Forensic insights from
the world's most experienced
privacy advocate.
As narrated to Simon Davies Dear Diary, 8AM Well, here it is. The Big Push. Must get myself ready for the march. Every other guy in this country is probably still in bed, fondling their black boyfriend, but not me! I’m up and about, bopping to Rage Against The Machine. Might take a …
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By a Facebook user (as revealed to Simon Davies) Facebook is living out some weird fantasy that it knows what people want. No it doesn’t. It’s clunky and full of useless bits that mess with your head and waste your energy. It’s time Facebook learned the truth about what we REALLY want out of …
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By Simon Davies I spent nearly twenty years as a university lecturer unsuccessfully trying to figure a way to make authentication a fun and popular topic, and only now have I cracked the problem. It’s all about “pull” and “push” and making people in call centres read out hilariously stupid words from their screen. I …
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By Simon Davies Any company that has a data protection officer or privacy adviser will understand the fundamental risks of bad data management. Keeping too much customer information – and for too long. Failing to provide even basic security measures. Risking data breaches because of poor staff training and support. These are obvious 1.0.1 aspects …
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By Simon Davies Back in 2005, an entrepreneur by the name of Barry Stapleton came up with an ingenious plan to automatically ward off “unruly” children and young people loitering around high-end retail shops. Stapleton’s idea was to build an ultrasonic device that could be heard only by people under the age of 25 (the …
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By Simon Davies Russia’s quest to prohibit personal freedoms has reached a level that many people may not yet comprehend. The past year has seen the persecution of a vast spectrum of human rights that extend way beyond the digital domain.The past few months, in particular, have also seen the further deterioration of Russia’s global …
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By Simon Davies A new mood of civility is emerging across Europe. You can see it in the faces and attitude of people in Paris, Berlin and even sour-faced Switzerland. But the trend is most pronounced in Brussels, previously the butt of everyone’s jokes about bad hospitality. There was a time, not so long ago, …
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By Simon Davies Many readers will have encountered the “Microsoft critical alert” virus on their browsers. This tech support scam hijacks your browser with an audio pop-up that loudly advises you to call a “toll free” number with the threat that failure to do so will result in your computer being disabled. The more …
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By Simon Davies To understand the value of our rights, it’s important to get a glimpse of what life in the future might be like without them. This is a letter from the future that tells us what life in 2044 might look like – and why we should think carefully about the path we …
Read More...The PrivacySurgeon is owned and operated by Simon Davies - Initial design by Scarab Designs Ltd - Implementation, coding and maintenance by Jim & Pete.
