A Lot Of Apps Sell Your Data. Here's What You Can Do About It.
May 1, 2018 | Nicole Nguyen, Buzzfeed
Press
“Most third-party services operate in the background and do not provide any visual cues inside the apps, effectively tracking users without their knowledge or consent while remaining virtually invisible,” wrote researchers in a February 2018 study. Meanwhile, the collected data is virtually untraceable as it is passed from data broker to marketers to others.
Thousands of popular Android apps may be illegally tracking children's locations and collecting personal data, researchers warn
April 24, 2018 | Annie Palmer, Daily Mail
Researchers from the International Computer Science Institute at the University of California, Berkeley downloaded apps on a smartphone between November 2016 and March 2018. They then used an automated testing process where they ran the apps as a simulated user.
With this tool, AI could identify new malware as readily as it recognizes cats
April 18, 2018 | Jackie Snow, MIT Technology Review
“The hacker will find an example anyway,” says Gerald Friedland, a computer science professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
A ‘Cryptocurrency’ Without a Blockchain Is Eating My City
April 18, 2018 | Jordan Pearson, Motherboard
This raises a pertinent question: If BTZ is working fine without a blockchain, why does it need one? "That this is private record keeping only makes the system better [than if it had a blockchain], since that at least is efficient,” Nicholas Weaver, a senior researcher at the International Computer Science Institute in Berkeley, California, wrote me in an email.
Thousands of apps in Google Play Store may be illegally tracking children, study finds
April 17, 2018 | Hamza Shaban, Washington Post
“This is a market failure,” said Serge Egelman, a co-author of the study and the director of usable security and privacy research at the International Computer Science Institute at the University of California at Berkeley. “The rampant potential violations that we have uncovered points out basic enforcement work that needs to be done.”
Thousands of Android apps may be improperly tracking kids' data
April 17, 2018 | Ben Popken, NBC
Researchers at the University of California's International Computer Science Institute analyzed 5,855 of the most downloaded kids apps, concluding that most of them are "are potentially in violation" of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act 1998, or COPPA, a federal law making it illegal to collect personally identifiable data on children under 13.
NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt
April 17, 2018 | Serge Egelman appearance on NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt
Serge Egelman discussed the usable security and privacy group's findings that thousands of Android apps marketed to children may be illegally leaking data on a segment of the show "NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt" on April 17, 2018.
Thousands of Android apps potentially violate child protection law
April 16, 2018 | Samuel Gibbs, The Guardian
“We identified several concerning violations and trends,” wrote the authors of the Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies, led by researchers at the International Computer Science Institute at the University of California, Berkeley. “Overall, roughly 57% of the 5,855 child-directed apps that we analysed are potentially violating Coppa.”
Report finds more than half of Android apps for children are in violation of COPPA
April 16, 2018 | Dani Deahl, The Verge
Additionally, the study — led by researchers at the International Computer Science Institute at the University of California, Berkeley — says the apps that are improperly collecting and sharing data are all included in Google’s Designed for Families program.
Thousands of Android apps improperly tracking kids' activities
April 16, 2018 | Henry T. Casey, Fox News
The study, which comes from researchers at the International Computer Science Institute in Berkeley, CA, analyzed 5,855 of the most popular free Android apps targeted at kids and families. The team found its results with an automatic test that detects how data is handled in Android apps.