Over the last week, the world has watched as the Taliban has moved into Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, and reinstated a reign of terror that’s been a decade in the making.

For the people of Afghanistan, this means a return of the archaic treatment of women, public executions, violent retribution, and a perverted use of the Islamic religion to enforce extremist views on anyone who doesn’t see eye to eye.

Women in particular face a unique level of abuse as they are stripped of their rights in every basic sense. No longer will they be free to walk along…

We’ve spent a lot of time looking at the way that criminals, big tech, and nefarious marketers extract and use our data, but we’re overlooking one of the most controversial privacy topics to date — online surveillance.

Law enforcement has been making use of the internet since its inception to try and track and prevent crime. However, new technology, the internet of things, and third-party data miners have taken this to a much deeper level.

In 2018, Anthony Aiello, 90, was charged with the violent murder of his 67-year-old stepdaughter. Why is this relevant? …

We know it’s a major issue when even politicians agree on new privacy legislation…

Over the last 16-months, the House Judiciary Committee’s antitrust subcommittee has conducted a deep dive investigation into problems with big tech ranging from monopolizing the industry to abuse of consumer data.

The findings have resulted in five proposed bills that have the power to make big changes.

Let’s rewind a little bit.

These investigations began a few years ago and have succeeded in uncovering the abuse of data and unfair competitive strategies employed by companies like Amazon and Google.

In 2018, a startling report was released by the Wall Street Journal…

Back in the golden age of Google, people loved the bright and shiny user interface and faster speeds offered by the search engine.

However, new revelations into how the tech giant trucks in consumer information have turned many people off to Google — and other engines that make their money by selling and placing ads based on consumer behavior.

With a new era of digitally enlightened consumers, will ad revenue be enough to keep companies like Google alive? Or are we on the cusp of watching these champions of industry go the way of Webcrawler and Ask Jeeves?

Let’s get you up to speed…

Just a…

Let’s face it — even with all the developing digital privacy tools, the internet is still the wild west. And we wouldn’t let our kids play in the wild west, would we?

Okay, so maybe some of us would risk it (especially after all the COVID closeness). But for the most part, we take every precaution to protect our children from being targeted or victimized in any way.

And parents and caregivers need to be aware of the dangers that can come with allowing children to navigate the internet. …

Flip the script on companies using big data in unethical ways.

According to a recent study by Oberlo, there are at LEAST 3.78 billion social media users worldwide.

And of those 3.78 billion users, we can almost guarantee that 100% have been targeted by some form of ad. Whether it’s for an innocuous pop-up clothing store or a life saving medication, these ads depend on the collection of consumer data to target and place goods and services in front of the right people at the right time — which translates into sales for companies, and big bucks for data brokers.

So, what’s ad targeting?

…

It’s been roughly six days since the Colonial Pipeline was “attacked” by hackers and it’s starting to feel like the great toilet paper shortage of 2021 all over again.

But is all of the panic buying justified?

The short answer is no. The pipeline pumps kicked back on today and we should see a return to the normal flow of gasoline and jet fuel in the near future.

While this sounds like good news, it’s exposed a serious weakness in our digital defenses and an inability to cope with breaks in our supply chain.

What does computer tech have to do with a fuel pipeline?

When many of us imagine an…

Earlier this week, you may have been prompted to update your Apple device to gain access to the latest and greatest Apple emojis (because emojis rock). What you may have missed is that this latest update is one of the most progressive steps towards consumer privacy protection in recent history.

While the tech and marketing communities have been more than a little stirred up due to Apple’s new App Tracking Transparency (ATT) update, not everyone is aware of what it really means. …