Inevitable.
Vietnam
says Facebook violated controversial cybersecurity law
Facebook has violated Vietnam’s new
cybersecurity law by allowing users to post anti-government comments
on the platform, state media said on Wednesday, days after the
controversial legislation took effect in the communist-ruled country.
… In a statement, a Facebook spokeswoman said,
“We have a clear process for governments to report illegal content
to us, and we review all these requests against our terms of service
and local law.”
She did not elaborate.
I can’t get a warrant, so I go another route.
I Gave a
Bounty Hunter $300. Then He Located Our Phone
… The bounty hunter sent the number to his own
contact, who would track the phone. The contact responded with a
screenshot of Google Maps, containing a blue circle indicating the
phone’s current location, approximate to a few hundred metres.
… The bounty hunter did this all without
deploying a hacking tool or having any previous knowledge of the
phone’s whereabouts. Instead, the tracking tool relies on
real-time location data sold to bounty hunters that ultimately
originated from the telcos themselves, including T-Mobile, AT&T,
and Sprint, a Motherboard investigation has found. These
surveillance capabilities are sometimes sold through word-of-mouth
networks.
Whereas it’s common knowledge that law
enforcement agencies can track phones with a warrant to service
providers, IMSI catchers, or until recently via other companies that
sell location data such
as one called Securus, at least one company, called Microbilt, is
selling phone geolocation services with little oversight to a spread
of different private industries, ranging from car salesmen and
property managers to bail bondsmen and bounty hunters, according to
sources familiar with the company’s products and company documents
obtained by Motherboard.
This makes no sense to me.
Samsung
Phone Users Perturbed to Find They Can't Delete Facebook
… On certain Samsung Electronics Co.
smartphones, users aren’t allowed to delete the Facebook app.
Winke bought his Samsung Galaxy S8, an
Android-based device that comes with Facebook’s social network
already installed, when it was introduced in 2017. He has used the
Facebook app to connect with old friends and to share pictures of
natural landscapes and his Siamese cat – but he didn’t want to be
stuck with it. He tried to remove the program from his phone, but
the chatter proved true – it was undeletable. He found only an
option to "disable," and he wasn’t sure what that meant.
… which brings up more questions,” Winke
said in an interview. “Can they still track your information, your
location, or whatever else they do?
...and we don’t even get a discount?
Yves Smith writes:
Matt Stoller warned back in 2012 that insurers would increasingly induce, then force, customers to agree to surveillance. But a Wall Street Journal story describes how insurers and medical providers, meaning your doctor’s employers, are actively cooperating, so as among other things, to help Big Pharma peddle more drugs to you.
Stoller warned that over time, insurance companies would make it prohibitive and eventually impossible to refuse to agree to intensive monitoring:
Profit-driven surveillance does not start and stop with young adults. It is, in fact, becoming pervasive. The main theme of a recent IBM consulting document on the future of the insurance industry is how much more money an insurance company can make if it tracks and tags its customers. This is particularly true for auto insurance companies, some of whom like Allstate and Progressive are experimenting on new technologies. For instance, IBM suggests that “A “pay-as-you-live” product would trade some location and time-of-day privacy data for lower insurance bills overall.”
IBM is recommending these companies stick a sensor in your car, measure where you go and when, your speed, acceleration and deceleration, etc. The progression over time could be to withdraw traditional insurance products, so that you won’t be able to get an insurance product without sensors attached. As this presentation offers, “The aforementioned rising tide of technology also empowers insurance underwriters to bring their products closer to realtime interaction via sensor networks and enlightened privacy regulations.”…
Read more on Truthout.org.
The other side of a cashless society?
California
Would Become First State to Discourage Paper Receipts Under Newly
Proposed Bill
… But he said a law is needed because many
consumers don't realize most paper receipts are coated with chemicals
prohibited in baby bottles, can't be recycled and can contaminate
other recycled paper because of the chemicals known as Bisphenol-A
(BPA) and Bisphenol-S (BPS). [Wow!
Really? Bob]
… Republican Assemblyman Brian Dahle of Bieber
said he's concerned the receipt proposal could be burdensome for
small businesses, won't save that much paper and may not be practical
in rural areas without internet connections.
In addition, "then they have your email, then
they'll be marketing to you or selling your information or it can get
into privacy issues," he said.
Perspective. The e-version of your friendly
neighborhood market…
Amazon's
new ad strategy: Free samples based on what it knows about you
Amazon is quietly piloting a program to let brands
like Maybelline and Folgers pay to send free samples to consumers —
all based on what the retail giant already knows they're likely to
buy.
A student research challenge: How will
self-driving vans get the package onto my porch?
China's
national AI champion Baidu to test driverless delivery vans in US
heartland with Udelv for Walmart
We’ll get it figured out in a few years.
Scooters,
get off the sidewalk: Denver approves first big dockless change
The Denver City Council on Monday unanimously
approved revisions to the city’s regulations for dockless scooters,
which many had dismissed as archaic and confusing.
Previously, the zippy two-wheel vehicles were
supposed to stay on sidewalks in Denver, even though they can hit 15
mph. The new law says that commuter scooters should travel in bike
lanes and on low-speed roads when available.
I must assume this is a deliberate reversal of
normal procedure. What message does it send? “We don’t need no
stinking EU!”
Trump
administration snubs European diplomats in U.S.: officials
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has
lowered the status of the European Union’s diplomats in Washington
without notifying Brussels,
EU officials said on Tuesday.
… Two other EU diplomats confirmed the
downgrade, with one saying it was unlikely the bloc would retaliate
given its desire for good
relations.
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