Lighthouse Reports reports: In the decade since Edward Snowden’s leaks exposed the workings of the US and UK national surveillance apparatus, the market for spying services has fragmented and expanded into a start-up economy of location trackers, password crackers and data extractors. Investigations into this industry have focused on spyware companies like NSO Group and…
California’s digital privacy battle: It’s police vs. civil libertarians, with an abortion twist
Kristen Hwang reports: On March 1, 2019, 38-year-old Adbadalla Thabet arrived at a Bank of America in the Paramount neighborhood of Los Angeles to deposit cash from a string of gas stations he helped his family manage. As he parked, two other vehicles — one red, one gray — approached from behind. The driver of the gray…
No changes to BIPA lawsuit rules
Kevin Bessler reports: Despite a suggestion by the Illinois Supreme Court that the legislature needs to address concerns about excessive damage awards connected to the Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), nothing has changed. The high court ruled that a separate claim accrues each time data is collected, such as a finger scan. White Castle is…
Russia says US hacked thousands of Apple phones in spy plot
Guy Faulconbridge reports: Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Thursday it had uncovered an American espionage operation that compromised thousands of iPhones using sophisticated surveillance software. Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab said dozens of its employees’ devices were compromised in the operation. The FSB, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said in a statement that…