w/ a hard boiled 🥚
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RichardGPT can be trusted with personal data — Making it a great alternative to the doctor! Or discord!
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Whyyy do i have to sign up to use this app i dont need data synchronization i will only use it on this device why isnt there an option without having to put your email, phone number and the weight of your firstborn in a thing you’ll use once, why
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Can federal immigration officials access personal data on every Wisconsinite enrolled in Medicaid?
Not for now, but the question is winding its way through federal courts. What to know:
Can immigration officials access your Medicaid data? What it means for Wisconsin patients
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Why Personal Data Privacy Is a Key Part of Cybersecurity Strategy
In the world of technology, we often talk about “Cybersecurity” as the walls and locks that keep hackers out. But there is a secret ingredient that makes those walls much stronger: Data Privacy.
Many people think privacy is just about hiding your secrets. In reality, privacy is a defensive shield. Here is why keeping your personal data private is the most important part of any cybersecurity strategy.
1. Data is the “Fuel” for Cyberattacks
Think of a hacker like a professional burglar. Before they break into a house, they look for the spare key under the mat or check the mail to see if you are home.
In the digital world, your personal data is that spare key. When your phone number, birthday, or mother’s maiden name is public, hackers use that information to guess your passwords or answer your security questions. By practicing strict data privacy, you are essentially “starving” the hackers of the fuel they need to attack you.
2. Privacy Prevents “Identity Theft”
Cybersecurity isn’t just about protecting your laptop; it’s about protecting you.
If a company has a weak privacy strategy and loses your Social Security number or ID details, a hacker can become “you” online. They can open bank accounts, take out loans, or ruin your credit score. When a business prioritizes privacy, they don’t just encrypt data; they limit what they collect in the first place. The less data there is to steal, the less damage a hacker can do.
3. Building the “Trust” Shield
For businesses, cybersecurity is about more than just software—it’s about reputation.
New SEO trends show that users are searching for “trustworthy brands” more than ever. If a company treats your data like a precious asset, you are more likely to stay a customer. A cybersecurity strategy that ignores privacy is like a bank with a giant vault but no cameras—it might be “secure” for a moment, but it’s not reliable.
4. Compliance: The Law of the Land
Today, there are laws like the GDPR and CCPA that force companies to protect your data.
A modern cybersecurity strategy must include privacy because, quite frankly, it’s the law. If a company fails to keep data private, they face massive fines. These laws are designed to ensure that your “digital footprint” stays under your control, not the hackers’.
Simple Ways to Boost Your Privacy Strategy Today
You don’t need to be a tech genius to start prioritizing privacy. Here are three simple steps:
- The “Minimum Info” Rule: Whenever an app asks for your data (like your location or contacts), ask yourself: “Do they really need this to work?” If the answer is no, say no.
- Clear the Trail: Regularly delete old accounts you no longer use. Each one is a “doorway” into your life.
- Use Privacy Tools: Use browsers and search engines that don’t track your every move.
The Bottom Line
Cybersecurity keeps the “bad guys” out, but Data Privacy ensures they have nothing to find if they ever get in. By treating your personal information with care, you aren’t just being private—you are being secure.
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Gender Politics and the Weaponization of Personal Data | TechPolicy.Press
Recent litigation and rulings across the United States are doing more than restricting access to services for transgender and gender diverse individuals; they are actively reengineering administrative and legal systems to undermine privacy and expose sensitive personal data. This multi-front policy effort originates from the White House, the Department of Justice, and various federal agencies, creating a high-risk environment where individuals’ identities, personal information and medical histories are leveraged for political gain.
The institutionalized levering of data poses an urgent threat for everyone—not just for the transgender and gender diverse community that increasingly relies on digital spaces for crucial information, services, and connection, and already faces systemic barriers to entry.
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Essential 5-Step Guide to Protecting Your Digital Privacy Today
In the digital age, the digital privacy of personal data is more critical than ever. This article breaks down a practical and simple guide in 5 steps, based on security best practices, so you can shield your accounts, secure your connection, and automate the cleanup of your digital footprint.
Step 1: The Fundamental Defense: Change Your Passwords Regularly
The first line of defense is a strong…
Essential 5-Step Guide to Protecting Your Digital Privacy Today
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stop for a sec and be mad at phones w me plz im so mad
Love getting a new phone and finding invasive apps/programs I can’t uninstall every time I dig around in it, some of which I SWEAR weren’t there last time I checked (take with grain of salt bc I might also just be tired all the time) either way it’s fucking bullshit and I can’t believe we all just put up with this
Like this fucking thing
ALTSorry long post ahead but I just. So this thing (which i can neither uninstall nor disable) doesn’t tell you what it does unless you go to its page on the app store, but you can at least see it has a fuckton of permissions. This is AFTER I removed photos, videos, texts and calender, which.. i can’t even think of another permission to GIVE to this thing. Fitness and health apps (if you use stuff like that which i do not) can also be accessed, presumably automatically just like everything else.
So let’s see what it says about this thing in the app store (im gonna use fun filters to make this experience slightly less shitty)
ALTOh okay so maybe I was overreacting! It’s just for predictive text and some other, less useful but pretty harmless shit. And hey it says right here my data stays safely in my phone:)
Yah so I didn’t believe it. This app has 1.5 stars out of 5 plus the wording ‘data used for this feature’ is sus af. So I clicked around the page some more and found
ALT
ALTSo they’re just fucking lying. Alllll this shit 'may be shared’ with whatever fuckass company wants your data
Idfk where they’re selling this shit, I also feel the likelihood is very low that any of it will be personally used against me. But given the fact im a trans leftist who’s living in this current political hellscape, do you really think I want to take that chance? Do you? Or maybe- this is wild, i know - maybe I just don’t want my tech FUCKING SPYING ON ME, no matter WHAT it’s for! Like im so sick of being angry, but anything less just feels like giving up
*lastly, im not done removing/un-defaulting/whatever-i-can-do-ing etc in my settings, and no i dont particularly want or need advice, that’s not the point*
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A Timely Reminder
Last week was Thanksgiving here in the US. Amidst the feasting and worrying about the weather while driving home, I had an opportunity to demonstrate what I do for a living. You see, I celebrated this year with my partner’s family. It was a small, intimate gathering. Us, his mother, his aunt and cousin, and the cousin’s close friend. No kids, no pets, no drama. Conversation naturally drifted to what I do, since to most people it’s a fascinating but somewhat foreign concept.
The friend – we’ll call her Dee – asked me about AI, once she learned that I work in cybersecurity. She apparently uses ChatGPT in her work, to help make her sound more ‘refined’. Dee said that while she writes the reports herself, she then puts them into the AI to rephrase things in a way she doesn’t think she can manage on her own. This led us to talking about prompt injection and how it’s becoming a serious problem. Which then led to a discussion of what’s been happening of late with outages, the constant battle against malware incursions and online privacy. All of which I’ve covered at one time or another.
My partner’s mother – let’s call her Em – said that she’s careful about these things and only trusts Amazon, with whom she has a Prime account and credit card. She was under the impression that they had no information on her and she prefers them because of their shipping costs, or Prime’s lack thereof. I pointed out that if she has a credit card with them, then they have her full name, email and home address, and history of her purchases. They probably have her phone number and date of birth too. And all that data has most likely been sold to third parties for advertising and demographic collection.
She was shocked, because it hadn’t occurred to her that that much information is kept in her account. And while that does beg the question of what people think accounts keep track of, it made me realize just how different those inside and outside of the industry consider their personal data. Some of that is the generational gap. Em is elderly, still uses a landline for calls, although she does own a smartphone and uses Facebook. Her conception of personal information leans more towards her political views, her opinions, her social network. She is of an age when many of the details of her identity were once public knowledge, published in the phonebook. Anything truly private – like social security number – was held in trust by government services. So she doesn’t think about how that information could be used against her, even though it’s obvious to me.
Em and Dee are prime targets for exploitation, either through social engineering or data breaches. They are people with knowledge of the internet and how to use it, but not enough to understand how fallible and vulnerable it is. And they are not alone. Most people fall into that category, something I think those who work in the security industry forget. Something I think about fairly often when writing these daily reports. I generally describe this part of my job as educating the layman; I know I’m preaching to the choir among my professional peers.
I don’t expect that a single conversation had around a table after a big meal is going to change any of their behavior. But I hope it makes them think a little about just how much of their private information is out there and to take steps to secure it. And I hope it’s a reminder for all of you too, as we move into the gift giving (and therefore buying) season colloquially kicked off with Black Friday and today being Cyber Monday. No clicking untrusted sites or links, keep tabs on your personal data and if that sale looks too good to be true, it probably is.
Posted on LinkedIn, 12/1/25
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AI browsers accused of harvesting sensitive data, according to new study | Digital Watch Observatory
AI browsers are little more than data extraction devices. And YOU are the extractee.
Yep, AI browsers are even worse than Chrome. 😱
Here are several browsers which won’t devour your privacy like Google’s Chrome.
Lose the Trackers: The Best Private Browsers for 2025
FYI: I have been using Firefox since about a week or two after I first got a laptop. Consider that a recommendation.
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We Need to Control Personal AI Data So Personal AI Cannot Control Us | TechPolicy.Press
We Need to Control Personal AI Data So Personal AI Cannot Control Us | TechPolicy.Press
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Trump administration hands over Medicaid recipients’ personal data, including addresses, to ICE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials will be given access to the personal data of the nation’s 79 million Medicaid enrollees, including home addresses and ethnicities, to track down immigrants who may not be living legally in the United States, according to an agreement obtained by The Associated Press.
The information will give ICE officials the ability to find “the location of aliens” across the country, says the agreement signed Monday between the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Department of Homeland Security. The agreement has not been announced publicly.