Privacy International was unlawfully spied on by UK intelligence, agency admits

The UK’s domestic-facing intelligence agency, MI5, has admitted that it captured and read Privacy International’s private data as part of its Bulk Communications Data (BCD) and Bulk Personal Datasets (BPD) programmes, which hoover up massive amounts of the public’s data. In further startling legal disclosures, all three of the UK’s primary intelligence agencies – GCHQ, …

New research uncovers over 4,000 malware files often marketed as being useful user software

New  EU-wide research project carried out by the EUIPO has uncovered over 4,000 files containing malware or potentially unwanted programmes from more than 1,000 websites suspected of sharing illegally protected content. The 4 000 malicious files originated from approximately 100 individually developed pieces of malware, often marketed as being useful user software, including fake game …

Facebook faces more sanctions over ‘misleading’ T&Cs EU warns

Brussels has warned Facebook it will face sanctions unless it changes what the European commission calls its “misleading” terms and conditions. The EU commissioner in charge of consumer protection, Věra Jourová, said she had run out of patience with the social network after nearly two years of discussions aimed at giving Facebook’s European users more …

EU approves controversial copyright law that ‘could kill off the web’s user-generated content’

The European Parliament has approved a controversial copyright law that threatens to ‘destroy the internet as we know it’, according to digital rights groups. Yesterday, in a vote that split almost every major EU party, Members of the European Parliament adopted every terrible proposal in the new Copyright Directive and rejected every good one, setting the …

A Simple Tweak turns India’s controversial Biometric Database, Aadhaar, Into a Profitable Counterfeit System

India’s controversial biometric database, Aadhaar, has been once again compromised, according to a three-month investigation launched by HuffPost India. In a report published Tuesday, HuffPost revealed the existence of a malicious patch said to disable critical security features, making it easier not only to create unauthorized Aadhaar numbers but to fool the system’s biometric recognition …

Africa registry launches gateway system for domain names in Africa

Africa Registry, part of the CentralNic Group, announced a new programme from its gateway service RRPproxy to empower domain name vendors, registrars and resellers in Africa. The domains are to be sold using over 1,000 TLDs, and to benefit from a $50 free credit for all new accounts. Africa Registry stated: “African companies selling domain …

Benin joins Uganda and Zambia as the latest African nation taxing the internet

Benin has joined a fray and growing list of African states imposing spurious taxes on citizens for using the internet. The government passed a decree in late August taxing its citizens for accessing the internet and social-media apps. The directive, first proposed in July, institutes a fee (link in French) of 5 CFA francs ($0.008) per megabyte consumed …

Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp hit by an outage

Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp users were in a frenzy after many attempted to log in today only to find that the sites were down. The outage appeared to have affected users around the world, with thousands of reports within the first hour. According to Down Detector, the outages appear to have started around 4:48 p.m. …