The Facebook and Google Files: Here’s What Google and Facebook Know About You—And What You Can Do About It - Mehreen Kasana

If you use Google or Facebook, you may have wondered just how much of your personal data these big internet giants have access to. This is a good question to ask in our modern era of Big Data, constant connectivity and rapidly decreasing personal privacy. Some people, like Washington State Chief Privacy Officer Alex Alben, even argue that your personal data isn’t really “personal” at all. In other words, you may have unwittingly agreed to give your deepest information to third-party vendors through websites and apps simply by agreeing to their lengthy and frequently skimmed Terms of Service.

By the looks of it, Google seems to have some of the most invasive amounts of data on its users. This isn’t to say the company is using personal data on people for malicious and nefarious purposes. But the frequency, detail and amount it has amassed over the years are beginning to put people on edge. Let’s start off with location. If you have Google maps enabled (like many of us), your physical movements and the time you take to get from Point A to Point B, wherever that may be, has been logged into its search database. If you want to see proof of this activity, look at your Google timeline.

Then there’s your search history. Google maintains a database of your search entries as a way to learn more about you and your preferences. But if you fear that this constant logging of your personal search history is a dash too deep for your taste, you need to delete your search history from all the devices you own. That’s not all. Ads, too, factor into Google’s profiles of its users. To give you an example, Google has an advertisement profile on me; its algorithm asserts that I'm a female between the age of 25-34 and that I might like computers, hair care and politics. Google presents ads based on the personal information you give the website, including your age, gender, location, and other metrics. Plus, Google stores your YouTube search history and maintains a log of information on the apps you use. From the amount you spend on these apps to the people you talk to, Google stores that information in its database.

Then there’s Facebook. Amid the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the social network giant is under massive fire from observers who say its practices on privacy are reprehensible. With many people joining the #DeleteFacebook sentiment, the company recently shared an update in its security settings, saying that access to it would be more readily available for users. But if you’re interested in knowing just how much Facebook has on you in terms of personal data, check out its download feature. Go to your general account settings and look for “Download a copy of your Facebook data” at the bottom of the option

It might be slightly jarring to see just how much Facebook logs about its users. From personal conversations, phone numbers, apps, photos, videos, events, locations, and a whole lot more, Facebook’s data can be converted into tons of documents on individual users. I’ll give you my example. Since 2008, Facebook has 430.1 megabytes of personal data on me. To make sense of such a colossal amount, conversion to a Word document helps. Since one megabyte is almost 500 character-filled pages, that's about 215,050 pages of text on yours truly. To make matters less uncomfortable, that’s several novels.

While Facebook tries to figure out how to respond to growing concern over its privacy settings, you can do your (small) part in tightening your profile. You can opt out of Facebook’s API sharing feature so that third-party websites, games and applications don’t have access to your data.

For the complte report click here: Here’s What Google and Facebook Know About You—And What You Can Do About It | Alternet

EU Privacy Laws: EU questions U.S. over Yahoo email scanning, amid privacy concerns - by Julia Fioretti

Big Brother In The USA Watching Us 

The European Commission has asked the United States about a secret court order Yahoo (YHOO.O) used to scan thousands of customer emails for possible terrorism links, following concerns that may have violated a new data transfer pact.

Under the Privacy Shield agreement that came into force in August, the United States agreed to limit the collection of and access to Europeans' data stored on U.S. servers because of EU concerns about data privacy and mass U.S. surveillance.

The previous deal was thrown out by the EU's top court in October 2015, leaving thousands of firms scrambling for legal ways to provide data on transactions ranging from credit cards to travel and e-commerce that underpin billions of dollars of transatlantic trade.

Reuters reported last month that Yahoo had scanned all incoming customer emails in 2015 for a digital signature linked to a foreign state sponsor of terrorism, at the behest of a secret court order. That raised fresh questions about the scope of U.S. spying.

"The Commission services have contacted the U.S. authorities to ask for a number of clarifications," Commission spokesman Christian Wigand said.

The United States had pledged not to engage in mass, indiscriminate espionage, assuaging Commission concerns about the privacy of Europeans' data stored on U.S. servers following disclosures of intrusive U.S. surveillance programs in 2013 by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

Two people familiar with the matter said the Commission had now asked the United States to explain how the Yahoo order fitted with its commitments, even if the program ran before the Privacy Shield was in place.

The Commission was seeking clarifications on the nature of the court order itself and how targeted it was, said one person familiar with the matter. Another said it had also asked if the program was continuing.

"The U.S. will be held accountable to these commitments both through review mechanisms and through redress possibilities, including the newly established Ombudsperson mechanism in the U.S. State Department," Wigand said.

Privacy Shield, which Yahoo has not signed up to, provides for a joint annual review to ensure the United States is respecting its commitment to limit the amount of data hoovered up by U.S. agents.

A senior U.S. government official said he could not confirm or deny the reports about Yahoo, but said if true the surveillance would have been targeted at identifying terrorists while protecting the privacy of others.

That would be "good intelligence work," he said.

Reuters

Big Brother : Twitter says government requests for your data jumped 52% - most request US followed by Japan and Turkey

Governments want your data now more than ever.

That's according to Twitter, which released its twice-yearly transparency report on Tuesday, revealing that the number of times governments requested user account information jumped about 52% from 2,871 requests during the second half of 2014 to 4,363 requests during the first half of this year. The social network cooperated with 58% of those requests by handing over data.

Jeremy Kessel, Twitter's senior manager of global legal policy, called it, the "largest increase between reporting periods" the social network has ever seen.

Just as notable: Periscope alone received 1,391 copyright takedown requests during the same period — a startling number given the popular live streaming app debuted in March.

Meanwhile, requests from U.S. government officials made up 56% of all requests, followed by Japan, then Turkey, although requests from India spiked a whopping 175% versus the period before to 113 requests, 19% of which produced some information.

Twitter's government transparency report, which the social network began publishing in 2012, covers data requests from the governments of more than 45 countries, from Canada and the Dominican Republic to Cyprus and Serbia, often relating to criminal investigations.

Read more: Twitter says government requests for your data jumped 52%