TikTok is facing growing scrutiny from various U.S. political officials. Amidst an ongoing call from state leaders to ban the app from state government devices, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita has announced that the state has filed two lawsuits against the social media platform.Rokita announced the lawsuits in a press release, calling the app “a clear and present danger.” The first of the two lawsuits—which were both filed yesterday—is based on the merit that TikTok encourages underage users to use the app under the pretense that there is only mild suggestive content involving sexual situations, drugs, and profanity. “In order to lure these children onto its platform, TikTok makes a variety of misleading representations and omissions to claim a 12+ rating on the Apple App Store and a ‘T’ for ‘Teen’ rating in the Google Play Store and the Microsoft Store,” the lawsuit alleges.

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Filed: https://gizmodo.com/tech/privacy-and-security

[from about 5 months ago …] A firehose of sensitive data from your vehicle is flowing to a group of companies you’ve probably never heard of

Today’s cars are akin to smartphones, with apps connected to the internet that collect huge amounts of data, some of which is highly personal.

Most drivers have no idea what data is being transmitted from their vehicles, let alone who exactly is collecting, analyzing, and sharing that data, and with whom. A recent survey of drivers by the Automotive Industries Association of Canada found that only 28 percent of respondents had a clear understanding of the types of data their vehicle produced, and the same percentage said they had a clear understanding of who had access to that data.

The Markup has identified 37 companies that are part of the rapidly growing connected vehicle data industry that seeks to monetize such data in an environment with few regulations governing its sale or use.

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Filed: https://themarkup.org/series/the-breakdown

It is common to hear news reports about large data breaches, but what happens once your personal data is stolen? Our research shows that, like most legal commodities, stolen data products flow through a supply chain consisting of producers, wholesalers and consumers. But this supply chain involves the interconnection of multiple criminal organizations operating in illicit underground marketplaces.The stolen data supply chain begins with producers – hackers who exploit vulnerable systems and steal sensitive information such as credit card numbers, bank account information and Social Security numbers. Next, the stolen data is advertised by wholesalers and distributors who sell the data. Finally, the data is purchased by consumers who use it to commit various forms of fraud, including fraudulent credit card transactions, identity theft and phishing attacks.

This trafficking of stolen data between producers, wholesalers and consumers is enabled by darknet markets, which are websites that resemble ordinary e-commerce websites but are accessible only using special browsers or authorization codes.

We found several thousand vendors selling tens of thousands of stolen data products on 30 darknet markets. These vendors had more than US$140 million in revenue over an eight-month period.

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This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Topics:

• Cybersecurity
• Hackers
• Technology
• Darknet
• Identity theft
• Data breaches
• Black markets
• Data theft