HeadFlash Privacy

Italy sentenced a refugee using Cellebrite-extracted data, German police pulled Signal chats from a journalist's phone, and Turin activists found their devices cracked.

Sources:

• Israeli phone cracking tools targeted refugees, activists, journalists in Europe - Statewatch
• Wearable sleep trackers are using your brainwaves to train AI models without explicit user consent — tens of millions of hours of EEG data harvested | Tom's Hardware
• Google ad tags gain full IPs on January 11 unless sGTM owners build a fix
• EU Regulators Set 2027 GDPR Sweep to Test Human Review in Automated Candidate Screening
• How Everyday Life Feeds Government Surveillance Databases

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Google's $10M bid for Spirit Airlines data cleared a privacy hurdle, Spain's AEPD opened a TikTok probe, and Flock drew a line at warrants.

Sources:

• Google's $10 million plan to buy Spirit's data and use it to train AI cleared one of its last big hurdles
• Spanish watchdog opens TikTok probe but denies government demand to block app
• Flock backs state rules for its license plate cameras, but draws the line at warrants
• We Mapped All the Random Spots In California That DHS Operates From, Revealed By the Latest Hack
• 10 Google Privacy Hacks Everyone Should Know

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BYOD gang says it stole over a million Social Security numbers from Vanderbilt, while Seattle switches its surveillance cameras back on.

Sources:

• Vanderbilt University hit in BYOD ransomware attack, data theft claimed
• Wide-ranging reactions as Seattle reactivates RTCC cameras and expands surveillance system
• Google DeepMind analysis proves Signal and WhatsApp encryption is secure
• Flawed EU border checks threaten author Jojo Moyes with two-year travel ban in EES error that could affect thousands of UK travellers - Which?
• Kassait warns Kenya is playing catch-up as foreign firms control digital infrastructure

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FTC restricts GM and OnStar for up to five years, while cities cancel Flock camera contracts and Australia weighs age checks that worry Google.

Sources:

• Millions Of Drivers Had Their Speeding And Late-Night Trips Logged By Their Own Cars
• What the Flock? Stories to understand the national controversy around the AI cameras
• Meta announces global roll out of its age estimation system
• Google warns Australian safety bill could block teens from Gmail
• Big Tech, AI, and the quiet expansion of digital surveillance in Nigeria

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Meta must face four certified classes over medical data captured by its Pixel, while Google bans a TV-box maker for a backdoor in 1.3 million devices.

Sources:

• Meta Accused of Tracking Patients' Medical Appointments, Prescriptions, and Health Conditions as Judge Certifies Class Action | IBTimes UK
• Cheap Android TV boxes came with malware, and Google says the manufacturer was behind it | TechSpot
• Sony smart TV privacy suit survives as judge rejects arbitration bid | Courthouse News Service
• Watchdog investigates Europol over ‘irregular’ data processing claims | Computer Weekly
• Deputy Accused Of Using Flock To Track Estranged Wife
• Apple turns iCloud into spy cloud, will start looking at public share links
• Snapchat’s Find Friends feature will be off by default for UK users under 18
• LA Council seeks citywide data privacy policy amid AI, ALRP tech
• Beware this CAPTCHA scam designed to steal your data
• Weaponizing Personalization: From Knowledge Graph to Extortion — Eighth Rank
• Mike Johnson went from FISA critic to defender of warrantless surveillance
• NT Health issues ban on Meta Glasses as part of review into privacy policy - ABC News
• Applebee’s customer data exposed by password left in app | Malwarebytes
• Rosstat hack: data obtained suggests over 390,000 Russian deaths in Ukraine war
• Opinion: Flock cameras show that we need a constitutional amendment for information privacy

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ICO opens a call for evidence on how AI agents handle personal data, with responses due November 20 and guidance plus a statutory code to follow.

Sources:

• UK ICO puts 30 questions to AI agent builders before November 20
• Postal Service Surveilled Protest Activities Online With Little Rules, Oversight | Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Smart Glasses Could See Major Bans in the UK

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Ring's third-party AI apps turn cameras on tenants, a WA facial recognition trial scanned 1.38 million faces, and mSecure warns customers after a breach.

Sources:

• Ring's Little-Known AI Apps Let Landlords Monitor Tenants, Count Guests and Flag 'House Rule Violations' | IBTimes UK
• Police use facial recognition to scan one million faces in WA trial leading to 122 arrests | Western Australia | The Guardian
• mSecure password manager hack prompts password reset warnings
• Global data breaches jump 13% as UK leaks more than double — and Ukraine rockets up the rankings
• US contractor secretly passed top-secret intelligence to Ethiopia for more than two years as Washington reveals how American secrets reached a wartime government

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A researcher found Lenovo's AES-256 fingerprint stick stored data unencrypted, and follow-up work surfaced backdoors and hardcoded keys in other 'secure' drives.

Sources:

• Lenovo's 'encrypted' fingerprint USB drive is just an unencrypted SD card in a fancy case — AI-assisted follow-up finds a backdoor and hardcoded keys in other ‘secure’ USB products (updated) | Tom's Hardware
• OpenAI seems to be silently re-enabling model training on Codex chats
• YSK Molly(Signal fork) has not been updated since 3 months and is vulnerable to attacks fixed in mainline Signal
• Russia’s FSB gets round-the-clock access to crypto exchange customer data starting in March — Meduza
• AI wearables want to remember everything. What happens when we can’t forget?

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A Northeastern study of 5,943 experiments finds ACR opt-outs fail on most smart TV platforms, with Vizio traffic persisting in every opted-out test.

Sources:

• Study Claims Vizio Simply Ignores ‘Smart’ TV Spying Opt Out Requests
• Ford promises not to sell your driving habits to data brokers
• ChatGPT Adds Ability To Hide Private Chats Using A PIN
• Putin orders private data centers in Russia to reserve 10% of their capacity for the state — Meduza

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36 attorneys general settle with GM, Ofcom wins moderation data from TikTok, X and Meta, and CBP is ordered to explain a Dulles phone seizure.

Sources:

• General Motors to Pay $220 Million to Settle Driver Data Privacy Allegations
• Social media titans must hand moderation data over to Ofcom after failed High Court bid
• CBP really doesn’t want to reveal what it does to Americans’ phones
• Lapsed US snooping law still running as senators object | Computer Weekly
• ChatGPT Dot Can Now Text via iMessage and RCS, But Linq Sees All Messages
• Starlink Users in 105 Countries May Have Been Targeted by a Massive Surveillance Operation - Gadget Review
• Chainalysis discloses data breach from "offensive agentic techniques"
• Russia added Apple and Microsoft to a state surveillance registry
• Flock ignores Minnesota city’s orders not to reinstall AI surveillance cameras — citizens complain after spotting two cameras despite the city canceling its contract | Tom's Hardware
• India bets on ‘sealed rooms’ to train AI on sensitive data without exposing it
• Proton AI Push: CEO Dismisses Security Tests as Weakness
• How to block Siri AI and Google Gemini from accessing your sensitive app data
• Data Privacy Ranking | GDPR OMNIBUS | Data Privacy in the EU Omnibus amendments

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