Privacy is becoming a relic of the past
With kids, animals, and big tech around, you’re never truly alone.
Privacy is dead. Illustration by Cybernews
The biggest breaches that Cybernews reported over the past week spanned different sectors, hitting every layer of daily life: what kids learn (Mathspace data breach), what adults read (Conde Nast alleged hack), where soldiers travel (Polarsteps data leak), and even who you’re intimate with (Gridr $35M settlement).
Over 20 million people, including US soldiers, use Polarsteps to share their travels. Sounds just like another popular specialized app, right? Unfortunately, like any other application connecting hobbyists, it collects a lot of data, including people’s photos and locations.
According to independent investigative journalism by Follow the Money, Polarsteps exposed millions of photos, videos, and GPS locations. Investigators tracked dozens of military personnel from the US, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands to within meters, and even pinpointed sensitive locations such as military bases and active overseas missions.
The worst? It wasn’t even a hack – the company let it happen.
Accountability is lacking. Another example would be the Grindr $35M settlement. Twelve thousand users of the most popular LGBTQ+ dating app sued Grindr, accusing it of sharing sensitive data with third parties. That data allegedly included HIV status and test days. The claims will never be tested in court, though, since Grindr will pay $35 million to settle the lawsuit. The company emphasized that settlement is not an admission of liability.
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But it’s never mea culpa, so nothing surprising here.
Seeing brands stumble over cybersecurity just makes me wonder whether anybody really cares. Condé Nast, the media giant that owns Vogue, The New Yorker, GQ, Glamour, and WIRED, was also hacked, with over 30 million accounts hitting the dark web. However, the data doesn’t seem too sensitive, with names, surnames, birthdays, and addresses being the most delicate entries.
“Big deal,” I could say. Seeing me skipping down the hill with my new tote, my neighbors already know I’m a subscriber to the New Yorker.
But does that mean we should care any less if it leads to the company failing to secure its systems? That lets us question what else it’s failing to safeguard.
What also feels like betrayal is when the most mundane devices we have at home start selling us out. And let alone this £3 WiFi extender from Temu that cracks your home wide open to let hackers in.
Researchers found LG TVs scanning local networks and identifying phones, smartwatches, printers, and other nearby devices. And why does LG need spying TVs? To collect viewing insights for customers so they could craft better ads. In the US, the company advertises access to 49 million LG smart TVs and 363 million other devices that could then be targeted by ads.
Maybe it is true. Maybe you really aren’t that interesting a person. However, as long as you have at least a penny in your pockets, you’ll never be truly alone.
