TikTok skirted a privacy safeguard in Google’s Android operating system to collect unique identifiers from millions of mobile devices, data that allows the app to track users online without allowing them to opt out, a Wall Street Journal analysis has found. The tactic, which experts in mobile-phone security said was concealed through an unusual added layer of encryption, appears to have violated Google policies limiting how apps track people and wasn’t disclosed to TikTok users. TikTok ended the practice in November, the Journal’s testing showed.

 https://www.marketwatch.com/story/tiktok-collected-android-user-data-using-tactic-banned-by-google-2020-08-11

Why the US ban on WeChat is a much bigger deal than TikTok

 https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/why-the-us-ban-on-wechat-is-a-much-bigger-deal-than-tiktok-20200807-p55jk0.html

Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) on Wednesday said it was implementing a one-year moratorium on police use of its facial recognition software, halting a business it long defended as many protested law enforcement brutality against people of color. The decision culminates a two-year battle between Amazon and civil liberties activists, who have voiced concern that inaccurate matches could lead to unjust arrests.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-com-facial-recognition/amazon-pauses-police-use-of-facial-recognition-tech-for-a-year-idUSKBN23H3EO

Turn on your webcam, enable your microphone and share your computer screen, an anonymous voice told university student Emily Johnston as she sat her first online exam from her bedroom. Don't look away from your screen for too long, in case artificial intelligence scans your face and registers suspicious behaviour. Any noise or movement you make will be recorded, reviewed and stored for two years. Many university students have been unsettled by proctoring software being used to invigilate their online exams during the coronavirus pandemic.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/you-re-being-watched-and-recorded-every-breath-students-unsettled-by-exam-software-20200519-p54ucb.html

Warning Over Chinese Mobile Giant Xiaomi Recording Millions Of People’s ‘Private’ Web And Phone Use

https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2020/04/30/exclusive-warning-over-chinese-mobile-giant-xiaomi-recording-millions-of-peoples-private-web-and-phone-use/#333f931a1b2a

Half-baked: The COVIDSafe app is not fit for purpose on iPhones

https://www.smh.com.au/technology/the-covidsafe-app-is-not-fit-for-purpose-on-iphones-20200506-p54qjk.html

Covid safe: Australian government launches coronavirus tracing app amid lingering privacy concerns

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/apr/26/australias-coronavirus-tracing-app-set-to-launch-today-despite-lingering-privacy-concerns

China Launches National Blockchain Network in 100 Cities

https://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/software/china-launches-national-blockchain-network-100-cities

What is fingerprinting? The online tracking you can't avoid

https://www.smh.com.au/technology/what-is-fingerprinting-the-online-tracking-you-cant-avoid-20191101-p536ff.html

The Chinese Communist Party has gained the ability to spy on more than 100 million citizens via a heavily promoted official app, a report suggests. The app pushes out official news and images and encourages people to earn points by reading articles, commenting on them and playing quizzes about China and its leader, Xi Jinping. Use of the app is mandatory among party officials and civil servants and it is tied to wages in some workplaces.

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-50042379

Chinese face-swap app Zao rocketed to the top of app store charts over the weekend, but user delight at the prospect of becoming instant superstars quickly turned sour as privacy implications began to sink in.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-02/china-s-red-hot-face-swapping-app-provokes-privacy-concern

More than 1,000 Android apps harvest data even after you deny permissions The apps gather information such as location, even after owners explicitly say no. Google says a fix won’t come until Android Q.

https://www.cnet.com/news/more-than-1000-android-apps-harvest-your-data-even-after-you-deny-permissions/

China Is Forcing Tourists to Install Text-Stealing Malware at its Border The malware downloads a tourist’s text messages, calendar entries, and phone logs, as well as scans the device for over 70,000 different files.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/7xgame/at-chinese-border-tourists-forced-to-install-a-text-stealing-piece-of-malware

iOS 13 shows Apple is serious about privacy

https://www.smh.com.au/technology/ios-13-shows-apple-is-serious-about-privacy-20190625-p5215d.html

In upcoming versions of iOS and macOS, the new Find My feature will broadcast Bluetooth signals from Apple devices even when they're offline, allowing nearby Apple devices to relay their location to the cloud. That should help you locate your stolen laptop even when it's sleeping in a thief's bag. And it turns out that Apple's elaborate encryption scheme is also designed not only to prevent interlopers from identifying or tracking an iDevice from its Bluetooth signal, but also to keep Apple itself from learning device locations, even as it allows you to pinpoint yours.

https://www.wired.com/story/apple-find-my-cryptography-bluetooth/

Beijing: A feared smartphone app being used by Chinese police to surveil the Uighur ethnic minority has been reverse-engineered by a human rights group, revealing that even turning your own phone off can trigger suspicion. When The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age travelled to China's western region of Xinjiang in late 2018, residents there said Muslim Uighurs regularly had their phones inspected by police. If "suspicious" content was found, they were sent to re-education centres, where hundreds of thousands of Muslims are believed to be detained.

https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/how-a-smartphone-app-helps-china-turn-turned-xinjiang-into-a-police-state-20190502-p51jfg.html

Tech giants such as Apple, Google and Facebook can be forced to help Australia's law enforcement agencies read our private messages under new laws designed to ensure wrongdoers can't hide behind encryption.

https://www.smh.com.au/technology/what-do-the-new-encryption-laws-mean-for-you-20181207-p50kvh.html

Roughly 60 percent of the top free mobile VPN apps returned by Google Play Store and Apple Play Store searches are from developers based in China or with Chinese ownership, raising serious concerns about data privacy, a study published today has revealed.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/many-free-mobile-vpn-apps-are-based-in-china-or-have-chinese-ownership/

Google’s Chinese Search Engine Reportedly Links Results to Phone Numbers. “This is very problematic from a privacy point of view, because it would allow far more detailed tracking and profiling of people’s behavior,” said Cynthia Wong, senior internet researcher with Human Rights Watch, told The Intercept. “Linking searches to a phone number would make it much harder for people to avoid the kind of overreaching government surveillance that is pervasive in China.”

https://www.extremetech.com/internet/277440-googles-chinese-search-engine-reportedly-links-results-to-phone-numbers

SENIOR GOOGLE SCIENTIST RESIGNS OVER “FORFEITURE OF OUR VALUES” IN CHINA

https://theintercept.com/2018/09/13/google-china-search-engine-employee-resigns/