US politicians have postponed the vote on the FISA “Reform” Bill - the FISA Reform and Reauthorization Act of 2023 (FRRA). This bill would greatly expand
the surveillance possibilities of US and non-US citizens. Privacy-first companies like Mozilla, Tuta, and the Tor Project
have called on policymakers to not cement such surveillance measures with FISA §702 Surveillance. This fight isn't over!
The Gmail confidential mode for emails is neither secure nor private. At its best, it is a fun feature to help your
recipient achieve inbox zero. At its worst, it is a privacy-intrusive feature that does not achieve true
confidentiality. In fact, for sending a confidential and secure email, end-to-end encryption is a minimum requirement,
and Gmail has long abandoned this approach.
The Australian government is discussing a draft on online safety standards that threaten end-to-end encryption and the secure
communication of all Australian citizens. What is more, if said standards are passed into law, Australia could be testing
the erosion of privacy for the other Five Eyes countries.
Meta - the tech giant from Silicon Valley that is heavily criticized for privacy violations - is finally
seeing some real headwind; at first only from Norway, but now also from the European Union. Started with a fine of only $90,000 a day, the
small country of Norway has taken on the tech giant. Now the EU follows this path, which could lead to fines of up to
4% of Meta's global turnover for non-compliance.
Recently a European Court has judged that Meta's way of collecting and using people's data in Europe has been in violation
of privacy regulations between 2018 and 2023. Now Meta announced an option of Facebook and Instagram without
personalized ads for 120 euros per year. European users would have the option to pay or agree to personalized ads. But is your
right to privacy for sale? Let's find out!
The Council of EU Member States has postponed the final vote on the Child Sexual Abuse Regulation (CSAR), which had been
scheduled for Oct. 19th - which is the second postponement already. EU countries simply can't get an agreement on this highly
controversial draft, which then - even if EU Member States come to an agreement eventually - also needs to be discussed in the EU Parliament.
This is great sign that the regulation, also dubbed chat control and one of the most criticized EU laws ever, might fail.
It's Free Speech Week - but is there reason to celebrate? With freedom of speech under fire from increasing surveillance
around the globe our basic human rights - the right to privacy and freedom of expression - are trampled upon in too
many ways, even in Western democracies. The promise of the free and open internet has failed and
in its place a system of chilling effects has been instituted.
The Online Safety Bill was passed this week in the House of Parliament, and will most likely become law
this autumn. While politicians before passing the law stated that they will not force tech companies to scan for abuse material
if encrypted until "feasible" technology to do so becomes available, the clause that gives the government the power to break
encryption anytime is still included in the final version of the bill. This is a severe threat to everybody's privacy online.
Australia - the country with some of the worst surveillance laws - sees a turn in attitudes among its citizens. More and more
people demand better privacy protection from companies as well as legislators. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC)
released a survey on Tuesday that clearly shows: privacy is in high demand.
So the EU thought: Let's try again! After several data protection agreements between the EU and USA have already failed,
they are now venturing another attempt with the Data Privacy Framework. But US surveillance - the underlying problem of the data
sharing agreement - has not miraculously dissipated in the meantime. That's why the new Data Privacy Framework is doomed to fail - and that is a good thing!
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is supposed to make our lives better. This, however, will not work for emails. That's why Tutanota
will not integrate AI functions in its secure email clients.
Google has found another way to monetize your data: The tech giants that earned ~225 billion U.S. dollars in 2022 with
posting targeted ads, has updated its privacy policy. Google now says that it
will scrape all publicly available information on the internet to train its AI systems Google Translate, Bard and Cloud AI.
Whether Google is also using private Gmail data for training its AI, remains unknown.
