Personal Privacy News Roundup - December 2024

Noteworthy Digital and Internet Privacy News From December 2024

Welcome to another issue of Secrets of Privacy where we discuss internet privacy related topics and provide practical tips to immediately enhance your privacy.

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This news roundup post is organized by the following categories:

1. Secrets of Privacy Posts

2. AI Scams and other AI related privacy news and notes

3. Privacy Coins and CBDC related privacy news and notes

4. All other digital and internet privacy news and notes

As always, feel free to drop a story in the comments that we overlooked.

Secrets of Privacy Posts from December:

How We Solved Jimmy Kimmel’s Political Campaign Spam Problem

How to Edit PDFs Without Risking Your Privacy

Why Business Leaders Must Prioritize Digital Privacy: A Real-World Warning

A Simple Privacy Related New Years Resolution for 2025

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.

AI Scams and other AI Privacy Related News and Notes

1. New warnings about A.I.-generated video deep fakes (source)

2. Watch For These Black Friday Scams—Especially Ones Created By AI (source)

3. AI Deepfakes On The Rise Causing Billions In Fraud Losses (source)

4. 4 AI Travel Scams To Watch Out for This Holiday Season (source)

5. NEWS: FBI alert warns criminals are using AI to commit fraud ‘on a larger scale’ (source)

6. AI Gambling Scam—A $10,000 Loss You Can Bet On (source)

7. FBI Warns Smartphone Users—Hang Up And Create A Secret Word Now (source)

8. Google's 2025 Cybersecurity Forecast: More AI-powered scams (source)

9. Lawmaker wants FCC to create AI tool for identifying scams (source)

10. Travel scams enhanced with A.I. on the rise this holiday season (source)

11. AI Deepfakes On The Rise Causing Billions In Fraud Losses (source)

12. How Scammers Are Using AI This Holiday Season to Steal Your Money (source)

13. Scammers now can use voice-cloning AI to impersonate us or others and steal money (source)

14. UK Regulator Urges Stronger Data Protection in AI Recruitment Tools (source)

15. AI use cases are going to get even bigger in 2025 (source)

16. 'Yes, I am a human': Bot detection is no longer working—and just wait until AI agents come along (source)

17. AI-driven scams are about to get a lot more convincing (source)

18. How Banks Can Fend Off Increasingly Sophisticated AI-powered Payment Attacks (source)

Privacy Coins and Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) News and Notes

1. Iran’s CBDC launch nears (source)

2. Missouri bill would ban CBDCs, make gold and silver legal tender (source)

3. Russia now treats digital assets as property as CBDC faces delay (source)

4. CBDCs: Where Do We Stand in Europe? (source)

5. Digital Currency Bytes The Dust: Canada Shelves The CBDC (source)

6. New Zealand CBDC survey: 90% believe they’d be monitored (source)

7. A CBDC Could Be the Foundation of India’s Future Economy (source)

8. Digital Pound paper explores privacy enhancing technologies for CBDC (source)

9. India preparing for a CBDC-driven economy — Central bank governor (source)

10. Is Europe’s Digital Euro The Future Of Money Or A Futile Effort? (source)

11. Comparative analysis of Dero, Pirate Chain, Zcash and Monero (source) via

    TechLeaks24

12. Tornado Cash Ruling Sparks Crypto Privacy Triumph: SilentSwap Leads the Way for Effortless Private Trading (source)

13. Retailers push for a delay in rollout of Russia’s CBDC (source)

14. How To (Privately) Live on Crypto (source)

15. RBI sees CBDC as future of money; eyes nationwide rollout of ULI (source)

16. Russia shares CBDC business model as banks push back (source)

17. BIS consultative group proposes retail CBDC architecture (source)

18. IMF Offers a Glimpse at the Perils of Central Bank Digital Currencies (source)

19. BIS Proposes Hybrid Model for CBDC That Includes Retail Banks (source)

20. ‘No to CBDC, yes to Bitcoin’ — European MP calls for EU BTC reserve (source)

21. Privacy Coins: Essential Yet Endangered? (source) via

    Kyledoops

22. Macau plans to launch CBDC and link it to digital yuan, e-HKD (source)

23. Brazilian congressman: Physical cash faces the risk of disappearing, and the future of digital currency should be decided by a public vote (source)

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.

All Other Privacy News and Notes

1. Push Payment Scams to Surpass $3 Billion (source)

2. CVS removes photos of executives from its website in wake of UnitedHealthcare CEO’s assassination (source)

3. Privacy Disasters: FaceHuggers Are Eating Your Skeets (source) via

   Carey Lening

4. Apple patents system for identifying people when facial scans aren’t enough (source)

5. Feds Use Bank Loophole To Surveil Americans' Financial Data Without Warrants, House Judiciary Says (source)

6. How To Find Privacy-Focused Software (source) via

   Monique Barrow

7. New firearms registry a factor in sharp rise in privacy breaches by police (source)

8. AI is able to learn a lot about you from a single photo; preserve your privacy (source) via

   Tate Jarrow

9. Apple pushes back on Meta's requests, cites alarming privacy concerns (source)

10. San Diego Police sued over surveillance violations (source)

11. Biggest Privacy Erosion in 10 Years? On Google’s Policy Change Towards Fingerprinting (source) via

    Lukasz Olejnik

12. Return of The Watchman: Extreme Privacy with Gabriel Custodiet via featuring

    Parallel Mike
    and
    Gabriel Custodiet
    (listen to the interview below 👇)

    Return of The Watchman: Extreme Privacy with Gabriel Custodiet

13. New Google Chrome Warning—Do Not Use These Websites (source)

14. OPSEC basics for your life (source) via

    Stallion

15. Chinese Air Fryers May Be Spying on Consumers (source)

16. Are Google Pixel Phones Spying on You? (source)

17. DARPA’s “Theory of Mind” Program Aims to Predict and Influence Behavior, Raising Privacy Concerns (source)

18. Wipe Your Home Address Permanently Off the Internet With These Tips (source)

19. How Ad Data Exposed America's Military Secrets (source) via

    J.A. Cipriano

20. A Radical New View on Privacy (source) via

    Zeus Yiamouyiannis, Ph.D.

21. Digitalization of Health (source) via

    Emerging Global Realities

22. Privacy Disasters: Microsoft Keeps Stepping in It (source) via

    Carey Lening

23. "I Have Nothing To Hide" - 10 Reasons Privacy Matters for Everyone (source) via

    NBTV Media

24. Traveling abroad for the Christmas holidays? Here’s how a VPN can help (source)

25. The era of open voice assistants has arrived (source)

26. The Privacy Paradox: Debunking the “Nothing to Hide” Myth (source)

• Looking for help with a privacy issue or privacy concern? Chances are we’ve covered it already or will soon. Follow us on X, LinkedIn and YouTube to get caught up and to stay ahead of the curve on internet privacy.

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