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Fresh
off the scene from those two epic embarrassments, the UN now wants to
tell governments of the world how to censor the internet. I wish I was
kidding.
From the Washington Post:
On
Thursday, the organization’s Broadband Commission for Digital
Development released a damning “world-wide wake-up call” on what it
calls “cyber VAWG,” or violence against women and girls. The report
concludes that online harassment is “a problem of pandemic proportion” —
which, nbd, we’ve all heard before. But the
United Nations then goes on to propose radical, proactive policy changes
for both governments and social networks, effectively projecting a
whole new vision for how the Internet could work.
Under
U.S. law — the law that, not coincidentally, governs most of the
world’s largest online platforms — intermediaries such as Twitter and
Facebook generally can’t be held responsible for what people do on them.
But the United Nations proposes both that social networks
proactively police every profile and post, and that government agencies
only “license” those who agree to do so.
People are being harassed online, and the solution is to censor everything and license speech? Remarkable.
Defiant Apple, Facebook, other firms to inform public of govt surveillance requests
Published time: May 02, 2014 01:07 Edited time: May 02, 2014 06:42
The
same technology companies that the US intelligence community has relied
upon to disclose email records are now refusing to keep surveillance
requests secret and informing customers when they are the subject of
such requests.
In the nearly ten months since former US National
Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden revealed extensive
surveillance efforts on everyday Americans’ online activity, the
companies that were forced to facilitate that surveillance have come
under harsh public scrutiny.
The embarrassment ignited a series of
comments from executives at Google and Facebook, among others, calling
on the NSA and other agencies to either stop forcing them to provide the
communications that customers trust them with, or allow them to be more
transparent.
Now, according to a Thursday report in the Washington Post,
Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, and Google have updated their policies to
routinely notify customers when law enforcement has requested
information about them.
Yahoo enacted such a change in July, with the Post reporting Thursday that companies “have found that investigators often drop data demands to avoid having suspects learn of inquiries.”
Major
U.S. technology companies have largely ended the practice of quietly
complying with investigators’ demands for e-mail records and other
online data, saying that users have a right to know in advance when
their information is targeted for government seizure.This
increasingly defiant industry stand is giving some of the tens of
thousands of Americans whose Internet data gets swept into criminal
investigations each year the opportunity to fight in court to prevent
disclosures. Prosecutors, however, warn that tech companies may
undermine cases by tipping off criminals, giving them time to destroy
vital electronic evidence before it can be gathered.
Graphic
How the NSA is infiltrating private networks
Fueling the shift is the industry’s eagerness to distance itself from the government after last year’s disclosures about National Security Agency surveillance
of online services. Apple, Microsoft, Facebook and Google all are
updating their policies to expand routine notification of users about
government data seizures, unless specifically gagged by a judge or other
legal authority, officials at all four companies said. Yahoo announced
similar changes in July.As this position becomes uniform across the
industry, U.S. tech companies will ignore the instructions stamped on
the fronts of subpoenas urging them not to alert subjects about data
requests, industry lawyers say. Companies that already routinely notify
users have found that investigators often drop data demands to avoid
having suspects learn of inquiries.
“It serves to chill the
unbridled, cost-free collection of data,” said Albert Gidari Jr., a
partner at Perkins Coie who represents several technology companies.
“And I think that’s a good thing.”
The Justice Department
disagrees, saying in a statement that new industry policies threaten
investigations and put potential crime victims in greater peril.
“These
risks of endangering life, risking destruction of evidence, or allowing
suspects to flee or intimidate witnesses are not merely hypothetical,
but unfortunately routine,” department spokesman Peter Carr said, citing
a case in which early disclosure put at risk a cooperative witness in a
case. He declined to offer details because the case was under seal.
The
changing tech company policies do not affect data requests approved by
the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which are automatically
kept secret by law. National security letters, which are administrative
subpoenas issued by the FBI for national security investigations, also
carry binding gag orders.
The government traditionally has
notified people directly affected by searches and seizures — though
often not immediately — when investigators entered a home or tapped a
phone line. But that practice has not survived the transition into the
digital world. Cellular carriers such as AT&T and Verizon typically
do not tell customers when investigators collect their call data.
Many
tech companies once followed a similar model of quietly cooperating
with law enforcement. Courts, meanwhile, ruled that it was sufficient
for the government to notify the providers of Internet services of data
requests, rather than the affected customers.
Twitter, founded in
2006, became perhaps the first major tech company to routinely notify
users when investigators collected data, yet few others followed at
first. When the Electronic Frontier Foundation began issuing its
influential “Who Has Your Back?”
report in 2011 — rating companies on their privacy and transparency
policies — Twitter was the only company to get a star under the category
“Tell users about data demands.” Google, the next mostly highly rated,
got half a star from the civil liberties group.
On
April 24, a 19-year-old man from Brasil posted a desperate ad on
Craigslist pleading for someone to adopt his dog from an animal control
facility in northern California - the ad read:
FREE DOBERMAN (san mateo) CA
PLEASE HELP MY DOG
my Doberman/pitbull has been captured by the aspca when she got away
one night when I was on a trip unfortunetly they capture my 9 yr old
boxer too (I love her to death)
I could only pay the fee for my boxer to get out witch is $90 (im paying for)
but my biggest concern is that since they have been there for a while
tthey want to charge me $150 just for my Doberman and if we don't
nothing about it my 4-24-14 by 4:00 they will put her to sleep
I
can't afford to take both of them out so im posting this asking anyone
out there if you want the Doberman for the impound fee of $150
but the final day would be at 4-24-14 at 4pm any later than that they will put her to sleep
the Doberman is less than a year old she doesn't like cats but she is very sweet to kids, and other dogs please reply as soon as possible
Rescuers
in the area saw the ad and they took it upon themselves to make sure
that the dogs were not killed - several women went to Facebook with a
plea for funds and within hours, enough money had been raised to spring
the dogs from the animal control facility.
Published: 17:33 EST, 9 April 2014 | Updated: 17:57 EST, 9 April 2014
Internet
users have been warned to change all their computer and phone passwords
following what could be a ‘catastrophic’ security breach.
Major technology firms have urged the public to immediately update their online security.
The
alert is the result of the discovery of an internet bug called
‘Heartbleed’, which is able to bypass computer security settings.
LastPass Heartbleed Checker warns if a website may be at risk. It also reveals websites that aren't affected
HOW TO BEAT THE BUG
If
a password is in any dictionary in any language then it will take just
three minutes to crack, warned computer expert Tony McDowell.
The
worst passwords are the likes of ‘password’, ‘123456’, ‘qwerty’, or
your child’s name. Using the same password for every site can leave you
even more vulnerable to hackers, he added. His
advice is to use a phrase rather than a word. For example, use
‘nameisabella’ rather than just ‘Isabella’ – and use a mixture of
letters and numbers.
A password of ‘name!saBe1la’ would take a year to crack, said Mr McDowell, managing director of Encription Ltd.
‘Most hackers give up after 24 hours unless it is something they really want to gain access to,’ he added.
Rather than grovel
and beg for the U.S. government to respect our privacy, these
innovators have taken matters into their own hands, and their work may
change the playing field completely.
People used to assume that the United States government was
held in check by the constitution, which prohibits unreasonable searches
and seizures and which demands due process in criminal investigations,
but such illusions have evaporated in recent years. It turns out that
the NSA considers itself above the law in every respect and feels
entitled to spy on anyone anywhere in the world without warrants, and
without any real oversight. Understandably these revelations shocked
the average citizen who had been conditioned to take the government's
word at face value, and the backlash has been considerable. The recent
"Today We Fight Back" campaign to protest the NSA's surveillance
practices shows that public sentiment is in the right place. Whether
these kinds of petitions and protests will have any real impact on how
the U.S. government operates is questionable (to say the least), however
some very smart people have decided not to wait around and find out.
Instead they're focusing on making the NSA's job impossible. In the
process they may fundamentally alter the way the internet operates.
1
Decentralized Social Media - Vole.cc
Anyone who was paying attention at all over the past several years
knows that many of the top social media websites Facebook and Google
have cooperated with the NSA's surveillance program under PRISM, handing
over the personal information that they've been hoarding over the
years. Many of us have grown to despise these companies but continue to
use their services due to the fact that no real competitors have
presented themselves. Yes there are a few sites oriented towards the
anti-government niche but nothing that has the potential of opening up
the kind of reach that's possible on Facebook or Google plus. The
underlying problem here is that the server technology to run a site even
a fraction of the size of Facebook is highly expensive, and to build
and maintain a code base that can handle millions of users requires a
full time team of highly skilled programmers. What this means is that
anyone who wants to launch a real competitor to these sites would have
needed to be well funded and have a sustainable business model. But what
if someone came up with a system that removed the need for massive
centralized servers? That's just what vole.cc is working to accomplish.
Vole.cc is a decentralized social media system in development based on
bittorrent and Ember.js which completely cuts the server out of the
equation and allows users to build social media networks without
exposing their personal information to "authorities" or data mining
companies.
2
Getsync Decentralized and Encrypted File Sharing - A Dropbox Alternative
With the revelations that data in Apple's iCloud was available to the
NSA as part of PRISM it has become clear that any centralized file
sharing service is vulnerable, and any information that you upload to
services like dropbox may end up being inspected by government agents.
The folks at Bittorrent didn't like that idea, so they decided to build a
viable alternative, one that doesn't depend on a centralized server at
all and encrypts your data to make it difficult if not impossible to
open without your permission. The service claims to already have amassed
over 2 million users. Interestingly the vole.cc social media project
uses Getsync to manage the social media data on your computer.
Don't
like the fact that the NSA has been rummaging through your skype chats,
emails and other instant messaging services? Well if you were a bit
tech savvy you might have opted to set up your own mumble server or IRC
channel, but this route will likely never be approachable for the
average citizen and the reliance on a centralized server brings security
vulnerabilities. However work is currently underway on a protocol that
will completely remove the need for a centralized server and cut the NSA
out of the loop entirely.
Christina Sterbenz Jan. 29, 2014, 3:50 PM
Amid all the snow-related nonsense going down in Atlanta, people are showing immense compassion on a local Facebook group, SnowedOutAtlanta.
People are using the group, created by Georgia resident Michelle
Sollicito, to post their locations, asking for help for themselves or
their loved ones. The most tragic stories involve diabetics, the
elderly, and families with young children, especially infants. Some
people can't even get in touch with their families.
Aside from calls for help, offers of assistance are also being
publicized. People with large vehicles are selflessly posting their
contact information to retrieve those stranded or bring supplies.
Members are also opening up their homes for shelter.
The posts are getting shares, tons of likes, and comments offering
prayers and hope. The group — at 41,000 members and counting — is
getting almost too big to help.
Here are just a few of the amazing posts: 1. Eric Morissey: "Hey people on Interstate 20 westbound at
McDaniel Street Exit 55 -- it's lunch time! I am packing up now with 16
lunches, and ~3 gallons of water, and some cups and plates too. Who's
hungry? Send me the deets!"
2. Katrina R: "On our way with crackers, bananas, water and
snack cakes. If you're on 285 near 5 or 7, let us know. We're coming to
you and it's free."
4. "The hot chocolate guys have been identified! Dozens of
you sent us photos of these guys serving hot cocoa to stranded motorists
on I-75. We now know the men behind the kindness are Zach Haedt and Sam
Tarquina. LIKE this! It's a great way to say thanks to all the people
doing nice things in the #GeorgiaSnow," 11alive News wrote.
5. "GOOD SAMARITAN: Matthew Miller is on I-75 near Turner
Field handing out food to stranded motorists. He packed PB&Js,
cereal and hot cocoa for anyone who needs it."“I saw on Facebook people had been out here for 18 hours…so I just thought I’d try to help out any way I could,” Miller told WSB-TV.
7. Jeanne Harn: "We just walked 2 miles to I75, to pass out
snacks & things in Kennesaw.. I75 south is still backed up. There
were college students walking the interstate as well, handing out fruit
& things. So happy to see everyone helping. We just walked 2 miles
back home, will warm up, & then head out the 2 miles to I575, to
help those folks.. This is my son Darwin, my daughter Faith, and husband
Randall..."
The
reputation of Snapchat as an "ephemeral" photo messaging service took
another blow Monday, when the app let it be known that it can — and will
— share your snaps and (newly introduced) "stories" with the cops.
There are two conditions, though: The snaps can't have been opened by
the recipient yet, and law enforcement needs to have a warrant. And
while 350 million snaps are now sent every day, Snapchat has turned over
unopened snaps to law enforcement "about a dozen times," since May
2013, according to a company blog post.
Civilians can use several
methods (as well as a new app called Snaphack) to save snaps, which are
designed to disappear 30 seconds after opening, both from the
recipient's mobile device and from Snapchat's own servers. The app
company says as much in its privacy policy. "We cannot guarantee that
deletion always occurs within a particular time frame. We also cannot
prevent others from making copies of your Snaps (e.g., by taking a
screenshot)."
