Leena Kuusniemi

Europe warns giant e-tailer to stop cheating consumers or face its wrath No, not Amazon. China’s SHEIN is in the spotlight for fake discounts, grubby greenery, and evading inquiries The European Commission has warned Chinese e-tailer SHEIN to clean up its act, after finding several practices on its website breach local consumer law.…

Europe warns giant e-tailer to stop cheating consumers or face its wrath

Login and password details for Apple, Google and Meta accounts found in huge data breach of 184 million accounts A major database with sensitive data was discovered

Another massive data breach? (yawn)
Not quite. 184 million passwords, with a twist:

“The problem? The file was unencrypted. No password protection. No security. Just a plain text file with millions of sensitive pieces of data.”

www.techradar.com/pro/security...

Tulsi Gabbard Reused the Same Weak Password on Multiple Accounts for Years Tulsi Gabbard, now the US director of national intelligence, used the same easily cracked password for different online accounts including a personal Gmail account and Dropbox over a period of years, ...

Beyond embarrassing.
“As director of national intelligence, Gabbard oversees US intelligence community… incl the CIA and NSA…By statute, she is the principal adviser to POTUS and National Security Council… charged with maintaining security of much of the most sensitive information in the government”

bsky.app/profile/wire...

This makes sense in the current situation, but is so creepy. And too clean burner phones are suspicious. You must act like an agent during Cold War and create a parallel identity: some social networks, work contacts, photos, apps. But NOT your actual phone number visible.

Millions of People's DNA in Doubt as 23andMe Faces Bankruptcy Since it was founded nearly two decades ago, 23andMe has grown into one of the largest biotechnology companies in the world.

DNA database of millions went belly up.
Pages popping up to guide people how to “delete your data”.

Is that even possible? The top privacy promises are just exceptions. Data has been shared and if bankrupt or sold, info may be "accessed, sold or transferred"

www.sciencealert.com/millions-of-...

Homepage | European Alternatives We help you find European alternatives for digital service and products, like cloud services and SaaS products.

Just reminding on alternatives

european-alternatives.eu

Judge says US Treasury ‘more vulnerable to hacking’ since Trump let the DOGE out Order requires destruction of departmental data accessed by Musky men Trump administration policies that allowed Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency to access systems and data at the Bureau of the Fiscal Service (BFS) have left the org…

Judge says US Treasury ‘more vulnerable to hacking’ since Trump let the DOGE out

Contradictory thoughts about mass data deletion actions in US Government: the massive hasty erasure (instead of archiving, when updating new policies) seems lunatic and endangers rational decision making.
But also, it seems very sensitive personal data has been widely and easily accessible.

DDoSed by Policy: Website Takedowns and Keeping Information Alive Who needs a DDoS (Denial of Service) attack when you have a new president? As of February 2nd, thousands of web pages and datasets have been removed from the U.S. government agencies following a serie...

U.S. Government agencies have been ordered to enact sweeping takedowns of information— but technologists, librarians, and open access organizations have mobilized a preservation effort.

Paranoid about some AI being biased?
It’s worse.
Check this paper by six researchers on AI agents being capable of scheming

“Not only do all foundations model lie in order to achieve their goals, they are actively exfiltrating themselves” Bart Willem Schermer comment

arxiv.org/pdf/2412.04984

Your opinions are wanted!

Public consultation is open until end of February. Are these guidelines for pseudonymisation practical for you?

www.edpb.europa.eu/news/news/20...

Mad at Meta? Don't Let Them Collect and Monetize Your Personal Data If you’re fed up with Meta right now, you’re not alone. Meta tracks you across millions of websites and apps and its business model relies on your data. If you want to limit Meta’s ability to collect ...

Fed up with Meta? Avoiding Instagram or Facebook isn’t enough to stop Meta from harvesting and profiting from your private information. Here’s how to limit Meta’s ability to monetize your personal data.

In my opinion the real question is: Why would TikTok rather lose the entire US market than change their underlying business model?

Revenue streams from illegal activities, incl massive data hoarding, must be so stellar that you rather fight until the end. And trust addicted users find workarounds.

This is a French initiative/movement with quite a lot of force behind it.
I would be curious to hear, if there are similar campaigns in other countries.

"HelloQuitteX", le collectif qui veut favoriser un exode massif du réseau X d'Elon Musk Jugeant toxique et dangereux le réseau social détenu par Elon Musk, le collectif HelloQuitteX appelle institutions, politiques, médias et citoyens à quitter X pour d’autres plateformes en leur offrant une application de migration simplifiée. Un appel qui…

"HelloQuitteX", le collectif qui veut favoriser un exode massif du réseau X d'Elon Musk

DORA Arrives: European Financial Services Faces New Regulation

Thanks @DanRaywood for sharing my thoughts on the impact #DORA will have on orgs as it comes into force today. For me #DORA will ensure real action & not empty pinkie promises where the long-term benefits outweigh the costs.

insight.scmagazineuk.com/dora-arrives...

#CyberSecurity

In this case there was a complaint against railway service that had a mandatory field to fill in your gender when purchasing a ticket. In English equivalent of “Mr., Mrs., Ms.”

CJEU has confirmed what we all knew: do not collect gender information just because you can.
There’s usually no need whatsoever to know train passengers’ gender.

My 2 cents: If, and only if eg you would offer a carriage for women only, that could be necessary.

curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/...

🎥 "Who are the agents of information disorder?"

@eliothiggins.bsky.social (@bellingcat.com) breaks down 4 key drivers of misinformation:

1️⃣ State actors
2️⃣ Proxy actors
3️⃣ Opportunistic manipulators
4️⃣ True believers

Shared at our seminar featuring:

🔹 @manisha.bsky.social
👏 Hosted by Richard Danbury

Candy Crush, Tinder, MyFitnessPal: See the Thousands of Apps Hijacked to Spy on Your Location A hack of location data company Gravy Analytics has revealed which apps are—knowingly or not—being used to collect your information behind the scenes.

www.wired.com/story/gravy-...

”Because much of the collection is occurring through the advertising ecosystem—not code developed by the app creators themselves—this data collection is likely happening without users’ or even app developers’ knowledge.”

🚨Scam Alert🚨

These accounts pretend to be INTERPOL agents and will contact users via Direct Message. Don't fall for their tricks.

🛑 Block & report them
bsky.app/profile/inte...

License Plate Readers Are Leaking Real-Time Video Feeds and Vehicle Data Misconfigured license-plate-recognition systems reveal the livestreams of individual cameras and the wealth of data they collect about every vehicle that passes by them.

www.wired.com/story/licens...

“..broadcasting live footage accessible to anyone on the internet, the misconfigured cameras also exposed [collected data].. including photos of cars and logs of license plates. The real-time video and data feeds don’t require any usernames or passwords to access.”

Someone there could maybe also explain, why going to war with Greenland that is part of Denmark that is a longtime NATO country (and sent its soldiers to fight alongside US soldiers against Iraq) is in line with NATO membership rules

How Chinese Hackers Graduated From Clumsy Corporate Thieves to Military Weapons Massive “Typhoon” cyberattacks on U.S. infrastructure and telecoms sought to lay the groundwork for potential conflict with Beijing, as intruders gathered data and got in position to impede response a...

Probably the most comprehensive narrative to date about the Volt and Salt Typhoon campaigns.

Reidar Särestöniemi used intense colors to paint his native Northern Lapland, and created controversy. I like controversy.

Reidar Särestöniemi | Didrichsen Art Museum | Helsinki Reidar Särestöniemi exhibition at the Didrichsen Art Museum 8.2.–1.6.2025.

www.didrichsenmuseum.fi/reidarsarest...

The OECD Artificial Intelligence Policy Observatory OECD.AI helps countries and shape trustworthy AI with the OECD AI Principles. It gives access to 900+ national AI policies and initiatives, live data about AI and a blog about AI policy.

Because I am an optimist, I believe long reports with meticulous fact search are making a come back. Boring is reassuring. I also have a deep respect for reasoned definitions and reports.
One of my favorite sources has always been OECD, even not that boring!

Their AI portal is fantastic oecd.ai/en/

Year 2025 coming up, we have the first quarter of XXI century to be analyzed.

Jani Räty on LinkedIn: Ever wondered how cheating with certificate exams works? Here are some… | 42 comments Ever wondered how cheating with certificate exams works? Here are some conversations with parties offering "assistance" with various certfications. Fyi, ISACA… | 42 comments on LinkedIn

How the cheating in certification exams work: seems too easy.
Curious to hear your opinions. I am shocked, maybe I shouldn’t be.

www.linkedin.com/posts/janira...