Anything goes when you're virtue signaling.

The Washington Post's Halloween Costume Hit Job Is a New Low for Cancel Culture

There was absolutely no reason to run this.

ROBBY SOAVE | 6.18.2020 12:30 PM

Federal police raid home of Australian journalist who revealed government's proposal to spy on the public

JENNI RYALL

JUN 4, 2019

The home of an Australian political journalist has been raided by Australian Federal Police on Tuesday morning. 

The raid follows a story published by News Corp Australia publication, the Daily Telegraph, and written by national political editor, Annika Smethurst, in April 2018. The article, titled “Spying shock: Shades of Big Brother as cyber-security vision comes to light”, detailed a discussion between two government agencies that were reportedly discussing the potential for new surveillance powers for Australia’s electronic spy agency, the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD).

The Daily Telegraph article included photographs of top secret internal documents that detailed a proposal to allow the ASD to target Australians — if approved by the Defence and Home Affairs ministers. 

An anonymous source told the publication the proposal would allow spies to access the digital records of Australians, such as financial transactions, health data and phone records, without a warrant. 

The proposal also detailed a plan to grant authorities the ability to forcibly coerce government agencies and private businesses to comply with an order to provide information on Australian citizens, the Telegraph reported. 

It would also allow for the ASD’s hackers to “proactively disrupt and covertly remove” cyber threats within Australia by “hacking into critical infrastructure”, it said. The organisation is currently focused on international threats. 

Under Australian law, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) can spy on Australians but they must have obtained a warrant issued by the Attorney-General. The warrant allows ASIO to enter and search premises, intercept and inspect mail, use surveillance devices, monitor communications and remotely access computers. It is expected to use other methods before using these powers. 

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) confirmed via a statement that it had executed a search warrant on the home in Canberra in connection “to an investigation into the alleged unauthorised disclosure of national security information.”

According to the statement, the AFP will allege the release of the documents in a national security breach. The AFP stated that “no arrests are expected today as a result of this activity”.

According to the Daily Telegraph, Smethurst was leaving for work this morning when police officers turned up at her home. They had a warrant from a magistrate that allowed them to search her home, computer and mobile phone.

“The Australian public’s right to know information about government laws that could impact their lives is of fundamental importance in our society,” News Corp Australia said in a statement.

“This raid demonstrates a dangerous act of intimidation towards those committed to telling uncomfortable truths. The raid was outrageous and heavy handed.

“News Corp Australia has expressed the most serious concerns about the willingness of governments to undermine the Australian public’s right to know about important decisions governments are making that can and will impact ordinary Australian citizens.

“What’s gone on this morning sends clear and dangerous signals to journalists and newsrooms across Australia. This will chill public interest reporting.”

NGO Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) told Business Insider Australia via email that the police raid was “authoritarian intimidation” and that we are all entitled to live in a free society without fear of bullying by police.

“We need to have a debate about Australians’ rights to privacy and security, and it needs to be held out in the open with the participation of civil society,” a spokesperson for EFA said. 

“Exposing the government’s secret plans for yet more surveillance of our everyday lives is clearly in the public interest. This heavy-handed reaction from the government, and so soon after being returned to government after an expected loss, indicates that this is about consolidating power, not keeping us safe. That should scare anyone who wants Australia to be a free society.”

Snapchat Employees Abused Data Access to Spy on Users

Multiple sources and emails also describe SnapLion, an internal tool used by various departments to access Snapchat user data.

Several departments inside social media giant Snap have dedicated tools for accessing user data, and multiple employees have abused their privileged access to spy on Snapchat users, Motherboard has learned.

Two former employees said multiple Snap employees abused their access to Snapchat user data several years ago. Those sources, as well as an additional two former employees, a current employee, and a cache of internal company emails obtained by Motherboard, described internal tools that allowed Snap employees at the time to access user data, including in some cases location information, their own saved Snaps and personal information such as phone numbers and email addresses. Snaps are photos or videos that, if not saved, typically disappear after being received (or after 24 hours if posted to a user's Story).

continue

Privacy? You don't need no stinking' privacy. Many Republicans are Constitutional illiterates

You may soon have to give your DNA to the state and pay $250 for the privilege

Bree Burkitt, Arizona RepublicPublished 5:00 a.m. MT Feb. 19, 2019 | Updated 6:28 p.m. MT Feb. 19, 2019

Corrections & Clarifications: An earlier version of this story incorrectly listed Sen. David Livingston's title.

Arizona could soon be one of the first states to maintain a massive statewide DNA database. 

And if the proposed legislation passes, many people — from parent school volunteers and teachers to real estate agents and foster parents — will have no choice but to give up their DNA. 

Under Senate Bill 1475, which Sen. David Livingston, R-Peoria, introduced, DNA must be collected from anyone who has to be fingerprinted by the state for a job, to volunteer in certain positions or for a myriad of other reasons.

The bill would even authorize the medical examiner's office in each county to take DNA from any bodies that come into their possession. 

The Department of Public Safety would maintain the collected DNA alongside the person's name, Social Security number, date of birth and last known address. 

Any DNA in the database could be accessed and used by law enforcement in a criminal investigation. It could also be shared with other government agencies across the country for licensing, death registration, to identify a missing person or to determine someone's real name.

It could also be provided to someone conducting "legitimate research." 

A $250 fee could be collected from a person who submits biological samples, according to the bill. It's not clear who would foot the cost for the dead. 

No other state does this

No other state has anything this expansive in place, according to David Kaye, an associate dean for research at Penn State University who studies genetics and its application in law.

Kaye said the proposed bill is one step away from requiring DNA from anyone who wants a driver's license. 

Currently in Arizona, DNA is collected from anyone convicted of a felony or of a misdemeanor sex crime. If passed, the bill would expand the current database exponentially. 

The proposed database appears to be focused on making it easier for law enforcement to use DNA in investigations, but Kaye said it's not targeting the right people to make a significant impact when it comes to solving cases.

Collecting DNA from the dead could solve some longstanding cold cases, while having DNA from law enforcement volunteers on file might weed out accidental crime scene contamination. 

"It doesn’t seem like solving crimes is a big priority here," Kaye said. "It’s not focusing on the people most likely to be linked to crimes, it’s just spreading the net more broadly."

There are questions about whether certain requirements of the database are even legal in the first place, Kaye said.

A federal law known as the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act bars employers from using DNA testing as a condition of employment. 

Connections to Hacienda case

The bill comes weeks after Phoenix police used DNA to tie nurse Nathan Sutherland to the alleged rape and impregnation of a patient at Hacienda HealthCare. Police collected DNA from male employees after the woman unexpectedly gave birth in December. 

Nursing-care facility employees — like Sutherland — would have to submit their DNA under the proposed legislation. This could have expedited the Hacienda investigation and would assist with any similar cases in the future. 

It's not clear whether the proposed legislation was crafted in response to this crime.

Livingston has not publicly explained the motivation behind the bill. He didn't respond to multiple calls from The Arizona Republic. 

Opposition to the bill

Liz Recchia, director of government affairs for the West Maricopa Association of Realtors, said the organization is against the bill. She urged readers in an industry blog to "brace themselves" before looking at the bill.

"It isn’t very often a bill at the state Legislature affects so many Arizonan’s civil rights in such an onerous manner," Recchia wrote. 

Dozens of individuals and organizations have registered in opposition to the bill, including the Arizona Police Association, the Arizona Mortgage Lenders Association, the Arizona Association of Realtors and the American Council of Engineering Companies of Arizona.

A DPS spokesman said the department doesn't comment on pending legislation.

SB 1475 is scheduled for a public hearing Wednesday before the Senate Transportation and Public Safety Committee, which Livingston chairs. 

Have a question or concern about public safety in Arizona? Contact public safety reporter Bree Burkitt at bburkitt@republicmedia.com or at 602-444-8515. Follow her on Twitter at @breeburkitt.

Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today.

The fight for privacy

Apple CEO Tim Cook says the FTC should let people track and delete their data 'on demand'

• Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said the U.S. Federal Trade Commission should form what he called a "data-broker clearinghouse."
• He says he and others are calling on U.S. Congress to pass "comprehensive federal privacy legislation."
• Cook has been increasingly calling for new U.S. regulations to help boost user privacy and data protection.

Ryan Browne| @Ryan_Browne_

Published 2 Hours Ago  Updated 2 Hours Ago

Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) should implement a new framework that increases transparency around companies that handle user data and lets people track and delete information on them "on demand."

Cook, in a Time magazine op-ed published Wednesday, said the FTC should form what he called a "data-broker clearinghouse," evoking the image of a financial clearing house used for the exchange of payments, securities and other transactions in markets.

In the article, Cook says he and others are calling on U.S. Congress to pass "comprehensive federal privacy legislation" that lets consumers minimize the data held on them by firms and gives them the ability to know what personal information is being collected and to delete it.

"We believe the Federal Trade Commission should establish a data-broker clearinghouse, requiring all data brokers to register, enabling consumers to track the transactions that have bundled and sold their data from place to place, and giving users the power to delete their data on demand, freely, easily and online, once and for all," Cook said in the article.

He added: "Technology has the potential to keep changing the world for the better, but it will never achieve that potential without the full faith and confidence of the people who use it."

The move follows the Apple boss' speech in Brussels last year, where he dubbed the business of collecting and selling user data as a "data industrial complex" and said personal information is being "weaponized against us with military efficiency."

Cook has been increasingly calling for new U.S. regulations to help boost user privacy and data protection. Scrutiny around privacy in the tech sector has increased amid anger over the handling of user data by social media giants like Facebook and Alphabet's Google.

Facebook last year was engulfed in a scandal around the way it let consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica gain access to the information of 87 million users. The firm has come under the lens of regulators — including the U.K.'s Information Commissioner's Office, which fined it £500,000 ($645,000) last year — over its approach to data protection.

Google, meanwhile, has been the subject of a European legal battle over the "right to be forgotten" — part of an EU law that requires search engines to delete person information about users if it's deemed irrelevant or excessive. The company was recently handed a victory in that battle, after an adviser to the EU's top court said it doesn't need to guarantee that right to users outside of the bloc.

Illustration: Soohee Cho/The Intercept

GOOGLE SUPPRESSES MEMO REVEALING PLANS TO CLOSELY TRACK SEARCH USERS IN CHINA

Ryan Gallagher, Lee Fang

September 21 2018, 10:18 a.m.

GOOGLE BOSSES HAVE forced employees to delete a confidential memo circulating inside the company that revealed explosive details about a plan to launch a censored search engine in China, The Intercept has learned.

The memo, authored by a Google engineer who was asked to work on the project, disclosed that the search system, codenamed Dragonfly, would require users to log in to perform searches, track their location — and share the resulting history with a Chinese partner who would have “unilateral access” to the data.

The memo was shared earlier this month among a group of Google employees who have been organizing internal protests over the censored search system, which has been designed to remove content that China’s authoritarian Communist Party regime views as sensitive, such as information about democracy, human rights, and peaceful protest.

According to three sources familiar with the incident, Google leadership discovered the memo and were furious that secret details about the China censorship were being passed between employees who were not supposed to have any knowledge about it. Subsequently, Google human resources personnel emailed employees who were believed to have accessed or saved copies of the memo and ordered them to immediately delete it from their computers. Emails demanding deletion of the memo contained “pixel trackers” that notified human resource managers when their messages had been read, recipients determined.

The Dragonfly memo reveals that a prototype of the censored search engine was being developed as an app for both Android and iOS devices, and would force users to sign in so they could use the service. The memo confirms, as The Intercept first reported last week, that users’ searches would be associated with their personal phone number. The memo adds that Chinese users’ movements would also be stored, along with the IP address of their device and links they clicked on. It accuses developers working on the project of creating “spying tools” for the Chinese government to monitor its citizens.

People’s search histories, location information, and other private data would be sent out of China to a database in Taiwan, the memo states. But the data would also be provided to employees of a Chinese company who would be granted “unilateral access” to the system.

To launch the censored search engine, Google set up a “joint venture” partnership with an unnamed Chinese company. The search engine will “blacklist sensitive queries” so that “no results will be shown” at all when people enter certain words or phrases, according to documents seen by The Intercept. Blacklisted search terms on a prototype of the search engine include “human rights,” “student protest,” and “Nobel Prize” in Mandarin, said sources familiar with the project.

According to the memo, aside from being able to access users’ search data, the Chinese partner company could add to the censorship blacklists: It would be able to “selectively edit search result pages … unilaterally, and with few controls seemingly in place.”

That a Chinese company would maintain a copy of users’ search data means that, by extension, the data would be accessible to Chinese authorities, who have broad powers to obtain information that is held or processed on the country’s mainland. A central concern human rights groups have expressed about Dragonfly is that it could place users at risk of Chinese government surveillance — and any person in China searching for blacklisted words or phrases could find themselves interrogated or detained. Chinese authorities are well-known for routinely targeting critics, activists, and journalists.

“It’s alarming to hear that such information will be stored and, potentially, easily shared with the Chinese authorities,” said Patrick Poon, a Hong Kong-based researcher with the human rights group Amnesty International. “It will completely put users’ privacy and safety at risk. Google needs to immediately explain if the app will involve such arrangements. It’s time to give the public full transparency of the project.”

ON AUGUST 16, two weeks after The Intercept revealed the Dragonfly plan, Google CEO Sundar Pichai told the company’s employees that the China plan was in its “early stages” and “exploratory.” However, employees working on the censored search engine were instructed in late July, days before the project was publicly exposed, that they should prepare to get it into a “launch-ready state” to roll out within weeks, pending approval from officials in Beijing.

“It will completely put users’ privacy and safety at risk.”

The memo raises new questions about Pichai’s claim that the project was not well-developed. Information stored on the company’s internal networks about Dragonfly “paints a very different picture,” it says. “The statement from our high-level leadership that Dragonfly is just an experiment seems wrong.”

The memo identifies at least 215 employees who appear to have been tasked with working full-time on Dragonfly, a number it says is “larger than many Google projects.” It says that source code associated with the project dates back to May 2017, and “many infrastructure parts predate” that. Moreover, screenshots of the app “show a project in a pretty advanced state,” the memo declares.

Most of the details about the project “have been secret from the start,” the memo says, adding that “after the existence of Dragonfly leaked, engineers working on the project were also quick to hide all of their code.”

The author of the memo said in the document that they were opposed to the China censorship. However, they added, “more than the project itself, I hate the culture of secrecy that has been built around it.”

The memo was first posted September 5 on an internal messaging list set up for Google employees to raise ethical concerns. But the memo was soon scrubbed from the list and individuals who had opened or saved the document were contacted by Google’s human resources department to discuss the matter. The employees were instructed not to share the memo.

Google reportedly maintains an aggressive security and investigation team known as “stopleaks,” which is dedicated to preventing unauthorized disclosures. The team is also said to monitor internal discussions.

“More than the project itself, I hate the culture of secrecy that has been built around it.”

Internal security efforts at Google have ramped up this year as employees have raised ethical concerns around a range of new company projects. Following the revelation by Gizmodo and The Intercept that Google had quietly begun work on a contract with the military last year, known as Project Maven, to develop automated image recognition systems for drone warfare, the communications team moved swiftly to monitor employee activity.

The “stopleaks” team, which coordinates with the internal Google communications department, even began monitoring an internal image board used to post messages based on internet memes, according to one former Google employee, for signs of employee sentiment around the Project Maven contract.

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Google’s internal security team consists of a number of former military and law enforcement officials. For example, LinkedIn lists as Google’s head of global investigations Joseph Vincent, whose resume includes work as a high-ranking agent at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency’s Homeland Security Investigations unit. The head of security at Google is Chris Rackow, who has described himself as a former member of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s hostage rescue team and as a former U.S. Navy SEAL.

For some Google employees, the culture of secrecy at the company clashes directly with its public image around fostering transparency, creating an intolerable work environment.

“Leadership misled engineers working on [Dragonfly] about the nature of their work, depriving them of moral agency,” said a Google employee who read the memo.

Google did not respond to a request for comment on this story.

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Germany considers to fight pollution with free public transportation

By Rick Noack February 14 at 6:37 AM Email the author

Passengers crowd the doors of a subway train on Nov. 6, 2014, in Berlin. (Carsten Koall/Getty Images)

BERLIN — When the discussion turns to the rising costs of living in many global cities, one factor rarely goes unmentioned: public transportation fees. New Yorkers spend only about $116.50 per month on average, compared with as much as  $200 in London.

Some Germans, however, might soon have to spend a whooping $0.

The country of parental leave, short workweeks and lederhosen may soon embark on a bold new experiment: making public transport free in some cities. The plans are included in a letter the German government sent to European Union officials and was obtained by a number of news agencies and media outlets. Even though the letter lists specific cities and indicates that the experiment may eventually be expanded nationally, government representatives played down the initiative on Wednesday, saying that it would be up to city officials to decide.

So far, experiments with free public transport have usually been short-lived. When Paris was plagued by thick smog in 2014, authorities responded with an unprecedented idea — banning half of all cars and making public transport free. But the measures only lasted one week. Limited experiments with free public transport were eventually also stopped in Portland and Seattle.

Germany’s latest, and more radical, plans are similarly supposed to solve the lingering problem of air pollution in German cities, which recently prompted the threat of major E.U. fines.

More than 130 cities in Europe are currently affected by “life-threatening” air pollution, according to the European Commission. They are believed to be responsible for about 400,000 deaths each year in the European Union. And even though Germany is far from being Europe’s most polluted nation, the topic is taken more seriously here than in most other places that have repeatedly breached E.U. limits on nitrogen dioxide and fine particles.

(Source: International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis/Modified by Gene Thorp for The Washington Post)

In Germany, the topic also gained renewed attention after the Volkswagen emissions cheating scandal became public in 2015, implicating the car manufacturer in having engaged in a deliberate effort to make its products appear more environmentally friendly than they were. In the German capital of Berlin, where standard monthly public transport tickets now carry the name “eco-ticket,” those revelations have triggered an unprecedented willingness to confront the country’s powerful car lobby.

“We are considering public transport free of charge in order to reduce the number of private cars,” three German government ministers wrote in their recent letter to the E.U., according to AFP. “Effectively fighting air pollution without any further unnecessary delays is of the highest priority for Germany.”

Those plans would be costly, as many German transport companies currently finance about 50 percent or more of their earnings through ticket sales. Instead, under the new scheme, the government would be expected to jump in to shoulder the burden, which would ultimately make public transport an almost fully tax-funded system. The free public transport plans would be complemented by other measures, such as car-sharing schemes or expanded low-emissions zones within cities.

In Germany — a nation where cars drive on autobahns without a speed limit — the move might persuade many vehicle owners to take the subway instead, the government hopes. But it could also overburden public transport networks in major cities such as Berlin, Hamburg or Munich that are already bustling during rush hours. The plans, some fear, would result in an exponential rise in associated costs because of costly network expansions.

And would money alone be sufficient to get Germany’s public transport ready for the possible influx? Berlin’s new airport, for example, was supposed to open six years ago.

It’s now set to welcome air travelers by 2020.

The never-ending saga of the airport continues to highlight the country’s struggle with large-scale infrastructure projects — or perhaps this is all part of an ingenious plot to force Germans to book environmentally friendly trains instead of polluting planes.

Oklahoma lawmaker(R) sues private investigator in spying case...

Oklahoma lawmaker sues private investigator in spying case

KEN MILLER

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Associated Press•January 20, 2018

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This December 2017 photo provided by Mark McBride shows what Oklahoma state Rep. Mark McBride, R-Moore, says is a tracking device that he removed from his truck in Oklahoma. McBride wants to know who put the contraption there and is one of at least five Oklahoma state lawmakers who in recent months asked a prosecutor to investigate claims they have been followed or threatened. (Mark McBride via AP)

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An Oklahoma lawmaker who found a tracking device attached to his pickup truck last month is suing a private investigation company and an investigator who works for the company over the device.

Discovery of the tracking device has shocked Oklahoma politicians, who are wondering who was spying.

Rep. Mark McBride, a Republican from the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore, is suing Eastridge Investigations and Asset Protection and Eastridge investigator H.L. Christensen for unspecified damages of more than $10,000, according to an attorney for Eastridge.

The lawsuit, first reported by The Oklahoman, is an amended version of a lawsuit McBride filed in December naming "John Doe" and alleging trespassing, invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligence.

On Jan.3, a judge approved a request to issue a subpoena to the company that manufactured or serviced the device in an effort to determine who purchased it.

"My attorney filed the lawsuit and from that lawsuit, we identified (the company and investigator)," as a result of the subpoena, McBride told The Associated Press on Saturday.

He declined to elaborate.

Danny Shadid, an attorney for both Eastridge Investigations and Christensen confirmed the lawsuit, but declined on Saturday to discuss the allegations.

"I just don't like to comment on matters pending before the court," Shadid told the AP.

A telephone message left at Eastridge Investigations was not immediately returned.

The Oklahoman reports the company is operated by former Oklahoma City police homicide detective Kyle Easterling and his wife.

Kyle Easterling retired from the police force in 2010 to work for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation's cold case unit, only to leave OSBI after six months, complaining to reporters of "incompetence, laziness and fraud" and internal strife within the agency.

He continues as a private investigator to investigate suspicious deaths.

McBride reported finding the tracking device underneath his truck on Dec. 4 and has said he suspects wind industry officials are tracking him because of his efforts to raise taxes on wind farm operators.

Oklahoma Wind Coalition Executive Mark Yates has denied that wind industry representatives are spying on McBride.

McBride, who has been a strong supporter of the oil and gas industry and a vocal critic of subsidies Oklahoma pays to wind companies, also declined comment on whether he still believes wind industry representatives or other parties were behind efforts to monitor his movements.

"I just hope we get to the bottom of this," he said.

Both the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation and Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater are investigating the case.

"This is outrageous behavior and very reckless and foolish, and it could lead to somebody getting hurt," Prater said Wednesday, adding that the tactics could lead to felony stalking charges. "They (Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation) are investigating it, and I'm going to be very aggressive in the prosecution of these matters if in fact they have the evidence to prove the case."

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Associated Press reporter Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.

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