Mustafa loves good coffee. In his free time, he often browses high-end coffee machines that he cannot currently afford but is saving for.

Citizens and policymakers around the world are grappling with how to limit companies’ use of data about individuals – and how private various types of information should be.

Living with two preteens, I get almost daily requests to approve new apps. My standard response is to ask my kids to describe the app, why they want it, and how it makes money.

In criminal justice systems, credit markets, employment arenas, higher education admissions processes and even social media networks, data-driven algorithms now drive decision-making in ways that touch our economic, social and civic lives.

Surveillance used to be expensive. Even just a few years ago, tailing a person’s movements around the clock required rotating shifts of personnel devoted full-time to the task. Not any more, though.

Smart speakers equipped with digital voice assistants such as Siri and Alexa are now the fastest-growing consumer technology since the smartphone.

The FBI has succeeded in hacking into an iPhone that belonged to San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook without Apple’s help. As a consequence, the FBI has dropped its legal case that was trying to force Apple

At the top of some children’s Christmas present wish list this year will be the new Hello Barbie doll. Mattel’s latest doll connects to the internet via Wi-Fi and uses interactive voice response (IVR) to effectively converse with children. When the doll’s belt button is pushed, conversations are recorded and uploaded to servers operated by Mattel’s partner, ToyTalk.

China has a problem. Social trust is at miserable levels, leading to a shaky business environment in which half of all written contracts are blatantly breached.

Through pressure from Google, Facebook, and other major providers such as Yahoo and Apple the world wide web is slowing becoming more secure, with web services using HTTPS to encrypt web traffic by default.

How much does your smart home know about you? That was the question that Charles Givre, a data scientist at Booz Allen Hamilton, set out to answer in a recent experiment. Givre has an account on Wink, a platform designed to control, from a single screen, his Internet-connected home devices, such as door locks, window shades and LED lights.

When you type up a racy email to a loved one, do you consider the details private? Most of us would probably say yes, even though such messages often end up filtered through intelligence agencies and service providers.

Verizon is giving a new mission to its controversial hidden identifier that tracks users of mobile devices. Verizon said in a little-noticed announcement that it will soon begin sharing the profiles with AOL's ad network, which in turn monitors users across a large swath of the Internet.

Even if you don’t connect to wifi at a coffee shop, for example, hackers may still be able to see what you’re doing. They could analyze the low-power electronic signals your laptop emits even when it’s not connected to the internet.

At this moment, there are likely many eyes on you. If you are reading this article in a public place, a surveillance camera might be capturing your actions and even watching you enter your login information and password. Suffice it to say, being watched is part of life today.