Privacy deep dives

Chrome’s Incognito Mode is another form of privacy washing

Privacy deep dives

The ‘Incognito Mode’ lawsuit is another legal blow to Google’s privacy-washing tactics

If a web browser tells you you’re “incognito” and can “browse privately”, you might assume your online activities are private and no one is collecting your data. But you’d be wrong. It’s precisely this ambiguity that has landed Google in the crossha

Privacy deep dives

Google claims to support privacy while lobbying against it

In the public eye, Google presents itself as a champion of privacy. “Privacy is at the heart of everything we do,” its CEO said. But behind closed doors, Google is telling a different story to policymakers and actively fighting against privacy laws

Privacy deep dives

Google’s Privacy Sandbox is privacy quicksand

Google has already taken privacy washing to the extreme by trying to brand itself as “privacy focused”, even though its business model is based on surveillance. Lately, the company’s marketing strategy has turned toward outright Orwellian doublespe

Privacy deep dives

Is Google Password Manager safe?

Google Chrome is the world’s most popular web browser by far, with over 3 billion users. Its built-in password manager, Google Password Manager, is its default software to create and store passwords for websites and services. Although convenient for

Privacy deep dives

Modernizing and improving PGP security

OpenPGP, the standard defining how to encrypt and sign messages using PGP, the most widely used email encryption format, received a major upgrade, introducing various security improvements and more modern cryptographic algorithms. PGP has been used

Privacy deep dives

Email is more than communication – It’s your identity and worth protecting

With over 4 billion active users and around 350 million messages sent daily, email is the most successful communications tool ever invented. Yet, it has probably been 15 or 20 years since email has primarily been about communications. Today, email i

Privacy deep dives

Google’s privacy washing attempts to redefine what privacy means

Google, along with several other Big Tech companies, are now trying to claim they are concerned about the state of privacy on the internet. Google’s CEO even wrote an opinion piece for The New York Times saying, “privacy must be equally available to

Privacy deep dives

What is the dark web? The good and bad of the internet’s most private corner

The dark web is much like the regular World Wide Web we’re all familiar with, except that the dark web provides much greater privacy. The dark web has a reputation for being a place where you can find and contact drug dealers and hitmen. There’s tru

Privacy deep dives

A privacy analysis of Meta’s new Threads app

A new social media app has entered the marketplace for your attention, courtesy of Meta. Threads, an apparent copycat of Twitter, lets you post 500-character, text-based updates and has a similar user interface. The app is part of Instagram, so you c

Privacy deep dives

Apple can see much of what you store in iCloud

Many people who use Apple products assume their data is private because of the company’s aggressive marketing on the topic. “Some things shouldn’t be shared. iPhone helps keep it that way,” goes one famous ad. “Privacy. That’s iPhone.” But if you u

Privacy deep dives

AI vs. the GDPR

We’re living in the middle of one of the largest tech gold rushes in recent history. OpenAI’s chatbot reached 100 million users in two months. Hoping to keep up, Google introduced its own AI chatbot, and Microsoft added a chatbot to its Bing search e