For far too long Internet users have suffered personal data abuses at the whims of Facebook and other platforms. – Alan Butler
Deranged men may respond violently when sex workers refuse to cater to their fantasies:
…Stanley Szeliga…has been charged with [the] murder…of [a dancer named Abigail] Saldaña…in…Fort Worth [Texas]…Rick’s Cabaret [manager told cops]…Saldaña had recently been harassed by a customer he knew as “Stan.” The manager showed the detective an Oct. 14 Instagram post in which Saldaña said she found a tracker under her car…“Stan” was irritated [that] Saldaña [would not indulge his fantasy of being her boyfriend] and had threatened to tell police she was engaged in prostitution…
Yet another rescue industry fraud has been unmasked:
[A rescue industry scam named] Saved in America has in the last four years collected hundreds of thousands of dollars from g[ullible] San Diegans and other donors at big-ticket galas…its [ringleader], private [dick] Joseph Travers, describes [the] group…[as composed of] former [pigs, spooks and jarheads] that help…families locate missing and exploited children. Since its formation in 2017, SIA has re[leas]ed extensive publicity extolling its [own supposed] work. Now, though, former supporters and local [politicians] are distancing themselves from the organization’s [bullshit] claims. Multiple groups [and politicians] listed as supporters on the organization’s website…[have] ask[ed] Saved in America to remove their names. A [politician] scheduled to receive the group’s major award at the Thursday gala said he is not attending…
The “cops bearing gifts” PR scam is not limited to the US:
Since August 11 this year, [cops have harassed]…sex work[ers and clients] in Ganga Jamuna [the red light district of Nagpur, India, thus endangering] the livelihood of the 2,000- 3,000 sex workers there…[yet those same cops] organized a “Diwali milan” programme to distribute sarees, ration and other gifts to the women and their children…sex workers [replied by] demanding [that the] cops…[stop harassing them instead. One] sex worker said the cops cannot justify…keeping us away from livelihood for the last three months and then offering us festive gifts…the cops…[of course] denied any strong opposition [to their scam, claiming…the majority [or sex workers were] in our favour [of starving to death while cops play generous for reporters]…
I wonder if the Illinois lawsuit had anything to do with this?
Facebook…announced…it is shutting down its facial recognition system, which automatically identifies users in photos and videos…[civil rights advocates point out that] facial recognition technology – which is popular among retailers, hospitals and other businesses for s[urveillance] purposes…compromise[s] privacy, target[s] marginalized groups and normalize[s] intrusive surveillance. IBM has permanently ended facial recognition product sales, and Microsoft…and Amazon…have suspended sales to police [temporari]ly…
A mother and her 10-year-old daughter were [harassed] by [cops and a bureaucrat] at Denver International Airport in October, after an air…[hostess included them in her]…human-trafficking [fantasies without their consent]…Mary MacCarthy said the suspicion was based on a “racist assumption” as she is white and her daughter is biracial…The pair were travelling to attend [a] funeral…[but] upon arriving in Denver, [they] were surrounded by two armed [thugs] and a…Southwest [agent] on the jet bridge, and were [interrogated after the crying child was]…separate[d from her mother]…the [air hostess fantasized that] it was suspicious that Ms MacCarthy and her daughter Moira were [in] the last…[airline-assigned] board[ing group] and [that a mother wanted]…to…sit together [with her 10-year-old]…daughter…[even after they were finally allowed to leave, the cops]…called [MacCarthy] 10 days later to [harass her some more]…Southwest Airlines responded [by vomiting out a lot of platitudes and the magic buzzwords]…Human Trafficking…
Why end-to-end encryption is an absolute necessity:
Signal has released the details of a search warrant it received from police in Santa Clara, California, unveiling the [lengths to which cops]…will [go] to force online platforms into disclosing the personal information of their users…[the cops] sought to get the name, street address, telephone number, and email address of a specific Signal user. It also wanted billing records, the dates of when the account was opened and registered, inbound and outbound call detail records, voicemails, video calls, emails, text messages, IP addresses along with dates and times for each login, and even all dates and times the user connected to Signal…[the only information] Signal [could] provide…[was] timestamps show[ing] the dates that the account last connected to Signal…[because] “It’s impossible to turn over data that we never had access to in the first place. Signal doesn’t have access to your messages; your chat list; your groups; your contacts…or [anything else]”…[the cops] then issued a non-disclosure order that required Signal to not publicly disclose that it received the search warrant. Th[at] was then extended four times, which resulted in Signal’s request to unseal the search warrant being repeatedly pushed back. In total, it took Signal almost a full year before the company was able to legally publicly disclose [what had happened]…
Detroit voters…overwhelmingly approved a ballot initiative aimed at protecting people who consume “entheogenic plants” from arrest and prosecution. Proposal E, which was supported by 61 percent of voters, makes “personal possession and therapeutic use” of natural psychedelics by adults “the city’s lowest law-enforcement priority”…Just a month ago, the Seattle City Council unanimously approved a [similar] resolution…Although the Detroit ballot initiative claims to “decriminalize” natural psychedelics “to the fullest extent permitted under Michigan law,” it does not affect state penalties for possessing such drugs, which…[can include] up to four years in prison and a $25,000 fine…[though a pending bill] would [truly] decriminalize the [substances if passed]…
