Privacy
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
Facebook Will Now Show You How To Opt Out Of Targeted Ads
The new tool tells you how an ad was targeted and which third-party agency or data broker was used. It also links to pages to opt out.
Katie Notopoulos
"Sign In With Apple" Hides Your Login Data From Facebook And Google
A slew of new features across Apple products offer privacy-focused alternatives to popular services like Facebook sign-in and Google Maps.
Nicole Nguyen
A Reminder That Donald Trump Defended The Paparazzi Who Took Nude Photos Of Kate Middleton
Trump blamed Middleton for the photos being taken.
Alan White
Google Has A Secret Page That Records All The Things You've Bought Online
Gmail's "Purchases" page collects and sorts out all of your online shopping and in-app purchase receipts.
Katie Notopoulos
Google Combined The Google Home And Nest Security Cam Into One Screen
The Google Nest Hub Max is like a Google Home with a touchscreen and built-in security, plus video chat, camera.
Nicole Nguyen
Google Will Soon Let You Automatically Scrub Your Location And Web History From Your Account Every Few Months
It’s a plus for privacy.
Pranav Dixit
United, Delta, And American Airlines Cover Creepy Cameras On Seatback Screens Following Outcry
United Airlines and Delta have covered the cameras on their entertainment systems after passenger outcry over privacy concerns. American Airlines said plans to do the same.
Nicole Nguyen
Amazon Echo Owners Say They Can't Listen To Some Audio Snippets Accidentally Recorded By Alexa
An Amazon spokesperson said the issue is "a bug" and it's rolling out a fix early next week.
Nicole Nguyen
Apple Wants To Remind Us It Isn’t Screwing Us Over On Privacy Like Everyone Else
Apple wants to be the only tech company we can trust.
Katie Notopoulos
Facebook Employees Had Access To Millions Of Unprotected Passwords
In a blog post titled “Keeping Passwords Secure," Facebook explained that it had not.
Leticia Miranda
Here's Elizabeth Warren's Plan To Break Up Huge Tech Platforms Like Facebook, Google, And Amazon
Warren would classify tech companies with global revenue of $25 billion or more as "platform utilities" and attempt to break them up via antitrust laws.
Ryan Broderick
After A Year Of Hurt, Mark Zuckerberg Unveils A New Privacy-Focused Social Network
“Frankly we don't currently have a strong reputation for building privacy protective services.”
Ryan Mac
