This morning I read that LastPass will restrict free users to only one type of device starting next month. Since this will leave users scrambling for a replacement, folks are understandably pissed off.
[Read more…] about Password Managers
Privacy
The Social Dilemma
The Social Dilemma
“We tweet, we like, and we share— but what are the consequences of our growing dependence on social media? This documentary-drama hybrid reveals how social media is reprogramming civilization with tech experts sounding the alarm on their own creations…The Social Dilemma features the voices of technologists, researchers and activists working to align technology with the interests of humanity.”
I finally got around to watching this last night. My favorite quotes from the movie:
“I like to say that algorithms are opinions embedded in code.” Cathy O’Neil, data scientist
“The way to think about it is as 2.5 billion Truman Shows. Each person has their own reality with their own facts. Over time you have the false sense that everyone agrees with you because everyone in your news feed sounds just like you. Once you’re in that state, it turns out you’re easily manipulated.” – Roger McNamee, Early investor venture capitalist in Facebook
“It’s the gradual, slight, imperceptible change in your own behavior and perception that is the product.” – Jaron Lainer, founding father of Virtual Reality Computer Scientist
“There’s only a handful of people at these companies who understand how these [algorithm] systems work, and even they don’t necessarily fully understand what’s going to happen with a particular piece of content. So as humans we’ve almost lost control over these systems. Because they’re controlling the information that we see, they’re controlling us more than we’re controlling them.” – Sandy Parakilas, former operations manager at Facebook, former product manager at Uber
More quotes: The most hair-raising quotes from Netflix doco The Social Dilemma
More reading: References from Netflix’s “The Social Dilemma”
My O&O ShutUp10 Settings – 03DEC2020 – Win10 20H2
Contact Tracing Apps
Apple, Google Release Virus Contact-Tracing Tools to App Makers
“Apple Inc. and Google released the first versions of their Covid-19 contact-tracing tools to public health organizations on Wednesday so the agencies can start building applications ahead of the system’s launch in mid-May.”
Contact tracing apps can help stop coronavirus. But they can hurt privacy.
EFF – COVID-19 and Digital Rights
EFF – Apple and Google’s COVID-19 Exposure Notification API: Questions and Answers
Americans split on use of contact tracing apps powered by Apple/Google API
“Americans are divided on whether they would be willing to use coronavirus contact tracing apps powered by the joint Apple/Google API. A Washington Post/University of Maryland poll found an exact 50/50 split between those who would use it and those who wouldn’t.”
So what say you, are you gonna install it?
Food For Thought
As Coronavirus Surveillance Escalates, Personal Privacy Plummets
“Tracking entire populations to combat the pandemic now could open the doors to more invasive forms of government snooping later.”
I am an American constitutional lawyer – and I see our government using Covid-19 to take away our fundamental rights
“Do we really think “it can’t happen here” in America? Could we quarantine the constitution? Are we doing it already?”
How Surveillance Could Save Lives Amid a Public Health Crisis
“Smartphones could be a powerful weapon against the novel coronavirus. But tracking people’s movements would offend many Americans’ sense of privacy.”
Protecting Civil Liberties During a Public Health Crisis
“As our society struggles with how best to minimize the spread of this disease, we must carefully consider the way that “big data” containment tools impact our digital liberties.”
DOJ Wants to Suspend Certain Constitutional Rights During Coronavirus Emergency
“The Department of Justice has secretly asked Congress for the ability to detain arrested people “indefinitely” in addition to other powers that one expert called “terrifying”.”
EFF and COVID-19: Protecting Openness, Security, and Civil Liberties
“The COVID-19 pandemic has made obvious how important the Internet and digital tools are to our lives and how vital it is that we maintain an open and secure approach to them.”
Cell Phone Companies Are Selling Access To Customer Location Data
Motherboard – I Gave a Bounty Hunter $300. Then He Located Our Phone
T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T are selling access to their customers’ location data, and that data is ending up in the hands of bounty hunters and others not authorized to possess it, letting them track most phones in the country…
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…
Motherboard’s investigation shows just how exposed mobile networks and the data they generate are, leaving them open to surveillance by ordinary citizens, stalkers, and criminals…
Don’t think it’s a big deal? This could be your Mom’s, wife’s, girlfriend’s, or daughter’s phone…
How Apps on Android Share Data with Facebook
Privacy International Study:
How Apps on Android Share Data with Facebook (even if you don’t have a Facebook account)
Article | Attached PDF Whitepaper | Video
We found that at least 61 percent of apps we tested automatically transfer data to Facebook the moment a user opens the app. This happens whether people have a Facebook account or not, or whether they are logged into Facebook or not…If combined, data from different apps can paint a fine-grained and intimate picture of people’s activities, interests, behaviors and routines, some of which can reveal special category data, including information about people’s health or religion. For example, an individual who has installed the following apps that we have tested, “Qibla Connect” (a Muslim prayer app), “Period Tracker Clue” (a period tracker), “Indeed” (a job search app), “My Talking Tom” (a children’s’ app), could be potentially profiled as likely female, likely Muslim, likely job seeker, likely parent.
See page 35 of the PDF for what little you can do to protect yourself.
This means that much of what you see on your phone either is, or could have been manipulated.
If this doesn’t piss you off then you deserve what you get.
Blocking A Programs Internet Access Via The Windows Firewall
Many programs on your computer access the internet even though they don’t need to. They phone home for a variety of reason including telemetry and checking for updates.
I don’t need or want most programs phoning home for any reason. Still, they try.
With programs getting more invasive I thought it would be appropriate to show you how to block their access to the net.
[Read more…] about Blocking A Programs Internet Access Via The Windows Firewall
The Facebook Dilemma
This topic has been making the rounds for a couple of days. I wanted to watch the entire thing before I passed it along.
The Facebook Dilemma is two, 50+ minute videos of a PBS Frontline special. It is the story of the dangers of Facebook. The first video deals more about the dangers to individuals. The second is about the dangers Facebook presents to society and democracies around the world. It then circles back to the dangers to individuals.
You’ll learn not only about these topics but about the stunning greed, arrogance, tone deafness, and outright deceit on these issues from the highest levels of Facebook.
In the end the only solution is to #DeleteFacebook.
“The promise of Facebook was to create a more open and connected world. But from the company’s failure to protect millions of users’ data, to the proliferation of “fake news” and disinformation, mounting crises have raised the question: Is Facebook more harmful than helpful? On Monday, Oct. 29, and Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2018, FRONTLINE presents The Facebook Dilemma. This major, two-night event investigates a series of warnings to Facebook as the company grew from Mark Zuckerberg’s Harvard dorm room to a global empire. With dozens of original interviews and rare footage, The Facebook Dilemma examines the powerful social media platform’s impact on privacy and democracy in the U.S. and around the world.”
Tuesday News
Firefox 63
Performance improvements, “Added content blocking, a collection of Firefox settings that offer users greater control over technology that can track them around the web. In 63, users can opt to block third-party tracking cookies or block all trackers and create exceptions for trusted sites that don’t work correctly with content blocking enabled.”
Download (all) | Download 32-bit EN-US | Download 64-bit EN-US
Release Notes
“An eye-opening documentary, The Creepy Line reveals the stunning degree to which society
is manipulated by Google and Facebook and blows the lid off the remarkably subtle – hence
powerful – manner in which they do it.
The Creepy Line is a title culled from the words of former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, when
during a 2010 interview he explained Google’s code of conduct: “The Google policy on a lot of
things is to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it.”
However, as Dr. Robert Epstein explains in the film, “Google crosses the creepy line every
day”. Containing ground-breaking interviews with Jordan B. Peterson, Peter Schweizer, and
others, The Creepy Line offers an explosive look at the meddling and intervening done by
Google and Facebook on their supposedly “neutral platforms”.
The Creepy Line takes the conversation about data privacy and control further than ever
before by examining what Google and Facebook do once they control a user’s data. Not only
is this data sold to the highest bidder, but it is used it to mold, massage, and manipulate
the public consciousness while influencing opinion on a vast scale – all with the goal of
transforming society to fit their worldview.
Offering first-hand accounts, scientific experiments and detailed analysis, The Creepy Line
examines what is at risk when these two tech titans have free reign to utilize the public’s most
private and personal data to manipulate society
There is no question that the “creepy line” is getting ever-creepier, and that the tech giants
have crossed it.“
I had bookmarked this a few weeks ago waiting for it to come out. I watched it yesterday. If you don’t already distrust these companies this should change your mind.
Must see TV!
Watch for free on Amazon Prime
Watch for $3.99 on Amazon
Watch for $4.99 on iTunes