| Offsite article: DoHoT...
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 | 30th September 2022
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Better security, privacy, and integrity via load-balanced DNS over HTTPS over Tor. By Alec Muffett See
article from blog.apnic.net |
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Now It's Upset That Airbnb Is Banning People With Criminal Records
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19th September 2022
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| See
article from techdirt.com by Mike Masnick
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For years, the media has hyped up the idea that Airbnbs may be dangerous and used by criminals. At some point, it's no wonder that the company would start to just cut off people with criminal records, because of the PR problems it causes. The company
even went so far as to buy a background check company that it had used. Either way, it seems clear that Airbnb is going too far in banning people like Hallam, but it really shouldn't be a surprise. If we keep pushing moral panic style
stories about the dangers of criminals using services like Airbnb, we shouldn't then be surprised when the company says okay, no more people with a criminal record no matter how totally unfair that might be. See full
article from techdirt.com Can't we find a
way to recognise good people from bad? Are we paving the way for the acceptability of Chinese style social scoring? |
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Colorado 'smart' home temperature control apps find that they can be used by the power company to forcibly turn down your settings
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 | 3rd
September 2022
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| See article from reclaimthenet.org |
Thousands of Xcel customers in Colorado were locked out of their 'smart' thermostats, meaning they had no control of the temperatures in their homes. The thermostat displayed a message saying he could not turn up the cooling because he had been locked
out due to an energy emergency. The app users had signed up for a scheme whereby they receive discounts in exchange for volunteering for a personalised power cut when the electricity company is running out of capacity. Xcel confirmed that
some customers had been locked out of their thermostats for hours. Vice President of Customer Solutions and Innovation Emmett Romine said that the 22,000 customers who could not control their thermostats had registered for the Colorado AC Rewards
program. He explained: It's a voluntary program. Let's remember that this is something that customers choose to be a part of based on the incentives. For participating in the program, customers received $100 in credit
and $25 annually. He added that it was the first time in the six years since the program was launched that customers were not able to override their thermostats. He said there was an energy emergency caused by hot weather, heavy usage of
air conditioners, and an unexpected outage in Pueblo. Presumably the same sort of 'emergency override' capability is one of the reason that UK power companies are so keen on getting people to have 'smart' meters. |
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ICO called on to investigate the massive scale of data mining and snooping at the online betting company Sky Bet.
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 | 8th August 2022
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| See article from decisionmarketing.co.uk
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Internet censors of the Information Commissioner's Office has been called on to implement a full-scale probe into how the online betting industry is exploiting new technology to profile and target gamblers. The move follows a complaint by
the campiagn group Clean Up Gambling. It alleges that Sky Bet and its partners are creating detailed behavioural profiles of customers and sharing thousands of data points with dozens of third parties. Clean Up Gambling alleges that one
advertising partner, Signal, owned by TransUnion, has a dossier of 186 attributes for an individual, including their propensity to gamble, their favourite games and their susceptibility to specific types of marketing. TransUnion said it assists
gambling companies in preventing fraud, confirming age and identity, checking affordability and protecting vulnerable customers, to support responsible gambling. |
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WhatsApp would rather be blocked in Britain rather than submit to UK demands for encryption backdoors
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 | 31st July 2022
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| See article from bbc.co.uk |
The boss of WhatsApp says it will not lower the security of its messenger service. Will Cathcart told the BBC. If asked by the government to weaken encryption, it would be very foolish to accept. We
continue to work with the tech sector to support the development of innovative technologies that protect public safety without compromising on privacy. End-to-end encryption (E2EE) provides the most robust level of security, because - by
design - only the intended recipient holds the key to decrypt the message, which is essential for private communication. The technology underpins the online exchanges on apps including WhatsApp and Signal and - optionally - on Facebook messenger and
Telegram. Only the sender and receiver can read those messages - not law enforcement or the technology giants. The UK government wants phone software to scan people's phones for banned material prior to being encrypted for a message. Cathcart explained:
Client-side scanning cannot work in practice. Because millions of people use WhatsApp to communicate across the world, it needs to maintain the same standards of privacy across every country. If
we had to lower security for the world, to accommodate the requirement in one country, that...would be very foolish for us to accept, making our product less desirable to 98% of our users because of the requirements from 2%. What's being proposed is that we - either directly or indirectly through software - read everyone's messages. I don't think people want that.
Ella Jakubowska, policy adviser at campaign group European Digital Rights, said: Client-side scanning is almost like putting spyware on every person's phone. It also creates a backdoor for malicious actors
to have a way in to be able to see your messages.
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Latest Liberty | News Monday 10th March... | Banned News | Thoughts on Reality Killers 2005 Italy horror by Alessandro Capone, Pablo Dammicco, Volfango De Biasi, recently banned by the BBFC, set for US Blu-ray release on 10th June 2025 |
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| News Saturday 22nd February... | Liberty | UK government seeks to break encryption on Apple's iCloud If Apple continues to offer encrypted iCloud then we can infer that the encryption has been secretly compromised. If Apple withdraws the service from Brits then we will at least know that the rest of the world will stay safe. |
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