Heena Sharma Blog

  EU privacy watchdog EDPB on Wednesday gave the Irish data protection agency a month to issue a long-delayed decision on compliance by Facebook's WhatsApp after its peers objected to its draft finding. The agency, which leads oversight of Facebook because the company's European headquarters are based in Ireland, has been investigating WhatsApp to see if it complies with transparency obligations specified by EU privacy rules known as GDPR. It sought feedback from its peers in December but was unable to find a consensus regarding its draft decision. The other national watchdogs objected to the type of infringements identified by the Irish, whether the specific data in question was personal data and the appropriateness of the proposed sanctions. The Irish agency said it would not follow the objections and referred them to the EDPB, which on Wednesday adopted a decision addressing the merits of the disagreements but did not provide details. Read More

If you’ve ever wondered if your phone is spying on you, you’re not alone. One of the most hotly debated topics in technology today is the amount of data that firms surreptitiously gather about us online. You may well have shared the increasingly common experience of feeling creeped out by ads for something you recently discussed in a real life conversation or an online interaction. This kind of experience has led to suggestions that tech firms are secretly recording our private conversations via smartphones or other internet-connected devices such as smart TVs, Amazon Echo or Google Home. Or that they are reading our private messages even when they are supposedly encrypted, as with Facebook’s WhatsApp. If this were proven to be true, it would reveal a huge conspiracy that could do untold damage to the tech industry – which makes it seem somewhat far-fetched. But recent revelations about the degree to which Facebook users’ data has been shared certainly won’t help to convinc...

Global spending on information security products and services is forecast to grow 8.7 per cent to reach $124 billion in 2019, a new report has said. According to market research firm Gartner, the market will exceed $114 billion in 2018 -- which is an increase of 12.4 per cent from 2017. "Security leaders are striving to help their organisations securely use technology platforms to become more competitive and drive growth for the business. Persisting skills shortages and regulatory changes like the EU's Global Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) are driving continued growth in the security services market," Siddharth Deshpande, Research Director at Gartner, said in a statement. A survey done by the market research firm in 2017 revealed that the top three drivers for security spending are security risks, business needs and industry changes. Privacy concerns will drive at least 10 per cent of market demand for security services through 2019 and will im...

Facebook has reported that they are not aware of any misuse of information Current Affairs News : The CBI has initiated a preliminary enquiry against Cambridge Analytica and Global Science Research for alleged illegal personal data harvesting of Indians from Facebook, officials said on Wednesday. It is alleged that Cambridge Analytica received data from Global Science Research which employed "illegal means" of personal data harvesting of Indians using Facebook, they said. After receiving a reference in this regard from the Centre, the CBI has initiated the preliminary enquiry which is normally a first step to decide whether the allegations deserve a full-blown investigation through an FIR or not, they said. Data mining and analysis firm Cambridge Analytica earlier faced allegations that it used personal information harvested from 87 million Facebook accounts to help Donald Trump win the 2016 US presidential election. Article Source >> BS ...