EU Officials Location Data Is Up For Sale, Tinder Is Scanning Your Camera Roll With AI, Chrome Can Now Autofill ID Docs, and more

Our top stories this week:

EU officials’ location data is for sale, report says
US declines to join more than 70 countries in signing UN cybercrime treaty
Chrome can now autofill your passport, driver’s license, and vehicle registration info
Tinder to use AI to get to know users, tap into their Camera Roll photos

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Updates From The Team

Chat Control is still looming and we're determined to put out a video covering the subject, at the time of writing the European Parliament has just moved to introduce mandatory Chat Control through an amendment even though it had appeared that the proposed had been shot down in October. It's important now more than ever that European citizens make their voices heard and contact their MEPs.

We're also working on a threat modelling course to guide people through making logical and sound decisions about what privacy and security tools to utilize. This will be a multi-part series because of the complexities of the topic. Scripting for the series has already been mostly completed, and we're raring and ready to dive into production to bring you that course as soon as possible.

Sources

EU officials’ location data is for sale, report says

An investigation by L’Écho, Le Monde, German public broadcasters (BR and ARD), Netzpolitik.org, and BNR Nieuwsradio has revealed that location data of EU officials in Brussels is being sold by data brokers.

This is a concerning development, as the location data of EU officials can be quite sensitive and can paint a clear picture of their activities. The publications that conducted the investigation were able to utilize the data to identify personal information of at least five people who work or have worked for the EU in official capacities, and three of those who were identified held high-responsibility positions in the union.

Two of the identified individuals did confirm to the investigating publications that the information that was identified was accurate.

According to Politico's reporting:

The European Commission has recognized the "worrying conclusions" of the investigation and, as a result, told investigating outlets that it has "issued new guidance to its staff regarding ad tracking settings on business and home devices, and has informed other Union entities."

US declines to join more than 70 countries in signing UN cybercrime treaty

Towards the end of October over 70 countries signed the U.N. Convention Against Cybercrime; however, the United States declined to join them.

The convention itself, according to the United Nations, "creates the first global 24/7 network where countries can quickly initiate cooperation." Various digital privacy advocacy organizations cautioned that this framework can normalize internet surveillance across international boundaries.

According to The Record:

Human rights groups warned on Friday that it effectively forces member states to create a broad electronic surveillance dragnet that would include crimes that have nothing to do with technology.

Chrome can now autofill your passport, driver’s license, and vehicle registration info

Chrome, the most popular web browser, has announced that it will soon allow users to autofill driver's licence, vehicle registration, and passport information. Chrome already had the ability to autofill addresses, credit cards, and passwords, but this expansion, called "Enhanced Autofill," is a move from Google to make their browser more helpful.

Google states in their announcement that the data will only be remembered if you consent, and it will be stored encrypted and inaccessible to Google themselves. The "Enhanced Autofill" feature is opt-in and must be enabled in Chrome's settings before Chrome will ask you whether it wants to save your identification information.

While it appears technically sound, we don't recommend storing information in your browser; instead, you should be using a separate, secure, trusted password manager. It's also important to remember that Google is one of the largest data collectors in the world, with their primary business being targeted advertising.

Tinder to use AI to get to know users, tap into their Camera Roll photos

Similar to Facebook's new opt-in feature Tinder is rolling out the option to scan your photo library with AI, this feature is called Chemistry which according to Tinder will allow them to better understand your interests, hobbies and personality to more accurately match you with someone.

The feature itself is opt-in and will require permission to access the camera roll on your device, according to Tinder the photos will be processed by AI, however it's unclear at this stage whether this is processed on device or in the cloud.

After nine straight quarters of paying subscriber losses, Tinder is attempting to revive interest in its product by joining the AI hype train. However, this unfortunate trend towards AI integrations has left privacy as an afterthought.

Dating apps are notorious for collecting large amounts of sensitive information, and this is just another data source that they are now collecting. If you want to learn more about the data collection in dating apps, we wrote an article explaining why this bulk data collection so problematic, especially for marginalized communities.

Tinder to use AI to get to know users, tap into their Camera Roll photos | TechCrunch

Tinder is testing a feature called Chemistry that will get to know users through questions and, with permission, will access Camera Roll photos on their phones to learn more about their interests and personality.