Privacy

President Obama meeting with Tim Cook and others over NSA and health care website

Cody Lee ∙ December 16, 2013

The White House has announced that President Obama is scheduled to meet with a number of tech executives tomorrow to discuss a wide range of subjects. Two of the big topics on the menu are said to be the NSA and the troubled HealthCare.gov website.

In addition, the group—which includes Apple CEO Tim Cook, Twitter's Dick Costolo, Netflix's Reed Hastings, and Dropbox's Drew Houston—will discuss ways the Obama administration can partner with the tech sector to create new jobs and grow the economy...

Apple joins major U.S. tech giants in NSA surveillance reform push

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 9, 2013

The U.S. government's mass-scale surveillance program which has compromised the security and privacy of millions of domestic and foreign online users, the secret PRISM initiative, did not sit well with Apple and other technology giants. In response to the scandalous revelations by the NSA contractor Edward Snowden that also put the blame on Silicon Valley giants for bowing to NSA's request and providing the agency with hassle-free access to its users' data, the iPhone maker chastised the practice and published how it handles government requests to give up private information belonging to its users.

And now, in the aftermath of the ongoing snooping scare, The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple along with seven other U.S. technology giants is making a joint appeal to reform government surveillance activities...

Google agrees to pay $17 million to 37 U.S. states in Safari tracking settlement

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

Google's nefarious overriding of both desktop and iOS Safari users' privacy settings in order to better track their web browsing activity backfired after the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in April 2012 took a long, hard look at the practice and decided to fine the search giant.

Google has previously agreed to pay $22.5 million fine to the government, with a judge approving the record-setting penalty. And now, the Internet giant will pay 37 U.S. states a cool $17 million to settle the Safari probe case...

How to manage Diagnostic & Usage Data on iPhone

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 3, 2026

Learn how to view your iPhone or iPad’s diagnostic and usage data, and how to completely remove the diagnostic logs.

LastPass password manager gets some iOS 7 love

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 12, 2018

Though I've been syncing my Safari web passwords lately using the new iOS 7 password-syncing feature called iCloud Keychain, I'm still a 1Password type of guy, mainly as iCloud Keychain doesn't support secure notes, tagging, folders and what not.

That said, I understand AgileBit's password manager may not be everyone's cup of tea due to its high asking price ($17.99 for the iPhone/iPad app, plus an additional $49.99 for 1Password for Mac).

But there are other password managers out there and one of them called LastPass is free and has just received a nice little makeover for iOS 7...

Apple publishes report on government information requests

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 13, 2018

Apple has issued a public report this afternoon entitled 'Report on Government Information Requests.' The piece details the number and types of requests it receives from governments around the world for user and device information.

The company said it considers it a responsibility to provide its users with "the best privacy protections available," and that it has published the report "in the interest of transparency for our customers around the world." More after the fold...

Google to add account authentication for saved passwords to Chrome for Mac

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated April 12, 2023

The great thing about Apple's iOS 7 password syncing feature is that setting up iCloud Keychain on your device with an iCloud Security Code prevents anyone from gaining access to your saved web passwords by going to Settings > Safari > Passwords & AutoFill > Saved Passwords. That is, viewing any saved entry there requires providing an iCloud Security Code, or your account password on the Mac.

This added layer of protection ensures I can't steal your iPhone while it isn't auto-locked and use the Settings app to hijack your online identities in a snap. Not so much with Chrome for Mac. Currently, Google's browser does not require any form of authentication to reveal saved passwords. The Internet giant is aware of the problem and is aiming to deploy enhanced security for saved passwords in an upcoming Chrome build...

How iCloud keeps your data safe

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 27, 2013

With the advent of iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks, Apple has enabled even tighter iCloud integration across its operating systems.

A good example is a new feature called iCloud Keychain which keeps your web site and Wi-Fi passwords, login and account information and credit card numbers in sync between any number of trusted Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices authorized with the same Apple ID.

It's also another example of Apple's growing reliance on iCloud. But with great power comes great responsibility so privacy-minded users may ask themselves how exactly iCloud manages this growing mountain of personal information while keeping it safe and secure...

Is iCloud Keychain available in my country?

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 25, 2013

With Tuesday's free release of OS X Mavericks, Apple users can now opt to have their Safari web passwords securely synchronized across their iOS devices and Macs through the power of iCloud. The useful feature dubbed iCloud Keychain made a brief appearance in iOS 7 betas before being pulled from iOS 7 Gold Master, only to re-surface in iOS 7.0.3. What you probably don't know is that iCloud Keychain isn't necessarily supported everywhere so Apple's published a handy list detailing iCloud Keychain availability by country...

Video details how Apple can read your iMessages

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 18, 2013

Responding to a Quarkslab white paper made public at the Hack the Box conference yesterday - which claims that researchers have successfully intercepted iMessage exchanges - Apple felt compelled to issue a written statement reiterating the company's stance that it can't read any one's iMessage even if it wanted to because it doesn't have access to the public keys used to encrypt communication (AES, RSA, and ECDSA algorithms).

The assumed message interception reportedly allows attackers to seamlessly change the sent message before it arrives and thereby impersonate the sender. Apple's claim that "iMessage is not architected to allow Apple to read messages" is now brought into question as the researchers released video evidence of the vulnerability...

Apple reiterates it can’t read your iMessages even if it wanted to

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 18, 2013

Yesterday's report by Quarkslab, a penetration testing company, has caused quite a stir among privacy watchers as iOS hacker Pod2g and Quarkslab's team of researchers claimed at the Hack the Box conference in Kuala Lumpur they had successfully intercepted iMessage exchanges, indicating Apple has access to the public keys used to encrypt communication.

Given the ongoing NSA scare, Apple was quick to go on the record to dispute the claim, arguing end-to-end encryption employed to protect eavesdropping on iMessages communication is so secure that even the company itself cannot decrypt it...

Researchers claim Apple has the ability to access encrypted iMessages

Cody Lee ∙ October 17, 2013

Following the June report claiming that several tech companies were actively participating in the NSA's PRISM data mining program, Apple issued a statement regarding government information requests and user privacy.

In the statement, the company suggested it was unable to access or decrypt iMessage messages, alleviating fears that Apple could monitor those conversations. But according to a team of researchers, that may not be the case...