2024-11-20
Thanks @WIRED @dmehro for letting me comment on this horror story: 3B+ phone coordinates collected by a US data broker expose the detailed movements of US military + intelligence workers in Germany. ‘The scope of the industry is the problem,’ Sherman says. https://www.wired.com/...
Wired
An investigation reveals how phone coordinates collected by US data broker Datastream expose the movements of US military and intelligence workers in Germany
More than 3 billion phone coordinates collected by a US data broker expose the detailed movements of US military and intelligence workers …
2023-11-06
🚨NEW @DukeCyberPolicy: Data Brokers and the Sale of Data on US Military Personnel. We bought data from data brokers on active-duty military personnel via a US .org domain — and then via a .asia domain. Health, finances, and more, for $0.12/servicemember: https://techpolicy.sanford.duke.edu/ ...
NBC News
Duke University study: personal data from active-duty US service members is cheap, easy to buy, and widely advertised by brokers; data on ~50K people cost ~$10K
Duke University researchers were able to purchase information about thousands of U.S. military personnel often for as little as 12 cents per person.
2023-02-14
Pricing for mental health data varied: one data broker charged $275 for 5,000 aggregated counts of Americans' mental health records, while other firms charged upwards of $100,000/year for access to data that included information on individuals' mental health conditions.
Washington Post
A study finds 11 data brokers selling Americans' mental health information, including on antidepressants, insomnia, and attention issues, likely from app makers
🚨 NEW @DukeCyberPolicy: former student researcher @itsjhk asked 37 data brokers about buying mental health data, 11 of which were willing to sell it. Advertised data included depression, insomnia, ADHD, anxiety, ... — some for just hundreds of dollars.🧵 https://techpolicy.sanford.duke.edu/ ...
Washington Post
A study finds 11 data brokers selling Americans' mental health information, including on antidepressants, insomnia, and attention issues, likely from app makers
Thanks to @drewharwell @washingtonpost for covering our new @DukeCyberPolicy data broker research from @itsjhk, and for the chance to comment. The sale of Americans' mental health data is perfectly legal in the US — but this shouldn't be the case. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Washington Post
A study finds 11 data brokers selling Americans' mental health information, including on antidepressants, insomnia, and attention issues, likely from app makers
Key findings include: Some data brokers are marketing highly sensitive data on individuals' mental health conditions on the open market, with seemingly minimal vetting of customers and seemingly few controls on the use of purchased data.
Washington Post
A study finds 11 data brokers selling Americans' mental health information, including on antidepressants, insomnia, and attention issues, likely from app makers
2023-02-02
In several lectures already this week @DukeU, undergrad + grad students have repeatedly asked how it's legal for many companies to broker health data. Today, @FTC announced enforcement against GoodRx for unauthorized disclosures of consumer health data. https://www.ftc.gov/...
New York Times
Drug discount app GoodRx agrees to pay $1.5M to settle with the FTC, which said the company wrongfully gave intimate health info to Meta, Google, and others
2022-05-11
Must-read report from @GeorgetownCPT. ICE's surveillance infrastructure is massive: —scanned driver's license photos of 1/3 adults —access driver's license data of 3/4 adults —tracks movements of drivers in cities home of 3/4 adults —and much, much more https://www.americandragnet.org/
The Verge
Report: ICE uses private data brokers to bypass legal restrictions and build a surveillance system capable of pulling “detailed dossiers” on nearly any US adult
2022-02-23
“Stalkerware apps are installed surreptitiously by someone with physical access to a person's phone and are hidden from home screens, but will silently and continually upload call records, text messages, photos, browsing history, precise location data and call recordings...” https://twitter.com/...
TechCrunch
A look at nine Android spyware apps, installed on ~400K phones, which connect to servers controlled by Vietnam-based 1Byte and share a critical security flaw
A fleet of spyware apps share the same security flaw — Much of the spyware you hear of today are the powerful nation-state backed exploits …
2021-12-21
Oracle is one of the largest data brokers — part of an ecosystem collecting, buying, and selling data on hundreds of millions of people, on the open market, with virtually no regulation. This is highly concerning news for our privacy: https://twitter.com/...
CNBC
Oracle will acquire electronic medical records company Cerner for $28.3B, or $95 per share, in an all-cash deal, its biggest acquisition yet
part of an ecosystem collecting, buying, and selling data on hundreds of millions of people, on the open market, with virtually no regulation. This is highly concerning news for ou...
2021-12-07
Another major investigation by @jonkeegan and @alfredwkng on data brokerage — “The Markup has learned, however, that the app is selling data on kids' and families' whereabouts to approximately a dozen data brokers who have sold data to virtually anyone who wants to buy it.” https://twitter.com/...
The Markup
Sources: Life360, a family safety app with 33M users, has sold users' precise location since 2016 and is one of the location data broker industry's top sources
family safety app Life360. Life360 sells location data from its 33 million users to about a dozen data brokers, including X-Mode, Safegraph, and Cuebiq. https://themarkup.org/... W...
2021-10-31
NEW: @gwbstr and I in @ForeignAffairs — why democracies shouldn't abandon the ideal of a global internet, as some are doing right now https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ ...
Foreign Affairs
How the rhetoric surrounding techno-globalism has shifted, from countries advocating for a free, open internet to imposing limits to protect national interests
Two key words were missing from the statements that followed the inaugural in-person summit in September of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue … Tweets: @sariarhohavren , @chadbow...
2021-10-30
NEW: @gwbstr and I in @ForeignAffairs — why democracies shouldn't abandon the ideal of a global internet, as some are doing right now https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ ...
Foreign Affairs
How the rhetoric surrounding techno-globalism has shifted, from countries advocating for a free, open internet to imposing limits to protect national interests
Two key words were missing from the statements that followed the inaugural in-person summit in September of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue … Tweets: @gwbstr , @carnage4life , ...
2021-08-13
Another important @josephfcox story on the large, unregulated, and dangerous data brokerage industry: “SafeGraph markets its data to government entities and a wide range of industries, but it also sells the data on the open market to essentially anyone.” https://www.vice.com/...
VICE
Google says it banned location data company SafeGraph in early June, meaning apps using SafeGuard location SDK had to remove it
Joseph Cox / VICE :
2020-06-25
My latest @WIRED: the bigger story behind Facebook's internet cable project — aka the geopolitics of physical internet infrastructure https://www.wired.com/...
Wired
DOJ has objected to Facebook and Google's 8,000-mile cable to Hong Kong, claiming it offers “unprecedented opportunities” for Chinese government espionage
The DOJ's opposition to Facebook and Google's 8,000-mile cable to Hong Kong highlights how physical infrastructure is as contentious as the virtual world.
2020-01-28
Very interesting story by @Bing_Chris @jc_stubbs @josephmenn, including because of the DNS hijacking involved. “While small-scale DNS attacks are relatively common, the scale of these attacks has alarmed Western intelligence agencies.” https://www.reuters.com/...
Reuters