Archive for the ‘Global Domination’ Category
Whois is dead as Europe hands DNS overlord ICANN its arse :(
The Whois public database of domain name registration details is dead. In a letter [PDF] sent this week to DNS overseer ICANN, Europe’s data protection authorities have effectively killed off the current service, noting that it breaks the law and so will be illegal come 25 May, when GDPR comes into force. The letter also […]
Orkut Hello: The Man Behind Orkut Says His ‘Hello’ Platform Doesn’t Sell User Data
In 2004, one of the world’s most popular social networks, Orkut, was founded by a former Google employee named Orkut Büyükkökten. Later that year, a Harvard University student named Mark Zuckerberg launched ‘the Facebook’, which over the course of a year became ubiquitous in Ivy League universities and was eventually called Facebook.com. Orkut was shut […]
Facebook admits: Apps were given users’ permission to go into their inboxes
Facebook has admitted that some apps had access to users’ private messages, thanks to a policy that allowed devs to request mailbox permissions. The revelation came as current Facebook users found out whether they or their friends had used the “This Is Your Digital Life” app that allowed academic Aleksandr Kogan to collect data on […]
How to Check if Cambridge Analytica Had Your Facebook Data
Facebook launched a tool yesterday that you can use to find out whether you or your friends shared information with Cambridge Analytica, the Trump-affiliated company that harvested data from a Facebook app to support the then-candidate’s efforts in the 2016 presidential election. If you were affected directly—and you have plenty of company, if so—you should […]
CubeYou: Cambridge-like app collected data on millions from Facebook
Facebook is suspending a data analytics firm called CubeYou from the platform after CNBC notified the company that CubeYou was collecting information about users through quizzes. CubeYou misleadingly labeled its quizzes “for non-profit academic research,” then shared user information with marketers. The scenario is eerily similar to how Cambridge Analytica received unauthorized access to data […]
$0.75 – about how much Cambridge Analytica paid per voter in bid to micro-target their minds, internal docs reveal
Cambridge Analytica bought psychological profiles on individual US voters, costing roughly 75 cents to $5 apiece, each crafted using personal information plundered from millions of Facebook accounts, according to revealed internal documents. Over the course of the past two weeks, whistleblower Chris Wylie has made a series of claims against his former employer, Cambridge Analytica, […]
Cambridge Analytica’s daddy biz SCL had ‘routine access’ to UK secrets
Cambridge Analytica’s parent biz had “routine access to UK secret information” as part of training it offered to the UK’s psyops group, according to documents released today. A letter, published as part of a cache handed over to MPs by whisteblower Chris Wylie, details work that Strategic Communications Laboratories (SCL) carried out for the 15 […]
Grindr’s API Surrendered Location Data to a Third-Party Website—Even After Users Opted Out
A website that allowed Gindr’s gay-dating app users to see who blocked them on the service says that by using the company’s API it was able to view unread messages, email addresses, deleted photos, and—perhaps most troubling—location data, according to a report published Wednesday. The website, C*ckblocked, boasts of being the “first and only way […]
Mozilla launches Facebook container extension
This extension helps you control more of your web activity from Facebook by isolating your identity into a separate container. This makes it harder for Facebook to track your activity on other websites via third-party cookies. Rather than stop using a service you find valuable and miss out on those adorable photos of your nephew, […]
Wylie: It’s possible that the Facebook app is listening to you
During an appearance before a committee of U.K. lawmakers today, Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie breathed new life into longstanding rumors that the Facebook app listens to its users in order to target advertisements.Damian Collins, a member of parliament who chaired the committee, asked whether the Facebook app might listen to what users are discussing […]
The channel 4 video exposes on Cambridge Analytica, Aggregate IQ, losing data, electioneering in Brexit, the US, Kenya, Nigeria and many more all here
Data, Democracy and Dirty Tricks playlist
Dutch government pretends to think about referendum result against big brother unlimited surveillance, ignores it completely.
Basically not only will they allow a huge amount of different agencies to tap your internet and phone and store it without any judicary procedures, checks or balances, they will also allow these agencies to share the data with whoever they want, including foreign agencies. Surprisingly the Dutch people voted against these far reaching breaches […]
Facebook Blames a ‘Bug’ for Not Deleting Your Seemingly Deleted Videos
Did you ever record a video on Facebook to post directly to your friend’s wall, only to discard the take and film a new version? You may have thought those embarrassing draft versions were deleted, but Facebook kept a copy. The company is blaming it on a “bug” and swears that it’s going to delete […]
‘Big Brother’ in India Requires Fingerprint Scans for Food, Phones and Finances
NEW DELHI — Seeking to build an identification system of unprecedented scope, India is scanning the fingerprints, eyes and faces of its 1.3 billion residents and connecting the data to everything from welfare benefits to mobile phones. Civil libertarians are horrified, viewing the program, called Aadhaar, as Orwell’s Big Brother brought to life. To the […]
Jaywalkers under surveillance in Shenzhen soon to be punished via text messages
Intellifusion, a Shenzhen-based AI firm that provides technology to the city’s police to display the faces of jaywalkers on large LED screens at intersections, is now talking with local mobile phone carriers and social media platforms such as WeChat and Sina Weibo to develop a system where offenders will receive personal text messages as soon […]
Any social media accounts to declare? US wants travelers to tell
The US Department of State wants to ask visa applicants to provide details on the social media accounts they’ve used in the past five years, as well as telephone numbers, email addresses, and international travel during this period. The plan, if approved by the Office of Management and Budget, will expand the vetting regime applied […]
You can now use your Netflix subscription anywhere in the EU
‘This content is not available in your country’ – a damn annoying message, especially when you’re paying for it. But a new EU regulation means you can now access Netflix, Amazon Prime and other services from any country in Europe, marking an end to boring evenings in hotels watching BBC World News. The European Commission’s […]
Chrome Is Scanning Files on Your Computer, and People Are Freaking Out
The browser you likely use to read this article scans practically all files on your Windows computer. And you probably had no idea until you read this. Don’t worry, you’re not the only one. Last year, Google announced some upgrades to Chrome, by far the world’s most used browser—and the one security pros often recommend. […]
Grindr: Yeah, we shared your HIV status info with other companies – but we didn’t charge them! (oh and your GPS coords)
Hookup fixer Grindr is on the defensive after it shared sensitive information, including HIV status and physical location, of its app’s users with outside organizations. The quickie booking facilitator on Monday admitted it passed, via HTTPS, people’s public profiles to third-party analytics companies to process on its behalf. That means, yes, the information was handed […]
Most of 2.2 billion Facebook users had their data scraped by externals – because it was easy to do
At this point, the social media company is just going for broke, telling the public it should just assume that “most” of the 2.2 billion Facebook users have probably had their public data scraped by “malicious actors.” […] Meanwhile, reports have focused on a variety of issues that have popped up in just the last […]
Cambridge Analytica whistleblower: Facebook data could have come from more than 87 million users
Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie says the data the firm gathered from Facebook could have come from more than 87 million users and could be stored in Russia. The number of Facebook users whose personal information was accessed by Cambridge Analytica “could be higher, absolutely,” than the 87 million users acknowledged by Facebook, Wylie told […]
Yes, Cops Are Now Opening iPhones With Dead People’s Fingerprints
Separate sources close to local and federal police investigations in New York and Ohio, who asked to remain anonymous as they weren’t authorized to speak on record, said it was now relatively common for fingerprints of the deceased to be depressed on the scanner of Apple iPhones, devices which have been wrapped up in increasingly […]
Great, Now Delta airlines Is Normalizing Casual Fingerprinting
Delta Airlines announced Monday that it’s rolling out biometric entry at its line of airport lounges. With the press of two fingers, Delta members will be able to enter any of Delta’s 50 exclusive lounges for drinks, comfortably unaware of the encroaching dystopian biometric surveillance structure closing around travel. Thanks to a partnership with Clear, […]
Facebook Acknowledges It Has Been Keeping Records of Android Users’ Calls, Texts
Last week, a user found that Facebook had a record of the date, time, duration, and recipient of calls he had made from the past few years. A couple days later, Ars Technica published an account of several others — all Android users — who found similar records. Now, Slate Magazine is reporting that Facebook […]
New Slack Tool Lets Your Boss Potentially Access Far More of Your Data Than Before, without notification
According to Slack’s new guidelines, however, Compliance Exports will be replaced by “a self-service export tool” on April 20th. Previously, an employer had to request a data dump of all communications to get access to private channels and direct messages. This new tool should streamline things so they can archive all your shit-talk and time-wasting […]
