Big Brother News Watch
Mass. Health Officials Worked With Google to Covertly Install COVID ‘Spyware’ Into 1 Million Phones, Lawsuit Claims + More
Mass. Health Officials Worked With Google to Covertly Install COVID ‘Spyware’ Into 1 Million Phones, Lawsuit Claims
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) is facing a class-action lawsuit for allegedly using Google technology to covertly install tracking apps on over one million Android phones as part of the state government’s efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19 through contact tracing.
In a lawsuit filed Tuesday, the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), a nonpartisan civil rights firm, accused the Bay State’s health department of “brazen disregard for civil liberties” by installing “spyware that deliberately tracks and records movement and personal contacts onto over a million mobile devices without their owners’ permission and awareness.” The class-action suit claims DPH is in violation of both the Massachusetts and U.S. Constitutions.
“Conspiring with a private company to hijack residents’ smartphones without the owners’ knowledge or consent is not a tool that the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (‘DPH’) may lawfully employ in its efforts to combat COVID-19,” the lawsuit said. According to NCLA, DPH worked with Google to develop a contract tracing app, which in April 2021 became available for Massachusetts residents to download voluntarily. Few residents opted to use the app, according to the suit.
“To increase adoption, starting on June 15, 2021, DPH worked with Google to secretly install the Contact Tracing App onto over one million Android mobile devices located in Massachusetts without the device owners’ knowledge or permission,” NCLA claimed in the lawsuit. The filing alleged that when some Android device owners discovered and subsequently deleted the app, DPH would re-install it onto their devices.
Grieving Parents Push for Kids’ Online Safety Bills During Lame Duck
Congress has a busy itinerary in the lame duck session, but some grieving parents believe lawmakers should have a clear legislative priority: protecting minors from the harms they say led to their children’s deaths.
A group of mothers whose children’s deaths were tied to social media are meeting with lawmakers this week, and sent a letter to congressional leaders, to push Congress to pass two bills that would add additional regulations governing how tech companies operate for children and teens.
The group includes parents of kids who died by fentanyl-laced drugs purchased on apps, by suicide after being cyberbullied online and by participating in a dangerous viral “choking challenge.”
“I want social media companies to be held accountable for their products,” Kristin Bride, one of the parents, said Tuesday on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper.” Bride and other activist parents are pushing for the Senate to pass the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act 2.0 (COPPA 2.0). The bills advanced out of a Senate committee in July with bipartisan support.
‘An Anti-Science Institution’: Long After End of COVID Pandemic, Notre Dame Imposes Vaccine Mandate on All Students, Even Remote Ones, for 2023-24 School Year
All students at the University of Notre Dame will have a COVID vaccine booster mandate imposed on them for the 2023-24 school year.
Notre Dame’s University Health Services announced Tuesday that it was imposing the mandate on all students for the next school year. In order to attend classes on campus, and even remotely, next year, students must receive a booster of the COVID vaccine. Conservatives blasted the university for imposing the policy on students.
Mary Frances Myler, a postgraduate fellow at Notre Dame’s Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government, shared a screenshot of the email on Twitter. “As of today, Notre Dame will require yet ANOTHER round of the vaccine for students,” Myler wrote. “The pandemic ended, but the COVID Regime remains fully intact and detached from reality.”
As with all required University vaccines, if you fail to complete this requirement or are not granted an exemption, a hold will be placed on your student account, which will prevent you from registering for classes for the fall 2023 semester,” the email stated. “All current students have until Wednesday, March 1, 2023 to fulfill the bivalent booster vaccine requirement for the 2023-24 academic year.”
Tyson Foods Ends COVID Vaccine Mandate for Employees
Tyson Foods Inc. (TSN.N) confirmed on Wednesday it eliminated a requirement that employees receive COVID-19 vaccinations, a step the company said improved meatpacking operations after plants closed in 2020 due to outbreaks among workers early in the pandemic.
The biggest U.S. meat company by sales lifted the mandate on Oct. 31, one year after imposing it, according to a report Tyson filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday. The requirement “generally improved our ability to operate our business effectively in fiscal 2022,” the report said.
The virus now presents a lower threat than when Tyson decided in August 2021 to require that employees be vaccinated by that November, company spokesman Derek Burleson told Reuters on Wednesday.
Tyson runs slaughterhouses in rural areas where some residents were reluctant to get vaccinated. The company said last year it paid employees $200 to get vaccinated and also compensated workers if they were vaccinated outside normal work hours or away from a Tyson location.
Banking Giants and New York Fed Start 12-Week Digital Dollar Pilot
Global banking giants are starting a 12-week digital dollar pilot with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the participants announced on Tuesday.
Citigroup Inc., HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA.L), Mastercard Inc. (MA.N) and Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) are among the financial companies participating in the experiment alongside the New York Fed’s innovation center, they said in a statement. The project, which is called the regulated liability network, will be conducted in a test environment and use simulated data, the New York Fed said.
The pilot will test how banks using digital dollar tokens in a common database can help speed up payments. Earlier this month, Michelle Neal, head of the New York Fed’s market’s group, said it sees promise in using a central bank digital dollar to speed up settlement time in currency markets.
Republican ‘Censorship’ Lawsuit Paves the Way for Congressional Investigations of Biden
Congressional Republicans don’t yet have subpoena power to investigate the Biden administration, but some of their investigative targets are already yielding fruit thanks to a lawsuit filed by conservative state attorneys general.
A federal judge in Louisiana on Monday ordered an FBI cybersecurity official to be deposed in a lawsuit alleging that the FBI coerced social media companies to block stories about Hunter Biden’s laptop ahead of the 2020 election.
The FBI deposition is one of several sought by the state Republican officials in a lawsuit accusing Biden officials of effectively enforcing government censorship by pushing social media companies to, among other things, police speech about the origins of the virus that causes COVID-19, the efficacy of face masks and healthcare measures intended to curb the spread of the virus, as well as claims about election integrity and the security of voting by mail.
Republican lawmakers in Washington have said that when they take over leadership of House committees they plan to conduct aggressive investigations of the Biden administration. That includes probes related to Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son, of COVID origins and what they say were social media censorship of conservative views on COVID public-health restrictions.
Chinese City Plans 250,000 Quarantine Beds to Fight Virus
China’s southern metropolis of Guangzhou announced plans Thursday to build quarantine facilities for nearly 250,000 people to fight surging coronavirus outbreaks even as the national government tries to reduce the impact of anti-disease controls that have confined millions of people to their homes.
China’s infection numbers are low compared with the United States and other major countries, but the ruling Communist Party is trying to isolate every case. Repeated closures of neighborhoods, schools and businesses are fueling public frustration and clashes with health workers.
Authorities in Guangzhou sent 95,300 people from the city’s Haizhu district to quarantine centers or for hospital treatment, the government announced.
Guangzhou will add 246,407 beds, including 132,015 in hospital isolation wards and 114,392 for people who are infected but have no symptoms, the city government said. A series of rapid construction initiatives in China since the 2020 start of the pandemic have built hospitals with thousands of beds in as little as a week.
China’s Workers Fight Back Against State’s Strict COVID Rules
Public frustration at harsh COVID-19 rules boiled over in a megacity in southern China this week as residents clashed with police in rare scenes of violent defiance.
This week’s rare clashes with local authorities were triggered by a lack of income due to shuttering factories and severed transport links out of the province, as well as a shortage of food and other provisions unattainable during lockdown. Residents in “high-risk” neighborhoods were expected to undergo near-daily testing for the virus.
“The protesters are definitely at risk of prosecution,” Han Yang, an Australia-based political commentator and former Chinese diplomat, told Newsweek. “Order and stability are the foremost consideration for Chinese leaders, and no protest will be tolerated for fear of it spreading out.”
House Committees Slam ID.me for ‘Baseless’ Unemployment Fraud Claims
ID.me, the controversial biometric identification verification company whose facial match technology provoked a major privacy backlash at the IRS earlier this year, may have misled the public and lawmakers when its CEO claimed the U.S. lost $400 billion to fraudulent pandemic unemployment claims.
Its biometric services, billed as a convenient and secure way to reduce pandemic related unemployment fraud, may have actually made it more difficult for those most in need of assistance to receive their aid.
That new evidence, shared with Gizmodo by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis and the Committee on Oversight and Reform, alleges ID.me made “baseless claims,” of rampant COVID-19 unemployment fraud, “in an apparent attempt to increase demand for its identity verification services.”
Additionally, the committees allege ID.me’s verification process, which was used by 21 different state governments to dole out unemployment benefits, contributed to “extraordinary wait times,” for certain users trying to verify their identities. In some cases, users without access to devices required to take face scans had to wait up to ten hours to have the company verify their identity over a video call.
Elon Musk Purges Thousands More Twitter Employees — No One Notices the Difference
A good measure of the value of an employee to a company is if his or her absence makes things more difficult for everyone else, or his or her absence is barely noticed. If an employee makes no difference and adds no value then there is no point in keeping him or her around.
Twitter is quickly becoming a blaring example of this issue. Alleged leaks from within the company suggest that most employees under previous management barely worked and are devout “communists” with a hatred of free speech. The leaks also claim that Twitter employees were far more concerned with censoring conservative voices than doing their jobs. From comments made on social media by employees since Elon Musk‘s takeover, it appears that these rumors are correct.
For many years now Twitter has operated less like a company and more like a cult compound for leftist ideologues, with free lunches, yoga rooms, smoothie bars, wine bars, expresso bars and minimal work buffered by pointless meetings and near-zero productivity. The company runs a collectivist daycare for overgrown children; 7,500 of them along with 5,500 outside contractors.
Musk fired at least 3,500 primary staff members and it is also recently reported that he has purged at least 4,500 outside contractors, many of them moderators tasked with filtering “misinformation.” Interestingly, Twitter users have not noticed much of a difference in terms of functionality for the platform despite the mass layoffs. The only difference has been the ability to speak more freely.
Military Vaccine Mandate Is in GOP’s Sights + More
Military Vaccine Mandate Is in GOP’s Sights
The military’s COVID-19 vaccine requirement could end if Republican senators succeed in amending the National Defense Authorization Act that’s expected to pass in the coming weeks, Grace reports.
The Senate bill will likely come to the floor soon, and the GOP will try to amend it. The House passed its version of the defense bill in July, leaving the mandate intact. A conference committee must reconcile them before final enactment.
Bills sponsored by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), a member of the Armed Services Committee, could form the basis for amendments. Recruiting shortfalls: Blackburn wants to lift the mandate when the military isn’t meeting its “end strength” target — the number of troops in the force — which is the case right now.
The Army missed its recruitment goal by almost 10,000 soldiers for fiscal 2022, and defense officials aren’t optimistic about 2023. The vaccine mandate isn’t helping. The armed services have discharged 8,000 active-duty troops since Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin first directed service members to get vaccinated in August 2021.
Big Tech Bleeds Tens of Thousands of Jobs After Pandemic Heyday
Major technology companies that saw an explosion of growth during the early part of the coronavirus pandemic are bleeding thousands of jobs as high interest rates and a slowing economy turn against the industry.
Amazon, Meta, Twitter, Stripe and a slew of other Big Tech firms have announced layoffs over the past month, all citing a decline in revenue and a deteriorating outlook for the global economy.
Silicon Valley powerhouses saw their stock prices and payrolls soar throughout most of the past two years. Propelled by low interest rates set by the Federal Reserve and a glut of pandemic stimulus, tech companies rode a steady wave of consumer spending in online retail, streaming services and other products to major stock gains.
But the heyday for Big Tech has come crashing down, along with the values of some its high-flying stocks. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite is down 28% on the year after reaching record highs before the Fed began hiking rates in March.
Security Expert Reveals the TikTok Setting That Exposes Your Data — and How to Turn It off
If you’re one of the more than 1 billion monthly TikTok users, one cybersecurity expert is warning that without proper settings in place, the app can collect data about your contacts, browser history, location — and even personal health information.
“This application has access to those things on your phone that you might hold dear to you: your contacts, your location, your buying intent, your shopping history, your browser history, everything that we probably want to keep private,” SideChannel CEO and former Department of Defense cybersecurity leader Brian Haugli said on “Mornings with Maria” Wednesday.
According to Haugli, TikTok users unknowingly agree to the app’s terms and conditions, granting permission for the app to build a “full profile” about that individual — what area they live in, the accounts they interact or message with, even their dog’s name.
“I don’t think we’re doing enough. We have the opportunity to be able to put pressure on Google and Apple to remove this application from its store,” Haugli argued. “We have an opportunity to be able to build better regulation within the United States and actually set up infrastructure that could block access to this data or this data leaving our environment. It’s not something that the U.S. has set up today, and it’s something that I think we very much need.”
Haugli claimed that once you’ve deactivated your TikTok profile and deleted the app from your phone, your information is “scrubbed” from TikTok’s database. For those who choose to keep using the popular platform, he recommends going into your Apple or Android settings and switching “off” TikTok’s access to contacts, location services and tracking.
Telehealth Sites Put Addiction Patient Data at Risk
While mobile health options have been celebrated by doctors and advocates as a way to expand treatment for substance use disorders, there has been persistent concern over how private the websites offering treatment and support really are — especially now that the U.S. Supreme Court’s toppling of Roe v. Wade has reignited the national conversation about how far medical privacy protections extend online.
The Opioid Policy Institute (OPI) and Legal Action Center (LAC) today released the findings from a 16-month analysis of a dozen major substance-use-focused mHealth websites, revealing details of how much data is shared with third parties. While the sharing of any kind of patient information is often strictly regulated or outright forbidden, it’s even more verboten in addiction treatment, as patients’ medical history can be inherently criminal and stigmatized.
All 12 websites included technologies that collect, identify and share information about users with third parties and had ad trackers that are used for advertising purposes. The average number of these trackers “generally” increased over the 16 months, researchers found.
Furthermore, 11 of the sites used third-party session cookies that identify visitors and track them across other websites to serve ads, and four of the 12 used session recording, which monitors the behavior of visitors to the sites, from their mouse movements and clicks to their scrolling and typing, even if the text input is never submitted. Half of the websites used Meta Pixel to send user data to Facebook, 10 used Google Analytics (which can track user metrics) and all 12 sent some data to ad tech companies that buy and sell user data for advertising.
Minneapolis School Board Removes District’s Staff COVID Vaccine Mandate
Minneapolis Public Schools will no longer require employees, contractors or volunteers to get the COVID-19 vaccination or file for an exception. The school board voted unanimously Tuesday night to lift one of the last remaining local government vaccine mandates in the Twin Cities.
The majority of Minnesota students went into fall without having to wear a mask or distance socially at school. The Minnesota Department of Health is still monitoring COVID-19 case counts across the state and updating its weekly dashboard to advise the state’s residents on which public health precautions to take.
The EU Ignores Pushback, Plots Digital ID for 2024
The European Union is preparing to launch the EU digital wallet by 2024. The wallet will allow residents to store digital identification documents, like driver’s licenses and national IDs.
The EU’s Committee on Industry, Research, and Energy member Romana Jerkovic said that, for the bloc to stick to the schedule, it plans to publish specifications and standards before 2023.
The initiative has been criticized by digital rights groups, some tech companies, and industry groups. The pushback could result in the delay of the launch.
Earlier this year, there was a controversy about the use of unique identifiers as they could be used for tracking purposes, some noting that they would be illegal in countries like Germany, Austria and the Netherlands.
FBI Is ‘Extremely Concerned’ About China’s Influence Through TikTok on U.S. Users
Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray told lawmakers Tuesday that he is “extremely concerned” about TikTok’s operations in the U.S.
“We do have national security concerns at least from the FBI’s end about TikTok,” Wray told members of the House Homeland Security Committee in a hearing about worldwide threats. “They include the possibility that the Chinese government could use it to control data collection on millions of users. Or control the recommendation algorithm, which could be used for influence operations if they so chose. Or to control software on millions of devices, which gives it opportunity to potentially technically compromise personal devices.”
Wray’s remarks build on those from other government officials and members of Congress who have expressed deep skepticism about the ability of the Chinese-owned video platform to protect U.S. user information from an adversarial government. TikTok has maintained it doesn’t store U.S. user data in China, where the law allows the government to force companies to hand over internal information.
Nvidia Says It Is Working With Microsoft to Build ‘Massive’ Cloud AI Computer
U.S. chip designer and computing firm Nvidia Corp (NVDA.O) on Wednesday said it is teaming up with Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) to build a “massive” computer to handle intense artificial intelligence computing work in the cloud.
The AI computer will operate on Microsoft’s Azure cloud, using tens of thousands of graphics processing units (GPUs), Nvidia’s most powerful H100 and its A100 chips. Nvidia declined to say how much the deal is worth, but industry sources said each A100 chip is priced at about $10,000 to $12,000, and the H100 is far more expensive than that.
In addition to selling Microsoft the chips, Nvidia said it will partner with the software and cloud giant to develop AI models. Buck said Nvidia would also be a customer of Microsoft’s AI cloud computer and develop AI applications on it to offer services to customers.
Don’t Download Qatar World Cup Apps, EU Data Authorities Warn
A message to football fans from Europe’s data protection chiefs: Qatar’s World Cup apps pose a massive privacy risk, so don’t download them.
European data protection regulators have been lining up to warn about the risks posed by Qatar’s World Cup apps for visitors, with Germany’s data protection commissioner being the latest. In a statement Tuesday, the Germans said data collected by two Qatari apps that visitors are being asked to download “goes much further” than the apps’ privacy notices indicate.
The Norwegian regulator on Monday said it was “alarmed” by the extensive access the apps require. “There is a real possibility that visitors to Qatar, and especially vulnerable groups, will be monitored by the Qatari authorities,” it said.
The French agency said fans should take “special care” with photos and videos, and recommends that travelers install the apps just before departure and delete them as soon as they return to France.
NBA Is Sued by Fired Referees Who Refused COVID Vaccines + More
NBA Is Sued by Fired Referees Who Refused COVID Vaccines
The National Basketball Association has been sued by three longtime referees who say the league fired them this year after they refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19 over religious objections.
In a complaint filed on Saturday in Manhattan federal court, Kenny Mauer, Mark Ayotte and Jason Phillips said the league improperly forced compliance with its “hygienic norms,” and wrongly concluded that their sincere religious objections fell short of its “high standard” against being vaccinated.
The plaintiffs said the NBA’s “jab or job ultimatum” led to their suspensions for the 2021-2022 season when the league required COVID vaccinations for all employees other than players.
They said the league refused to reinstate them despite lifting the vaccine requirement for the 2022-2023 season, consistent with the ban on vaccine mandates under its new seven-year collective bargaining agreement with referees.
Novak Djokovic Granted Visa to Play at Australian Open Despite Being Unvaccinated
Novak Djokovic is returning to Australia in 2023. After getting a three-year ban from the country just days before the 2022 Australian Open, the Serbian tennis player, 35, is reportedly being granted a visa to compete in next year’s competition, held January 16-29, 2023.
The Australian Broadcasting Corp. confirmed reports Tuesday that Andrew Giles, the new immigration minister, overturned Djokovic‘s ban. According to the Associated Press, Giles’ office declined to comment on the visa status update on grounds of privacy.
In January, the then-reigning champ attempted to get an exemption for Australia’s COVID-19 vaccination requirement to enter the country, arguing that he had recently recovered from the virus. After a 10-day legal saga, Djokovic’s exemption was denied and he was deported from Australia on the eve of the 2022 tournament.
Djokovic has been locked out of other tournaments due to his refusal to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Ahead of the 2022 Australian Open, he was ranked first in the world. But despite winning Wimbledon in July — where he was able to compete because there was no COVID vaccination requirement — his ranking dropped from missing Australia and then he was not permitted to compete in the U.S. Open in August, putting him in eighth.
Mental Health Apps Are Not Keeping Your Data Safe
Imagine calling a suicide prevention hotline in a crisis. Do you ask for their data collection policy? Do you assume that your data are protected and kept secure? Recent events may make you consider your answers more carefully.
Mental health technologies such as bots and chat lines serve people who are experiencing a crisis. They are some of the most vulnerable users of any technology, and they should expect their data to be kept safe, protected and confidential. Unfortunately, recent dramatic examples show that extremely sensitive data has been misused.
Our own research has found that, in gathering data, the developers of mental health–based artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms simply test if they work. They generally don’t address the ethical, privacy and political concerns about how they might be used. At a minimum, the same standards of healthcare ethics should be applied to technologies used in providing mental healthcare.
Politico recently reported that Crisis Text Line, a not-for-profit organization claiming to be a secure and confidential resource to those in crisis, was sharing data it collected from users with its for-profit spin-off company Loris AI, which develops customer service software. An official from Crisis Text Line initially defended the data exchange as ethical and “fully compliant with the law.” But within a few days, the organization announced it had ended its data-sharing relationship with Loris AI, even as it maintained that the data had been “handled securely, anonymized and scrubbed of personally identifiable information.”
Amazon Clinic Launches Ahead of Reported Mass Layoffs
Amazon has launched Amazon Clinic, a virtual healthcare provider that will allow users to get online help and order medication for “more than 20 health conditions.” These conditions include allergies, acne and hair loss, Amazon said in a press release, and the service is initially available in 32 states in the U.S.
Amazon Clinic works as follows: Users first select their condition, then answer some questions about their symptoms and health history. Users may also be required to share photos of their symptoms via smartphone camera or webcam, and provide a photo ID. After that, a licensed clinician will review that data and send users a message with a personalized treatment plan.
In an FAQ for the new service, Amazon says it has stringent customer privacy policies in place and is in compliance with HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) as well as “other applicable laws and regulations.”
The news comes hours after The New York Times report that Amazon is about to lay off roughly 10,000 employees. The cuts will reportedly affect employees in Amazon’s retail division, human resources and teams working on Alexa and Amazon’s devices.
Ex-WSU Coach Nick Rolovich, Fired After Refusing COVID Vaccine, Reportedly Files Suit
Former Washington State football coach Nick Rolovich, who was fired on Oct. 18, 2021, for refusing to comply with the state mandate that state employees be fully vaccinated for COVID-19, has reportedly filed a lawsuit against Washington State University, Gov. Jay Inslee and WSU athletic director Pat Chun.
ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura reported Monday that Rolovich had filed the lawsuit, according to his lawyer, Brian Fahling.
According to the ESPN story, the lawsuit was filed Friday and includes “breach of contract, discrimination against religion, wrongful withholding of wages and violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act as well as the First and 14th Amendments.” The lawsuit was filed in Whitman County Superior Court.
A lawsuit had been expected as Rolovich filed a tort claim against the university in August seeking $25 million for wrongful termination. A tort claim is a prerequisite to filing a lawsuit against a state agency.
COVID Vaccine Mandates in the Spotlight at the AMA’s Interim Meeting — Sobriety Criteria for Liver Transplant Patients Also Discussed
Should states be encouraged to require COVID-19 vaccination for public school and college students once FDA fully approves the vaccines? Members of the American Medical Association (AMA) were divided Sunday on the question.
“By the time these vaccines are fully FDA-approved, that is when we should have a mandate,” Frank Dowling, MD, an Islandia, New York psychiatrist who was speaking for the New York delegation, said at a reference committee hearing during the interim meeting here of the AMA’s House of Delegates.
But Ross Goldberg, MD, of Phoenix, a delegate from the American College of Surgeons who was speaking for himself, said that now was not the right time to be pushing a vaccine mandate.
“In the great state of Arizona, we actually passed a law earlier this year [making it] illegal to mandate the COVID-19 vaccine for schools,” Goldberg said, noting that he has been appearing on local media to advocate in favor of vaccination.
Chaotic Scenes in Southern Chinese City as COVID Curbs Fuel Unrest
Crowds in the southern Chinese metropolis of Guangzhou have crashed through lockdown barriers and marched onto streets in a rare outburst of public anger about COVID restrictions days after the Chinese government announced that it was easing them.
According to videos widely shared on Twitter, hundreds cheered as they charged through the streets in Haizhu district in chaotic scenes in southwestern Guangzhou on Monday night. In one piece of footage, protesters overturned a police car.
Guangzhou, home to nearly 19 million people, has been the center of COVID outbreaks in China, with the number of cases surging in recent days. Daily infections of COVID-19 in the city have topped 5,000 for the first time, leading to speculation that localized lockdowns could widen.
‘More Than Enough Time’: Ted Cruz Calls for Release of Big Tech Privacy Report
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) is calling for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to release its privacy report on social media and streaming services. Cruz, a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, sent a letter to the FTC to demand the report’s release after more than 22 months.
The letter comes as the FTC is expected to soon announce new privacy rules for online businesses, with the comment period for the new regulations ending on Nov. 21, according to Cruz’s statement.
“The social media and video streaming investigation was initiated in December 2020,” Cruz added in the letter. The FTC investigation sought information from tech companies like Amazon, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube on how they collect and track personal information, how ads are determined, whether the companies apply algorithms or data analytics to privacy information, how user engagement is measured and how practices impact children and teenagers.
Europe’s Spyware Scandal Is a Global Wakeup Call
Multiple European governments are using advanced surveillance tools to spy on their own people, according to a damning new European Parliament report. “EU Member States have been using spyware on their citizens for political purposes and to cover up corruption and criminal activity,” the report reads. “Some went even further and embedded spyware in a system deliberately designed for authoritarian rule.”
The European Parliament launched this inquiry after the 2021 publication of the Pegasus Project, a spyware investigation led by 16 media outlets around the world. Reporters found that governments had targeted more than 50,000 phone numbers worldwide using the surveillance tool Pegasus, made by the Israeli company NSO Group. Individuals on the list included editors and reporters at CNN, The New York Times, Reuters and France 24 as well as human rights activists, lawyers and people close to Jamal Khashoggi, the journalist the Saudi Arabian government murdered in 2018.
The report makes it clear that though we hear most often about this technology being used by authoritarian governments like China and Iran, democracies engage in spyware abuses, too. Curtailing surveillance harm around the world requires confronting this reality and pushing democracies to uphold a higher standard of behavior.
Exclusive: Russian Software Disguised as American Finds Its Way Into U.S. Army, CDC Apps
Thousands of smartphone applications in Apple’s (AAPL.O) and Google‘s (GOOGL.O) online stores contain computer code developed by a technology company, Pushwoosh, that presents itself as based in the United States but is actually Russian, Reuters has found.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the United States’ main agency for fighting major health threats, said it had been deceived into believing Pushwoosh was based in the U.S. capital. After learning about its Russian roots from Reuters, it removed Pushwoosh software from seven public-facing apps, citing security concerns.
The U.S. Army said it had removed an app containing Pushwoosh code in March because of the same concerns. That app was used by soldiers at one of the country’s main combat training bases.
The FBI Came Very Close to Deploying Spyware for Domestic Surveillance + More
The FBI Came Very Close to Deploying Spyware for Domestic Surveillance
The FBI came very close to using commercial spyware to aid in its domestic criminal investigations, the New York Times has reported. The spyware was developed by the NSO Group, the notorious surveillance vendor from Israel whose products have been tied to spying scandals all over the world.
In January, the Times broke the news that the FBI had been considering procuring a surveillance system called “Phantom” from NSO that could reportedly hack any phone in the United States. The tool was a variant of NSO’s more well-known malware Pegasus and had the ability to comprehensively infiltrate mobile devices and monitor their activities. At the time, it was reported that the FBI was considering using it in criminal investigations. However, not long after news of the potential deal broke, privacy concerns were raised, and the government found itself on the defensive.
At a congressional hearing earlier this year, FBI Director Chris Wray claimed that the government’s contacts with NSO had been part of a “counterintelligence” operation, implying that the bureau had never actually intended to use the spyware tool. Officials made it sound like they were conducting research on how such tools could be used by bad actors but seemed to imply that they, themselves, had no interest in using them.
New documents uncovered by the Times seem to suggest that the government was very much interested in using the tools for their own criminal investigations. The documents, retrieved via a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, include a number of internal FBI PowerPoint presentations, created throughout 2020 and 2021, that discuss how the bureau could deploy the hacking tools.
Google Agrees to $392 Million Privacy Settlement With 40 States
Google agreed to a record $391.5 million privacy settlement with a 40-state coalition of attorneys general on Monday for charges that it misled users into thinking they had turned off location tracking in their account settings even as the company continued collecting that information.
Under the settlement, Google will also make its location tracking disclosures clearer starting in 2023.
The attorneys general said that the agreement was the biggest internet privacy settlement by U.S. states. It capped a four-year investigation into the internet search giant for violating the states’ consumer protection laws.
States have taken an increasingly central role in reining in the power and business models of Silicon Valley corporations, amid a vacuum of action from federal lawmakers.
NYPD Spent $3 Billion on Surveillance but Critics Say Details Are Vague Despite New Disclosure Law
The NYPD spent nearly $3 billion on surveillance technology in a 12-year stretch but continues to flout the law requiring it to reveal details of each contract, according to two advocacy groups.
The money spent was opaquely listed as “special expenses” in the police budget until 2020, when the City Council passed, over the NYPD’s objections, the Public Oversight of Surveillance Technology, or POST, Act.
The law requires the NYPD to explain each contract — from drones to facial recognition software to license plate readers and beyond — and to reveal which other law enforcement agencies have access to the data. But advocacy groups say the NYPD is not meeting the law’s disclosure requirements.
Microsoft helped build the NYPD’s Domain Awareness System, which collects data from different surveillance methods and links the data to people and addresses. Constitutional and racial concerns have been raised about the system, and the Surveillance Oversight Project, known as STOP, has said immigration authorities are tracking undocumented immigrants using data collected by it.
Teach the Constitution: Democrat Attorney Who Halted Hochul’s Quarantine Camp Regulation
In what she has called a David versus Goliath battle, New York real estate lawyer Bobbie Anne Cox sued Governor Kathleen Hochul for issuing directives mandating quarantine for people exposed to or infected with highly contagious diseases such as COVID-19. The directives, dubbed “quarantine camp regulations,” have been compared to laws that relocated Japanese during World War II without due process. Cox won the lawsuit on the grounds that Hochul’s regulation was unconstitutional.
“The constitution is not perfect, but it’s brilliant,” Cox said. Schools should require learning about the U.S. Constitution, “from the little kids all the way up through high school, into college. The constitution was written to keep the government in check. The constitution wasn’t written to keep the people in check.”
It is tyrannical for a government to take power to which it is not entitled, Cox explained. During the pandemic, state and federal governments gave themselves powers the constitution did not give them.
State governors are part of the executive branch of government. As such, she said, “they’re supposed to enforce laws, and their agencies beneath them are supposed to help them enforce laws. They’re not supposed to make laws.” When a governor such as Hochul takes on powers that properly belong to the legislature, “that’s tyranny,” Cox reiterated.
HHS to Launch New Push to Get Americans Updated COVID Booster Shots Before the Holidays
U.S. News & World Report reported:
The Biden administration on Monday will launch its latest push to get more Americans vaccinated with the updated COVID-19 booster shots ahead of the holidays and an expected coronavirus wave in the fall and winter.
The Department of Health and Human Services on Monday will kick off its “Countdown to Thanksgiving Vax Up America Tour” which aims to get more shots in arms ahead of the holiday. The agency will work with national and community-based organizations, among others, to bring pop-up vaccine sites to large community events.
The agency and its partners will also offer COVID-19 vaccines at football games at historically Black colleges and universities in an effort to reach Black communities. The agency expects to reach thousands of Americans at each location, which includes Alcorn State University, the SWAC Championship Game in Jackson, Miss., and the Celebration Bowl in Atlanta. A list of upcoming events will be available on the agency’s “We Can Do This” website.
In Zero-COVID China, a Different Death Toll Emerges
In the lead-up to China’s Communist Party Congress last month, watercooler chatter in many offices here focused on a single question: Will the Congress abandon its zero-COVID policy?
It didn’t take long for an answer. In his opening speech, Chinese President Xi Jinping reaffirmed the nation’s commitment to zero COVID — a stance made all the more inviolable since securing his unprecedented third term.
I can confirm that zero COVID is alive and well. In the weeks since Xi’s speech, I’ve had dozens of nucleic acid tests, canceled a domestic work trip and seen multiple colleagues hauled off to quarantine hotels or locked down at home. (On Friday, China announced a limited easing of some measures — though no mention of when the changes would take effect.)
Students in many cities in China are back to remote learning. My 5-year-old daughter is on her second week off school after her kindergarten closed due to restrictions related to COVID-19. At this point, she has spent more time at home in 2022 than in the classroom.
While I fully agree that China’s hard-line approach to COVID-19 containment has saved lives, the policy’s impacts are beginning to seem worse than the disease. Economically speaking, all is not well in China, and the situation is at least partially to blame on China’s uncompromising stance on COVID-19.
Apple Sued for Tracking Users’ Activity Even When Turned off in Settings
Over the past couple of years, Apple has centered its focus on user privacy. The iPhone maker has sparred with other Big Tech companies, most notably Facebook owner Meta, about the issue. Apple’s efforts to protect users’ data has cost platforms like Facebook billions of dollars in revenue.
But, as it turns out, Apple has been collecting user data itself, even if its customers had explicitly changed their settings to stop the company from doing so. Now, Apple is being sued.
A class action lawsuit was filed on Thursday claiming that Apple’s actions violate the California Invasion of Privacy Act. The lawsuit doesn’t focus so much on the fact that Apple is collecting this data. The suit hones in on Apple’s settings, such as “Allow Apps to Request to Track” and “Share Analytics,” which give users the perception that they can disable such tracking.
It shouldn’t be too surprising that Apple, or any tech company, collects user data. However, as the team at the software company Mysk discovered, Apple is collecting this data regardless of a user’s settings where they are given the option to turn data collection off, possibly giving them a false sense of privacy.
Amazon to Fire 10,000 Employees, Largest Layoff in Company History
Over the past month, technology companies have laid off tens of thousands of employees. And the momentum in layoffs only appears to be worsening.
According to a new report via The New York Times this morning, Amazon could add to the count this week as approximately 10,000 people in corporate and technology jobs will be slashed, in what could be the most significant job cut in the company’s history.
People with direct knowledge of the layoff plan said job cuts would be focused on Amazon’s devices organization, including the voice-assistant Alexa, its retail division and human resources.
