In Facebook We Trust

14 Friday Jun 2019

Posted by perrinlovett in News and Notes

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If we are completely stupid, that is.

FB is ALWAYS watching, on and off the platform, for narrative violations by its ~~slaves~~ users.

Facebook monitors the offline behavior of its users to determine if they should be categorized as a “Hate Agent,” according to a document provided exclusively to Breitbart News by a source within the social media giant.

The document, titled “Hate Agent Policy Review” outlines a series of “signals” that Facebook uses to determine if someone ought to be categorized as a “hate agent” and banned from the platform.

Those signals include a wide range of on- and off-platform behavior. If you praise the wrong individual, interview them, or appear at events alongside them, Facebook may categorize you as a “hate agent.”

Sooner or later, everyone may become an agent of “hate.” So, how better to celebrate said blessed event than to give all your wealth to FB!

Facebook Inc. FB 1.39% has signed up more than a dozen companies including Visa Inc., Mastercard Inc., MA -1.00% PayPal Holdings Inc. PYPL 1.07% and Uber Technologies Inc. UBER 5.07% to back a new cryptocurrency it plans to unveil next week and launch next year.

The financial and e-commerce companies, venture capitalists and telecommunications firms will invest around $10 million each in a consortium that will govern the digital coin, called Libra, according to people familiar with the matter. The money would be used to fund the creation of the coin, which will be pegged to a basket of government-issued currencies to avoid the wild swings that have dogged other cryptocurrencies, they said.

The Wall Street Journal reported last month that Facebook was recruiting backers to help start the crypto-based payments system and was seeking to raise as much as around $1 billion for the effort.

In the works for more than a year, the secretive project revolves around a digital coin that its users could send to each other and use to make purchases both on Facebook and across the internet.

Names you can trust, that don’t trust you, in a secret project to convert your money. What could go wrong?

5,400 Reasons to Rethink the “Smart” Phone

28 Tuesday May 2019

Posted by perrinlovett in News and Notes

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1984, iPhone, phones, privacy, spying

Keep in mind, this resulted from a scan of a single man’s iPhone:

Monitoring software used by The Washington Post on an ordinary iPhone found that no fewer than 5,400 app trackers were sending data from the phone – in some cases including sensitive data like location and phone number.

It wasn’t too long ago that people paid a little extra for an unlisted phone number. You know, for a little more privacy. What a 180. If this concerns you – and why I bother with stories like this, I really don’t know – then consider a Faraday cage, some other signal blocker, or a dumb phone (no phone if you can manage and don’t mind). Or not.

Quote

BIG! – NSA Recommends Dropping Phone Surveillance Program…. — The Last Refuge

24 Wednesday Apr 2019

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law, NSA, spying, Trump

This will be a Trump sanity test. Why on earth would he reauthorize a program that spies(d) on all Americans in general and him in particular?

Perhaps the weaponization of the NSA database was the biggest research project we ever took on. That said, CTH prudence requires a lack of commentary. For a background on this story see the [“SIDE NOTE“] previously presented HERE. “The candle is not worth the flame.” (WASHINGTON DC) The National Security Agency has recommended that the […]

via BIG! – NSA Recommends Dropping Phone Surveillance Program…. — The Last Refuge

Why Would Anyone Want a New Car?

12 Friday Apr 2019

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Big Brother, cars, privacy, spying

Or, more accurately, a spy computer on wheels.

If you’re driving a late model car or truck, chances are that the vehicle is mostly computers on wheels, collecting and wirelessly transmitting vast quantities of data to the car manufacturer not just on vehicle performance but personal information, too, such as your weight, the restaurants you visit, your music tastes and places you go.

A car can generate about 25 gigabytes of data every hour and as much as 4,000 gigabytes a day, according to some estimates. The data trove in the hands of car makers could be worth as much as $750 billion by 2030, the consulting firm McKinsey has estimated. But consumer groups, aftermarket repair shops and privacy advocates say the data belongs to the car’s owners and the information should be subject to data privacy laws.

And, Congress fails to act for the people. Surprise, surprise.

It has been some time but I have covered this topic before. That was over four years ago. Things have changed; it’s worse now. The alternatives are slim. One can get a used car as an end-around. But, one has to go back 20 years or so for a guarantee. Why do you think they did cash for clunkers?

Another possibility is for someone in tech to design a blocker or a patch that masks the car’s multiple computers. This is probably illegal. Congress, never quick to act for us, has acted for “them;” the car companies have proprietary software. You either take it to their dealership or to an independent who pays a fee for access. And, the way these things work, masking or shutting off the CPU may well totally disable the car.

We’ve been backed into a corner for a reason – total control. They will soon try to mandate automated bot cars that you can’t control and which log your every move. Goodbye, last shreds of freedom.

The only other possibility I can think of is a reverse EM shield that stops outward wireless transmissions. They’ll probably make that illegal too.

Drive on.

A Big Deal

10 Wednesday Apr 2019

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns

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2016, FBI, Obama, politics, spying, treason, Trump

Yeah. Yeah, spying on a political campaign just might be a big deal.

Attorney General William Barr said on Wednesday U.S. intelligence agencies engaged in spying directed at the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump and that he would look at whether the surveillance was undertaken legally.

“I think spying did occur,” Barr told a Senate hearing. “But the question is whether it was adequately predicated and I am not suggesting that it wasn’t adequately predicated. … I am not suggesting those rules were violated, but I think it is important to look at that. And I am not talking about the FBI necessarily, but intelligence agencies more broadly.

“I think spying on a political campaign is a big deal – it’s a big deal.”

If it wasn’t adequately predicated (and, on what did they have for the predicate, anyway?), then when do the treason trials/drone strikes start? Maybe about the same time as the wall?

The Daily (Hourly?) Farcebook Outrage

04 Thursday Apr 2019

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Facebook, getting what you paid for, spying

Again, that fun and FREE! social media thingy really isn’t either.

540 million Facebook user records compromised.

Researchers at the cybersecurity firm UpGuard on Wednesday said they had discovered the existence of two datasets together containing the personal data of hundreds of millions of Facebook users. Both were left publicly accessible.

In a blog post, UpGuard connected one of the leaky databases to a Mexico-based media company called Cultura Colectiva. The data set reportedly contains over 146 GB of data, which amounts to over 540 million Facebook user records, including comments, likes, reactions, account names, Facebook user IDs, and more.

Knowing what we know about Mr. Suckerberg, how likely is it that this data was custom picked and then sold? I’d say more likely than not.

Yet and still … people are on FB. The Headmaster over at TPC just admitted he’s thinking about “life after Facebook.” And, he’s a forward thinker of the bigger thoughts. I’m starting to think about life after the internet. In my dreams, I begin to envision life after electricity. Pleasant dreams too. It beats the reality of having your life show up on the auction block in Mexico.

Get. Out. Now.

Digital Gangsters Offer “Protection” to Convalescents

24 Sunday Feb 2019

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

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crime, Facebook, spying

The weekly reason why no sane person should ever trust social media: Patients, health data experts accuse Facebook of exposing personal info:

A group of patients and health data experts is accusing Facebook of misleading users about how their personal health information can be manipulated and exposed without patients’ explicit permission.

In a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) complaint released publicly on Tuesday, the group alleges that Facebook prompts its users to join online medical support groups under the guise that they are “private” – but does not make clear that users could expose their health data when they join those groups.

Of course, why would anyone ever give Facebook sensitive health information otherwise protected by privacy law? (Why give them anything?) And, why the shock and horror when the Gangsters do the predictable?

At any rate, in their FTC Complaint, the “victims” play with fine calculations:

Always remember: Facebook gonna Facebook.

$20 Per Month FREE!* From Your Friends** at Facebook!

02 Saturday Feb 2019

Posted by perrinlovett in News and Notes

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evil, Facebook, spying

*May require the complete surrender of digital privacy, may be illegal

**May NOT be your actual friends…

What a deal for the younger peoples!

Desperate for data on its competitors, Facebook has been secretly paying people to install a “Facebook Research” VPN that lets the company suck in all of a user’s phone and web activity, similar to Facebook’s Onavo Protect app that Apple banned in June and that was removed in August. Facebook sidesteps the App Store and rewards teenagers and adults to download the Research app and give it root access to network traffic in what may be a violation of Apple policy so the social network can decrypt and analyze their phone activity, a TechCrunch investigation confirms.

Facebook admitted to TechCrunch it was running the Research program to gather data on usage habits.

Since 2016, Facebook has been paying users ages 13 to 35 up to $20 per month plus referral fees to sell their privacy by installing the iOS or Android “Facebook Research” app. Facebook even asked users to screenshot their Amazon order history page. The program is administered through beta testing services Applause, BetaBound and uTest to cloak Facebook’s involvement, and is referred to in some documentation as “Project Atlas” — a fitting name for Facebook’s effort to map new trends and rivals around the globe.

Shrug Atlas.

Don’t Be Evil

25 Sunday Nov 2018

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evil, Google, spying

One would have to be a complete fool (aka, an ordinary modern Amerikan) to voluntarily have any of these spy devices in the home.

Patents recently issued to Google provide a window into their development activities. While it’s no guarantee of a future product, it is a sure indication of what’s of interest to them. What we’ve given up in privacy to Google, Facebook, and others thus far is minuscule compared to what is coming if these companies get their way.

These patents tell us that Google is developing smart-home products that are capable of eavesdropping on us throughout our home in order to learn more about us and better target us with advertising. It goes much further than the current Google Home speaker that’s promoted to answer our questions and provide useful information, and the Google-owned Nest thermostat that measures environmental conditions in our home. What the patents describe are sensors and cameras mounted in every room to follow us and analyze what we’re doing throughout our home.

They describe how the cameras can even recognize the image of a movie star’s image on a resident’s t-shirt, connect it to the person’s browsing history, and send the person an ad for a new movie the star is in.

The advertising annoyance is the least of the possible concerns, really. And, it may eventually come down to ultimately involuntary concern. Imagine a future where the only hope for privacy is not having any electric devices at home and Faraday shielding to halt external probing. Look for measures like those to be outlawed while laws still hold.

1984 was a warm up.