Discover how a new bot is selling Discord content, DuckDuckGo's privacy services, Proton & Standard Notes collaboration. Delve into data breaches, company updates, politics, FOSS, and more in this intriguing podcast episode!
Discord data scraping exposes user activities to sale for $5, prompting privacy concerns.
Recent data breaches impact companies like Home Depot and Giant Tiger, compromising millions of records.
Google enhances user security with new cell network encryption alerts and strict messaging policies.
Deep dives
Discord Content Being Sold by Spy Site
A spy site named Spypet is scraping Discord and selling user messages. It scrapes data from over 10,000 Discord servers, tracking messages and activities. This service offers user data access for mere $5, and it claims to track more than 14,000 servers and 600 million users, including a database of over 3 billion messages. While private messages haven't been intercepted, other information like server activities, connected accounts, and recent messages are at risk. Discord is investigating the situation to protect user privacy.
Data Breaches Affecting Various Companies
Multiple data breaches have been reported recently affecting companies like Home Depot, Indian auto giant, Greylock McKinnon Associates, and Giant Tiger. These breaches exposed sensitive information such as employee names, email addresses, social security numbers, and personal data of millions of customers. The breach at Home Depot impacted around 10,000 employees, while the Indian auto giant had data of over 7.5 million customers compromised. Greylock McKinnon Associates fell victim to stolen social security numbers and medical information. Giant Tiger faced a leak of nearly 3 million customer records.
Google Implements New Privacy Measures
Google has introduced new privacy-protecting features for cell networks, offering security notifications alerting users when connecting to unencrypted or potentially risky cell networks. Users can now choose to require encryption to protect against surveillance. Additionally, Google eliminated third-party messaging apps and texts from employees' work phones within the Security Exchange Commission, aligning with industry standards. These stricter practices aim to enhance data security and prevent potential breaches.
Privacy Legislation and Digital Initiatives in Various Countries
Colorado enacted a law safeguarding sensitive neural data, prohibiting tech firms from forcibly imprisoning consent choices on users. Similarly, in the UK, millions will transition to EVSAA accounts replacing physical immigration cards, while the Dutch privacy watchdog recommends government organizations cease using Facebook due to data privacy concerns. The MLB introduced AI facial authentication for entry at baseball games to expedite access and reduce entry wait times for fans with optional participation.
Facial Authentication Implementation in Baseball Stadiums
Major League Baseball teams are adopting AI-powered facial authentication for ticket holders' entry, aiming to streamline fan admission and reduce entry delays at games. Fans can upload a selfie through the MLB ballpark app to gain fast-track entry with uploaded selfies rather than traditional ticket scanning. While this technology remains optional for now, privacy advocates raise concerns about facial recognition implications as the use of such biometric technologies expands.
Episode 174: A new bot is selling your Discord content, DuckDuckGo has announced a new suite of privacy-protecting services, Proton & Standard Notes have joined forces, and more!
