<p>Google has agreed to pay the state of Texas $1.375 billion to settle two lawsuits accusing the company of tracking users’ personal location, incognito searches, and voice and facial data without their permission. The lawsuits were brought by Texas attorney general Ken Paxton in 2022. Facebook’s parent company Meta agreed to pay a similar amount [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Waymo is preparing to use data from its robotaxis, including video from interior cameras tied to rider identities, to train generative AI models, according to an unreleased version of its privacy policy found by researcher Jane Manchun Wong, raising fresh questions about how much of a rider&#8217;s behavior inside autonomous vehicles could be repurposed for [&hellip;]</p>

<p>A human rights campaigner, Tanya O&#8217;Carroll, has succeeded in forcing social media giant Meta not to use her data for targeted advertising. The agreement is contained in a settlement to an individual challenge she lodged against Meta&#8217;s tracking and profiling back in 2022. O&#8217;Carroll had argued that a legal right to object to the use [&hellip;]</p>

<p>The European Union has sent Apple preliminary instructions on how it expects the iPhone maker to comply with interoperability provisions in the bloc’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), its flagship market contestability reform. According to the Commission, device manufacturers and app developers should be able to access nine iOS connectivity features that were restricted to Apple&#8217;s [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Mobile networks continue to be a major target for cybersecurity breaches, and Chinese hacking group Salt Typhoon&#8217;s persistent attacks on multiple carriers are only the latest known examples.&nbsp; The mobile carrier startup Cape is taking a novel approach to addressing the problem: It has built a service it says can provide a more secure, private [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Text messages sent between iPhones and Android devices will soon benefit from end-to-end encryption (E2EE), after the GSM Association (GSMA) yesterday published new specifications for the Rich Communication Services (RCS) protocol that include support for cross-platform E2EE. RCS is a long-standing effort to enable SMS-style cross-platform communications with richer features, such as group messaging, typing [&hellip;]</p>

<p>The U.K. government&#8217;s secret order to Apple demanding it backdoor the end-to-end encrypted version of its iCloud storage service has now been challenged by two civil rights groups, Liberty and Privacy International, which filed complaints Thursday. They called the order &#8220;unacceptable and disproportionate&#8221; and warned of &#8220;global consequences&#8221; as the access order is thought to [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Privacy rights groups have called on Apple&#8217;s legal challenge to a secret U.K. government order asking it to backdoor an end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) version of its iCloud storage service to be heard in public, rather than behind closed doors. The existence of the order emerged via press reports last month. Apple went on to confirm [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Private search engine DuckDuckGo is leaning further into the generative AI opportunity. The non-tracking search engine has been dabbling with expanding the role of AI assistance in its product for the past year, including launching a chatbot-style interface last fall &#8212; available at Duck.ai. In a blog post Thursday, the company said the service is [&hellip;]</p>

<p>The ruling said that a lower court can charge two NSO Group co-founders and a former executive of two affiliate companies for the alleged hacking of a lawyer.</p>

<p>Apple is challenging a U.K. government data access order in the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), the Financial Times reports. The order targeted iCloud backups that are protected by end-to-end encryption. Last month, press leaks revealed the existence of the January order asking Apple to build a backdoor in iCloud&#8217;s encrypted backups. U.K. officials are exercising [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Critics said the new terms implied Mozilla was asking users for the rights to whatever data they input or upload through Firefox.</p>

<p>The U.K.&#8217;s privacy watchdog has launched investigations into three social media companies over how they go about protecting the privacy of children on their respective platforms. The Information Commissioner&#8217;s Office (ICO) announced today that it&#8217;s looking into how TikTok uses personal information of 13- to 17-year-olds to recommend videos, &#8220;in light of growing concerns&#8221; around [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Jolla, the erstwhile mobile maker turned privacy-centric AI business — via sister startup, Venho.ai — has taken the wraps off an AI assistant it says is a “fully private” alternative to data-mining cloud giants crawling all over your personal information. &nbsp; The AI assistant is designed to integrate with apps like email, calendar, and social [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Privacy-focused messaging app Signal has been flying high in the Dutch app stores this past month, often sitting at the top as the most downloaded free app on iOS and Android across all categories, per data from multiple app-tracking platforms such as Sensor Tower. The app has experienced surges in popularity over the years, often [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Not every app or service wants to monetize your personal data. Here are some of our favorite alternatives to popular apps.</p>

<p>Murena, the French privacy firm that&#8217;s forked Android to deliver so-called deGoogled smartphones, has repeated the trick with a tablet. So if you&#8217;re keen to get your hands on a shiny Pixel Tablet &#8212; but without the usual bundle of Google apps and services &#8212; Murena has you covered. The Murena Pixel Tablet runs the [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) is blocking links to Signal.me, a URL shortener used by the private messaging app Signal that allows users to send out a link that&#8217;s used to contact them directly through the service. The blocks, which impact direct messages, public posts, and profile pages, were first spotted by the blog Disruptionist.  [&hellip;]</p>

<p>South Korean officials on Saturday temporarily restricted Chinese AI Lab DeepSeek&#8217;s app from being downloaded from app stores in the country pending an assessment of how the Chinese company handles user data. The Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) said the Chinese app would be available to be downloaded once it complies with Korean privacy laws [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Talk of backdoors in encrypted services is once again doing the rounds after reports emerged that the U.K. government is seeking to force Apple to open up iCloud&#8217;s end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) device backup offering. Officials were said to be leaning on Apple to create a &#8220;backdoor&#8221; in the service that would allow state actors to [&hellip;]</p>