Posts Tagged google

Police Can Trick Phones To Connect To Fake Cell Sites, Google/Apple Working To Prevent It

From EFF:

Apple has also finally taken steps to protect users against cell site simulators after being called on to do so by EFF and the broader privacy and security community. Apple announced that in iOS 17, out September 18, iPhones will not connect to insecure 2G mobile towers if they are placed in Lockdown Mode. As the name implies, Lockdown Mode is a setting originally released in iOS 16 that locks down several features for people who are concerned about being attacked by mercenary spyware or other nation state level attacks. This will be a huge step towards protecting iOS users from fake base station attacks, which have been used as a vector to install spyware such as Pegasus

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The Case For Banning Surveillance Ads

From The Electronic Freedom Foundation:

The behavioral advertising industry claims that it can deliver more value to everyone through this surveillance: advertisers get to target exactly who they want to reach; publishers get paid top dollar for setting up exactly the right user with exactly the right ad, and the user wins because they are only ever shown highly relevant ads that are tailored to their interests.

And as to the claim that users “like ads, so long as they are relevant,” the evidence is very strong that this isn’t true and never was. Ad-blocking is the most successful consumer boycott in human history. When Apple gave iPhone users a one-click opt-out to block all surveillance ads, 96 percent of users clicked the button (presumably, the other four percent were confused, or they work for ad-tech companies).

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Data Scientist Warns of Election Meddling By Google

From Newsbusters:

Psychologist and researcher Dr. Robert Epstein, PhD exclusively explained the worrisome implications of the Axios-Google Trends project to MRC Free Speech America. “The more you know about people, the easier it is to manipulate them,” Dr. Epstein warned.

Dr. Epstein explained the implications of Google having this knowledge. “Among other things, this allows Google to keep a close eye on voters who are undecided and whose opinions can still be changed,” he said. “The detailed information they have about each and every one of us allows them to effectively shift opinions with biased search results, search suggestions, answer boxes, answers on personal assistants (Google Home and the Google Assistant on Android phones), YouTube videos, targeted messages, and more.” 

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The Coming Biden Fascism

From Glenn Greenwald:

That’s one point I think has been lost. Dems are about to take over the Exec Branch & Congress. Some of their most powerful & famous politicians used social media to demand the monopolies they’re about to regulate silence adversaries & remove from the internet an entire platform

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YouTube Censors Dilbert Creator Scott Adams

From The Federalist:

“Google (YouTube) just shut me down,” Adams wrote on Twitter featuring a screenshot of the message from YouTube. “The video they deleted is no different from all of my other content. I assume they’ll come for the other videos soon.”

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Gun Businesses Harassed By Tech Companies

From Fox:

“The issue of oligarchical control over the Internet and all the impact over the ability to use it for free speech is going to only get worse,” Kasarda told Fox News, alluding to the “big five” — YouTube, Google, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
“It is unclear what the rules are,” he added. “Specifically, with YouTube, they pretty much enforce whatever they feel based on their bias of the day. Regardless of your personal belief, firearms and their accessories are legal in the United States. So why are we seeing continuing restrictions and challenges towards content about something demonstrably legal yet not against that which is clearly illegal?”

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YouTube Continues Crackdown On Gun Channels

From Bearing Arms:

So, YouTube appears to have informally implemented a new, unspoken policy (i.e., I could not find this in the content guidelines) whereby it will demonetize videos which aren’t shot in a “controlled environment” such as a “shooting range.”

This raises a lot of questions, not the least of which is:
How does YouTube determine what usage is improper? Is there someone at YouTube with proper training on safe gun handling who will implement these policies?*
How will they know when someone is in a “controlled environment” or not, and who has the authority to reach that conclusion?
Is a shooting range, in fact, safer and more “controlled” than the creator’s private property such that this policy needs to be implemented, to begin with?
WHAT IS A MODIFIED WEAPON?
Who do you think you are?
What gives you right?

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Class Action Against Google

From The Truth About Guns:

To qualify, a person or company must have had its AdWords/AdSense account suspended or terminated by Google LLC between March 2014 and September 2017 based on the fact their websites advertised “any products that (i) were designed to injure an opponent in sport, self-defense or combat such as knives, crossbows and guns or (ii) which comprised any part or component necessary to the function of a gun (iii) or which were intended for attachment to a gun” in violation of Google’s “dangerous products or services policy.”

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Social Media Purge Has Begun

From Zero Hedge:

One day after what appeared to be a coordinated attack by media giants Facebook, Apple, Spotify and Google on Alex Jones, whose various social media accounts were banned or suspended in a matter of hours, the crackdown against alternative media figures continued as several Libertarian figures, including the Ron Paul Institute director, found their Twitter accounts suspended.

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Brownells’ YouTube Channel Restored

From Truth About Guns:

Early this morning, Brownells sent out a Tweet indicating that YouTube had restored their channel. YouTube has had gun owners very upset with them for months now. However, the national media attention drawn by banning Brownells probably caused YouTube and its parent company Google a little too much bad publicity.

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YouTube Shuts Down Brownells Channel

From Townhall:

YouTube suddenly terminated the channel for the firearms parts company Brownells, the company claimed on Saturday.

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Google Shopping Banning Terms With Gun

Note: I personally ran the same searches and didn’t have nearly as many of the searches return “no results” but I did get a few.

From The Federalist:

On Twitter early this morning, Ryan Fitz flagged something weird: Google Shopping returns no results for any search containing the word “gun.”

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Data Should Be Covered By Fourth Amendment Says Silicon Valley

From Ars Technica:

A group of prominent tech companies and lawyers has come together in new friend-of-the-court filings submitted to the Supreme Court on Tuesday. The group is arguing in favor of stronger legal protections for data generated by apps and digital devices in an important privacy case pending before the court.

The companies, which include Apple, Google, and Microsoft among many others, argue that the current state of the law, which distinguishes between “content” (which requires a warrant) and “non-content” (which does not) “make[s] little sense in the context of digital technologies.”

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Your Cell Phone Is Spying On You And It’s Great (or is it?)

From The CATO Institute:

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Your Apps Are Following You

From The Wall Street Journal:

Computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon University concluded that a dozen or so popular Android apps collected device location – GPS coordinates accurate to within 50 meters – an average 6,200 times, or roughly every three minutes, per participant over a two-week study period.

The researchers recruited 23 users of Android version 4.3 from Craigslist and the Carnegie Mellon student body. Participants were allowed to use their own choice of apps after installing software that noted app requests for a variety of personal information; not only location but also contacts, call logs, calendar entries, and camera output. They weren’t told the purpose of the study and were screened to weed out people who had a technical background or strong views about privacy.

 

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