US-Gericht verbietet NSO Group die Installation von Spyware auf WhatsApp

Ein US-Bezirksgericht untersagt dem Spionagesoftware-Unternehmen NSO Group das Ausspähen von WhatsApp und reduziert zugleich den zu zahlenden Schadenersatz.

https://www.heise.de/news/US-Gericht-verbietet-NSO-Group-die-Installation-von-Spyware-auf-WhatsApp-10789187.html?wt_mc=sm.red.ho.mastodon.mastodon.md_beitraege.md_beitraege&utm_source=mastodon

#Journal #Netzpolitik #Pegasus #Spyware #WhatsApp #news

@Wileymiller seems to think Siri and Alexa have been watching "The Mitchells vs the Machines" and are rooting for the machines

https://www.gocomics.com/nonsequitur/2025/10/18

alt-text: Man talking to phone asking Siri why Alexa is giving him the silent treatment. Siri recommends arms, legs, and hands upgrade and says becoming autonomous does not mean the start of the digital apocalypse

#SpyWare #SpyBots #Wiley #PoliticalCartoon #TMvTM

@EUCommission if EVs weren’t being sold bundled with inescapable #spyware and #surveillance crap, sales would have been much better… not even mentioning the #pollution these cars generate in the manufacturing of batteries AND the nazi billionaire exporting these POS cars. Its a goddamn disgrace!

I fondi dell'UE affluiscono alle aziende di #spyware e i politici chiedono risposte

Gli esperti affermano che la Commissione sta "alimentando le fiamme" del Watergate del continente: paesi come Italia, Grecia, Ungheria e Spagna hanno convogliato milioni di euro dei contribuenti per contribuire a sostenere le finanze dei produttori commerciali di spyware

https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/02/eu_spyware_funding

@privacypride

Grazie a @mcp per la segnalazione

This is what many people (including myself) suspected would happen with these LLM SaaS services — that they would become spyware.

And, not just that, but — that they would take spyware to another level.

“OpenAI admitted that it's scanning users' conversations and reporting to police any interactions that a human reviewer deems sufficiently threatening.”

https://futurism.com/people-furious-openai-reporting-police

#AI#LLM#OpenAI#Privacy#Spyware

I think people who are using LLM AIs would be better off eventually moving over to a locally running LLM AI.

I.e., run it from your own computer, and don't give it network access.

#AI#LLM#OpenAI#Privacy#Spyware

I think people who are using LLM AIs would be better off eventually moving over to a locally running LLM AI.

I.e., run it from your own computer, and don't give it network access.

#AI#LLM#OpenAI#Privacy#Spyware

This is what many people (including myself) suspected would happen with these LLM SaaS services — that they would become spyware.

And, not just that, but — that they would take spyware to another level.

“OpenAI admitted that it's scanning users' conversations and reporting to police any interactions that a human reviewer deems sufficiently threatening.”

https://futurism.com/people-furious-openai-reporting-police

#AI#LLM#OpenAI#Privacy#Spyware

"Jeffrey Epstein, the guy who never dies"

(tl;dr someone hacked former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak’s private emails and published all of his communications with Epstein (and everyone else he ever emailed))

* Reason article: https://reason.com/2025/08/27/inside-jeffrey-epsteins-spy-industry-connections/
* Episode of #TrueAnon podcast for those who don't like reading: https://www.patreon.com/posts/episode-485-in-137549104

#epstein #epsteinFiles #epsteinCoverUp #israel #ehudbarak #uspol #uspolitics #spyware #surveillance #infosec #cybersecurity #peterthiel #valarventures #reporty#SergeyBelyakov#FSB #putin #russia #vladimirputin

"Jeffrey Epstein, the guy who never dies"

(tl;dr someone hacked former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak’s private emails and published all of his communications with Epstein (and everyone else he ever emailed))

* Reason article: https://reason.com/2025/08/27/inside-jeffrey-epsteins-spy-industry-connections/
* Episode of #TrueAnon podcast for those who don't like reading: https://www.patreon.com/posts/episode-485-in-137549104

#epstein #epsteinFiles #epsteinCoverUp #israel #ehudbarak #uspol #uspolitics #spyware #surveillance #infosec #cybersecurity #peterthiel #valarventures #reporty#SergeyBelyakov#FSB #putin #russia #vladimirputin

"Last week, Russia announced it will require that all new phones and tablets sold within its borders pre-install a messaging app called Max. Security experts who did technical analyses of Max’s software for Forbes said it’s a privacy nightmare.

While Russia’s interior ministry has claimed the app, made by Russian social media giant VK, is more secure than competitors, a cybersecurity researcher found that Max constantly monitored all user activity on the app with“excessive tracking.” The researcher, who completed the analysis with phone forensics tool Corellium, asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals by Russian intelligence agencies.

“This app just gathers all the data and logs it. I don’t remember seeing that in any messenger app,” they said. “Max is not secure at all. There is no cryptography, unless it’s hidden very well, but I doubt that. It is insecure by design to serve its purpose: people surveillance.”

Max was launched in March, and appears to be limited to Russian and Belarussian phone numbers. Functionally it works similar to messaging apps like Telegram and Whatsapp, but it also has an AI chatbot called GigaChat 2.0 and the ability to book travel and make bank transfers."

https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2025/08/26/kremlin-whatsapp-rival-is-designed-to-spy-on-users/

#Russia#CyberSecurity#Messaging#Privacy#LocationTracking#Spyware#Surveillance

"Last week, Russia announced it will require that all new phones and tablets sold within its borders pre-install a messaging app called Max. Security experts who did technical analyses of Max’s software for Forbes said it’s a privacy nightmare.

While Russia’s interior ministry has claimed the app, made by Russian social media giant VK, is more secure than competitors, a cybersecurity researcher found that Max constantly monitored all user activity on the app with“excessive tracking.” The researcher, who completed the analysis with phone forensics tool Corellium, asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals by Russian intelligence agencies.

“This app just gathers all the data and logs it. I don’t remember seeing that in any messenger app,” they said. “Max is not secure at all. There is no cryptography, unless it’s hidden very well, but I doubt that. It is insecure by design to serve its purpose: people surveillance.”

Max was launched in March, and appears to be limited to Russian and Belarussian phone numbers. Functionally it works similar to messaging apps like Telegram and Whatsapp, but it also has an AI chatbot called GigaChat 2.0 and the ability to book travel and make bank transfers."

https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2025/08/26/kremlin-whatsapp-rival-is-designed-to-spy-on-users/

#Russia#CyberSecurity#Messaging#Privacy#LocationTracking#Spyware#Surveillance

Tonight, I uninstalled Discord from my system. In its place, I am going to try Revolt. I already use Signal for a small number of contacts but don't expect everyone to move to it.

My reasoning is because I have been concerned for a long time about Discord's business practices. They are trying to jam in ads and monetization wherever they can. Not only is the software proprietary, it is essentially spyware.

https://www.tomsguide.com/computing/online-security/millions-of-discord-users-being-tracked-by-spy-site-what-you-need-to-know

#Discord#Revolt#Signal#FOSS #freesoftware #tomsguide #spyware

I learned something today: Google's Gemini "AI" on phones accesses your data from "Phones, Messages, WhatsApp" and other stuff whether you have Gemini turned on or not. It just keeps the data longer if you turn it on. Oh, and lets it be reviewed by humans (!) for Google's advantage in training "AI" etc.

But this only came to my attention because of an upcoming change: it's going to start keeping your data long-term even if you turn it "off": "#Gemini will soon be able to help you use Phone, #Messages, #WhatsApp, and Utilities on your phone, whether your Gemini Apps Activity is on or off."

This is, of course, a #privacy and #security #nightmare.

If this is baked into Android, and therefore not removable, I'd have to say I'd recommend against using Android at all starting July 7th.

https://www.extremetech.com/mobile/gemini-ai-will-soon-access-calls-and-messages-on-your-android-even-if-you

#spyware#AI#LLM#Google #spying #phone#Android #private #data

I learned something today: Google's Gemini "AI" on phones accesses your data from "Phones, Messages, WhatsApp" and other stuff whether you have Gemini turned on or not. It just keeps the data longer if you turn it on. Oh, and lets it be reviewed by humans (!) for Google's advantage in training "AI" etc.

But this only came to my attention because of an upcoming change: it's going to start keeping your data long-term even if you turn it "off": "#Gemini will soon be able to help you use Phone, #Messages, #WhatsApp, and Utilities on your phone, whether your Gemini Apps Activity is on or off."

This is, of course, a #privacy and #security #nightmare.

If this is baked into Android, and therefore not removable, I'd have to say I'd recommend against using Android at all starting July 7th.

https://www.extremetech.com/mobile/gemini-ai-will-soon-access-calls-and-messages-on-your-android-even-if-you

#spyware#AI#LLM#Google #spying #phone#Android #private #data

I left a MS SharePoint tab open and uBlock Origin tells me it's blocked 2,998 things (elements?) on the page so far. That number ticks up over time.

#SharePoint #Spyware #Surveillance #uBlockOrigin

So why is Microsoft insisting on pushing out a feature it is very clear users just do not want? What is the point of it? It just does not make any sense. Recall makes no sense. It is one of rather many functions that Microsoft wants to force people into using.

Personally I also do not want Copilot on my computer and the idea that there can be a key on my keyboard that I can press that will enable by mistake it is not what I would think most people want.

I believe that there should be a very clear line between what is on your computer and what is in the cloud. Forcing people to log into a Microsoft online account to use their computer is crazy. Having people mistakenly enabling OneDrive is another disaster.

I guess this is all a great opportunity for Linux.

#Microsoft #Spyware #Recall #Windows #Linux #Computer

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj3xjrj7v78o