Internet Privacy 

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Latest news on online privacy, covering privacy protection, privacy infringement, data privacy, digital privacy, surveillance, mass surveillance, spying, wiretapping, eavesdropping, tracking, cookies, personal data, data collection, data theft, facial recognition, spyware, CCTV, ad blockers, robocalls, privacy laws and GDPR.

Online privacy is the ability to control what personal information you share online, who collects it and how it is used. It covers browsing habits, location, messages, photos, purchases and biometric data such as faces and fingerprints. Threats include trackers and cookies, data brokers, hacking, government surveillance and companies that collect more data than users expect.

Regulators, courts and technology companies keep testing the limits. In 2024 and 2025 Google decided to keep third-party cookies in Chrome rather than remove them, and in October 2025 it retired most of its Privacy Sandbox technologies. The EU AI Act's ban on most real-time facial recognition in public spaces took effect on 2 February 2025, with narrow exceptions for law enforcement. Number plate readers, CCTV and drones are among the technologies at the centre of surveillance debates.

People protect their privacy with privacy settings, strong passwords, multi-factor authentication, VPNs, private browsing, ad blockers, tracker blockers and encrypted messaging apps. Phones and browsers let users limit app permissions and block some trackers. Nuisance calls and robocalls are another everyday privacy problem, which many people tackle with call-blocking tools.

Privacy campaigners, journalists and digital rights groups push for stronger limits on tracking and data collection. Governments and police argue that surveillance powers help to fight terrorism and serious crime, while businesses say personalised advertising pays for free online services. Warrants for phone and email data, police use of facial recognition and the collection of children's data are recurring themes.

In June 2013 documents leaked by Edward Snowden revealed US and UK surveillance programmes such as PRISM and Tempora, which collected or intercepted communications data. In March 2018 the Cambridge Analytica story showed that data on up to 87 million Facebook users had been harvested, and the GDPR began to apply in the EU on 25 May 2018. In July 2019 the US Federal Trade Commission voted to approve a 5 billion dollar penalty against Facebook.

Privacy rules and risks change quickly, so keeping up matters. Our NewsNow online privacy news feed brings together the latest headlines on privacy, surveillance, tracking, cookies, data theft and privacy law from reliable sources worldwide, so you have a comprehensive, up-to-date view.