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Facebook has assembled a team of experts to investigate the encryption of WhatsApp messages. The goal is likely to be the collection of data for personalized advertising. Facebook has hired a number of experts to look into the encryption of WhatsApp messages. Basically, only the chat partners can decrypt the corresponding messages with the app. Not even WhatsApp itself has this option. So the question arises as to how Facebook intends to obtain usable data from this. According to a report from Android Authority , the keyword is "homomorphic encryption". This would be a way to analyze data without decrypting it. However, it is still unclear how this will work exactly.  Facebook is looking for new ways to collect data What should be pretty clear, however, is the purpose of the whole action. Facebook wants to collect even more data about its users in order to be able to serve personalized ads. Unsurprisingly, Facebook has denied this intention. The issue comes at a time when Fac...

The spy program leaves traces on smartphones. Software now enables iPhone users to check their device for the surveillance tool. Governments around the world are spying on their critics - journalists, human rights activists, opposition figures: the international "Pegasus Project" series of revelations made headlines around the world two and a half weeks ago. At the center of the research, in which the Süddeutsche Zeitung was also involved, was the Pegasus spy software from the Israeli company NSO. The program is capable of infecting smartphones from a distance. A secret service or police agency that has a Pegasus license usually only needs the phone number of a target person to attack his or her smartphone. Pegasus then turns the phone into a digital bug, taking complete control of the device. All data and all communications can be viewed, stolen and analyzed by police and intelligence officers, even encrypted chats. Even remote control of the camera and microphone is possibl...

New figures show how hacker attacks are affecting the German economy. The amount of damage has jumped due to Corona - and the nature of the attacks has changed. Computer hackers have increasingly targeted the German economy. Since the beginning of the Corona crisis, for example, not only has the number of attacks by cybercriminals on local companies, research institutes, associations and institutions increased significantly. The total amount of damage has also increased by leaps and bounds. At 223 billion euros a year, it is currently more than twice as high as in 2018 and 2019. Nearly 90 percent of the one thousand companies and organizations surveyed in a representative poll conducted by the Berlin-based digital association Bitkom said they had been hit by attacks from the Internet - worse than ever before. In the two years before the Corona crisis, "only" 75 percent of companies saw themselves in the crosshairs of cybercriminals. At the time, the damage was estimated at ar...

The consulting firm McKinsey recently published an interesting study with regard to digitization and the use of online services by German citizens. Almost one in five consumers in Germany with Internet access is using digital services such as online banking or ordering groceries for the first time since the outbreak of the COVID 19 pandemic. Nevertheless, Germany, a major economic nation, ranks only second to last in terms of digital usage behavior within Europe. Only consumers in Switzerland are less digital. Germans worry about their data One important reason for this is the data protection and security concerns of German citizens, which are greater than in any other country in Europe. Despite ranking second to last, the use of digital channels and services also outweighs analog alternatives in Germany during the Corona restrictions. Much of this is due to entire sectors being forced into digital offerings as a result of the pandemic. In no European country is distrust of digital off...

Journalists and opposition figures around the world have apparently been spied on using powerful spy software. This is shown by an international research. Actually, it should only be used to track criminals and terrorists. They have apparently been targeted by intelligence agencies and police authorities around the globe: Hundreds of journalists, human rights activists, lawyers and politicians, including state presidents. Their cell phones were allegedly selected to be monitored with spy software. This is suggested by research conducted by an international consortium of journalists, in which NDR, WDR, "Süddeutsche Zeitung" and the weekly newspaper "Zeit" are also involved. Together with the organization Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International, the journalists have analyzed a data set of more than 50,000 telephone numbers. It is a list of potential spying targets selected by customers of the Israeli company NSO Group. NSO is one of the leading manufacturers of co...

The German economy finds itself in a threatening situation. According to the Federation of German Industries, the number of cyberattacks has increased during the pandemic. The main reason is working from the home office. German companies are more of a target for criminal attacks than ever before, according to the Federation of German Industries (BDI). "German business has never been attacked as much as it is today," Matthias Wachter, head of security at the BDI, told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper. "The number of attacks has increased further in the Corona pandemic because companies are even more vulnerable in the home office." Representatives of security authorities and associations confirm the development.  "The threat situation remains very tense and has been exacerbated by the pandemic," according to the report from the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI). "Cyber attacks with extortion software play a major role in this." Part...

Neeva is a search engine that was awaited with great interest. After all, it was designed by those ex-Googlers who had significantly contributed to Google search. Now it's here. In the United States of America, there is now an alternative to Google search that comes from the same people who created Google search - at least in part. However, Neeva is taking a completely different approach than its counterpart called Search, which remains with Google. Google "littered" with advertising While Google Search is free of charge, the use of Neeva costs around five US dollars per month after the first three free months. In return, Neeva does not display any advertising and does not perform any tracking of its visitors or clicked search results. Excessive advertising and increasingly intrusive tracking have prompted the Neeva makers to present their own design of a search engine. Their belief : "Mainstream search engines no longer primarily serve the user. They're littered...

Google is facing a formal investigation in the EU into its lucrative advertising business. In contrast to previous investigations, this time the entire value chain is at stake. The EU Commission could initiate formal proceedings against Google's digital advertising business. The investigation is expected to start later this year, Reuters has learned from insiders. Apparently, it is a reaction to a previous unofficial investigation. In January, Google had to fill out two questionnaires from the EU Commission, including one on its advertising business. Now a formal investigation is to follow. Investigation with a new dimension The investigation is to look at Google's position compared to advertisers, publishers, intermediaries and competitors, Reuters reports. At issue is whether Google is exploiting its power and making conditions more difficult for other market players. The EU's antitrust watchdogs have imposed billions of dollars in fines on Google in the past. Google...

The messenger service WhatsApp does not exactly have the best reputation at the moment. The criticism comes primarily from data protectionists. Normal users, on the other hand, shrug their shoulders. The months-long controversy over WhatsApp's new privacy rules appears to have had little consequence for Facebook's chat service in Germany. In a survey commissioned by the news agency dpa, 79 percent said they use the app on their smartphone. According to the survey, a good half of WhatsApp users (52 percent) already agreed with the new rules, which came into force in mid-May. At the same time, 13 percent said they planned to delete the app. Around half of them already had data protection concerns beforehand, while five percent of respondents only had doubts following the debate about the new regulations. Two percent want to leave because many of their contacts would also have removed WhatsApp. Half have "no good feeling," but stay anyway Whether it actually comes to the...

TikTok's privacy policy for the US now mentions the collection of biometric data from faces and voices. The background is likely to be a legal dispute that cost the company $92 million. Neue Datenschutzbestimmungen sind oft eher etwas für Juristen, doch die jüngste Aktualisierung von TikTok sollte alle Nutzerinnen und Nutzer in den USA aufhorchen lassen. Denn in den am 2. Juni aktualisierten Datenschutzbestimmungen für die USA ist ein Abschnitt enthalten, den es zuvor nicht gab. Er lautet übersetzt: »Wir sammeln möglicherweise biometrische Identifikationsmerkmale und biometrische Informationen, wie sie im US-Recht definiert sind, wie etwa von deinem Gesicht und deiner Stimme, aus deinen Inhalten.« Im englischsprachigen Original ist von »faceprint« und »voiceprint« die Rede. »Bevor wir damit anfangen«, frage man jedoch nach dem Einverständnis, wenn dies gesetzlich nötig sei, fügte noch TikTok hinzu. In response to an initial inquiry from "TechCrunch" about the ba...