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Apple Is Tracking You Even When Its Own Privacy Settings Say It’s Not, New Research Says

Gizmodo reported:

For all of Apple’s talk about how private your iPhone is, the company vacuums up a lot of data about you. iPhones do have a privacy setting that is supposed to turn off that tracking. According to a new report by independent researchers, though, Apple collects extremely detailed information on you with its own apps even when you turn off tracking, an apparent direct contradiction of Apple’s own description of how the privacy protection works.

The iPhone Analytics setting makes an explicit promise. Turn it off, and Apple says that it will “disable the sharing of Device Analytics altogether.” However, Tommy Mysk and Talal Haj Bakry, two app developers and security researchers at the software company Mysk, took a look at the data collected by a number of Apple iPhone apps — the App Store, Apple Music, Apple TV, Books and Stocks. They found the analytics control and other privacy settings had no obvious effect on Apple’s data collection — the tracking remained the same whether iPhone Analytics was switched on or off.

“The level of detail is shocking for a company like Apple,” Mysk told Gizmodo. The App Store appeared to harvest information about every single thing you did in real-time, including what you tapped on, which apps you search for, what ads you saw and how long you looked at a given app and how you found it.

The app sent details about you and your device as well, including ID numbers, what kind of phone you’re using, your screen resolution, your keyboard languages and how you’re connected to the internet — notably, the kind of information commonly used for device fingerprinting.

Alberta’s Court of Appeal Dismisses Case Against COVID Vaccine Requirement for Organ Transplant

Global News reported:

Alberta Health Services’ COVID-19 vaccination requirements for organ transplant patients do not impede the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Alberta’s Court of Appeal has ruled. According to a decision published on Tuesday, appellant Annette Lewis suffers from a “progressive” and “debilitating” condition that requires an organ transplant.

She has not been able to get an organ transplant to date because she refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19 prior to the procedure. As a result, her doctor has labeled her as “inactive” on the organ transplant waiting list.

Lewis claims that the COVID-19 vaccination requirement violates her Charter rights, specifically the freedom of conscience, life, liberty and security of a person and equality rights. Lewis claimed she was “being threatened” to take an “experimental medical treatment” or die, which is a “complete affront” to her conscience and free will.

She asked the Court of King’s Bench to declare the COVID-19 vaccine requirement ineffective because it violated her Charter rights, but the case was dismissed by a judge in July. She then filed an appeal shortly after. Three Court of Appeal judges dismissed Lewis’ appeal, saying the COVID-19 vaccination requirement did not infringe on her Charter rights nor did the Charter apply to COVID-19 vaccination policies.

The Fight for Free Speech Continues Around the World

Newsweek reported:

Gusty November may bring with it favorable winds for online free speech. Elon Musk‘s highly anticipated acquisition promises meaningful change for the Twitter landscape, with the prospect of canceled voices being soon released from the dark recesses of Twitter “jail.” Those of us who have lamented the shrinking space for free speech online should celebrate these signs of hope. But let us not lose sight of the international state of affairs for speech — in much of the world, the mere act of taking your thoughts online could constitute a crime.

What we have before us is a dangerous and escalating international trend of criminalizing the exercise of the basic human right to free speech. Under the auspices of the law, state-sponsored censorship manifests as a very serious threat to fundamental freedoms everywhere, from democracies to dictatorships. In fact, it has the effect of rendering democracies more and more akin to their dictatorial counterparts. This is a global phenomenon that defies national borders, demanding great vigilance and valor to defeat.

Finnish Member of Parliament Päivi Räsänen is a beacon of bravery in this regard. Charged with the “crime” of hate speech — carrying with it a 2-year prison sentence — this longstanding civil servant, medical doctor and grandmother has been embroiled in three years of legal proceedings for a 2019 tweet. Earlier this year, she won on all charges, but the prosecutor general of Finland appealed, dragging her case out to 2023, and possibly beyond, revealing an insatiable desire to punish Räsänen for expressing her faith-based beliefs on marriage and sexuality.

Supporting her legal defense, I saw firsthand the indisputably vindictive goal of the prosecution — to censor not only Räsänen but also all who dare to speak their minds. From this totalitarian perspective, only speech that supports the government’s point of view is allowed. Dissenters are to be silenced and sanctioned. As we know, if this can happen in Finland, it can happen anywhere.

The Quiet Invasion of ‘Big Information’

Wired reported:

When people worry about their data privacy, they usually focus on the Big Five tech companies: Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft. Legislators have brought Facebook’s CEO to the capitol to testify about the ways the company uses personal data. The FTC has sued Google for violating laws meant to protect children’s privacy.

Each of the tech companies is followed by a bevy of reporters eager to investigate how it uses technology to surveil us. But when Congress got close to passing data privacy legislation, it wasn’t the Big Five that led the most urgent effort to prevent the law from passing, it was a company called RELX.

You might not be familiar with RELX, but it knows all about you. Reed Elsevier LexisNexis (RELX) is a Frankensteinian amalgam of publishers and data brokers, stitched together into a single information giant. There is one other company that compares to RELX — Thomson Reuters, which is also an amalgamation of hundreds of smaller publishers and data services. Together, the two companies have amassed thousands of academic publications and business profiles, millions of data dossiers containing our personal information and the entire corpus of U.S. law.

These companies are a culmination of the kind of information market consolidation that’s happening across media industries, from music and newspapers to book publishing. However, RELX and Thomson Reuters are uniquely creepy as media companies that don’t just publish content but also sell our personal data.

City of Toronto Drops COVID Vaccine Mandate, Staff to Be Offered Reinstatement

Global News reported:

The City of Toronto is dropping its COVID-19 vaccine mandate and intends to offer unionized unvaccinated employees or those who didn’t disclose their vaccination status reinstatement.

A memo written by interim city manager Tracey Cook and sent to managers says as of Dec. 1, “the City’s COVID-19 vaccination policy will be updated to reflect that mandatory vaccination is no longer required for City staff, volunteers and contractors.”

In a separate statement issued Tuesday after the City’s announcement, the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) said it was aware of the City’s policy change. “Although the TTC is an agency of the City, we have five different labor partners representing our employees,” the statement said.

“We are engaging with all of them as a courtesy to discuss the future of our mandatory vaccination policy going forward. Reinstating employees who were terminated for being non-compliant with the policy is under consideration.”

As Teen Loneliness Rates Soar, Schools May Be Making It Worse, Scientists Say

Newsweek reported:

The trouble with America’s teenagers began well before the pandemic. In 2019, more than 1 in 3 reported feeling so sad or hopeless at some point over the past year that they had skipped regular activities, a 44% rise since 2009, and 1 in 6 had contemplated suicide.

Public health measures made all that even worse, as teenagers in communities around the nation grew more isolated than ever. During the pandemic, the number of emergency room visits for suspected suicide attempts rose by 50% for adolescent girls and 4% for boys, before settling down in recent months, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

One factor that contributed to skyrocketing rates of depression and anxiety among teenagers, says Joseph Allen, a clinical psychologist and psychology professor at the University of Virginia who specializes in adolescent social development, is the introduction of the iPhone and the rise of social media, which took off around 2009 and 2010.

“It’s given young people a way of being socially involved,” he notes, “but that is lacking in depth for the most part. It doesn’t give them what they need. It can’t replace the real thing.”

Erecting a Wall of Separation Between Tech and State

Newsweek reported:

The Intercept recently performed a public service by documenting the Biden administration’s plans to censor speech on internet platforms. Despite having shelved its proposal earlier this year to create a “Disinformation Governance Board,” Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security is still quietly attempting to persuade Big Tech platforms to suppress content it deems to be disinformation.

Among the topics for censorship the department identifies are “the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines, racial justice, U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the nature of U.S. support to Ukraine.” All of these, of course, are vitally important subjects of public debate.

One of the most important tasks for the incoming Congress will be to prevent such soft governmental censorship by erecting a firm wall of separation between tech and state.

Collusion between the intelligence agencies and Big Tech to suppress political speech began under the Trump administration but has risen to new heights under Biden. Last March, FBI official Laura Dehmlow told social media executives “we need a media infrastructure that is held accountable.”

Meta Confirms Layoffs — 11,000 Jobs Cut at Facebook’s Parent Company

Forbes reported:

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, confirmed plans to lay off thousands of workers on Wednesday, the latest tech giant to trim headcount amid gloomy economic forecasts and uncertain prospects.

Meta founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg told workers the firm will cut its headcount by 13%, or 11,000 employees, amid falling revenue, grim global economic forecasts and increased competition.

Twitter Tells Advertisers That User Growth Is at ‘All-Time Highs’ Under Elon Musk

The Verge reported:

Twitter’s daily user growth hit “all-time highs” during the first full week of Elon Musk owning the platform, according to a company document obtained by The Verge.

Since Musk’s dramatic takeover, Twitter’s monetizable daily user (mDAU) growth has accelerated to more than 20%, while “Twitter’s largest market, the U.S., is growing even more quickly,” according to an internal FAQ obtained by The Verge that was shared with Twitter’s sales team on Monday to use in conversations with advertisers. Per the FAQ, Twitter has added more than 15 million mDAUs, “crossing the quarter billion mark” since the end of the second quarter, when it stopped reporting financials as a public company.

If those numbers are in line with how Twitter reported metrics when it was public, they imply that the service has yet to see a mass exodus under Musk’s ownership.

While users may not be fleeing Twitter en masse, advertisers are. In another tweet on Friday, Musk said the company has seen “a massive drop in revenue” due to “activist groups pressuring advertisers.”

EU to Hit Facebook With New Antitrust Charges

Politico reported:

EU antitrust enforcers are preparing to send Facebook a list of charges over the U.S. firm’s anti-competitive abuses on its marketplace platform, two people familiar with the matter told POLITICO.

The U.S. social media giant will face a “statement of objections” from Brussels regulators that would lay out how the firm could be leveraging its social media platform Facebook into its classified ads service known as Marketplace, claiming this amounts to an abuse of dominance, according to the two people, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the confidential nature of the case.

EU investigators also plan to zone in on how data obtained by Facebook from its advertisers could be used to advantage Marketplace over competing services unfairly.

It’s the first time the U.S. social media giant has been in the crosshairs of the bloc’s antitrust enforcers for an abuse of dominance. It’s facing an investigation into similar charges in the United Kingdom too.