#metadata

danie10@squeet.me

Apple admits to secretly giving governments push notification data: Push notifications contain useful metadata

Blurred view of a man in a shirt in the background, holding a smartphone out in front of him, and above the smartphone is a gold bell with a number 1 as a red badge count, and the bell has three white outlines to each side which indicates the bell is ringing.
Push notifications are used to provide a wide variety of alerts to app users. A friendly ding or text alert on the home screen notifies users about new text messages, emails, social media comments, news updates, packages delivered, gameplay nudges—basically any app activity where notifications have been enabled could be tracked by governments, Wyden said.

According to Wyden, many app users do not realize that these instant alerts “aren’t sent directly from the app provider to users’ smartphones” but instead “pass through a kind of digital post office run by the phone’s operating system provider” to “ensure timely and efficient delivery of notifications.”

A source familiar with Wyden’s probe told Reuters that “both foreign and US government agencies have been asking Apple and Google for metadata related to push notifications to, for example, help tie anonymous users of messaging apps to specific Apple or Google accounts.”

Apple has since confirmed in a statement provided to Ars that the US federal government “prohibited” the company “from sharing any information,” but now that Wyden has outed the feds, Apple has updated its transparency reporting and will “detail these kinds of requests” in a separate section on push notifications in its next report.

Ever since SMS text messages came into being, governments have been accessing message content and metadata. Since many messengers now have end-to-end-encryption of the message content, they can no longer read the message content. But the metadata is still available. This is the same metadata that WhatsApp has been passing upstream to Facebook (as contained in its privacy policy).

The fact is, there is a lot of value around metadata, and more so when harvested in bulk. The only way to get around this is to disable push notifications for sensitive apps. Some open source apps installed from, for example F-Droid, will not use Google’s push notifications. But any other push notification service will still see the same metadata. It will be interesting to see how this is able to be locked down.

Android’s OS settings only go as far as preventing content displaying on the lock screen, but the data is still passing through the push notification system itself.

Signal messenger does have an in-app notification setting to display name and message, name only, or no name or message. So, in Signal’s case, you can change this to name only (it will leak the person’s name and when they messaged you), while the no name or message may be best as it will probably just inform you there is “a message”.

But this type of granular in-app push notification setting probably does not yet exist in Google Messages, Apple Messages, WhatsApp, Telegram, etc.

See https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/12/apple-admits-to-secretly-giving-governments-push-notification-data/
#Blog, #government, #metadata, #privacy, #technology

girlofthesea@diasporasocial.net

#technology #metadata
Metadata is defined as the data providing information about one or more aspects of the data; it is used to summarize basic information about data that can make tracking and working with specific data easier. Some examples include: Means of creation of the data. Purpose of the data. Time and date of creation. - Wikipedia

danie10@squeet.me

Threads, Meta’s Twitter rival, is tracking you in all sorts of ways because Meta/Facebook owns it

Bild/Foto
Apart from you apparently not being able to delete your Threads profile, it contains similar metadata spying clauses that the other Meta products do about all sorts of metadata that can be tracked and passed upstream to Facebook and Meta (the reason why I deleted my Instagram and Whatsapp accounts years ago).

We’ve seen before though from Facebook, that it does not stop with “using the information to improve our offerings to you”, and that the information also gets passed to 3rd parties (‘partners’) as well. Meta is also based in a country famed for its data collection.

Your metadata is data collected that is not related to the information you consciously put in your profile, posts, and comments. It includes your location throughout the day, your contacts, WiFi and Bluetooth connections, search history, purchases, when you are active, and importantly specific identifiers for your device (so that this behaviour can be matched to data collected by other ‘partners’). This all starts to build up a pretty valuable profile about your behaviour outside of the app.

I also collect visitor data on my website (and did a video about it showing what I can see), but I use a self-hosted open source service, the data does not get sold or given to anyone, and I only aggregate the data to determine what pages are popular, what search terms are finding my site, etc. I’m not profiling people or selling data to 3rd parties.

So, although I love testing out new social networks (and use about 17 at any time) I won’t be touching Threads. But if you’re a Facebook, Instagram or Whatsapp user, this really won’t interest you much as your data is already sucked in.

I know many in the Fediverse won’t like this, but I will consider reconnecting to some Meta users once Threads gets ActivityPub support. The reason is that all the behaviour side information is safely on a non-Meta app. All Meta will see is who I’m contacting on their side, and what I message to them through the open protocol. There is nothing stopping anyone already doing that through the ActivityPub protocol. However if Meta finds some devious way of inserting adverts (or anything else) into that connection, then I’ll once again isolate myself fully from them.

I’ve long been on Mastodon already as my Twitter alternative, and over the last few months especially it has matured well in terms of a richness of information and news, meaningful interaction, and also working through its moderation controls that you can execute yourself.

See https://mashable.com/article/threads-tracking-data
#Blog, #metadata, #privacy, #socialnetworks, #technology, #Threads

berternste@pod.orkz.net

Big Tech bedreigt de vrijheid te denken wat je wil, betoogt deze mensenrechtenadvocaat

NRC

Data - Voor techbedrijven is het niet meer genoeg om enkel ons gedrag in de gaten te houden. Ze proberen toegang te krijgen tot onze gedachten en gevoelens, waarschuwt advocaat Susie Alegre.

Niet alleen ons gedrag wordt met steeds verfijndere digitale middelen voortdurend in de gaten gehouden en bestudeerd. Ook wat er in ons hoofd gebeurt, waarschuwt Susie Alegre, is niet meer veilig voor de dataverzamelaars van Big Tech. „En daarmee staat een elementaire vrijheid op het spel: de vrijheid om te denken wat je wil.” (...)

Alegre wilde niets weten [van een spraakgestuurde digitale assistent op de kamer van haar zevenjarige dochter], vertelt ze in haar boek Freedom to Think; The Long Struggle to Liberate Our Minds. Ze legde haar dochter uit: „Alexa steelt je dromen en verkoopt ze.” (...)

Haar uitgangspunt, net als dat van andere technologiecritici, is dat we met ons online gedrag meer over onszelf prijsgeven dan we beseffen.

„Dat doen we niet alleen door de inhoud van wat we op internet delen, maar ook door metadata: waar we zijn, hoe snel we ons verplaatsen, wanneer en met welke regelmaat we rondhangen op sociale media, wat we wanneer opvragen bij spraakgestuurde apparaten. Al die gegevens kunnen worden samengevoegd en geanalyseerd om een beeld te krijgen van wie we zijn, wat we denken en waar we naar verlangen. (...)

„Veel advertenties die op internet aan je worden voorgeschoteld zijn speciaal op jou toegesneden, of beter gezegd: op de mens die Facebook en Google willen dat je bent. Je kunt zeggen: wat geeft dat? Maar het kan bijvoorbeeld betekenen dat jij bepaalde vacatures, huurwoningen of potentiële partners niet te zien krijgt, omdat jij daar volgens het algoritme niet het geschikte type voor bent.” (...)

„Politieke campagnes maken ook gebruik van dat soort persoonsgerichte advertenties – ‘microtargeting’. Dat bleek al uit het schandaal rond Cambridge Analytica (het Britse bedrijf dat voor de Amerikaanse presidentsverkiezingen van 2016 gegevens van miljoenen Facebook-gebruikers benutte voor de verspreiding van advertenties voor Donald Trump onder mensen die daarvoor gevoelig leken, red.).

„Je zal daardoor niet opeens van links heel rechts worden. Maar het kan je wel aanmoedigen, of juist ontmoedigen, om te gaan stemmen. En zelfs als het niet werkt is het toch een poging tot manipulatie van ons denken. (...)

„Als individu hebben we mentale privacy nodig. Een innerlijke ruimte waarin je kunt ontdekken wie je bent, wat je wil zijn, wat je vindt van dingen, zonder dat je het met iemand anders hoeft te delen.” (...)

Hebben reclame en propaganda niet altijd al tot doel gehad in ons hoofd te komen, ook lang vóór internet?
„Tot op zekere hoogte wel. Maar de grote vraag is nu: waar ligt de scheidslijn tussen beïnvloeding en manipulatie, tussen preken en hersenspoelen? Bij advertenties ligt die grens bij digitale surveillance en personalisatie. Die vorm van beïnvloeding gaat veel verder dan een reclamebord langs de weg.”

„Wat mij betreft worden alle vormen van gepersonaliseerd adverteren verboden. Online advertenties zijn dan nog steeds mogelijk, maar wat je te zien krijgt hangt niet meer samen met wat een site of een tech-firma weet over je persoonlijke eigenschappen of je gedrag.” (...)

„Neem websites voor geestelijke gezondheid, waarop mensen vragenlijsten invullen over hoe het met ze gaat en of ze depressief zijn. Dus over wat er in hun hoofd omgaat. Uit een onderzoek in het Verenigd Koninkrijk, Frankrijk en Duitsland bleek dat de antwoorden in veel gevallen verkocht werden aan derden. De sleutel naar de geest van mensen bleek geveild te worden! Het is toch evident dat dát niet toegestaan moet zijn?”

„Of neem apps die helpen je menstruatiecyclus te voorspellen. Niet alleen voeren mensen daarop allerlei informatie in, maar die kan ook gecombineerd worden met andere data uit je telefoon. Dat levert een berg gegevens op over de vruchtbaarheidsstatus, seksuele activiteit en emotionele toestand van talloze vrouwen. Sommige van die apps gebruiken de informatie om je aan te sporen: je bent nu 29, de perfecte leeftijd een baby te krijgen. Dat lijkt behulpzaam, maar kan ook een vorm van onaangename sociale controle zijn.”

„Of neem dating apps. Mensen delen daarop vaak veel over zich zelf, van hun seksuele voorkeuren tot hun gezondheid en politieke opvattingen. Gebruikers stemmen ermee in dat anderen dat kunnen zien. Maar beseffen ze hoe die data worden opgeslagen, geanalyseerd, gedeeld, verkocht en gebruikt om algoritmes te ‘trainen’?” (...)

„De echte verandering moet komen van regulering via wetten. In de tech-wereld wordt nu veel gesproken over ethiek, maar lang niet genoeg over mensenrechten en wetgeving. Want ethiek is vrijwillig en daar kun je voor kiezen of niet. Om je ethische gedrag alleen kun je niet voor de rechter worden gedaagd. Daarom moeten we bij wet vastleggen wat er met onze gegevens mag gebeuren, wat alleen met uitdrukkelijke toestemming mag en wat in geen geval mag.” (...)

Hele artikel

> Zie ook: Brussel vindt Nederlandse privacywaakhond te strikt (NRC)

Illustratie

Tags: #nederlands #boeken #big_tech #techbedrijven #data #data_mining #big_data #surveillance_capitalism #surveillancekapitalisme #profiel #profilering #vrijheid #facebook #meta #metagegevens #metadata #sociale_media #google #alphabet #youtube #tiktok #twitter #gokreclames #gokken #Cambridge_Analytica #politieke_beinvloeding #persoonsgerichte_advertenties #gezondheidssites #medische_gegevens #apps #menstruatieapp #menstruatie #seksuele_voorkeur #gegevens #persoonlijke_gegevens #privacy #1984 #ethiek #mensenrechten

anonymiss@despora.de

#Food Delivery #Leak Unmasks Russian #Security Agents

source: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/rest-of-world/2022/04/01/food-delivery-leak-unmasks-russian-security-agents/

During our #investigation into the poisoning of Alexey #Navalny by a team of #FSB officers, we analysed numerous calls made by phone numbers linked to those carrying out and planning the #operation.

One number which surfaced quite often was to a research institute in Dubna, a northern Moscow suburb. We were unable to identify the owner of this phone number until searching for it within the #Yandex.Food leak, which revealed the name of this person, who frequently spoke with the FSB officers planning Navalny’s poisoning.

#russia #intelligence #fail #metadata #internet #news #problem #spy

danie10@squeet.me

Open Source Metadata Cleaner: Remove Your Traces From Pictures and Documents in Linux

Bild/Foto
Metadata exists everywhere, whether it is a document, a message, pictures, or other file types. You can easily access the metadata when you inspect the properties of a file. However, users do not often focus on eliminating or getting rid of the metadata before sharing files.

Mainly because they may not be aware of simple tools that make the task easier. Metadata Cleaner is one such tool available for Linux users. It is a Linux GUI front end for CLI and Python based mat2, so in fact mat2 also works on macOS.

See https://itsfoss.com/metadata-cleaner/

#technology #linux #opensource #metadata #privacy
#Blog, ##linux, ##metadata, ##opensource, ##privacy, ##technology

anonymiss@despora.de

#HP #printers try to send data back to HP about your devices and what you print

source: https://robertheaton.com/2019/09/15/hp-printers-send-data-on-what-you-print-back-to-hp/

In summary, HP wants its #printer to collect all kinds of #data that a reasonable person would never expect it to. This includes #metadata about your devices, as well as information about all the documents that you print, including timestamps, number of pages, and the application doing the printing (HP state that they do stop short of looking at the contents of your documents).

#surveillance #news #fail #privacy #software #economy

anonymiss@despora.de

#WhatsApp co-founder #Acton named #Signal's interim #CEO

source: https://www.reuters.com/business/whatsapp-co-founder-acton-named-signals-interim-ceo-2022-01-10/

"It's a new year, and I've decided it's a good time to replace myself as the CEO of Signal", he said. #Marlinspike, who will remain on Signal's board, said he is scouting for candidates for the permanent CEO position.

Is someone from WhatsApp a good choice?

Both messengers (WhatsApp and Signal) use the same end-to-end encryption. The roll-out of encryption in WhatsApp was the largest project of its kind and has contributed a great deal to user security. Unfortunately, it has also shown that only the #metadata of the users is needed for #marketing, since little #information can be gathered from the smileys sent by the youth anyway. Besides, if he cares so much about freedom, why didn't he make WhatsApp a free and secure messenger and sell it to #Facebook instead? The development for WhatsApp had therefore been foreseeable. Does he now seek salvation and want to repent?

#news #messenger #change #software #opensource #encryption #management

danie10@squeet.me

Telegram launches advertising program for public channels, and looks like they're doing the right thing

Although this announcement may come as a surprise to some, Telegram's founder Pavel Dorov publicly shared the plan to introduce ads on the platform in December 2020. As Dorov explained then, he backed Telegram financially for the past 7 years and the growth of the user base is pushing the project to find additional sources of revenue if it wants to remain free for all.

Only public channels with over 1,000 users will be eligible for this, and the ads will NOT be targeted, which means that users will not be profiled by tracking their clicks and preferences. Finally, to ensure that the sponsored messages are not obstructive and don't degrade the user experience on the platform, they will be limited to 160 characters.

It does seem to be the best option for Telegram to be sustainable as a free-to-use platform for its users, without passing user metadata to advertisers, or letting ads invade private chats or channels.

See Telegram launches advertising program for public channels

#technology #advertising #metadata #Telegram #tracking

Imagem/foto

Telegram has launched a new advertising program dubbed Ad Platform and offering the opportunity to display sponsored messages on the instant-messaging platform.


https://gadgeteer.co.za/telegram-launches-advertising-program-public-channels-and-looks-theyre-doing-right-thing

postnotejazz@diasp.org

jpog-XP is a tool I wrote for reading and writing metadata in jpg and ogg files; specifically XPComment and XPTitle for jpg as well as title and comment for ogg. It also replaces newline characters with "" since I need the metadata to be web friendly.

The art and music sections of my website ( http://www.jesnjem.art ) are designed to display title and descriptions for songs and images based on the metadata they contain. When I was running Windows it was no problem to edit the metadata using the properties menu. Now that I've migrated to Linux I found that the XPComment and XPTitle sections I was modifying are somewhat proprietary to Microsoft. Boo! This means there's no menu to edit these sections and most command line tools fail to write to those sections. After some research I was able to write this little app that allows me to modify those fields once again.

You can get a copy of the app here https://bit.ly/jpog-XP
and if you're interested in seeing the source I've made it available to my Patreon supporters
here https://bit.ly/pnj_

#linux #bash #code #programming #metadata

bruce_crosby@pod.jns.im

I need help federation.

I have a large amount of music cd 's that I would like to rip to my Windows 10 pro computer. My problem is that I have all metadata from Microsoft blocked through my Hosts file. ( None of their damn business what's on my 'puter ) So what can I download and use to rip perfectly own cd's with all the metadata,( ie cover art, artist, track titles ) which I bought in the music store place without including in my private business with microsoft.
#music #metatdata #help #cd #rip #metadata #cdrip #qanon