Tim Johnson reports: Dozens of lawmakers in Congress are using tracking tools on their campaign websites to collect personal information about online visitors, including some legislators who have lambasted Facebook and other social media companies for employing similar methods. The revelations underscore how critical internet tracking has become to politicians who seek information on voters…
Category: Online
Two Federal Cases Illustrate the Consequences of Sextortion
Children and young adults seem particularly susceptible to sextortion—when a victim is threatened with the release of private and sensitive information unless sexual favors, nude photos, or other demands are met. But two unrelated cyberstalking crimes committed months apart and hundreds of miles away from each other serve as a reminder of the dangers of…
‘Remini’ App Used by Schools Left Personal Info Open to the World
Joseph Cox reports: Remini, a smartphone app that launched in 2013, aims to provide parents and educators with a social network to follow a child’s progress throughout school and their early life, documenting important milestones and letting parents share images with their child’s school. But Remini exposed these, and the personal information of its users…
‘Do Not Track,’ the Privacy Tool Used by Millions of People, Doesn’t Do Anything
Kashmir Hill reports: When you go into the privacy settings on your browser, there’s a little option there to turn on the “Do Not Track” function, which will send an invisible request on your behalf to all the websites you visit telling them not to track you. A reasonable person might think that enabling it…