Privacy in the digital world covers how personal data is collected, stored, and used. Posts in this category discuss ways to protect your information online, privacy tools, and related concerns. As more of life moves online, understanding privacy becomes more important.
March 2022 was dominated by the Lapsus$ extortion spree against Big Tech, a wave of regulatory action across the Atlantic, and fresh evidence that data brokers and police impersonation are quietly hollowing out everyone's privacy.
February 2022 saw regulators challenge the ad-tech consent machine, governments retreat from face scanning, and a run of state-backed hacks and donor leaks that turned ordinary records into political weapons.
January 2022 opened the year with record European cookie fines, a wave of breach disclosures, and fresh fights over facial recognition and spyware.
December 2021 closed the year with a landmark stalkerware ban, fresh Pegasus victims among American diplomats and a wave of spyware exposures that reshaped the surveillance debate.
November 2021 was defined by a reckoning over commercial spyware and facial recognition, set against a run of damaging corporate breaches.
October 2021 paired enormous leaks and breaches with a fresh wave of pushback against surveillance, from the Pandora Papers and the Twitch dump to Europe's vote against facial recognition.
September 2021 paired spyware revelations and Apple's retreat on phone scanning with record European fines and a long run of breach disclosures.
Apple's plan to scan iPhones for child abuse imagery dominated the month, while record breaches at T-Mobile and a flood of leaks, ransomware thefts and new surveillance laws kept regulators and researchers busy.
July 2021 was dominated by the Pegasus Project, which exposed how government clients of NSO Group spyware targeted journalists, activists and world leaders, while record fines, supply-chain ransomware and a wave of breaches underlined how exposed ordinary people remain.
June 2021 paired a string of corporate breaches and ransomware payouts with landmark court wins for privacy, as regulators and police surveillance both came under fresh scrutiny.