus other voiceprints already collected, has led to complaints and challenges to the lawfulness…

Communicaton, Confidential, Office 365, Security

Microsoft Launches ‘AccountGuard’ Email Service For Election Candidates

A new kind of pilot secure email service called ‘AccountGuard’ has been launched by Microsoft, specifically for use by election candidates, and as one answer to the kind of interference that took place during the last US presidential election…

Communicaton, Confidential, Law, Security

New Australian Law Gets The Thumbs-Down From Tech Firms

In Australia, a new draft bill proposing ways for tech firms, software developers and others to assist security agencies and police has been given the thumbs-down by a major industry group over its ambiguity, and the potential security risks…

Confidential, Law, Other News, Security, Social Media

12 Russian Intelligence Officers Charged With Election Hacking

Even though, in an interview this week, President Trump appeared to absolve Russia of election interference (since retracted), the US Department of Justice has now charged 12 Russian intelligence officers with hacking Democratic officials in…

Communicaton, Confidential, Law, Phone Systems

Calls to Stop Storing of Personal Communications Data and Voiceprints

Privacy groups have led calls to halt the blanket collection and storing of communications data in the EU area, and the creation and storing of the “audio signatures” of 5.1 million people by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). Collection of…

Confidential, Security

Google Chrome’s ‘Incognito’ Mode Not So Incognito

Research by Internet Privacy Company DuckDuckGo is reported to have produced evidence that could show that even in Incognito mode, users of Google Chrome can still be tracked, and searches are still personalised accordingly. Incognito Mode Going…