Category: Privacy
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Fight CSAM, destroy privacy
Last year in May, the European Commission proposed new rules to eradicate CSAM, Child Sexual Abuse Material. The sexual abuse of children is a heinous crime and profiting from such material is even worse. It is important to take effective measures against creating and spreading of such material via the internet. The new EC proposal…
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Dutch government allowed to use public cloud
The public cloud is everywhere. Companies like Amazon, Google, Microsoft and dozens of others are eager to sign up new users and expand their services to existing customers. Many organisations moved their entire IT operations to Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure and more will follow. The Dutch government abstained, until very recently. Just last…
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Android’s hidden trackers
I think it’s old news by now that your smart phone tracks you. Advertising companies and government agencies both want to get their hands on as much information about you as they can, for various reasons. But how much information does your phone leak about you and to whom? Apple provides transparency reports and even…
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The “new normal”
With the Covid-19 pandemic seemingly under control in the developed world, many people are aching for relief of social distancing restrictions. People want to meet each other again, go out and go on vacation. However, the virus isn’t gone so many governments insist on certain measures for the expected return to normal. Societies prepare for…
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WhatsApp, Telegram or Signal?
There are many instant messaging solutions available these days. A quick browse of the Google Play Store or the Apple store gives me Telegram, WhatsApp, Discord, Facebook Messenger, Signal, Viber, Google Meet and a slew of others. So which do you choose when you care about privacy and data security? For the purpose of this…
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War on encryption
Every now and then, police or someone in government will complain that encryption is bad. The arguments are pretty much always the same: encryption is bad because it allows criminals to hide or because it enables terrorists to communicate without the intelligence agencies able to read along. Or, if all other arguments fail, it allows…