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July 26, 2021
On the web
Venmo Gets More Private—but It’s Still Not Fully Safe
Ars Technica
“Venmo, the popular mobile payment service, has redesigned its app. That’s normally news you could safely ignore, but this announcement is worth a closer look. In addition to making some navigational tweaks and adding new purchase protections, the PayPal-owned platform is finally shutting down its global social feed, where the app published transactions from people around the world. It’s an important step toward resolving one of the most prominent privacy issues in the world of apps, but the work isn’t finished yet.”
October 15, 2020
On the web
Privacy watchdog to probe Klarna after email backlash
BBC
“The data protection watchdog said numerous people had made it aware of a marketing email Klarna had sent out. It was followed by a message the email had been sent in error, and they had not been added to a marketing database. But recipients asked how the firm had their email address in the first place.”
March 26, 2020
On the web
Here’s Who Else PayPal, Venmo, Cash App Are Sharing Your Data With
USA Today
“The apps are all free, but some can come at a great cost. What most people don’t realize is that when they pay their friends with them, in many instances they’re giving up valuable information about themselves that gets shared with a host of data companies, a process that happens in the background without the choice of opting in or out.”
March 17, 2020
On the web
The NYC Subway’s New Tap-to-pay System Has a Hidden Cost — Rider Data
The Verge
“However, experts say the OMNY payment scheme is rife with problems, based on the limited information about the system made public in its terms of service and privacy policy . The collection of significant amounts of information from users, including smartphone device identifiers and location, which, coupled with payment and transportation data, could be used to map out riders’ patterns of life in minute detail and create a privacy nightmare.”
January 10, 2020
On the web
You Can Now Opt Out of Having Your Samsung Pay Data Sold
xda-developers
“I am a long-time Samsung Pay user and I was honestly shocked to see Samsung was selling my Samsung Pay data. Companies like Google are pretty open about the amount of data they track and sell and how they sell it. Samsung isn’t as open about the amount of data they track or sell. The reason Samsung added this “Do Not Sell” is because of the CCPA, or the “California Consumer Privacy Act.” According to Samsung’s privacy page about the CCPA , the act gives California residents three basic rights. These rights are access to your personal information, deletion of your personal information, and the ability to stop Samsung, or other companies, from selling your personal information.”
November 4, 2019
On the web
I Got Access to My Secret Consumer Score. Now You Can Get Yours, Too.
The New York Times
“As of this summer, though, Sift does have a file on you, which it can produce upon request. I got mine, and I found it shocking: More than 400 pages long, it contained all the messages I’d ever sent to hosts on Airbnb; years of Yelp delivery orders; a log of every time I’d opened the Coinbase app on my iPhone. Many entries included detailed information about the device I used to do these things, including my IP address at the time.”
August 26, 2019
Top Post
The spy in your wallet: Credit cards have a privacy problem
Washington Post
“Despite a federal privacy law covering cards, I found that six types of businesses could mine and share elements of my purchase, multiplied untold times by other companies they might have passed it to. Credit cards are a spy in your wallet — and it’s time that we add privacy, alongside rewards and rates, to how we evaluate them.”
March 26, 2019
On the web
Take On Payments: Safeguarding Privacy and Ethics in AI
Take on Payments blog - FRB Atlanta
“Given the continued attention to advancements in machine learning and other computing technology advancements falling under the marketing term of “artificial intelligence” (AI), I thought it would be beneficial for our readers if we were to review these guidelines so the reader can assess their validity and completeness. The heading and the italicized text in these guidelines are EPIC’s specific wording; additional text is my commentary. It is important to point out that neither the Federal Reserve System nor the Board of Governors has endorsed these guidelines.”
March 21, 2019
March 20, 2019
On the web
Apple Strikes a Foreboding Tone With Big Ad on Privacy
Street Fight
“Apple, which does not, as in the cases of Big Tech rivals Facebook and Alphabet, command an advertising business reliant on sharing a massive repository of consumer data, will indeed take advantage of its secure position in the market to take the lead on privacy. A link below its video on YouTube points to a range of privacy-first policies: not selling data to advertisers (bingo), not storing transaction data for Apple Pay, and encrypting communications on iMessage, among others .”
March 14, 2019
On the wires
The Next GDPR? Iovation and Aite Group Analyze Impact of New Directive to Increase Payment Security and Services
“The report concludes the stricter requirements for fraud prevention in the EU will drive fraud to other regions such as the U.S. It also finds that most companies are unprepared for PSD2. In fact, a recent study by Mastercard found that only 25 percent of European online merchants are aware of SCA requirements under PSD2, 14 percent already support SCA, 28 percent mentioned they will be SCA ready by September 2019 and 24 percent have no plans to support SCA. Since companies providing payment services in the EEA are subject to the regulation, even businesses with headquarters outside Europe might need to comply.”
March 4, 2019
On the web
Tide Foundation Gives Users Control of Personal Data on a Blockchain
TechCrunch
“It seems that on a regular basis, we hear about massive data breaches or companies sharing highly personal informationwith third parties without a consumer’s permission or knowledge. The Tide Foundation wants to change that by giving consumers complete control over their personal data on the blockchain by allowing them to manage their own encryption keys. The startup wants to take that notion a step further by giving users the ability to sell that personal information in an open marketplace that the company is announcing today.”
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