Personal Privacy News Roundup - January 2025
Noteworthy Digital and Internet Privacy News From January 2025
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 is our reader favorite privacy news and notes roundup for January 2025. This post is organized by the following categories:
Secrets of Privacy Posts from around the web
AI Scams and other AI related privacy news and notes
Privacy Coins and CBDC related privacy news and notes
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 January:
Digital Fingerprinting Overview (source) over at LinkedIn
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 and Notes
Google Chrome is testing a new AI tool that scans for scams to help save you from online trickery (source)
AI 'resurrection'? Let bygones be bygones (source)
Anatomy of a Phishing Attack: How AI Helps Cyber Criminals Rob Schools (source)
AI-Driven Phishing: An Emerging Threat to Corporate Security (source)
‘People need to be aware’: Colorado attorney general warns about new AI fraud calls (source)
AI will be used more in 2025 to make scams harder to detect, experts say (source)
AI and The Evolution of Scams: What You Need to Know in 2025 (source) By Montoro Cyber Expert
AI Scams, Terra’s $40B Fraud, & Bitcoin’s $102K Surge (source) By Daily Crypto News
BBB: Scammers using A.I. to create identical but fake websites (source)
Johnny Depp Calls Out Impersonation Scams After Fans Forked Over Thousands to Fraudsters (source)
AI-supported spear phishing fools more than 50% of targets (source)
The UK government wants to unleash AI’s huge potential. While welcome, we need to carefully consider the risks (source)
Let’s talk about AI and end-to-end encryption (source)
Cybercriminals Are Using AI to Scam You – and You May Not Even Know It (source)
Catching AI-Generated Phishing Scams Before They Reel You In (source)
AI or Not raises $5M to stop AI fraud, deepfakes and misinformation (source)
AI Personas Are Pretending To Be You And Then Aim To Sell Or Scam You Via Your Own Persuasive Ways (source)
AI impersonation scams are set to rise in 2025 (source)
Charity issues alert as sophisticated AI ‘scam sweatshops’ swindle Scots out of £700,000 (source)
Quick 1min explanation of Private AI (source)
Privacy Coins and Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) News and Notes
Sber joins digital ruble pilot. Bill confirms July 2025 launch – viewed as optimistic (source)
Russia's CBDC faces opposition(source)
CBDCs must close the gap between old and new financial systems | Opinion (source)
Former UK Prime Minister Liz Truss Supports Bitcoin, Opposes CBDC (source)
India's central bank governor praises CBDC as digital rupee tops 5 million users (source)
Privacy-Enhancing Technologies for CBDC Solutions (source)
Digital twins go decentralized: Web3 brings personal data ownership back to people (source)
UK Central Bank Sets Up Digital Pound Lab To Gauge CBDC Potential (source)
Trump’s Treasury Sec nominee: anti-CBDC. Only crypto mention is re AML (source)
President Trump Signs Executive Order To Ban Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) (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 and Notes
Privacy and UX - Part 1 (source) By Marison Souza
Apple’s data privacy flaw? User’s viral tweet about unexpected bra ads from Zepto sparks hilarious responses (source)
Facial Recognition Tech Enhances Security and Privacy Compliance (source)
Privacy will be the next luxury (source) By Jaime Derringer
Apple auto-opts everyone into having their photos analyzed by AI for landmarks (source)
Tech Privacy Crisis: From Siri To Alexa, Are Your Conversations Being Recorded? (source)
The real nature of automated profiling (source) By Matte Galt
Privacy, AI, and the Future of Decentralization with Nillion’s Miguel De Vega (interview below)
Violent Hackers Are Using U-Haul To Dox Targets (source)
Selling fear: Marketing for cybersecurity products often leaves consumers less secure (source)
Apple to Pay $95 Million Settlement Over Siri Privacy Breach (source)
Whistleblower finds unencrypted location data for 800,000 VW EVs (source)
It's time to stop using SMS altogether, particularly for MFA. SMS/RCS/MMS are unencrypted and not safe to use...ever! (source) By Tate Jarrow
US soldier arrested after allegedly posting hacked Trump and Harris call logs (source)
Passkey technology is elegant, but it’s most definitely not usable security (source)
90% of Cyberattacks Originate With Phishing Emails (source)
Privacy Disasters: The Privacy CESspool (source) By Carey Lening
Data helped after Las Vegas truck explosion; experts have privacy concerns (source)
Fitness apps are selling your privacy – how to protect your data (source)
Citing Privacy Concerns, Maine Lawmakers Target Real ID (source)
Cyberattack affecting school boards spotlights the need for better EdTech regulation in Ontario and beyond (source)
9 Ways You Lose Your Privacy (source) By Decode the World
'We can't share your data, because we don't have it': How Anna Hall's Embody app is building the future of menstrual tracking (source) By FutureFemHealth
How cars became the worst product category for privacy (source)
Mark Zuckerberg says CIA can access your WhatsApp messages (source)
Lawsuit: Allstate used GasBuddy and other apps to quietly track driving behavior (source)
TechLetters Insights. Pseudonymisation - the exciting element of modern data protection (source) By Lukasz Olejnik
Emerging ‘DoubleClickjacking’ Threat Exploits Double-Clicks for Account Hijacking (source)
The Powerful AI Tool That Cops (or Stalkers) Can Use to Geolocate Photos in Seconds (source)
Privacy, Collectivism, and the Sovereign Individual (source) By Matte Galt
LinkedIn sued for allegedly training AI models with private messages without consent (source)
Phone Metadata Suddenly Not So ‘Harmless’ When It’s The FBI’s Data Being Harvested (source)
New study reveals home security cameras can create more risk to owners than they prevent (source)
Millions of Subarus could be remotely unlocked, tracked due to security flaws (source)
Don't neglect the physical security of your device -- a critical part of protecting your overall privacy and security (source) via Tate Jarrow
Why Does Privacy Matter? (source) via Monique Barrow
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Thank you for the shout-out!
I appreciate the inclusion!