According to the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare), you can’t charge sick people more for their health insurance and you can’t deny people coverage due to pre-existing conditions. But given the current administration’s penchant for gutting regulations and their vehement dislike of the ACA, those protections may not be around much longer. If so, in
Ever since WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook in 2014 for a staggering $19B, the extremely popular global messaging app has been losing its focus on privacy. WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum (who grew up in the Soviet Union) has now left Facebook, and with him WhatsApp may have lost its last hope for retaining the user
Facebook, I’m breaking up with you… It’s not me… it’s you. In the last few weeks, Facebook has been rocked by one scandal after another. First the Cambridge Analytica thing, then the “Ugly Truth” memo, and then news that it’s been saving all your text messages and call info. But these are just the latest
There’s a new option in the Facebook mobile app called “Protect”. Click this will take you to the app store and point you at the VPN service called Onavo. Facebook bought this company back in 2013 and it’s very clear that the purpose of pushing people to use this service is to collect more data
[UPDATED 6/16/19: VPN recommendation changes] For reasons I can’t begin to fathom, people today seem to have zero regard for online privacy. I can only chalk this up to ‘ignorance is bliss’. I can’t imagine anyone voluntarily subjecting themselves to constant, unblinking surveillance. It would be like having a GoPro camera mounted to your forehead
The holiday season is upon us, and that means people will be scrambling to find the best presents for their friends, family and loved ones. Geeky gadgets are always popular, but not just for the recipients! The Internet of Things (IoT) has been a major boon for hackers and marketers, as well. So let me
Thanksgiving is almost upon us here in the US. I felt it was a good opportunity to say thanks to some of the wonderful organizations out there working very hard to improve our security, protect our privacy, and defend our rights. If you believe in a cause but don’t have the time to get directly
Your primary portal to the Internet is your web browser. Choosing the right browser to increase your security and privacy can be hard to do, but in this article I will walk you through it and give you my personal recommendations. Furthermore, browser plugins can both help and hurt your browsing safety - I'll help
Full disclosure: I’m an Apple user and have been for decades. But one of the reasons I’ve been such an ardent Apple fan is that I’ve always felt like they had my back. I’m not sure how much of this is altruistic – but you can argue that the actual reasons might be more compelling
(It’s been a while since I’ve written a full blog post. I’ve been putting most of my efforts into my weekly newsletter – be sure to subscribe to get weekly tips and news on cyber security and online privacy.) Headline Hyperbole This week, we saw the following headline from The Guardian: “WhatsApp vulnerability allows snooping
