SUMMARY
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This week’s cybersecurity roundup features the latest in General Data Protection Regulation complaints against major tech companies. We’ve also got two rounds of Amazon troubles, with one focusing on the company’s facial recognition platform, while the other talks about its home speaker setup, Alexa, doing something pretty weird.
It’s your weekly Cybersecurity Roundup!
National Privacy Commission to launch campaign versus careless use of online services
The National Privacy Commission (NPC) will launch a campaign to increase people’s knowledge on how they might be placing their information at risk through online services.
Dubbed “PSST!” or Privacy, Safety, Security and Trust online, the yearlong advocacy campaign is meant to “boost the general public’s awareness of the risks brought on by careless and carefree use of online services,” said the NPC in a press statement.
Amazon under fire due to facial recognition software
In a report by Threatpost, Privacy advocates are taking Amazon to task for developing Rekognition, a facial recognition platform that allows for the identification of large numbers of people at once in a single video or still frame. The Orlando, Fla. Police Department and the Washington County Sheriff’s Office in Oregon already have contacts for Rekognition.
Officials from the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Freedom of the Press Foundation, Human Rights Watch and others wrote to CEO Jeff Bezos, demanding “that Amazon stop powering a government surveillance infrastructure that poses a grave threat to customers and communities across the country. Amazon should not be in the business of providing surveillance systems like Rekognition to the government.”
Data protection activist files 4 complaints against major tech companies under GDPR
Data protection activist Max Schrems filed 4 complaints against major technology companies on May 25 after the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation came into force.
“One is in France against Google on Android, the other one is on Instagram in Belgium, the third one is in Hamburg against WhatsApp and the fourth one is in Austria against Facebook,” Schrems told AFP, adding that the complaints were being brought by his new NGO None of Your Business.
Woman says Amazon’s Alexa shared private conversation with husband to random contact
CBS news affiliate Kiro7 has the story of an Amazon product not working as intended, as a private conversation with a woman’s husband in her home gets shared to random contact through their home’s Alexa home speaker setup.
According to the report, one of the woman’s husband’s colleagues was sent a recording of the private conversation between her and her husband.
Their skepticism behind the assertion was overtaken by fear, as the conversation they had was replayed back to them through the phone by the colleague. – Rappler.com
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