経済産業省は、工場を建設する目的で平成27年（1月～12月期）に1,000平方メートル以上の用地を取得した製造業、ガス業、熱供給業、電気業の事業者を対象に「工場立地動向調査」を実施し、結果を取りまとめました。

4月5日から9日まで、韓国のソウルにおいて、日中韓自由貿易協定(FTA)交渉の第10回交渉会合(局長/局次長会合)が開催されます。

経済産業省は、昨年10月に「活力あふれる『ビンテージ・ソサエティ』の実現に向けた取組に係る研究会」を立ち上げ、検討を重ね、今般報告書をとりまとめました。

交通事故の削減や渋滞緩和、環境負荷低減等の課題解決が期待される協調ITS（※）の実現普及に必要とされる地図データベースの整備や維持・更新のコスト削減に役立つ日本発の国際規格が制定されました。

平成28年3月4日に、東京電力からありました改正電気事業法に基づく会社分割に係る申請について、このたび申請のとおり認可しました。

農の憤死が列島に広がっている。コメも畜産・酪農も果樹も野菜も価格の低下と生産の不安定化に四苦八苦している。消費現場を襲っているコメの不足と高騰も収まらない。そうした状況に便乗するように、コメをめぐる政策的立ち位置と思想が急速に変化している。(大野和興)

　英国の“三枚舌外交“の所産ともいえる、イスラエルの建国を契機に、約80年にわたり、戦火が絶えないパレスチナ。今も国際法を無視した、イスラエルによるガザ地区などへの非人道的な攻撃が続く。今回の侵攻以降だけでも、子どもをはじめ無辜の市民の犠牲は、夥しい数に上る。　だが強力な米国の支援を受け、傍若無人に振る舞う同国も、莫大な戦費で国の財政負担が増大。高い成長を誇ってきたハイテク産業なども戦争による労働力不足に直面、国民の命綱である農業も危機的状態にある。　また現状への不安から、「..

トランプ米大統領が1月20日に就任して以来、グテーレス国連事務総長は再三のお願いにも拘わらず、全くトランプ米大統領に会ってもらえません。　G7サミットでも、グテーレスはトランプに会えませんでした。　G7でトランプから肩すかしを食らった、ゼレンスキーなどは次にトランプが現れる6月24日から26日までのＮＡＴＯ首脳会議で待ち伏せをかけるそうです。　石破首相もオランダ・ハーグまで追っかけるそうです。　グテーレスは追っかけ組なんかに加わらず、国際法を無視して不法所持している、イスラエルの核弾道を摘発してください。

　テレビは権力に忖度して「本当のことを伝えてしいない」「真実を隠している」という不信感が、これほど視聴者・国民に広がったことはかつてない。特に公共放送 NHK は、政権に過度に忖度した報道を繰り返していると見られている。そうした状況は、第一次安倍政権以降、NHK の経営委員が政権によって恣意的に任命され、政権に近い財界出身者が経営委員長や会長に次々と就任することで顕著になった。本来 NHK の会長は、12 人の委員からなる経営委員会が任命する仕組みになっているが、現在の稲葉延..

Researchers recently caught Meta using an egregious new tracking technique to spy on you. Exploiting a technical loophole, the company was able to have their apps snoop on users’ web browsing. This tracking technique stands out for its flagrant disregard of core security protections built into phones and browsers. The episode is yet another reason to distrust Meta, block web tracking, and end surveillance advertising. 

Fortunately, there are steps that you, your browser, and your government can take to fight online tracking. 

What Makes Meta’s New Tracking Technique So Problematic?

More than 10 years ago, Meta introduced a snippet of code called the “Meta pixel,” which has since been embedded on about 20% of the most trafficked websites. This pixel exists to spy on you, recording how visitors use a website and respond to ads, and siphoning potentially sensitive info like financial information from tax filing websites and medical information from hospital websites, all in service of the company’s creepy system of surveillance-based advertising. 

While these pixels are well-known, and can be blocked by tools like EFF’s Privacy Badger, researchers discovered another way these pixels were being used to track you. 

Even users who blocked or cleared cookies, hid their IP address with a VPN, or browsed in incognito mode could be identified

Meta’s tracking pixel was secretly communicating with Meta’s apps on Android devices. This violates a fundamental security feature (“sandboxing”) of mobile operating systems that prevents apps from communicating with each other. Meta got around this restriction by exploiting localhost, a feature meant for developer testing. This allowed Meta to create a hidden channel between mobile browser apps and its own apps. You can read more about the technical details here.

This workaround helped Meta bypass user privacy protections and attempts at anonymity. Typically, Meta tries to link data from “anonymous” website visitors to individual Meta accounts using signals like IP addresses and cookies. But Meta made re-identification trivial with this new tracking technique by sending information directly from its pixel to Meta's apps, where users are already logged in. Even users who blocked or cleared cookies, hid their IP address with a VPN, or browsed in incognito mode could be identified with this tracking technique.  

Meta didn’t just hide this tracking technique from users. Developers who embedded Meta’s tracking pixels on their websites were also kept in the dark. Some developers noticed the pixel contacting localhost from their websites, but got no explanation when they raised concerns to Meta. Once publicly exposed, Meta immediately paused this tracking technique. They claimed they were in discussions with Google about “a potential miscommunication regarding the application of their policies.”

While the researchers only observed the practice on Android devices, similar exploits may be possible on iPhones as well.

This exploit underscores the unique privacy risks we face when Big Tech can leverage out of control online tracking to profit from our personal data.

How Can You Protect Yourself?

Meta seems to have stopped using this technique for now, but that doesn’t mean they’re done inventing new ways to track you. Here are a few steps you can take to protect yourself:

Use a Privacy-Focused Browser

Choose a browser with better default privacy protections than Chrome. For example, Brave and DuckDuckGo protected users from this tracking technique because they block Meta’s tracking pixel by default. Firefox only partially blocked the new tracking technique with its default settings, but fully blocked it for users with “Enhanced Tracking Protection” set to “Strict.” 

It’s also a good idea to avoid using in-app browsers. When you open links inside the Facebook or Instagram apps, Meta can track you more easily than if you opened the same links in an external browser.

Delete Unnecessary Apps

Reduce the number of ways your information can leak by deleting apps you don’t trust or don’t regularly use. Try opting for websites over apps when possible. In this case, and many similar cases, using the Facebook and Instagram website instead of the apps would have limited data collection. Even though both can contain tracking code, apps can access information that websites generally can’t, like a persistent “advertising ID” that companies use to track you (follow EFF’s instructions to turn it off if you haven’t already). 

Install Privacy Badger

EFF’s free browser extension blocks trackers to stop companies from spying on you online. Although Privacy Badger would’ve stopped Meta’s latest tracking technique by blocking their pixel, Firefox for Android is the only mobile browser it currently supports. You can install Privacy Badger on Chrome, Firefox, and Edge on your desktop computer. 

Limit Meta’s Use of Your Data

Meta’s business model creates an incentive to collect as much information as possible about people to sell targeted ads. Short of deleting your accounts, you have a number of options to limit tracking and how the company uses your data.

How Should Google Chrome Respond?

After learning about Meta’s latest tracking technique, Chrome and Firefox released fixes for the technical loopholes that Meta exploited. That’s an important step, but Meta’s deliberate attempt to bypass browsers’ privacy protections shows why browsers should do more to protect users from online trackers. 

Unfortunately, the most popular browser, Google Chrome, is also the worst for your privacy. Privacy Badger can help by blocking trackers on desktop Chrome, but Chrome for Android doesn’t support browser extensions. That seems to be Google’s choice, rather than a technical limitation. Given the lack of privacy protections they offer, Chrome should support extensions on Android to let users protect themselves. 

Although Chrome addressed the latest Meta exploit after it was exposed, their refusal to block third-party cookies or known trackers leaves the door wide open for Meta’s other creepy tracking techniques. Even when browsers block third-party cookies, allowing trackers to load at all gives them other ways to harvest and de-anonymize users’ data. Chrome should protect its users by blocking known trackers (including Google’s). Tracker-blocking features in Safari and Firefox show that similar protections are possible and long overdue in Chrome. It has yet to be approved to ship in Chrome, but a Google proposal to block fingerprinting scripts in Incognito Mode is a promising start. 

Yet Another Reason to Ban Online Behavioral Advertising

Meta’s business model relies on collecting as much information as possible about people in order to sell highly-targeted ads. Even if this method has been paused, as long as they have the incentive to do so Meta will keep finding ways to bypass your privacy protections. 

The best way to stop this cycle of invasive tracking techniques and patchwork fixes is to ban online behavioral advertising. This would end the practice of targeting ads based on your online activity, removing the primary incentive for companies to track and share your personal data. We need strong federal privacy laws to ensure that you, not Meta, control what information you share online.