Investigate Facebook and Zuck for Theft

19 Friday Apr 2019

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns, News and Notes

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Inadvertent? Right. Here’s the Farceberg outrage of the ~~day~~ minute: 1.5 million accounts robbed of email contacts.

Facebook harvested the email contacts of 1.5 million users without their knowledge or consent when they opened their accounts.

Since May 2016, the social-networking company has collected the contact lists of 1.5 million users new to the social network, Business Insider can reveal. The Silicon Valley company said the contact data was “unintentionally uploaded to Facebook,” and it is now deleting them.

The revelation comes after pseudononymous security researcher e-sushi noticed that Facebook was asking some users to enter their email passwords when they signed up for new accounts to verify their identities, a move widely condemned by security experts. Business Insider then discovered that if you entered your email password, a message popped up saying it was “importing” your contacts without asking for permission first.

At the time, it wasn’t clear what was happening – but on Wednesday, Facebook disclosed to Business Insider that 1.5 million people’s contacts were collected this way and fed into Facebook’s systems, where they were used to improve Facebook’s ad targeting, build Facebook’s web of social connections, and recommend friends to add.

Why do the police always take Zuck’s word about these “inadvertent” mistakes? Smells kind of like theft to me. 1.5 million consecutive 1-year prisons sentences should do as punishment.

Anyhow, I’ll bet it was more than 1.5 million and it was more than just email contacts. If, for some strange, low-IQ reason, you’re still on FB, do at least check your “secret” file to find out exactly what they admit they have on you.

Strike that… If you’re still on the Zuckbook, then just keep looking at those pics and “reading” all those worthy Russian trolling attempts. You don’t need privacy nor need you be worried about anyone invading it; small minds aren’t worth reading.

Moral Duty and The Great Charter

08 Monday Apr 2019

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns, News and Notes

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censorship, England, Facebook, social media, tyranny

In this sense, they don’t go together.

‘MORAL DUTY’

Last week, Mr Zuckerberg told politicians in Ireland that the company would work with governments to establish new policies in a bid to regulate social media.

The Home Secretary, Sajid Javid added that tech firms had a “moral duty” to protect the young people they “profit from”.

“Despite our repeated calls to action, harmful and illegal content – including child abuse and terrorism – is still too readily available online,” he said.

“That is why we are forcing these firms to clean up their act once and for all. I made it my mission to protect our young people – and we are now delivering on that promise.”

A 12-week consultation of the proposals will now take place before the Government will publish its final proposals for legislation.

The Government said the proposed regulator would have a legal duty to pay due regard to innovation, as well as to protect users’ rights online.

Social networks have failed to prioritise children’s safety and left them exposed to grooming, abuse, and harmful content

Peter Wanless, NSPCC

Peter Wanless, chief executive of children’s charity the NSPCC – which publicly backed the idea regulation in February, said the proposals would make the UK a “world pioneer” in protecting children online.

“For too long social networks have failed to prioritise children’s safety and left them exposed to grooming, abuse, and harmful content,” he said.

“So it’s high time they were forced to act through this legally binding duty to protect children, backed up with hefty punishments if they fail to do so.

“We are pleased that the Government has listened to the NSPCC’s detailed proposals and we are grateful to all those who supported our campaign.”

However, former culture secretary John Whittingdale warned minister risked dragging people into a “draconian censorship regime” in their attempts to regulate internet firms.

Writing in the Mail on Sunday, he said he feared the plans could “give succour to Britain’s enemies”, giving them an excuse to further censor their own people.

“Countries such as China, Russia and North Korea, which allow no political dissent and deny their people freedom of speech, are also keen to impose censorship online, just as they already do on traditional media,” he said.

“This mooted new UK regulator must not give the despots an excuse to claim that they are simply following an example set by Britain, where civil liberties were first entrenched in Magna Carta 800 years ago,” he said.

FB outrage of the day (again, told ya so) and woe unto GB.

Americans Are Addicted to Social Idiocy

07 Sunday Apr 2019

Posted by perrinlovett in News and Notes

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addiction, Americans, dumb, social media, survey

A new poll indicates that Farcebook, Twitbook, and other social media operations are every bit as hypnotic and mind-altering and dangerous as television. People know there’s a problem but they can’t break the habit.

The American public holds negative views of social-media giants like Facebook and Twitter, with sizable majorities saying these sites do more to divide the country than unite it and spread falsehoods rather than news, according to results from the latest national NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

What’s more, six in 10 Americans say they don’t trust Facebook at all to protect their personal information, the poll finds.

There’s more.

According to the poll, 57 percent of Americans say they agree with the statement that social media sites like Facebook and Twitter do more to divide the country, while 35 percent think they do more to bring the nation together.

Fifty-five percent believe social media does more to spread lies and falsehoods, versus 31 percent who say it does more to spread news and information.

Sixty-one percent think social media does more to spread unfair attacks and rumors against public figures and corporations, compared with 32 percent who say it does more to hold those public figures and corporations accountable.

And a whopping 82 percent say social media sites do more to waste people’s time, versus 15 percent who say they do more to use Americans’ time well.

Wait for it.

But those numbers also come as nearly seven in 10 Americans — 69 percent — say they use social media at least once a day.

They don’t trust it. They know it’s not good for them. But they use it anyway. I can quit anytime I want! There’s more still.

The NBC/WSJ poll also finds Americans are down on Facebook, with 60 percent saying they don’t trust the company at all to protect personal information.

…

By contrast, the percentage of Americans not trusting companies or institutions with their personal information is lower for Amazon (28 percent), Google (37 percent) and the federal government (35 percent).

And by a 74 percent-to-23 percent margin, respondents say that social media companies collecting users’ personal data to allow advertisers to target them is not an acceptable tradeoff for free or lower-cost services.

Overall, 36 percent of adults view Facebook positively, while 33 percent see it negatively. And Twitter’s rating is 24 percent positive, 27 percent negative.

The people are twice as trusting of government as they are of Faceberg, while still taking copious advantage of the “benefits” of both. A slight majority say there’s no need to trust-bust the social tech monopolies. One frequent argument against that drastic action is that the socials are private companies ergo, leave them alone (to be evil).

Dear Libertarians, Whig Partiers, Tide Pod-eaters, and others: Farcebook is a corporation. Corporations are government-sanctified entities or fake persons. Government, on the other hand, is Faceberg with a gun.

And. What’s the great benefit to all the gibberish and stupidity of the socials? Does everyone search daily for long-form articles to read? No. Do they make use of the astounding research capabilities of the digital age? No. Self-improvement? No. It’s all cat videos, memes, pictures (of your kids…), echo chambering, cat videos, porn, gambling, and triviality. A giant, all-seeing, privacy-risking, literally mind-numbing (I mean literally a digital narcotic) waste of time.

Delete the accounts.

A suggestion for the neurological sciences-minded or professionals: conduct a brain scan study to map the effects, live or long-term, of social media usage. Maybe try t track who is and who isn’t more susceptible to harm. Write a paper. Win a prize. Give me credit. We’ll Tweet about it.

Why Was Franklin Graham on Farcebook in the First Place?

30 Sunday Dec 2018

Posted by perrinlovett in News and Notes

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Christianity, evil, Facebook, Franklin Graham, social media

Graham is a good man. Farcebook is evil. It’s no surprise they booted him, temporarily, for telling the truth about Satanism and mental illness worship. And, their apology rings as hollow as their promises to protect user privacy.

Facebook is apologizing to evangelist Franklin Graham for banning him from posting on the site for 24 hours last week, a Facebook spokesperson told The Charlotte Observer on Saturday.

It was a mistake to ban Graham over a 2016 post he made on the site, and a mistake to have taken down the post, the spokesperson said.

Facebook has restored the 2016 post and will apologize in a note to the administrator of Graham’s Facebook page, according to the Facebook spokesperson, who agreed to speak only on background, meaning without the spokesperson’s name.

A member of Facebook’s content review team — the team has 15,000 members — had mistakenly decided the post violated Facebook’s policy that bans “dehumanizing language” and excluding people based on sexual orientation, race and other factors, according to the spokesperson and Facebook’s written policy.

With respect to Rev. Graham, the rule-making is no secret:

Well, now we know. Facebook has a secret rulebook for policing speech. I was banned from posting on Facebook last week for 24 hours. Why? Because of a post from back in 2016 about North Carolina’s House Bill 2 (the bathroom bill). Facebook said the post went against their “community standards on hate speech.” Facebook is trying to define truth. There was a character in a movie a few years back who said, “The truth is what I say it is!” That’s what Facebook is trying to do. They’re making the rules and changing the rules. Truth is truth. God made the rules and His Word is truth. Actually, Facebook is censoring free speech. The free exchange of ideas is part of our country’s DNA. …

– Graham

Use the enemy’s platform and accept their rules. To that end, a supporter sheepishly wondered: “[Kenan Lott]: Facebook has no right banning anything. If they keep it up someone will start a new better version for the people.” Actually, someone started another version and it was better. If you need social media – and I’m beginning to wonder why any of our People do – then try that site.

Say It Isn’t So

12 Monday Nov 2018

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns

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debt, debt ceiling, gun control, politics, social media

Debt, debt, and more debt:

The federal government is set to reinstate its borrowing limit, and a new analysis indicates that it will be a record-high $22 trillion — and then, it won’t provide enough money to fund the government past summer.

The shocking number, however, is only slightly higher than the current actual debt of some $21 trillion.

The ceiling has been in suspension and the debt has grown under President Trump. It is set to be reinstated on March 2, 2019.

A new Bipartisan Policy Center estimate suggests that the new limit will be $22 trillion, assuming no action is taken by lawmakers before that time.

The BPC analysis said: “Treasury will be able to fully fund the government until at least mid-summer 2019 by using extraordinary measures, cash-on-hand, and incoming cash flow. But costs to taxpayers will start earlier from factors associated with reaching the debt limit such as higher interest rates on U.S. Treasury securities.”

Through mid-Summer, 2019… That’s with the GOP at the helm, BTW. Dems, preparing to raid Congress, are calling for – wait for it – more gun control!!!

Democrats say they will pass the most aggressive gun-control legislation in decades when they become the House majority in January, plans they renewed this week in the aftermath of a mass killing in a California bar.

Their efforts will be spurred by an incoming class of pro-gun-control lawmakers who scored big in Tuesday’s midterm elections, although any measure would likely meet stiff resistance in the GOP-controlled Senate.

Democrats ousted at least 15 House Republicans with “A” National Rifle Association ratings, while the candidates elected to replace them all scored an “F” NRA rating.

“This new majority is not going to be afraid of our shadow,” said Mike Thompson, a California Democrat who is chairman of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force. “We know that we’ve been elected to do a job, and we’re going to do it.”

More like doing a number than a job, really. So, with all the money flying away and the thugs coming for your gat … just relax with some happy social media to beat the blues. Oh, wait.

The link between the two has been talked about for years, but a causal connection had never been proven. For the first time, University of Pennsylvania research based on experimental data connects Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram use to decreased well-being. Psychologist Melissa G. Hunt published her findings in the December Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology.

Well, at least Big Social doesn’t spy on you. Oh, wait…