Privacy News

Read our blog to learn why privacy matters. And don't forget to get an encrypted mailbox yourself!

  • Today Is One Of The Biggest Surveillance Votes In The US. Will The FBI Finally Stop Spying On Americans?

    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!

  • Don't be fooled by Gmail's promise for confidential emails.

    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.

  • Australia Wants To Undermine Encryption. A Dangerous Precedent From One Of The Five Eyes That Must Be Stopped!

    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.

  • Privacy win: EU Bans Personalised Ads on Facebook and Instagram

    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.

  • Meta Wants You to Pay for Privacy so Poor People Are Deprived of Their Right to Privacy. Is This Even Legal?

    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!

  • Chat Control Criticism: Why the EU CSAM Scanning Plans Must Fail.

    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.

  • Free Speech is Under Fire With the Rise in Global Surveillance

    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 just passed - with the option to break encryption anytime. Britain needs to update its "playbook for dictators"!

    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.

  • Australians want better privacy protection - unsurprisingly coming from a country with some of the worst surveillance laws.

    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.

  • Data Privacy Framework is just a "copy of Privacy Shield" & must fail.

    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!

  • No AI in email: Artificial Intelligence will not fix the email problem. Here is why.

    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 changed its privacy policy: Does the tech giant now use all your data to train its AI?

    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.