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Tax Filing Websites Have Been Sending Users’ Financial Information to Facebook + More
Tax Filing Websites Have Been Sending Users’ Financial Information to Facebook
Major tax filing services such as H&R Block, TaxAct, and TaxSlayer have been quietly transmitting sensitive financial information to Facebook when Americans file their taxes online, The Markup has learned.
The data, sent through widely used code called the Meta Pixel, includes not only information like names and email addresses but often even more detailed information, including data on users’ income, filing status, refund amounts, and dependents’ college scholarship amounts.
The information sent to Facebook can be used by the company to power its advertising algorithms and is gathered regardless of whether the person using the tax filing service has an account on Facebook or other platforms operated by its owner Meta. Each year, the Internal Revenue Service processes about 150 million individual returns filed electronically, and some of the most widely used e-filing services employ the pixel, The Markup found.
TaxAct, which says it has about 3 million “consumer and professional users,” also uses Google’s analytics tool on its website, and The Markup found similar financial data, but not names, being sent to Google through its tool.
Mask Mandate Return? HHS Report Wants to ‘Encourage or Mandate’ Masking to Stop Long COVID
Masking and social distancing should be encouraged or even mandated once more in public in order to protect people from COVID-19 and from the possibility of suffering from “Long COVID,” according to a new report from the Department of Health and Human Services.
The report, commissioned by HHS and produced by research agency Coforma, calls for a broad range of government policies to help people who continue to deal with the lingering effects of COVID. Those policies include an awareness campaign, funding for long COVID support groups, financial support for students and workers and new health benefits for COVID victims.
Reinstating a mask mandate may be the most controversial recommendation in the report, which says ending that mandate in late 2021 and 2022 is making it harder for people with long COVID.
GOP Vows to Investigate Military Chiefs, Make Them Answer ‘Tough Questions’
Representative Jim Banks has said Republicans will investigate military leaders and make them answer “tough questions.” Republicans won the House with a slim majority in this month’s midterm elections, and in an appearance on Fox News, Banks, who is on the House Armed Services Committee, laid out how Republicans plan to use their new power next year.
Banks said one thing military leaders will be questioned about is the military members who were discharged after refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine. The Department of Defense announced that it would make COVID-19 vaccination mandatory in the summer of 2021. Republicans will “make them answer to why they denied so many religious exemptions when it came to the COVID-19 vaccine,” Banks said. “Ask them why they’re getting rid of all of these heroes, men and women in uniform, for not taking the vaccine.”
The U.S. Army said 1,760 active soldiers had been separated due to vaccine refusal as of Oct. 13, while the Navy reported that 1,544 active sailors and 327 reservists had been separated as of Oct. 26. The Marines said 3,584 Marines have been separated for vaccine refusal as of Nov. 3.
The Air Force said it had separated 834 service members as of July 11 but has not updated the number since due to a pending lawsuit. A federal judge in July issued an injunction that stops the branch from disciplining or separating anyone who filed a religious exemption request, according to the Air Force Times.
Pressure Mounts on TikTok Amid Probe Into National Security, Privacy Threats
Bipartisan pressure is mounting on the video-sharing app TikTok amid an ongoing probe into potential threats it poses to U.S. national security. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a company based in Beijing, which has sparked concerns that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could compel the app to turn over American users’ data or expose them to propaganda.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday” that “TikTok is an enormous threat.” He explained that parents should be “very concerned” because “all of that data that your child is inputting and receiving is being stored somewhere in Beijing.”
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., expressed similar concerns about TikTok in an appearance on Fox News Sunday, saying the app “is one of the most massive surveillance programs ever, especially on America’s young people.”
TikTok and ByteDance are currently under investigation by the Treasury Department’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS), which evaluates national security risks associated with foreign-owned companies operating in the U.S. or foreign investments in American companies.
‘Users Have a Right to Know’: Class-Action Lawsuit Sheds Light on Google’s Opaque Data-Mining Practices
It turns out that big tech companies may not be as committed to your privacy as their PR departments would have you believe — go figure. The latest example of this reality appears to be Google, who was revealed last week by MarketWatch to have data-mining practices that employees say that they sometimes “don’t understand and can’t describe.”
The report cited a class-action lawsuit alleging that Google “violated promises not to collect data of those using the browser without signing into their Google accounts.” Documents recently became unsealed in the case, offering a look into how privacy is discussed internally at Google. In the lawsuit, one unnamed employee seemed to make it clear that Google’s privacy policies are opaque, stating: “I don’t have the faintest idea what Google has on me. The fact that we can’t explain what we have […] on users is probably our biggest challenge.”
“Users have a right to know,” one employee said. Another commented: “The reasons we provide are so high level and abstract that they don’t make sense to people.” A third employee said: “Consent is no longer consent if you think of ads as a product.”
As the report notes, ads are a material revenue generator for Google, making up $209.5 billion in sales for the company in its 2021 fiscal year.
Beijing Requires COVID Test Results Within 48 Hours to Enter Public Places — Official
China’s capital Beijing reported 634 new local COVID cases on Tuesday, the deputy director of city’s municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Liu Xiaofeng said at a briefing.
The capital city will require a negative PCR test result within 48 hours for people to enter public places such as shopping malls, hotels and government buildings from Nov. 24, city government spokesperson Xu Hejian told the same briefing.
Tech Watchdog Demands U.K. Antitrust Investigation of Amazon’s iRobot Buyout
Foxglove Legal, the tech watchdog group that has taken on Facebook and Palantir, has its sights on a new target. The London-based nonprofit said Tuesday that it has sent a letter to the U.K.’s competition agency demanding it investigate Amazon’s planned $1.7 billion acquisition of the Roomba maker iRobot.
The request comes two months after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in September announced its own antitrust probe into the deal, concerned about the unfair advantage Amazon could gain by potentially learning the layouts of people’s houses or collecting even more granular data about users’ home lifestyles. The deal, which Amazon disclosed in August, is one of several acquisitions that the company has made over the last few years as it has sprawled into new industries.
The letter, sent to the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority and shared exclusively with Forbes, accuses Amazon of unfairly using its dominance to stomp out rivals in the world of household consumer products. Over the past several years, Amazon has become a formidable player in smart home technology, with its Alexa voice platform, Ring doorbells and Echo speakers and smart displays.
Amazon has already bought its way into several new categories — or strengthened its position in industries it already occupies — with its buyouts: There’s grocery stores with its Whole Foods purchase, health tech with OneMedical and movie making with MGM.
Canada Tells World Leaders to Clamp Down on Online ‘Misinformation’
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino are doing the rounds, insisting on the need to fight online harassment and misinformation.
At the G20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia, Trudeau said that Canada wants to regulate online “harassment and violence.” He added that Canada’s social media platforms have a responsibility to “address online harassment and violence to ensure trust in technology.”
At the G7 summit in Germany, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino told other interior and security ministers there is a need to tackle disinformation. On Nov. 17, he tweeted that “the G7 stands united” when it comes to “addressing the rise of mis and disinformation online.”
On Nov. 19, Mendicino tweeted that Canada will host a G7 summit next year to fight “disinformation.” During the summit, he suggested the education of high school students on how to identify disinformation, as well as online scams and fraudulent emails and texts.
Apple Says Your iPhone’s Usage Data is Anonymous, New Tests Say That’s Not True + More
Apple Says Your iPhone’s Usage Data is Anonymous, but New Tests Say That’s Not True
A new test of how Apple gathers usage data from iPhones has found that the company collects personally identifiable information while explicitly promising not to.
The privacy policy governing Apple’s device analytics says that “none of the collected information identifies you personally.” But an analysis of the data sent to Apple shows it includes a permanent, unchangeable ID number called a Directory Services Identifier, or DSID, according to researchers from the software company Mysk.
Apple collects that same ID number along with information for your Apple ID, which means the DSID is directly tied to your full name, phone number, birth date, email address and more, according to Mysk’s tests.
The findings worsen recent discoveries about Apple’s privacy problems and promises. Earlier this month, Mysk discovered that Apple collects analytics information even when you switch off an iPhone setting called “Share iPhone Analytics,” an action that Apple pledges will “disable the sharing of Device Analytics altogether.” Days after Gizmodo reported on Mysk’s tests, a class-action lawsuit was filed against Apple for allegedly deceiving its customers over the issue.
Religious Employees Allegedly Fired for Not Getting COVID Vaccine Sue Massachusetts Pharmaceutical Company
Religious employees at a major pharmaceutical company have filed suit in Massachusetts, claiming their employer instructed them to be vaccinated against their beliefs.
Norm Pattis, an attorney who represents controversial political commentator Alex Jones, filed a lawsuit Thursday representing employees of Takeda Pharmaceuticals alleging their employer discriminated against their religious beliefs, which are protected under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, when they refused the COVID-19 vaccine.
“In response to the global pandemic caused by the spread of various strains of COVID-19, the defendant, a pharmaceutical company, elected to create a company-wide policy requiring vaccination against potential infection by COVID-19 of current and prospective employees,” reads the complaint filed with the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts. According to the complaint, the company offered its employees an opportunity to request an exemption from receiving the vaccine but ultimately denied warranting one.
“Takeda rarely, if ever, finds the religious beliefs of an employee ‘sincere’ enough to warrant an exemption. When it cannot defeat the claims of a believer by claiming insincerity, Takeda then claims that accommodating the religious beliefs of an employee or prospective employee would pose an undue hardship on its business. The result is that Takeda almost never grants religious exemptions, in violation of Title VII,” the complaint adds.
Twitter Reinstates Project Veritas After It Was Banned for Revealing Big Tech Censorship
The non-profit investigative journalism enterprise Project Veritas had its Twitter account reinstated on Sunday. Its founder, James O’Keefe, remains in Twitter jail.
Project Veritas was banned in 2021 after posting a video of Facebook Vice President of Integrity Guy Rosen admitting that Facebook had developed a system that could freeze commenting on a post where hate speech or violence has been detected, without first confirming if indeed the speech is violent or hateful. O’Keefe’s account was also banned after posting that video.
Elon Musk promised to reinstate some accounts that had been permanently banned under the previous ownership.
In a video leaked by Project Veritas in the summer, Musk said: “I think it’s essential to have free speech and for us to be able to communicate freely … If there are multiple opinions — but just make sure we’re not sort of driving the narrative.
Not so Fast, Elon: Europe Warns Musk He Must Hire Hundreds of Moderators to Limit Free Speech
At a time when Musk is cutting hundreds if not thousands of workers on a weekly basis, early on Friday Europe delivered some unexpected news to the world’s richest man: according to Thierry Breton, the EU’s internal market commissioner, Musk will have to increase the number of moderators in Europe, a continent which long ago gave up all pretense of having free speech.
Breton added that Musk “will have to open his algorithms. We will have control, we will have access, people will no longer be able to say rubbish.” By “rubbish” he meant anything that Europe’s unelected technocrats disagree with, which these days is anything not endorsed by the World Economic Forum.
Breton earlier warned that Twitter would have to “fly by our rules,” shortly after Musk closed his $44 billion takeover last month. The EU’s Digital Services Act gives governments power to enforce rules governing how tech companies moderate content and to decide when they must take down illegal content. The DSA specifically will also force companies to moderate content in the languages they operate in, according to Bloomberg.
If Musk doesn’t comply, Twitter will face fines of as much as 6% of annual sales and could even be banned.
Judge Turns Away Psaki’s Effort to Quash Subpoena
A judge refused Friday to quash a subpoena issued to former White House press secretary Jen Psaki that seeks her deposition in a lawsuit filed by Missouri and Louisiana, alleging that the Biden administration conspired to silence conservative voices on social media.
Psaki filed a motion in federal court in Alexandria seeking to quash the subpoena, saying that she had no relevant information to provide and that a deposition would place an undue burden on her. The Justice Department supported her efforts to quash.
The lawsuit filed by the attorney general in Missouri and Alexandria accuses President Joe Biden, former federal health official Anthony Fauci and others of conspiring with social media companies to restrict free speech by censoring conservative opinions about the COVID-19 response and other issues.
Missouri and Louisiana say they want more information about statements Psaki made during news conferences in which she urged social media platforms to do a better job of blocking disinformation on their sites. In one briefing, for instance, she said the administration was flagging problematic posts to social media companies.
Trudeau Went All in Against the Freedom Convoy. This Week, It’s on Him to Explain Why.
In a rare showing this week, Canada’s prime minister will publicly defend his decision to invoke never-before-used emergency powers to end a weekslong occupation of the nation’s capital last winter.
Justin Trudeau’s highly anticipated testimony will cap six weeks of hearings at a public inquiry that has witnessed extraordinary disclosures of the inner workings of police and government during the protest, which culminated in the Feb. 14 invocation of the Emergencies Act.
The act gave authorities broad new powers they used to freeze the bank accounts of protesters, ban travel to protest sites, prohibit people from bringing children to protests and compel tow trucks to clear out vehicles blocking Ottawa streets. Officials have said those measures, especially the ability to freeze accounts, also helped deter blockades at Canada-U.S. border crossings.
The public inquiry must determine whether Trudeau was justified in using the act. To date, it has heard and seen considerable evidence casting doubt on the Liberal government’s decision.
Ex-Levi’s Exec Pushed out Over Anti-COVID School Closure Remarks Speaks out on ‘Tucker Carlson Today’
A longtime Levi Strauss & Co. executive is revealing how she was allegedly pushed out of her high-profile role after speaking out against the COVID-19 school closures on Fox Nation’s “Tucker Carlson Today.”
Jennifer Sey, who spent nearly 23 years at Levi Strauss & Co. and described herself as a “lifelong liberal,” said she took her stance against school closure “in defense of children, which should have been a progressive value,” but soon realized it was not a welcome idea at the company.
Advocates for keeping schools open during the pandemic were deemed racists and accused of wanting to “murder teachers,” Sey explained. Soon people were emailing the CEO and head of human resources and calling for boycotts of the company. After being told there would be severance, she resigned publicly. While she never received her requested severance package, she believes it would have come with a non-disclosure agreement, despite the company’s denial.
“I wanted to be able to talk about the terms of the separation because I wanted to be able to tell you the story… In addition to the children being harmed, this idea that we can’t hold different views and work together, like the idea that I couldn’t have this view and work in this company is so disturbing to me that I did not want to sign my right away to talk about that,” Sey argued. “I wouldn’t do it.”
Meta Rolls out New Privacy Updates for Teens on Instagram and Facebook
Meta announced today that it’s introducing new privacy updates for teens on Instagram and Facebook. Most notably, everyone under the age of 16, or under 18 in certain countries, will be now defaulted into more private settings when they join Facebook.
For teens already on the app, Facebook is going to start encouraging them to choose more private settings in terms of who can see their friends lists, the posts they’re tagged in, the people and lists they follow and who is allowed to comment on their public posts. The Facebook privacy update comes over a year after Instagram started to default young users’ accounts to private accounts at sign-up.
Meta is also testing ways to protect teens from messaging suspicious adults they aren’t connected to. An example of a suspicious account is one that belongs to an adult that was recently blocked or reported by a young user. On Facebook, Meta won’t show suspicious accounts in teens’ People You May Know recommendations. Meta is also testing removing the message button on teens’ Instagram accounts when they’re viewed by suspicious adults.
Facebook Sued for Collecting Personal Data to Target Adverts
A human rights campaigner is suing Facebook’s owner in the high court, claiming the company is disregarding her right to object to the collection of her personal data.
Tanya O’Carroll has launched a lawsuit against Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta alleging it has breached U.K. data laws by failing to respect her right to demand Facebook stop collecting and processing her data. Facebook generates revenue from building profiles of users and matching them with advertisers who direct ads at people targeting their specific interests and backgrounds.
O’Carroll told BBC Radio 4’s Today program: “This case is really about us all being able to connect with social media on our own terms, and without having to essentially accept that we should be subjected to hugely invasive tracking surveillance profiling just to be able to access social media.”
Power-Hungry Robots, Space Colonization, Cyborgs: Inside the Bizarre World of ‘Longtermism’
In February, the Future Fund, a philanthropic organization endowed by the now-disgraced cryptocurrency entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried, announced that it would be disbursing more than $100 million — and possibly up to $1 billion — this year on projects to “improve humanity’s long-term prospects.”
The slightly cryptic reference might have been a bit puzzling to those who think of philanthropy as funding homelessness charities and medical NGOs in the developing world. In fact, the Future Fund’s particular areas of interest include artificial intelligence, biological weapons and “space governance,” a mysterious term referring to settling humans in space as a potential “watershed moment in human history.”
Out-of-control artificial intelligence was another area of concern for Bankman-Fried — so much so that in September the Future Fund announced prizes of up to $1.5 million to anyone who could make a persuasive estimate of the threat that unrestrained AI might pose to humanity. “We think artificial intelligence” is “the development most likely to dramatically alter the trajectory of humanity this century,” the Future Fund said.
Less than two months after the contest was announced, Bankman-Fried’s $32 billion cryptocurrency empire had collapsed, much of the Future Fund’s senior leadership had resigned and its AI prizes may never be rewarded.
China’s Guangzhou Locks Down Millions in ‘Zero-COVID’ Fight
The southern Chinese metropolis of Guangzhou locked down its largest district Monday as it tries to tamp down a major COVID-19 outbreak, suspending public transit and requiring residents to present a negative test if they want to leave their homes.
The outbreak is testing China’s attempt to bring a more targeted approach to its zero-COVID policies while facing multiple outbreaks driven by fast-spreading Omicron variants. China is the only major country in the world still trying to curb virus transmissions through strict lockdown measures and mass testing.
Baiyun district, home to 3.7 million people in Guangzhou, also suspended in-person classes for schools and sealed off universities. The measures are meant to last until Friday, the city announced.
22 States Ask Feds to Repeal COVID Vaccine Mandate for Healthcare Workers + More
22 States Ask Feds to Repeal COVID Vaccine Mandate for Healthcare Workers
Twenty-two state attorneys general are asking the Biden administration to end its “draconian vaccine mandate” for U.S. healthcare providers because it is causing critical shortages of healthcare workers and is justified with outdated data and science.
In a petition reviewed exclusively by Fox News Digital, 22 Republican state attorneys general, led by AG Austin Knudsen of Montana, demanded that the Health and Human Services Department (HHS) and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) repeal the interim final rule, or IFR, that authorized the federal mandate in effect since November 2021.
In the nearly 40-page document, the state attorneys general laid out their case for repealing the mandate that covers Medicare and Medicaid providers and affects virtually all healthcare workers in the country. It affects 10.4 million workers at 76,000 healthcare facilities as well as home healthcare providers.
“No data at the time conclusively demonstrated that the vaccines would prevent infection and transmission,” the AGs said. They added that even fully vaccinated people contracted and transmitted COVID-19, a trend that has continued even with the introduction of a first-generation booster and the new, bivalent Omicron booster, they claim.
Science Journal Recognizes the Reality of COVID Censorship
Evolution News & Science Today reported:
Almost three years have passed since COVID-19 lockdowns and mandates upended our world. At first, the virus seemed to be an obscure, distant problem, posing little threat. Today, it’s hard to think of a world event more significant, talked about and politically controversial than the response to COVID.
Earlier this month, the peer-reviewed journal Minerva: A Review of Science, Learning, and Policy published an important article on COVID-related censorship and heterodoxy. Founded in 1962, Minerva is a well-established academic journal from Springer, one of the world’s top publishers of scientific journals. The article is an indication of just how mainstream concerns about censorship during the COVID era have become.
The authors are five researchers from universities and colleges in Israel and Australia. They interviewed a sample of leading medical professionals, doctors and scientists who questioned the prevailing COVID orthodoxy and were heavily reprimanded, censored or otherwise harassed and suppressed for their views.
Social media networks including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, with the government’s help, censored scientists, doctors and others for expressing dissent or even questioning the prevailing pandemic dogma. This still goes on. The researchers paid special attention to the way tech companies suppressed COVID heterodoxy under the guise of “fact-checking” and countering “misinformation.” As the pandemic progressed, it became harder and harder for medical professionals to openly express their views.
Montana Supreme Court Declines to Block Law Banning Vaccine Mandates in Most Workplaces
The Montana Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a lower court ruling to not block a state law prohibiting vaccine mandates in most workplaces. The state’s high court sided with a lower district court, which earlier ruled in favor of the law, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of vaccination status.
The legislation applies to most businesses, government agencies and other workplaces. It excludes schools and long-term care facilities.
Montana’s Republican-dominated legislature last year passed a first-in-the-nation law making it illegal to discriminate based on a person’s vaccine status in providing services, access to public accommodations or employment. The law applies to all vaccinations.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott Issues Directive Outlawing COVID Vaccine Mandates
The Houston Chronicle reported:
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a press release Thursday announcing the outlawing of mandated COVID-19 vaccinations at state public schools. Abbott also announced the directive on Twitter Thursday, stating that “COVID vaccine mandates are PROHIBITED in Texas as part of school attendance.
“In Texas, we honor & defend the freedom of parents to choose what is best for the health of their families,” Abbott stated.
In a letter sent to TEA Commissioner Mike Morath, Abbott said that Texas law “overrides” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recent, non-binding recommendation that adds the COVID-19 vaccine to a list of scheduled immunizations for adults and kids in school, according to the announcement.
LA County Strongly Recommends Indoor Masking as COVID Cases, Hospitalizations Jump
Amid a sustained rise in coronavirus transmission, Los Angeles County is once again strongly recommending wearing a mask in indoor public spaces.
Specifically, the county now encourages individuals to wear a well-fitting, high-quality mask in public indoor spaces; when aboard public transit; in correctional and detention facilities; and in homeless and emergency shelters.
While still optional in those settings, masks remain mandatory in healthcare and congregate care facilities, as well as for those who have been exposed to COVID-19 during the last 10 days, according to county health officer Dr. Muntu Davis.
FBI Chief Wray: Can’t ‘Be Sure’ if Facebook Sending Agents User Info
FBI Director Christopher Wray said Thursday he can’t “be sure” whether Facebook is sending the bureau user information without official requests — after a recent report alleged the social media giant is flagging up information with a “partisan” slant.
House Judiciary Committee Republicans claimed earlier this month that the FBI receives “private user information from Facebook, but without the user’s consent or the legal process the FBI would otherwise need to independently pursue such user-related information.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) asked Wray during a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing about the alleged partnership — named in the House report, based in part on whistleblower claims of pro-Democratic bias within the FBI, as “Operation Bronze Griffin.”
“Is Facebook or any other social media company supplying private messages or data on American users that is not compelled by the government or the FBI?” Paul asked Wray.
“I don’t believe so. But I can’t sit here and be sure of that as I sit here,” Wray said.
G20 Pushes Vaccine Passports for All Future International Travel
The G20 has issued a formal decree promoting vaccine passports as preparation for any future pandemic response in its final communique. Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin, speaking on the matter on behalf of the G20 host country, had earlier in the summit called for a “digital health certificate” using WHO standards.
Sadikin advocated for what he dubbed a “digital health certificate,” which shows whether a person has been “vaccinated or tested properly” so that only then “you can move around.” A somewhat more vaguely-worded version of these recommendations was included in the official G20 leaders’ declaration, which calls for digital COVID-19 certificates or often simply called vaccine passports.
The section of the final communique, which is republished and available on the White House website, which deals with vaccines and the COVID-19 pandemic begins, “We recognize that the extensive COVID-19 immunization is a global public good and we will advance our effort to ensure timely, equitable and universal access to safe, affordable, quality and effective vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics (VTDs).”
Article 24 of the final G20 declaration begins, “The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the transformation of the digital ecosystem and digital economy.” And then leads to the following statement later in the section: “We acknowledge the importance to counter disinformation campaigns, cyber threats, online abuse and ensuring security in connectivity infrastructure.”
Meta Employees Were Reportedly Fired for Selling Account Information to Hackers
Meta reportedly fired more than a dozen security guards and other workers in the last year after internal investigations revealed they had been selling users’ information and login details to hackers. Some of those who received disciplinary actions were contractors who acquired information from users that were locked out or had trouble with their accounts.
The company utilizes a mechanism called “Oops” (Online Operations) to help users access or reset their accounts for Instagram or Facebook. The Wall Street Journal first reported that an internal probe found that some security guards were illegally accessing the accounts and providing the information to hackers for alleged bribes.
Oops is generally used as a last resort if users can’t reach someone from Meta by email or phone and are supposed to be used for employees, their family and friends. But as the number of employees rose, so did the number of requests that were filed. According to the WSJ, in 2017, Oops responded to about 22,000 recorded tasks which increased to 50,270 only three years later.
Toronto Transit Commission to Drop COVID Vaccine Mandate for Workers, Reinstate Terminated Employees
The Toronto Transit Commission says it’s ending its mandatory COVID-19 vaccination requirement for workers and offering to reinstate employees who were terminated as a result of the policy.
The transit agency says its vaccine mandate will be lifted on Nov. 27, though it is continuing to encourage employees to stay up-to-date with COVID-19 vaccinations.
The TTC says employees whose employment was terminated as a result of the policy will be invited to return to work. Previously-terminated employees will not be eligible for back pay but will maintain their seniority.
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.