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State Department Scrambles to Scuttle $100M Censorship Network Before Trump Takes Office
The State Department revealed in a Monday filing that they are “substantially likely” to shut down their $100M Global Engagement Center (GEC), which was revealed in early 2023 to have been funding a “disinformation” tracking group which worked to pressure advertisers to demonetize outlets it accuses of spreading “disinformation.” Except, they’re really just “realigning” the “Center’s staff and funding to other Department offices and bureaus for foreign information manipulation.”
The move comes amid a lawsuit from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and several conservative media outlets listed a GEC-funded “dynamic exclusion list” of websites it doesn’t like, which it would then distribute to ad tech companies — such as Microsoft’s Xandr — in order to try and “defund and downrank these worst offenders,” and deprive said sites of ad revenue.
When Will TikTok Be Banned in the U.S.? And What Can Stop It From Happening?
As we approach the Jan. 19 deadline for the potential TikTok ban, there have been several significant developments: a federal appeals court panel upheld the Biden-era law; creators are now encouraging their followers to head to other platforms; and TikTok is begging courts to let a new administration weigh in.
The latest attempt at banning TikTok in the U.S. is also the only one that has stuck. President Joe Biden signed a bill into law in April that gave ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, nine months to get a new buyer or be banned in U.S. app stores — and the clock is running out.
The ban wouldn’t simply delete the app off your phone or erase the site from the internet but would rely on internet hosting companies and app stores like Apple and Google. If they distribute or update TikTok, they’ll face penalties. When will TikTok get banned? The deadline for Biden’s law is Jan. 19 — the day before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
TikTok Fights Canadian Shutdown Order
TikTok is contesting a Canadian government directive to cease its business operations, citing national security concerns. The company filed an application for a judicial review with the Federal Court in Vancouver on Dec. 5, seeking to overturn the order mandating the dissolution of TikTok Technology Canada Inc.
Last month, Canadian Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne announced plans to shut down TikTok’s Canadian entity. This followed a national security review of its Chinese parent company, ByteDance Ltd.
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Google Warns Millions of Android Users — These Apps Are Spying on You
Google is narrowing the gap to iPhone on the security and privacy front with Android 15. A raft of welcome changes will better protect users, their devices and their data, including live threat detection to quickly flag malware and permission abuse, cellular network defense, and tighter controls of what apps are doing behind the scenes.
When we talk about permission abuse, we clearly mean the grey area between apps behaving well and outright spyware — of which there’s still plenty on Android. While Apple led the charge to restrict location tracking and access to sensitive phone functions like messaging, cameras and contacts, Google has followed.
These are the most sensitive spyware functions on your phone, and you should monitor their usage carefully. That said, the advice for users isn’t actually to monitor after the fact, of course, but to stop granting these permissions in the first place. No app should be allowed to access your camera, microphone or phone or messaging functions, unless they absolutely need to do so to perform their core functions. As for location tracking, this has been the most pervasive of all permission abuses on Android and needs to stop.
Google Wallet Adds Digital ID Support in yet Another US State
New Mexico is getting with the times, as residents can now save their driver’s licenses and state IDs in Google Wallet. New Mexico is the latest state to adopt Google’s digital identification technology. This makes it the sixth state to join, with California joining the club back in August. The other states include Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, and Maryland.
Adding your New Mexico ID to Google Wallet is super easy. Just open the app, tap “Add to Wallet,” pick “ID,” and follow the steps. You’ll snap photos of both sides of your ID and record a quick selfie video for verification. In a few minutes, you’ll get a notification that your digital ID is ready to use. Once it’s set up, you can access it just like your payment cards.
Although New Mexico law still requires carrying physical IDs for law enforcement and age checks, more businesses and TSA checkpoints are using the NM Verifier app, letting residents verify their IDs with just their smartphones.
Accelerate Digital ID, Review Verification Trust Framework Often to Fight Fraud: Report
In the twentieth century, a phone call most often meant family or friends reaching out to catch up or share news. In the twenty-first, for many people, it most often means scams. A new report from Cifas and the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) sounds the alarm on how AI, deepfakes and other techniques are fueling a surge in identity fraud — a global epidemic and “the most commonly experienced crime in the UK.”
According to “Who Do You Think You Are: Recommendations on the Future Response to Large-Scale Identity Fraud,” identity fraud now costs the U.K. an estimated £1.8 billion every year. And, it says, “these figures are set to soar.” One contributor “used the metaphor of the frog being slowly boiled over time to explain how the threat of identity fraud has been allowed to grow unchecked.”
