Passwords, by definition, are secrets. We use them to identify ourselves to systems and gain authorized access to places that other people are denied access to. Every online account is an identity, but only if it is reserved for the exclusive use of its owner. But when it comes to the passwords of children, grown-ups […] … learn more→

Schools globally have scrambled to adopt or expand use of technology to minimize learning disruptions related to COVID-19. Educational technology has long posed serious privacy and equality problems, and these problems are now reaching a boiling point. Hasty choices now could have long-term impacts. We are part of a seven-year research initiative, The eQuality Project, which examines young people’s experiences with privacy and […] … learn more→

Citizens and policymakers around the world are grappling with how to limit companies’ use of data about individuals – and how private various types of information should be. But anthropologists like me know that cultures vary widely in their views of what is private and who is responsible for protecting privacy. Just like online privacy, real-world privacy […] … learn more→

The Federal Trade Commission issued its largest-ever fine, of US$5 billion, to Facebook for violating a 2011 privacy settlement in late July. But the amount is only about a month’s worth of the company’s revenue, suggesting that the fine, while seeming large, is, in fact, rather modest. More significantly, Facebook is required to have an “outside assessor” – a […] … learn more→

Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis called privacy the “right to be let alone.” Perhaps Congress should give states trying to protect consumer data the same right. For years, a gridlocked Congress ignored privacy, apart from occasionally scolding companies such as Equifax and Marriott after their major data breaches. In its absence, states have taken the lead in experimenting with […] … learn more→

When someone types your name into Google, suppose the first link points to a newspaper article about you going bankrupt 15 years ago, or to a YouTube video of you smoking cigarettes 20 years ago, or simply a webpage that includes personal information such as your current home address, your birth date, or your Social […] … learn more→

A federal magistrate judge in California has issued a warrant ordering Apple to assist the FBI in accessing data on an iPhone used by a suspect in the December 2015 San Bernardino mass shooting. Apple’s public refusal to comply with the order – and its motion asking a judge to reverse the order – has […] … learn more→

Once servers loaded with information about who we talk to, where we go, what we do, what we buy, which websites we visit, how we behave on them, etc. Edward Snowden got in a huge amount of trouble for hinting us the level of surveillance watching over us. It can feel pretty creepy and oddly […] … learn more→

Last month, I met Edward Snowden in a hotel in central Moscow, just blocks away from Red Square. It was the first time we’d met in person; he first emailed me nearly two years earlier, and we eventually created an encrypted channel to journalists Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald, to whom Snowden would disclose overreaching mass surveillance by the National Security Agency and […] … learn more→