Privacy
Almost 17,000 Protesters Had No Idea A Tech Company Was Tracing Their Location
Data company Mobilewalla used cellphone information to estimate the demographics of protesters. Sen. Elizabeth Warren says it’s “shady” and concerning.
Caroline Haskins
Workers Around The World Are Already Being Monitored By Digital Contact Tracing Apps
Coronavirus contact tracing apps aren’t government-mandated. But they may be employer-mandated.
Caroline Haskins
Qatar Has Made Its Coronavirus Contact Tracing App Mandatory
Citizens and residents will be required to download the Ehteraz app when “leaving the house for any reason.”
Megha Rajagopalan
Here's Why Some Professional Photographers Are Making Their Instagram Accounts Private
The judge said Instagram's terms of service are clear.
Kate Bubacz
For A Billion Indians, The Government’s Voluntary Contact Tracing App Might Actually Be Mandatory
Aarogya Setu, which more than 75 million Indians have downloaded, might soon become more than a contact tracing app.
Pranav Dixit
We Need An “Army” Of Contact Tracers To Safely Reopen The Country. We Might Get Apps Instead.
Without enough human contact tracers to identify infected people, the US is barreling toward a digital solution, and possible disaster.
Caroline Haskins
Ontario Has Given Its Police Access To People's COVID-19 Test Data
A civil liberties group says the order violates the privacy of Ontarians.
Lauren Strapagiel
UPDATE: The Company Running An Oregon Online Coronavirus Symptom Tracker Now Says It Won't Sell Your Data To Advertisers
The privacy policy for Vital's coronavirus symptom tracker for Multnomah, Clackamas, and Washington counties had previously reserved the right to sell residents' personal data.
Caroline Haskins
Google Told Its Workers That They Can’t Use Zoom On Their Laptops Anymore
Zoom has exploded in popularity during the coronavirus pandemic while also coming under fire over security issues.
Pranav Dixit
The Coronavirus Pandemic Has Set Off A Massive Expansion Of Government Surveillance. Civil Libertarians Aren't Sure What To Do.
As nations around the world take on sweeping new powers to fight the disease, critics aren't sure what's necessary and what's too far.
Rosie Gray
Popular VPN And Ad-Blocking Apps Are Secretly Harvesting User Data
Sensor Tower has owned at least 20 apps that track data passing through people’s phones.
Craig Silverman
Amazon Bought A Router Company You've Never Heard Of. It's A Huge Deal.
Experts are concerned about what Amazon’s acquisition of Eero means for consumer privacy.
Nicole Nguyen
Venmo Users Are Being Inundated With Payment Requests From Strangers
Spammers are targeting Venmo users who show up in the app’s public feed and flooding them with dozens of payment requests.
Nicole Nguyen
Investigative Genealogy Helped Police Catch Serial Killers And Rapists. Now Cases Are Going Unsolved.
Investigative genealogy has been celebrated as one of the biggest crime-fighting breakthroughs in decades, but privacy concerns have all but ground its use to a halt.
Salvador Hernandez
India Is Creating A National Facial Recognition System, And Critics Are Afraid Of What Will Happen Next
“Unless we all get plastic surgery at the same time, there’s nothing we can do about it.”
Pranav Dixit
Instagram Won’t Say Whether It Will Protect The Identity Of An Anonymous Account Sharing #MeToo Allegations
Emails seen by BuzzFeed News show that Instagram offered support and reassurances to anonymous accounts naming sexual harassers — and then walked back when the courts got involved.
Nishita Jha
Boris Johnson Secretly Asked For A Massive Amount Of User Data To Be Tracked. Dominic Cummings Said It’s “TOP PRIORITY”.
Leaked documents show the prime minister’s chief adviser emailed senior officials instructing them: “We must get this stuff finalised ASAP.”
Alex Spence
Private Instagram Posts Aren’t Exactly Private
A shockingly simple work-around allows your followers to share private photos and videos posted to both Facebook and Instagram.
Ryan Broderick
Opinion: With This Statement, I Give Notice That Instagram Owns Your Soul
People posting a pseudo-legal declaration may believe they're in a two-way dialogue with the company. The opposite is true.
Joan Donovan
You Can Finally See All Of The Info Facebook Collected About You From Other Websites
Users will now be able to see the reach of Facebook’s tracking outside of the social network through a new tool called “Off-Facebook Activity,” which Mark Zuckerberg announced as "Clear History" more than a year ago.
Nicole Nguyen
I Love Facebook’s Video Chatting Device Because I’m Drunk On Dumb Bitch Juice
I set up the critically reviled device in the BuzzFeed office and every one was utterly, truly delighted with it.
Katie Notopoulos
Amazon Filed A Patent To Record You Before You Even Say "Alexa"
Amazon Echo devices could one day capture, process, and record audio spoken before the wake word for commands like “Play some music, Alexa.”
Nicole Nguyen
People Are Worried About Singapore Airlines' Entertainment System Cameras. Turns Out, American Airlines Has Cameras, Too.
American Airlines told BuzzFeed News that the camera hardware “has never been activated.”
Nicole Nguyen
A Politician's Tweets About Catching The Train Were Used To Identify Him In "Anonymous" Data
"It's easy to imagine how information like this could be used by people who might want to cause harm."
Hannah Ryan
We Found Out What Actually Happens To Your Data When You Upload It To FaceApp
There’s no evidence that the app is uploading your whole camera roll to Russia. We ran the tests.
Davey Alba
WhatsApp Is Fighting To Keep Millions Of Users Untraceable
WhatsApp is “a space for private conversations online.” An Indian court could make it public.
Pranav Dixit
Baby Boomers Can’t Stop Sharing Photos Of Their Grandkids. Millennial Parents Aren’t Happy.
Parents who choose not to post photos of their kids on social media struggle when Facebook-happy older relatives break the rules.
Katie Notopoulos
Millions Of Students' Sexual Orientations And Religious Beliefs Are Being Held On A Government Database
Exclusive: Freedom of information data obtained by BuzzFeed has revealed the enormous amount of highly sensitive personal information held by government bodies, often without the knowledge of the students involved.
Hazel Shearing
Here's The Most Complete Map So Far Of Amazon's Ring Camera Surveillance Partnerships With Local Police
Dozens of U.S. cities are working with the doorbell camera company, according to Fight for the Future.
Davey Alba
The Zoom Desktop App Lets Any Website Take Over Your Mac’s Camera. Here’s What To Do About It.
Zoom’s video conferencing service is used by Nasdaq, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the US Department of Homeland Security, and the US Department of Energy, among others.
Nicole Nguyen
