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California Police Have Been Illegally Sharing License Plate Reader Data
Some of California’s largest police departments have been collecting millions of images of drivers’ license plates and sharing them with entities around the country—without having necessary security policies in place, in violation of state law, according to a newly released state audit.
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Injured Amazon Warehouse Workers Are Protesting Dangerous Work Speed
Injured former Amazon warehouse workers and labor organizers in Chicago are protesting dangerous work speed and high injury rates today outside one of the company’s brick-and-mortar stores in downtown Chicago. The action coincides with the release of a new report on injury rates in one of the re…
How the FCC Helped Pave the Way for Predatory Prison Telecoms
Predatory companies have spent decades overcharging inmates and their families for phone calls and video conferencing services. Now, they’re shifting their focus toward charging exorbitant fees to access ebooks and use the internet, thanks in part to federal regulators who’ve turned a blind eye …
Australia’s Response to Climate Change One of the Worst in G20, According to New Report
This week, while more than 800,000 hectares of land throughout eastern Australia was ravaged by some of the worst bushfires the country has ever seen—forcing both New South Wales and Queensland to declare a state of emergency—a damning international climate report was released to the public. The…
Comcast Is Lobbying Against Encryption That Could Prevent it From Learning Your Browsing History
The plan, which Google intends to implement soon, would enforce the encryption of DNS data made using Chrome, meaning the sites you visit. Privacy activists have praised Google's move. But ISPs are pushing back as part of a wider lobbying effort against encrypted DNS, according to the presentati…
Rudy Giuliani Was Just Subpoenaed for Ukraine Documents
The subpoena seeks all documents and communications related to former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter, the Ukrainian gas company where he held a paid board seat, and any efforts to bring about an investigation into the Biden family. It also seeks records of Giuliani’s communications with t…
ICE Just Renewed Its Contract With Palantir
Immigration and Customs Enforcement just renewed its contract with Palantir, a data aggregation company, despite protests from organizers demanding that the agency ends its relationship with the company, according to a document published to a government contract database Monday.
Per the …
Bernie Sanders Sent a Bunch of Pizzas to the Coal Miners Blocking a Train in Kentucky
The Vermont senator and Democratic presidential candidate called the local Pizza Hut Friday and sent a pie to the miners for each day they’ve been blocking a train full of over $1 million in coal from their former employer, Blackjewel, according to the local NBC affiliate. The demonstration star…
Locally Run ISPs Offer the Fastest Broadband in America - VICE
A new study once again highlights how community-run internet service providers (ISPs) offer better, faster broadband than their private sector counterparts. Using data from 356,925 broadband speed tests conducted over a year, PCMag recently compiled a list of the fastest ISPs in America. ISPs …
The CIA Spied on People Through Their Smart TVs, Leaked Documents Reveal - VICE
On Tuesday, WikiLeaks dumped a large cache of documents allegedly coming from the CIA's hacking unit. Julian Assange's organization dubbed the release, which it says it's the first in a series, as "Vault 7," and billed it as the largest-ever of confidential CIA intelligence documents.
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Apple Is Still Trying to Sue the Owner of an Independent iPhone Repair Shop - VICE
Despite initially losing the case last year, Apple is continuing its legal pursuit against the owner of a small, independent iPhone repair shop in Norway. Apple is attempting to hold the repair shop owner liable for importing what it says are counterfeit iPhone screens into his home country of N…
Mark Zuckerberg Will Be Served a Summons If He Sets Foot In Canada - VICE
The vote came after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and CEO Sheryl Sandberg flouted a subpoena compelling them to appear before parliament at an international committee hearing on big data and democracy on Tuesday. Instead, Facebook sent local head of policy Kevin Chan and global head of policy…
New Proposal Would Let Companies Further Screw You Over With Terms of Service - VICE
A collection of unelected lawyers this week is quietly pushing a new proposal that could dramatically erode your legal rights, leaving you at the mercy of giant corporations eager to protect themselves from accountability. Consumers are routinely subjected to overlong terms of service that all…
STANLEY KUBRICK'S NAPOLEON: A LOT OF WORK, VERY LITTLE ACTUAL MOVIE - VICE
One night during the pre-production phase on A Clockwork Orange, Malcolm McDowell asked Stanley Kubrick why he was eating ice cream at the same time as his main course steak. "What's the difference?" said Kubrick. "It's all food. This is how Napoleon used to eat."
Well, that's how McDowe…
Saudi Arabia beheaded a pro-democracy protester set to attend college in U.S.
Al-Sweikat was arrested in 2012 after attending several pro-democracy protests, according to the Detroit Free Press. He was accused of armed disobedience, injuring security forces, destroying public property, causing chaos and disrupting the peace. Authorities described his charges as terrorism-…
Bill That Would Restore Net Neutrality Moves Forward Despite Telecom’s Best Efforts to Kill it - Motherboard
Last month, Democrats introduced a simple three page bill that would do one thing: restore FCC net neutrality rules and the agency’s authority over ISPs, both stripped away by a hugely-controversial decision by the agency in late 2017. Tuesday morning, the Save the Internet Act passed through a…
Woman May Have Had Allergic Reaction to Drugs in Partner’s Semen - Motherboard
The medical mystery was discussed at length in a case report published this month to BMJ Journals, as first reported by the Daily Mail Online. Doctors believe the incident is unique not because the woman was allergic to the man’s semen, but because she may have reacted to drugs transmitted thr…
If We're Going to Break Up Big Tech, We Shouldn’t Forget Big Telecom - Motherboard
On Friday, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren proposed breaking up Google, Amazon, and Facebook in a bid to crack down on anti-competitive tech giants. The proposal, which suggests ramping up antitrust enforcement and unwinding the sector’s most problematic mergers, is poised to be a cornerston…
Facebook’s Phone Number Policy Could Push Users to Not Trust Two-Factor Authentication - Motherboard
Using two-factor authentication, a security mechanism that requires a second step to login into an account other than the password, is widely considered an essential measure to protect yourself online. Yet, only a small percentage of people use this feature, mostly because it can be burdensome a…
“I don’t care. I believe Putin”: Trump rejected U.S. intel and listened to Moscow, says McCabe
Discussing his time at leading the agency after James Comey was fired, McCabe told 60 Minutes that Trump had been at a July 2017 briefing about Pyongyang’s strike capability, when he said he didn’t believe that North Korea had the technology to hit the U.S. with missiles — because the Russian pr…
Germany just told Facebook to stop tracking users around the internet
Mundt argued that Facebook’s data collection policies allowed it to become the dominant player in the market. He said that if users refused to have their external data merged with their Facebook data, the company could not refuse them access to the social network.
“The Bundeskartellamt u…
Nuclear War Experts Are Horrified by ‘Fallout 76’
With the threat of nuclear Armageddon looming, three nuclear war experts think Fallout 76’s new 'nuke loop' goes too far.
In what the developers call “the nuke loop,” Fallout 76 players can hunt down nuclear codes and launch ICBMs at the map. Fallout 76 gives players many incentives to d…
The Timeless Myth of Medusa, a Rape Victim Turned Into a Monster
Since Ancient Greece, the snake-haired Gorgon has been a sexualized symbol of women's rage.
Top Voting Machine Vendor Admits It Installed Remote-Access Software on Systems Sold to States
Remote-access software and modems on election equipment 'is the worst decision for security short of leaving ballot boxes on a Moscow street corner.'
Purdue Pharma, company behind Oxycontin, just laid off its entire sales team
The company is shifting away from Oxy, which accounted for 82 percent of sales in 2017.