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The Supreme Court Is Building Its Own Surveillance State + More
The Supreme Court Is Building Its Own Surveillance State
Following the leak of a draft opinion striking down abortion rights, the Supreme Court’s police force (the Marshal’s Office) launched an unprecedented probe to uncover who leaked the decision. Already, authorities have demanded phone records, signed affidavits, and law clerks’ devices.
The scrutiny is so intense that many onlookers have suggested that clerks retain attorneys to protect their rights. While it’s unclear how broad the cellphone searches are, or the exact language of clerks’ affidavits, the intrusive probe reveals a disturbing about-face from the Supreme Court, and particularly Chief Justice John Roberts, on surveillance powers.
The searches are invasive — but apparently lawful. Clerks have been asked to turn over devices, but the phones haven’t been seized. And the affidavits are reportedly voluntary. But the reality is that clerks’ consent is coerced, prompted by the fear that they’ll be wrongly suspected of leaking the draft if they invoke their rights.
Judge Invalidates St. Paul Employee Vaccine Mandate
A judge has invalidated a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for St. Paul’s unionized city employees.
The Pioneer Press reported that Ramsey County Judge Leonardo Castro ruled Thursday that the city improperly imposed the mandate without negotiating with the employee unions.
The judge called the mandate an unfair labor practice. Castro wrote that city officials did what they thought was right in the face of the pandemic but the mandate is intrusive and requires employees to “forfeit their bodily autonomy in the name of maintaining their livelihood.”
Graduation Season a Time for Student Freedom, Not Censorship
When our Nation’s Founding Fathers wrote the Establishment Clause into the Bill of Rights, they envisioned it as a protective device — a means of safeguarding citizens from a federally-mandated religion. In just over two hundred years, it has instead become a weapon often wielded by government bureaucrats to stamp out any vestige of religion from our public life. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito even warned that religious liberty is “fast becoming a disfavored right.”
Among the most likely to brandish the Establishment Clause are school districts. Instead of cultivating conversations and curiosity, district officials are quick to quash any conversation that dare mention the Divine.
This time of year is particularly ripe for censorship. Instead of embracing the private speech of their brightest students, districts claim that the “separation of church and state” requires the government to rid graduation ceremonies of religious expression. Because the Constitution requires the opposite, First Liberty Institute often represents valedictorians who face censorship by school officials.
Alameda County Reinstates Mask Mandate Amid California Surge
Northern California’s Alameda County said Thursday it will reinstate an indoor mask policy as COVID-19 hospitalizations steadily increase in the nation’s most populous state.
The county with 1.7 million residents just across the bay from San Francisco will require face coverings in most indoor settings starting Friday at midnight.
While some school districts and universities have reinstated mask rules, Alameda is the first county to do so.
Supreme Court Temporarily Blocks Texas’s Social Media Moderation Law
The Supreme Court of the United States temporarily blocked a sweeping Texas law on Tuesday that restricts the ability of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to moderate content on their platforms. By a 5-4 vote, the justices granted an emergency request from the tech industry to block a lower court order that would have allowed the law to take hold, pending legal challenges.
The Supreme Court order is a loss for Texas. The state argued that its law, HB 20, which prohibits large social media firms from blocking, banning or demoting posts or accounts, does not violate the First Amendment.
The majority did not explain its thinking and Liberal Justice Elena Kagan did not lay out her own reasoning for her vote to allow the law to remain in place.
Google Settles Lawsuit With Illinois Residents for $100M. Here’s How to Get Your Money
Rockford Register Star reported:
Illinois residents are eligible to receive part of a $100 million class-action settlement involving another tech giant.
As with the class-action complaint against Snapchat, Google was accused of violating the Biometric Information Privacy Act regarding its use of a face regrouping tool in the Google Photos app.
Google used the tool to sort faces it spots in photographs by similarity. However, according to the suit, the company did not receive consent from millions of users before using the technology.
What each claimant will be paid isn’t known although a similar settlement involving Facebook saw 1.6 million users receive between $200 and $400. Payment amounts will depend on the number and validity of claims.
Internal Documents Show Amazon’s Dystopian System for Tracking Workers Every Minute of Their Shifts
Infamously, Amazon punishes and sometimes fires warehouse workers who it believes are wasting time at work. A new filing obtained by Motherboard gives detailed insight into how Amazon tracks and records every minute of “time off task” (which it calls TOT) with radio-frequency handheld scanners that warehouse associates use to track customer packages.
Examples and sample spreadsheets provided in the documents show Amazon tracking, down to the minute, the amount of time individual workers spent in the bathroom and infractions such as “talking to another Amazon associate,” going to the wrong floor of a warehouse, and, as an example, an unaccounted for 11-minute period where a worker “does not remember” what they were doing.
The documents provide new clarity about a much-talked-about but until now opaque process that is used to surveil, discipline, and sometimes terminate Amazon warehouse workers around the United States.
Musk’s Twitter Deal Faces Backlash From Advocacy Groups That Are Seeking to Block It
A dozen advocacy groups are launching a new campaign Friday aimed at blocking Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s $44 billion purchase of Twitter, warning he will degrade important safeguards on the platform if he’s allowed to take control.
The Stop the Deal campaign, shared exclusively with CNBC, includes plans to put pressure on government agencies to review the acquisition, persuade Tesla stockholders to take action against it ask advertisers to pull spending from the platform.
It highlights concerns that many progressives have shared about how Musk’s acquisition and plans for a more open platform could allow for more rampant hate and harassment on the platform.
Met Police Profiling Children ‘on a Large Scale,’ Documents Show
Metropolitan police documents say the force has been collecting “children’s personal data” from social media sites as part of a project to carry out “profiling on a large scale.”
The Met says the scheme, known as Project Alpha, helps fight serious violence, with the intelligence gathered identifying offenders and securing the removal of videos glorifying stabbings and shootings from platforms such as YouTube.
The unit, comprising more than 30 staff and launched in 2019 with Home Office funding, scours social media sites looking at drill music videos and other content.
A Met document, seen by the Guardian, says the project “will carry out profiling on a large scale,” with males aged 15 to 21 a focus of the project. After questioning, the force said both of these were a mistake.
FDA Warns DNA Sequencing Machines Could Be Hacked
U.S. regulators warned healthcare providers about a cybersecurity risk with some Illumina Inc. DNA-sequencing machines that could compromise patient data.
Several of Illumina’s next-generation machines have a software vulnerability that could allow an unauthorized user to take control of the system remotely and alter settings or data, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in a letter Thursday. While there have been no reports of this happening, it’s possible that a hacker could alter a patient’s clinical diagnosis or gain access to sensitive genetic information.
Illumina has a near monopoly on the genetic-sequencing market and its machines are used for both research and in medical practice. The company said it has developed a software patch for the vulnerability and is working on a permanent fix.
We’ll Have ‘Virtual’ Babies Within 50 Years + More
We’ll Have ‘Virtual’ Babies Within 50 Years, AI Expert Predicts
If you thought the Tamagotchi Generation was a 1990s phenomenon, think again.
In the not-so-distant future, those looking to expand their families may opt to do so with the help of artificial intelligence.
The average American child costs parents more than $230,000 by the time they reach the age of 17, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
A digital kid, on the other hand, could have all its needs met for less than $25 per month — that’s just about $5,100 by the time they reach high school graduation — according to the U.K.’s leading.
Advocacy Groups Urge Schumer To Call Vote on Antitrust Bill
A coalition of more than 20 advocacy groups are urging Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to call a vote on a bipartisan antitrust bill that aims to limit tech giants from preferencing their own products and services over rivals.
“This is an opportunity to pass legislation that will immediately result in a concrete increase in competition in an industry that touches the lives of every American, and we must not pass it up. We are pleased that you intend to bring [the American Innovation and Choice Online Act] to the floor, and urge you to act as quickly as is practical,” the groups wrote in a Thursday letter, according to a copy first provided to The Hill.
The letter is signed by groups including Demand Progress, Center for Digital Democracy, Athena and Public Citizen.
Jewel-Osco Stores Reinstate Mask Mandate for Employees Due to High COVID Transmission
As a new subvariant of omicron continues to spread across the country and COVID cases continue an uptick in Illinois, Jewel-Osco stores are asking employees to once again wear masks.
“Jewel-Osco continues to follow the guidelines set by the CDC and Illinois Department of Public Health,” a spokesperson from Jewel-Osco said in an email statement to NBC 5. “Due to current high COVID transmission rates in the counties where we have stores, the Distribution Center, and the corporate office we are requiring associates and vendors to wear a mask.”
As of Tuesday, 15 counties in Illinois are currently at “high community transmission.”
This Google-Less Android Smartphone Is Meant for Privacy
Ever wondered what it would be like to run an Android phone without Google being everywhere? That’s what Murena aims to accomplish. The $379 Murena One is the first device from the company, and it tries its best to be Google-less.
That’s right, someone decided to de-Google the Android operating system. Gael Duval decided to do something about the amount of data collection his smartphone did, saying “Like millions of others, I’VE BECOME A PRODUCT OF GOOGLE.”
That moment of realization became the privacy-focused /e/OS. Used on devices from Fairphone and Teracube, it’s de-Googled so no Google services touch your data.
Canadian Government Slams Tim Hortons for Using Its App To Spy on Customers
Tim Hortons used its mobile app to collect “vast amounts of location data” from users, including tracking when they visited competing coffee shops, says Canada’s privacy watchdog. Yesterday, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada released the results of a 2020 investigation into the coffee and donut chain, demanding it delete any remaining location data and limit future collection. Tim Hortons, the commission says, has agreed to implement the regulations.
The full report outlines a sweeping, invasive attempt to deduce Tim Hortons customers’ behavior in order to target advertising at them — although the company apparently never actually used the data for that purpose. It notes that in May 2019, Tim Hortons updated its mobile app to collect granular, frequent location updates from users’ phones. American geofencing platform Radar analyzed patterns in the data to infer where users lived, when they worked, and when they were traveling. Its near-constant collection clashed with statements that it only gathered location information when the app was open, and it only updated its disclosures when the Financial Post published an article exposing its detailed data collection — sparking the commission’s investigation.
Oregon Is Shutting Down Its Controversial Child Welfare AI in June
In 2018, Oregon’s Department of Human Services implemented its Safety at Screening Tool, an algorithm that generates a “risk score” for abuse hotline workers, recommending whether a social worker needs to further investigate the contents of a call. This AI was based on the lauded Allegheny Family Screening Tool, designed to predict the risk of a child ending up in foster care based on a number of socioeconomic factors.
But after the Allegheny tool was found to be flagging a disproportionate number of black children for “mandatory” neglect, and a subsequent AP investigative report into the issue, Oregon officials now plan to shutter their derivative AI by the end of June in favor of an entirely new, and specifically less automated, review system.
The department’s own analysis predicts that the decision will help reduce some of the existing racial disparities endemic to Oregon’s child welfare system. “We are committed to continuous quality improvement and equity,” Lacey Andresen, the agency’s deputy director, said in a May 19 email to staff obtained by the AP.
Google Is Planning to Low-Key Nix Its Location-Based Assistant Reminders, but Why Now?
“Okay Google… Set a reminder to remind me to remind you to stop your location reminder feature.”
“…Done.”
Thanks, Google. Well, if you go to the Google Assistant Help page, it now says that the ability to create reminders on the app “is going away soon.” Additionally, the ability to assign a reminder to someone else is also going the way of the dodo.
9to5Google first reported that the tech giant’s plans to ax location-based reminders on Google Assistant-enabled devices, such as user phones or Google Home. The soon-to-be nixed feature was first spotted by users on Reddit. Some commenters complained that the feature never truly fulfilled its promise. Others said they found the feature useful, even while using it on iOS devices.
Shanghai Reportedly Bans Media Use of the Term ‘Lockdown’ As Lockdown Ends
Authorities in Shanghai have reportedly ordered the media to refrain from using the term “lockdown” while reporting on the end of the city’s two-month lockdown.
This week the Chinese city of 25 million people reopened, allowing most to leave their homes, go to work, and use public transport after more than 60 days inside. On Thursday, according to leaked directives from the city, Chinese media were told to disseminate information about the changes to restrictions, but ordered not to use the phrase “ending the lockdown.”
“Unlike Wuhan, Shanghai never declared a lockdown, so there is no ‘ending the lockdown’,” said censorship directives issued to media on Tuesday, and leaked to the China Digital Times.
DOJ Asks Appeals Court to Allow Travel Mask Mandate + More
DOJ Asks Appeals Court to Allow Travel Mask Mandate
The Justice Department on Tuesday called on a federal appeals court to reinstate the national mask mandate for public transit and airplanes after a U.S. district judge found the requirements to be unlawful in April.
In a brief filed with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the Biden administration argued the January 2021 order from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) requiring travelers to wear masks on public transportation and in transit hubs to prevent the spread of COVID-19 “falls easily” within the agency’s statutory authority.
“Taking preventative measures is part of the CDC’s core mission. It is embodied in the name of the agency — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” Justice Department lawyers told the 11th Circuit in their filing. “It makes no sense to suggest that the agency would not incorporate preventative measures in the actions it undertakes.”
Air Force Members Denied Religious Exemptions to COVID Vaccine File Lawsuit to Stop Punishment, Terminations
A federal lawsuit has been filed on behalf of multiple Air Force service members seeking protections against punishment by the military after they were denied religious exemptions to the COVID-19 vaccine.
Fist Liberty Institute and law firm Schaerr Jaffe LLP filed the lawsuit against the Department of Defense and the Air Force on Friday afternoon on behalf of the service members, who represent about 2% of the Air Force members who have not been vaccinated against the coronavirus.
The filing alleges that the Department of Defense is violating the First Amendment rights of the service members by imposing a vaccine mandate that “substantially burdens” free exercise of religion, despite granting hundreds of administrative and medical exemptions. In addition, the lawsuit argues that the government does not have a compelling interest and has not provided service members other less restrictive manners in which to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Microsoft Wants to Prove You Exist With Verified ID System, If You’ll Let It
In the decade-spanning conflict between the need for online privacy and efforts to stop fake accounts from accessing sensitive info, the tech monolith that is Microsoft is putting its massive weight behind the creation of standardized online identities.
In its announcement Tuesday, Microsoft talked up its Entra management systems that includes Verified ID, promoting itself as a quick way of giving sensitive identification to entities that need to verify that you are who you say you are.
In its release, the company said that old means of restricting electronic access was “no longer sustainable” because of how digital estates have become “boundary-less.” What that really means is people abusing fake accounts to gain access to sensitive online networks have created a host of issues for private companies, governments and more. Microsoft itself has been targeted by hackers who managed to access company information on Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform. The LAPSUS$ group of hackers has previously called on tech company employees to give them sensitive info.
Feds’ Vaccine Mandate Enforcement Could Be Days Away, but Agencies Are Not Yet Prepping
Government Executive reported:
The Biden administration could soon be able to start suspending and firing the remaining federal employees who have yet to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, but agencies are not yet taking steps to prepare for that outcome.
A federal appeals court in April struck down a nationwide injunction that had paused the enforcement of President Biden’s mandate, but enforcement was stalled due to a standard buffer period after the judges’ ruling. The mandate was set to go into effect Tuesday, but a petition from those challenging the mandate for a rehearing from the entire U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has further delayed the Biden administration from taking action on employees out of compliance with the requirement. The Justice Department had asked the court to immediately allow it to resume enforcement, but the court has opted to let the secondary appeal play out.
The court last week asked Justice to respond to the plaintiffs request for an en banc hearing by Thursday, making a ruling likely on Friday at the earliest. The judges could opt to immediately put the mandate back into effect, but typically it would apply another seven-day buffer period. That would make the earliest date the requirement could take effect June 10.
Is 5G Making You Sick? Here’s What Experts Say
If you own a smartphone or similar device, you could be using 5G. Cellular networks worldwide are rolling out the fifth-generation mobile technology, providing high-speed wireless connections.
But it can be unnerving to think about what’s transmitted through the air that we can’t see — particularly if there’s concern 5G may affect your well-being. If you’re worried electromagnetic radiation is connected to cancer or other health problems, find out everything you need to know about how 5G works, according to experts and research.
What is 5G?
Developed in 2019, 5G is associated with the latest version of wireless communications being made available for broad public use, explains Christopher Collins, Ph.D., a professor of radiology at New York University.
When you use your phone to communicate with other devices, cellular data is sent through radio frequencies (RFs). Calls and other functions are connected through a series of base stations called “cells” that cover certain geographic regions, according to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
Moscow Police Break Up Opposition Communist Party Rally Against New ‘Mandatory’ COVID-19 Vaccination Rules for Some Workers
A dozen people were arrested as Moscow police clamped down on an unsanctioned rally in the Russian capital, on Saturday, against compulsory COVID-19 vaccination for certain workers. It was organized by the local Communist Party.
The march was staged near Pushkinskaya Square in central Moscow and — despite the blazing 34 degrees Celsius temperature — a crowd of around a thousand gathered, according to media reports.
Local Communist politician Valery Rashkin had earlier announced that he would hold a meeting at the site. He had pledged to respect COVID-19 related guidelines.
St. Vincent Workers Who Declined COVID Vaccine Sue Hospital for Religious Discrimination
Dozens of St. Vincent Health and Ascension Health workers in Indiana who were suspended without pay for not receiving the COVID-19 vaccine are asking a federal court to open a class action lawsuit.
The 64 workers claim the hospital network discriminated against them because they objected to the vaccine on religious grounds.
“Ascension Health established a coercive process calculated to force healthcare workers and staff to abandon their religious objections to the COVID-19 vaccination and receive the vaccination against their will,” the lawsuit claims. Ascension Health owns St. Vincent Health.
School Bars Unvaccinated Students From In-Person Graduation + More
Granada Hills Charter High Bars Unvaccinated Students From In-Person Graduation
Los Angeles Daily News reported:
Having attended Granada Hills Charter High School for four years, after months of remote learning due to COVID-19 school closures, Andrew Luna was finally looking forward to a more normal senior year to close out high school.
But last fall the school informed families that beginning in the second semester, students 12 and older, with few exceptions, would not be allowed on campus if they didn’t get vaccinated against the coronavirus. For Luna and other unvaccinated students, that meant transferring to the school’s online independent study program.
Now, in the final days of school, it means not being allowed at the culmination ceremony for eighth-graders, or for seniors like Luna the in-person June 2 graduation, Senior Awards Night and other year-end events.
Granada Hills Charter, in the San Fernando Valley, announced COVID-19 vaccine mandates for students and staff last fall after the Los Angeles Unified School District announced similar mandates. But the LAUSD school board has since delayed its student vaccine mandate twice — first from January to this coming fall semester, then again to no sooner than July 2023.
Surveillance Tech Didn’t Stop the Uvalde Massacre
On Tuesday, a horrific but familiar story unfolded: a disturbed 18-year-old had traveled to Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, where he used a legally purchased assault rifle to murder 21 people: 19 children and two teachers.
Before the dust had settled over the Texas border town, the conversation turned to the prevention of future shootings. Schools across Texas quickly promised increased security and new protective measures.
But how do you protect against something that often seems as pitiless and arbitrary as a bolt of lightning? For years, some have insisted that the best strategy is to adopt new security measures and invest in emergent surveillance technologies — the hope is that new products paired with hyper-vigilance will identify and stop the next shooter before he pulls the trigger.
According to the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District (UCISD)’s security page, the district employed a safety management system from security vendor Raptor Technologies, designed to monitor school visitors and screen for dangerous individuals. It also used a social media monitoring solution, Social Sentinel, that sifted through children’s online lives to scan for signs of violent or suicidal ideation.
Monkeypox 21-Day Quarantine Backlash Spreads Before Mandates Even Begin
Monkeypox: It’s the disease that has dominated headlines since the first cases emerged in the U.K. at the start of May. Now in 19 countries outside Africa, the outbreak has led to wild conspiracy theories and angry rhetoric stemming from the COVID pandemic and the mandates that were introduced to curb its spread.
Belgium and Germany have already announced 21-day quarantine guidelines to stem the spread of monkeypox. Belgium was the first country to do say, with health authorities introducing a compulsory 21-day quarantine for monkeypox patients on May 20. Germany’s rules were less strict, asking people who contract the virus to self-isolate for 21 days.
On Monday, President Joe Biden said it was unlikely that U.S. quarantines would be necessary. “I just don’t think it rises to the level of the kind of concern that existed with COVID-19, and the smallpox vaccine works for it,” The Washington Post quoted him as saying.
Three Air Force Cadets Refused the COVID Vaccine. They May Have to Pay Back $200,000 of Tuition.
Three Air Force cadets refused to get a COVID-19 vaccination and could be forced to pay back tuition money up to $200,000 or higher.
The Air Force Academy said that the cadets would be able to get their bachelor’s degrees (graduation was Wednesday), but that they would not be able to receive a commission because they had decided not to get vaccinated.
Academy spokesman Dean Miller said that the three “will not be commissioned into the United States Air Force as long as they remain unvaccinated.”
A fourth cadet had been holding out against getting the COVID-19 vaccine but ended up getting one.
Monkeypox Tracker Map Shows How Virus Cases Are Spreading Around the World
Monkeypox, a virus normally found in West Africa, is currently having an outbreak in countries where it’s rarely seen. This map, developed by Global.health, shows the virus’ progress across the world, and tracks both confirmed and suspected cases as they arrive in each country.
The team behind the map had been developing infrastructure for tracking and surveillance for outbreaks for many years, but during COVID-19, they formalized a lot of the efforts to collect data in the early course of major infectious disease emergence.
So far, monkeypox cases have been detected in 19 countries, with over 300 suspected or confirmed cases. The strain of the virus in the latest outbreak appears to be similar to one involved in a 2018 outbreak and scientists are trying to determine why it is spreading so successfully now.
“We built up this infrastructure to support not only response to COVID, but the idea is that it could be quickly deployed to respond to future outbreaks,” Professor John Brownstein, the Chief Innovation Officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and Global.health team member, told Newsweek.
Politics and Pandemic Fatigue Doom California’s COVID Vaccine Mandates
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported:
In January, progressive California Democrats vowed to adopt the toughest COVID vaccine requirements in the country. Their proposals would have required most Californians to get the shots to go to school or work — without allowing exemptions to get out of them.
Months later, the lawmakers pulled their bills before the first votes. One major vaccine proposal survives but faces an uphill battle. It would allow children ages 12 to 17 to get a COVID-19 vaccine without parental permission. At least 10 other states permit some minors to do this.
Other states have also largely failed to adopt COVID vaccine requirements this year. Washington, DC, was the only jurisdiction to pass legislation to add the COVID vaccine to the list of required immunizations for K-12 students once the shots have received full federal authorization for kids of those ages.
A public school mandate adopted by Louisiana in December 2021 was rescinded in May. The most popular vaccine legislation has been to ban COVID vaccine mandates of any kind, which at least 19 states did, according to the National Academy for State Health Policy.
UCLA Reinstates Mask Mandate as California COVID Cases Surge
The University of California, Los Angeles said Thursday it will reinstate an indoor mask policy as coronavirus cases surge in the nation’s most populous state, which now forecasts hospitalizations will nearly triple in the next month.
UCLA’s 45,000 students and all faculty, staff and visitors will be required to wear masks inside starting Friday following “a consistent rise in COVID-19 cases in Los Angeles County and on our campus,” school officials said in a statement.
Mastercard’s Newly Launched Face Recognition Payment System Is Already Raising Accuracy Concerns
Business Insider India via MSN reported:
Mastercard recently launched a new facial recognition payment system that lets shoppers make payments with their face or hand gestures. This new payment system is being rolled out to biometric payment systems including fingerprint scanning and facial recognition.
With this new tech, the company aims to change the way we pay but it also raises concerns relating to data storage, customer privacy and crime risks.
To use facial recognition-based payments, Mastercard’s biometric checkout system will provide biometric authentication with third-party companies. The company has already partnered with Payface, NEC, Fujitsu, Aurus, PopID and PayByFace.
According to reports, customers have to install a third-party app that will take their pictures and payment information. All the information will be stored on third-party servers. While checkout, the customer’s face will be matched with the stored data to make a payment.
WHO Partners With Deutsche Telekom to Push Global Vaccine Passport System
The COVID pandemic is truly turning into “a gift that keeps on giving” when it comes to governments and organizations using it to usher in long-term policies and schemes that are questionable, from the privacy, data security and even national sovereignty point of view.
The UN’s World Health Organization (WHO) is now preparing to roll out a worldwide pandemic treaty and is teaming up with Germany’s Deutsche Telekom, one of the world’s biggest telecoms, to “link every person on the planet to a QR code digital ID” that will allow for the establishment of a global vaccination passport system.
The plan for the treaty was approved by WHO’s Health Assembly last December, which reports said held only its second session since it was founded in 1948, highlighting the importance the WHO gives to the treaty.
Not for nothing — if all goes to plan and the treaty is agreed on by 2024, governing authority during a pandemic will be effectively transferred from sovereign countries to this UN body, reports the Brownstone Institute.
Shanghai Students to Return to School, as Chinese City Slowly Emerges From Lengthy COVID Lockdown
Hong Kong Free Press reported:
Shanghai schoolchildren will gradually resume some in-person classes in June with daily COVID-19 tests, the local government said Thursday, as the Chinese metropolis gradually emerges from a lengthy lockdown that brought it to a standstill.
Some of the city’s restrictions have recently eased as cases dwindle, though much of the population is still not allowed to venture outside for more than a few hours a day at most. Schools have been shut since March 12, weeks before the megacity’s lockdown officially began.
U.S. Bill Would Bar Google, Apple From Hosting Apps That Accept China’s Digital Yuan
Republican senators want to bar U.S. app stores including Apple and Google from hosting apps that allow payments to be made with China’s digital currency, amid fears the payment system could allow Beijing to spy on Americans.
The bill, unveiled Thursday and first reported by Reuters, states that companies that own or control app stores “shall not carry or support any app in [their] app store(s) within the United States that supports or enables transactions in e-CNY.” It is sponsored by Senators Tom Cotton, Marco Rubio and Mike Braun.
According to Cotton’s office, the digital yuan could provide the Chinese government with “real-time visibility into all transactions on the network, posing privacy and security concerns for American persons who join this network.”
Why Elon Musk Is Being Sued by Twitter Shareholders
Elon Musk made global headlines a few weeks ago when he announced his attempt to purchase social media giant Twitter for a total sum of $44 billion.
Yet it appears the world’s richest man is once again making the headline news (when is he not) — but this time it’s all down to a legal dispute with Twitter shareholders, who are suing him.
They are suing him over claims that he was allegedly manipulating the stock by deliberately delaying disclosure of his stake in the social media platform. The company claims that by doing so, he has saved himself $156 million, as he had purchased more than 5% of Twitter by March 14.
Stolen MGM Resorts Customer Data Dumped on Telegram for Free
A major (but seemingly old) database filled with personal information has been dumped in a Telegram group, for free, for anyone who would care to look.
Cybersecurity researchers from vpnMentor discovered the 8.7GB file dump earlier this week, finding it contained data on at least 30 million people. The data seems to have been picked up from MGM Resorts, a hotel and casino chain whose endpoints were compromised three years ago.
If indeed this is the same database, as some media suggest, then it contains data on more than 140 million MGM Resorts users. The data includes full names, postal addresses, more than 24 million unique email addresses, more than 30 million unique phone numbers and dates of birth. Luckily enough, no payment data appears to have been included, but users may still be at risk of identity theft.