Google presses ahead with ‘walled garden’ to replace third-party cookies in Chrome

Google is pressing ahead with plans to ditch third-party cookies in its Chrome web browser in favour of its own “privacy sandbox”, despite the launch of an investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) over whether the practice is anti-competitive.  Third-party cookies are created by entities other than the website that the user is … Read more

No room for government complacency on AI, says Lords report

A new House of Lords report says the UK government needs to better coordinate its artificial intelligence (AI) policy and the use of data and technology by national and local government.  The main conclusions of the House of Lords Liaison Committee’s report, ‘AI in the UK: No Room for Complacency’, are that there is now … Read more

Encrypted messaging could increase child abuse cases, report warns

Millions of children in England are using messaging platforms that they are not old enough to be accessing and the introduction of end-to-end encryption (E2EE) could increase their risk of exploitation, the Children’s Commissioner for England has warned in a report.  The Commissioner’s report follows announcements by Facebook – and indications by other social platforms, such as Snap – … Read more

Private prison firm hit with ransomware attack

The GEO Group, the company best known for operating illegal immigration detention centres and private prisons in the US, disclosed that it suffered a ransomware attack this summer, exposing sensitive information about inmates and residents.  Personal data and health information of both inmates and residents were exposed during the attack, which took place on 19 August … Read more

Facebook in legal battle over ban on transatlantic data transfer

Facebook is fighting demands from European data regulators to stop transferring user data from the EU to US servers. In a lawsuit filed in Dublin, the company warned that it would not be able to provide services to EU users if forced to comply with the order.  Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported that Ireland’s … Read more

How would people like coronavirus contact-tracing to be carried out?

The research, conducted by a team at the University of Exeter, found that people are more concerned about who runs the process than the risks of others having unauthorised access to their private information, or their data being stolen. Most people who took part in the research were in favour of the NHS processing personal data rather than … Read more