Gillian Brassil reports: The House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday to strengthen journalists’ protection of confidential sources from federal investigation. The Protect Reporters from Exploitative State Spying (PRESS) Act would protect reporters from being compelled by the government to give up confidential sources and information.. It passed on a voice vote. The bill would…
Google’s Tracker to Abortion Clinics Spurs Complaint to FTC
Tonya Riley reports: Google hasn’t followed through on promises to delete sensitive user-location information, including visits to abortion clinics, according to a complaint filed with the Federal Trade Commission Thursday and provided to Bloomberg Law. The Electronic Privacy Information Center, a nonprofit privacy research and advocacy group, is asking the FTC to investigate the Alphabet Inc. unit for “unfair…
FTC settles second case with geolocation data broker in two weeks
Suzanne Smalley reports: The Federal Trade Commission announced its second settlement with a location data broker in as many weeks Thursday, signaling the agency is more aggressively policing the sector for peddling individuals’ most sensitive data to the highest bidder, often without informed consent. The agency alleges that data aggregator InMarket Media improperly collected, used…
How a 27-year-old busted the myth of Bitcoin’s anonymity
Andy Greenberg writes: Just over a decade ago, Bitcoin appeared to many of its adherents to be the crypto-anarchist holy grail: truly private digital cash for the Internet. Satoshi Nakamoto, the cryptocurrency’s mysterious and unidentifiable inventor, had stated in an email introducing Bitcoin that “participants can be anonymous.” And the Silk Road dark-web drug market seemed like…