Joseph Cox reports: The California Department of Motor Vehicles is generating revenue of $50,000,000 a year through selling drivers’ personal information, according to a DMV document obtained by Motherboard. DMVs across the country are selling data that drivers are required to provide to the organization in order to obtain a license. This information includes names,…
Category: Govt
NYPD Pulls Fingerprint Database Offline Due to Ransomware Scare
Dark Reading reports: The New York Police Department (NYPD) pulled its LiveScan fingerprint tracking system offline after a ransomware virus spread to 23 machines connected to the database over the weekend. The incident began on October 5, when a contractor installing a digital display at a Queens police academy plugged in an infected NUC mini-PC,…
Privacy Lapses Could Be Part of Google, Facebook Antitrust Cases
Ben Brody reports: Antitrust authorities probing Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google have struggled with scrutinizing companies whose products are popular and free. Now they may have a solution: Use privacy as a test. As the U.S. Justice Department, Federal Trade Commission, Congress and the states investigate whether internet companies are flouting antitrust laws, academics and even some…
Congress extends NSA call records collection powers to March
Zack Whittaker reports: In passing a short-term funding bill to avoid a U.S. government shutdown, Congress has also extended the government’s legal powers allowing it to collect daily millions of Americans’ call records. Buried in a funding bill passed by the House this week was a clause that extended the government’s so-called Section 215 powers, which allow…