[ DuckDuckGo Privacy Weekly ] For Oct 29, 2020

• When You Tell Chrome to Wipe Private Data About You, It Spares Two Websites From the Purge: Google.com, YouTube [theregister.com]
  Trying to stay private by enabling "Clear cookies and site data when you quit Chrome"? Bad luck — Google exempts its own websites and keeps your data for Google and YouTube.
  Side note: On mobile, try the DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser instead.
• The University of Miami Claims They Didn't Use Facial Recognition to Intimidate Student Protesters. FFTF Has Proof They're Lying. [fightfortheftr.medium.com]
  “It sure seems like the University of Miami uses facial recognition to target and intimidate students exercising their 1st Amendment rights,” yet the university denies that it uses the technology at all. Fight for the Future uncovered proof that they're lying.
• The High Privacy Cost of a “Free” Website [themarkup.org]
  Free website-building tools can lead to a dizzying number of trackers loading in users’ browsers, even visiting sites where privacy seems paramount, report Aaron Sankin and Surya Mattu.
• Facial Recognition at the Border Is Fueling Other Forms of Surveillance, Report Says [vice.com]
  A CIPPIC report warns: “Facial images captured at border crossings… can be [shared without consent and] used for purposes ranging from identity verification to criminal investigation, despite the high error rate and proven biases.” Nathan Munn explains the risks.
• EU Parliament Backs Tighter Rules on Behavioural Ads [techcrunch.com]
  EU parliament has voted for tighter regulations on behavioral ads (currently non-binding) to “create a safer digital space for all users where their fundamental rights are protected as well as a level playing field to allow innovative digital businesses to grow within the Single Market and compete globally.”

Our thoughts

• Google Competition Is Not One Click Away, Says DuckDuckGo CEO [bloomberg.com]
  After the US Department of Justice's lawsuit against Google, announced last week, our CEO and Founder, Gabriel Weinberg, explained the result of Google making it difficult for people to choose alternatives: “The negative impact to consumers is [… Google's] behavioral advertising and endless data collection, and the impact that has on society and democracy. What we're hoping for is consumers really get the option to opt out of all that data collection.”

And finally…

• Open Letter to European Commission: Request for Trilateral Meeting among Google, the EC, and Alternative Search Engines to Improve Search Preference Menu [spreadprivacy.com]
  We're calling for a trilateral meeting among Google, the European Commission (EC), and alternative search engines to address the many flaws in Google's preference menu for Android phones in the EU. The preference menu is supposed to be a remedy for its anti-competitive behavior in the EU, but instead Google has used it as a means to further entrench its unfair advantages, making it harder for users to choose privacy. If the EC wants an effective remedy, it can no longer ignore the problems with the current implementation, and the quickest and most transparent way to find solutions is a collaborative discussion.

Proudly Private,



Dax the Duck
Mascot - DuckDuckGo

Follow us on Twitter
Learn about privacy on our blog