Personal Privacy News Roundup - March 2025
Noteworthy Digital and Internet Privacy News From March 2025
Welcome to everyone.
For our new subscribers, this is our eagerly anticipated monthly news and notes roundup for all things personal privacy. We’ll even touch on some related cybersecurity issues to round things out.
Two months back we mixed up the format a bit and added a new section - Privacy commentary from Substack thought leaders. The new addition made sense since Substack has seen an explosion of privacy and cybersecurity writers of late.
Readers enjoyed the new addition so we’re sticking with it.
Enjoy!
If you’re reading this but haven’t yet signed up, join the Secrets of Privacy community for free and get our newsletter delivered to your inbox by subscribing here 👇. Upgrade to a paid subscription to support our work for less than $0.25 per day.
If a subscription is right for you, we also now have a tip jar, where you can donate with USD, Monero, Bitcoin or Ethereum. See here.
This post is organized by the following categories:
The above is now a clickable table of contents, so feel free to jump around to the sections you want to read. As always, feel free to drop a story in the comments that we overlooked.
Secrets of Privacy Posts from March 2025:
AI scams are here and getting more sophisticated. One of the best things you can do to protect yourself is to remove your personal information from Google and the data broker sites. That starves the scammers of vital information, making you a much harder target. You can DIY, or pay a reasonable fee to DeleteMe to do it for you. Sign up today and get 20% off using our affiliate link here. We’ve used DeleteMe for almost five years and love it for the peace of mind. It’s also a huge time saver.
AI Scams and other AI Privacy Related News
State Department Will Use AI to Search for ‘Pro-Hamas’ Students to Deport (source)
AI can steal your voice, and there's not much you can do about it (source)
AI, pig butchering scams pushed to a record $12.4B in 2024 (source)
Don’t Be Fooled; Protect Yourself from AI-Enhanced Scams (source)
AI Deepfake Fraud Calls Dominate Q4 Scams, Costing Consumers Millions (source)
Scammers using AI to create fake IRS sites. (source)
Scammers, Fraud, and Deepfakes: The AI Arms Race (source)
80% of Banks Admitted They Can't Keep Up With AI Scams Aimed at Draining Personal Accounts (source)
AI voice-cloning scams: A persistent threat with limited guardrails (source)
Convera Warns of Sophisticated AI Scam Surge in 2025 (source)
Social Media Is Flooded With AI Doctor ‘Scams’: Creators Can’t Stand It (source)
Scammers Stole $14M+ Promising Passive Income From AI-Powered Amazon Shops: FTC (source)
AI is turbocharging organized crime, E.U. police agency warns (source)
FBI Warning For All iPhone, Android Users—Hang Up Now, Use This Code (source)
AI-driven phishing scams exploded last year. The trend continues in 2025 (source)
Scammers using AI to improve toll text message scam targeting drivers: 'Constantly getting smarter' (source)
AI & data breaches drive rise in sextortion scams (source)
'It's the Wild West': How AI is creating new frontiers for crime in Canada (source)
Online sellers are using AI to scam you — here’s how to outsmart them (source)
Due to a number of reader requests, we just published a virtual bookshelf on the website. It’s a curated list of 10 privacy related books that cover key topics like the history of facial recognition, verified privacy techniques, Monero, and others. Check it out here:
Privacy Coins and Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) News
Trump Team & Senate Bill end Hopes for a U.S. CBDC (source)
Digital euro project expands while US remains against CBDC (source)
Iraq to develop CBDC as part of wider digitisation drive (source)
Russia delays digital ruble CBDC rollout (source)
The State of CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies) Markets in 2025 and Beyond: Opportunities and Challenges Implementation, Design Considerations, Conclusions and Outlook (source)
Israel releases preliminary CBDC design for digital shekel (source)
US lawmaker reintroduces CBDC bill after Trump EO bans digital dollar (source)
America must back pro-stablecoin laws, reject CBDCs — US Rep. Emmer (source)
Swiss central bank explores synthetic CBDC (source)
Digital Euro Needed to Counter Stablecoins, Non-European Big Tech, ECB Chief Economist Says (source)
Bank of Korea to launch CBDC pilot for real-world payments (source)
Swiss National Bank confirms wholesale CBDC pilot (source)
Digital Dollars, Digital Yuan, Digital Chaos? The CBDC Arms Race Explained (source)
Wyoming Stablecoin Is Just a State-Issued CBDC by Another Name: Rep. Tom Emmer (source)
Password managers are a must have in our digital first world. Not only do they organize your logins securely, they’re huge productivity boosts as we explained here. We use Proton Pass. Bitwarden is another large player. Both have limited free plans to try out. If you want full functionality, Proton Pass is only around $3/month. Use our affiliate link here to get started and support the newsletter.
All Other Privacy News
Bank of America Warns Social Security Numbers, IDs and Other Sensitive Customer Data Potentially Exposed in Third-Party Document Destruction Blunder (source)
GM sued for selling driver data to insurers (source)
Meet Rayhunter: A New Open Source Tool from EFF to Detect Cellular Spying (source)
Google Is Hobbling Popular Ad Blocker uBlock Origin on Chrome (source)
Signal is the No. 1 downloaded app in the Netherlands. But why? (source)
Ex-F1 driver Romain Grosjean appeals to Facebook for assistance following social media account hacking (source)
Nearly 50% of Android Apps use Mobile Trackers (source)
Alexa’s Privacy Backtrack: Amazon Pushes All Voice Data to the Cloud (source)
Google’s Android Decision—Bad News For All Samsung, Pixel Users (source)
Digital Hygiene (source)
DOGE staffer violated Treasury rules by emailing unencrypted personal data (source)
The future of search isn’t Google — and it’s $10 a month (source)
Android Apps Use Bluetooth and WiFi Scanning to Track Users Without GPS (source)
Apple Delays Siri Upgrade Indefinitely as AI Concerns Escalate (source)
ChatGPT hit with privacy complaint over defamatory hallucinations (source)
Data Broker Brags About Collecting Personal Info of 91% of Adults (source)
Sperm donation giant California Cryobank warns of a data breach (source)
Whittaker: “don’t be fooled by WhatsApp’s marketing fluff” (source)
23andMe Files For Bankruptcy, CEO Resigns - Fate Of Americans' DNA Data Now In Court-Supervised Sale (source)
Secure encryption and online anonymity are now at risk in Switzerland – here's what you need to know (source)
A Sneaky Phish Just Grabbed my Mailchimp Mailing List (source)
Substack Privacy and Cybersecurity Spotlight
🚀 New ebook "Privacy for Software Engineers" (source) via Marison Souza
Think Your Messages Are Safe? If You’re Not Using the Right App, They Could Be Intercepted (source) via Tate Jarrow
How To Confuse a Stalker by Following Certain Accounts (source) via BioRat
Dispatches on Privacy from SXSW (source) via Carey Lening
The Digital Dragnet We Keep Forgetting About 🕸️🔍 (source) via Samuel Solberg
How a Spare Phone Number and Email Could Save Your Identity & Privacy (And It’s Shockingly Easy) (source) via Tate Jarrow
What is the algorithm? (source) via Hannah Hershey Sutor
Upcoming: My XMR 1337 Guide - Protect Your Privacy, Protect Your Freedom (source) via CR1337
📱 Children and Social Media - The Future of Data Protection (source) via Marison Souza
The Death of Privacy (source) via Exploring ChatGPT
Cirdia - Biometric Privacy by Design (source) via Anita Halcyon and Sam Turner
UK vs Apple: Your Privacy is Under Attack (source) via NBTV Media
99% of Venmo User Data is Exposed (3 Hidden Settings You Need to Know About) (source) via Jason Rowe
🔥 Fired, he deleted 180 VMs out of revenge! 🚨💻 (source) via
Marison Souza
Cyber Chat: Day Johnson (source) via Ryan G. Cox
Firefox: Goodbye, Old Friend (source) via Gabriel Custodiet
Delete Your Old Accounts! (source) via Monique Barrow
Don't Get Doxxed! The Steps You Should Take Now to Protect Yourself (source) via Tate Jarrow
What I Wish I Knew About Privacy Sooner (source) via NBTV Media
Unmasking Anonymous Visitors: The Tech Behind Person-Level Website Identity (source) via Daniel Chepenko
How to DE-GOOGLE Your Phone (source) via NBTV Media
Abandoning Amazon (source) via BioHarmony
Attackers Don’t Need Exploits When Everything Is Already Public (source) via Dark Marc
🕵️ How to erase your digital footprint? (source) via Marison Souza
Your DNA for Sale: How 23andMe’s Collapse Threatens Genetic Privacy (source) via The Whole Truth
DNA as Data (source) via Joshua Stylman
When biology hacks cybersecurity: What Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma (DLBCL) can teach us about malware (source) via Luis
Reduce Your Risk of Identity Theft by 50% in 10 Minutes (source) via Jason Rowe
🕵️ Anonymization Techniques in Privacy Projects (source) via Marison Souza
If we missed a privacy story, article or post, please drop it in the comments.
📌 P.S. If you found this post helpful, please consider restacking it and sharing it with your friends, family and audience.
This helps spread the words and keeps us writing content that will help you bolster your privacy and become a harder target.
Looking for help with a privacy issue or privacy concern? Chances are we’ve covered it already or will soon. Follow us on X and LinkedIn for updates on this topic and other internet privacy related topics. We’re also now on Rumble and YouTube. Subscribe today to be notified when videos are published.
Disclaimer: None of the above is to be deemed legal advice of any kind. These are *opinions* written by a privacy attorney with 15+ years of working for, with and against Big Tech and Big Data. And this post is for informational purposes only and is not intended for use in furtherance of any unlawful activity.
Google just made four big changes that you should be aware of. Get prepared here.
Check out our Personal Privacy Stack here.
Check out our Virtual Bookshelf here.
Looking to De-Google your life? Proton is one of the best ways to get there. Get started here with a paid plan for around $1/month. (affiliate link)
If you’re reading this but haven’t yet signed up, join the growing Secrets of Privacy community for free and get our newsletter delivered to your inbox by subscribing here 👇
Thanks for the shout-out! Great compilation of VERY important sources!
Thanks for sharing. Great collection!