Oct. 5, 2019
Google has announced today new privacy-centered updates for three of its services — namely Google Maps, YouTube, and Google Assistant. More specifically, Google Maps will be getting an incognito mode, YouTube is getting a history auto-delete option, and Google Assistant is getting support for voice commands that will help users manage the Assistant’s own privacy settings. In addition, Google also launched a new Password Checkup feature that checks users’ passwords if they’ve been leaked at other online services.
May. 31, 2019
Google is planning to restrict modern ad blocking Chrome extensions to enterprise users only, according to 9to5Google. This is despite a backlash to an announcement by Googlein January proposing changes that will stop current ad blockers from working efficiently. And the software giant is not backing down: It says the only people that can use ad blockersfollowing the change will be Google’s enterprise users.
May. 20, 2019
Following the US crackdown on Chinese technology companies, Google has cut off Huawei’s Android license, dealing a huge blow to the besieged phonemaker. Reuters first reported the news, and The Verge subsequently confirmed Google’s suspension of business with Huawei with a source familiar with the matter. Reached for comment, a Google spokesperson said only “We are complying with the order and reviewing the implications.”
The order, in this case, appears to be the US Commerce Department’s recent decision to place Huawei on the “Entity List,” which as Reuters reports is a list of companies that are unable to buy technology from US companies without government approval. Speaking to Reuters, a Google spokesperson confirmed that “Google Play and the security protections from Google Play Protect will continue to function on existing Huawei devices.” So while existing Huawei phones around the world won’t be immediately impacted by the decision, the future of updates for those phones as well as any new phones Huawei would produce remains in question.
May. 19, 2019
Law enforcement officials across the country have been seeking information from a Google database called Sensorvault — a trove of detailed location records involving at least hundreds of millions of devices worldwide, The New York Times found. Though the new technique can identify suspects near crimes, it runs the risk of sweeping up innocent bystanders, highlighting the impact that companies’ mass collection of data can have on people’s lives. Why does Google have this data?The Sensorvault database is connected to a Google service called Location History.
May. 18, 2019
Google’s Titan Security Key, launched in the U.S. market last August, is a USB dongle that offers an added layer of security features for Google accounts, such as two-factor authentication and protections from phishing attacks. Specifically impacted is the version of the Titan Security Key with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) – not the NFC version of the security keys. The vulnerability stems from a misconfiguration in the Titan Security Keys’ Bluetooth pairing protocols, said Brand.
Dec. 10, 2018
Two months after disclosing an error that exposed the private profile data of almost 500,000 Google+ users, Google on Monday revealed a new leak that affects more than 52 million people. The programming interface bug allowed developers to access names, ages, email addresses, occupations, and a wealth of other personal details even when they were set to be nonpublic. The bug was introduced in a release that went live at an undisclosed date in November and was fixed a week later, Google officials said in a blog post.
Nov. 23, 2018
Google is tracking you. Even when you’re in Airplane Mode. It knows when you get out the car.
When you’re walking. We now have proof. Google has been secretly tracking people against their wishes.
The company has been collecting Android users’ location data, even when they’ve actively disabled location services. It’s an extremely concerning discovery, which means that Google can pinpoint exactly where you are even when you go out of your way to hide this information.
Sep. 15, 2018
Google is reportedly building a prototype system that would tie Chinese users’ Google searches to their personal phone numbers, as part of a new search service that would comply with the Chinese government’s censorship requirements. The Intercept writes that the “Dragonfly” Android app, a secret project revealed by a whistleblower last month, could be linked to a user’s phone number — making it simple to track individual users’ searches. This tracking would be in addition to Dragonfly’s blacklisting of terms like “human rights,” “student protest,” and “Nobel Prize,” which might normally pull up news about Chinese activist and Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo.
May. 14, 2018
THE ACCC is investigating accusations Google is using as much as $580 million worth of Australians’ phone plan data annually to secretly track their movements. Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Rod Sims said he was briefed recently by US experts who had intercepted, copied and decrypted messages sent back to Google from mobiles running on the company’s Android operating system. The experts, from computer and software corporation Oracle, claim Google is draining roughly one gigabyte of mobile data monthly from Android phone users’ accounts as it snoops in the background, collecting information to help advertisers.