Apple will be introducing several new privacy features with iOS14 to restrict the accessibility of the exact location of users by apps unless its specific requirement. As we know, iOS14 will alert us when some app accesses our camera, mic, or reads clipboard content, but now, it also restricts the apps to obtain the exact location of the user. In the upcoming iOS14,  Apple will give more control to users that they can allow apps to obtain exact location access or not. There will be a 'Precise Location' toggle under Location Services settings, and users can control whether they want to give an exact location or not when it's on, and this feature will most likely be turned on by default. iOS has already been an unease to significant apps like LinkedIn, TikTok, Google News, and others due to the restriction to clipboard data. It revealed that many apps go through the clipboard data for no reason at all, and it's not safe as people tend to copy IDs and passwords to clipboard. And in the same way, when it comes to location service, this new feature will force developers to work at minimal location information.

Google faces the intensified examination of its data collection practices as the world's largest search engine. On Wednesday, June 24, Google stated that it will update Google's privacy controls so that the web browsing history will automatically be deleted after a certain period for new users. Under these new updates, for new users, the Youtube viewing history will disappear after 36 months and the location tracking, web browsing history in 18 months. Users can even maintain their own timeframes. Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, also mentioned in his blog post that Google products would keep the information only until it is useful and helpful.

The PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) has streamlined the standard for payment devices to empower stronger protections for cardholder data.  According to Help Net Security, the PCI PIN Transaction Security (PTS) Point-of-Interaction (POI) Modular Security Requirements 6.0 will boost security controls to defend against physical tampering and the insertion of malware that can compromise card data during payment transactions. The new PTS POI Version 6.0 is set up to protect PINs and the cardholder data stored on the card – on the magnetic stripe, or the chip of an EMV card – or used in conjunction with a mobile device. The changes include: Restructuring modules into Physical and Logical, Integration, Communications and Interfaces, and Life Cycle to reflect the diversity of devices supported under the standard and the application of requirements based upon their characteristics and functionalities. Limiting firmware approval timeframes to three years to help ensure ongoing protection against evolving vulnerabilities. Requiring devices accepting EMV enabled cards to support Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) to help facilitate the EMV migration to a more robust cryptography level. It is enhancing support for the acceptance of magnetic stripe cards in mobile payments using solutions that follow the Software-Based PIN Entry on COTS (SPoC) Standard.

Brazil’s Senate is rushing through a new law called the “Fake News Law,” which is supposed to protect the country from fake news. Still, it will instead impose requirements on messaging and social media platforms that would do away with privacy and freedom of expression.  The laws would mandate platforms and apps to verify user’s identities with identification documents and even to store information on how a chain message is shared. Social networks and private messaging applications would be obliged to keep the chain of all communications that have been forwarded tracking all its nodes, regardless of the distribution of the content was done maliciously at the source or along the chain. This is a massive data retention obligation, which affects millions of users instead of only those investigated for an illegal act. Of course, to be able to track the development of a potentially fake news chain message, apps would have to do away with end-to-end encryption and continuously monitor their users. Apps that don’t comply will be suspended. The EFF is speaking up against this poorly thought law.

Policies and Regulations

Recent News

More of MIST

About MIST