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A Few States Now Actually Help You Figure Out If You’ve Been Hacked:

THOUSANDS OF US companies were hacked last year, and each time people’s private data was taken. Was yours? You may not know because it’s hard to keep track, much less do anything about it when there are so many incidents all the time. But if the data collected on breaches in the US were available to you, it would be a lot easier to check whether you’ve interacted with compromised businesses and institutions. That data exists.

Libraries promise to destroy user data to avoid threat of government surveillance:

Public and private libraries are reacting swiftly to the election of Donald Trump, promising to destroy user information before it can be used against readers and backing up data abroad.

The New York Public Library (NYPL) changed its privacy policy on Wednesday to emphasize its data-collection policies. Last week, the NYPL website stated that “any library record or other information collected by the Library as described herein is subject to disclosure pursuant to subpoena, court order, or as otherwise authorized by applicable law”.

Now, the page reads: “Sometimes the law requires us to share your information, such as if we receive a valid subpoena, warrant, or court order. We may share your information if our careful review leads us to believe that the law, including state privacy law applicable to Library Records, requires us to do so.”

The NYPL also assures users that it will not retain data any longer than is necessary. “We are committed to keeping such information, outlined in all the examples above, only as long as needed in order to provide Library services,” the librarians wrote.

NY To Test Facial Recognition Cameras At ‘Crossing Points’:

On the matter of facial recognition cameras, Cuomo was shy on details. It’s unclear how many cameras will be deployed, which agencies will have access to them, what defines a crossing, how citizens’ photos will be stored, and what photo databases will be used to compare against the faces of the millions of people who drive into the city. A spokesperson for the Governor’s office said had trouble locating anyone who could speak about those issues since Vocativ began asking Wednesday.

“It’s troubling that we’re one step closer to the world of ‘Minority Report’ without any discussion of the serious privacy concerns that are implicated by this plan,” Mariko Hirose, a senior staff attorney at the New York Civil Liberties Union, told Vocativ.  

Cracks emerge in EU US data ‘shield’:

Issues of mass surveillance and a weak legal basis on a new data privacy deal with the US is casting doubt on its viability should it end up before the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.

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Shops can track you via your smartphone, privacy watchdog warns:

The UK’s data protection watchdog has warned that retailers can track every move of their customers using their phones and target them using facial recognition software.

The technology, which has been available for the last couple of years in some form, is capable of tracking a smartphone using the unique identifier that it broadcasts via Wi-Fi. It is the same as that used by beacons which track smartphones using the unique Bluetooth identifiers every smartphone puts out when the wireless communications service is switched on.

Shops can track you via your smartphone, privacy watchdog warns:

The UK’s data protection watchdog has warned that retailers can track every move of their customers using their phones and target them using facial recognition software.

The technology, which has been available for the last couple of years in some form, is capable of tracking a smartphone using the unique identifier that it broadcasts via Wi-Fi. It is the same as that used by beacons which track smartphones using the unique Bluetooth identifiers every smartphone puts out when the wireless communications service is switched on.