Government officials are eager to turn public fears into blank checks for expanding their own intrusive power. – J.D. Tuccille
Grayshift is constantly in a cat-and-mouse game with Apple:
Apple quietly introduced code into iOS 18.1 which reboots the device if it has not been unlocked for a period of time, reverting it to a state which…[makes] it harder for police to break in…an inactivity timer….will cause devices in an AFU state to reboot…AFU refers to After First Unlock, which is when somebody, presumably the phone’s owner, has unlocked the device at least once since being powered on, and which generally can make it easier for [pigs to root in]. BFU, or Before First Unlock, is when a user has not unlocked the phone since it was turned on, and is typically a harder state for forensic tools to crack…Magnet Forensics recently acquired Grayshift, the company that makes the phone unlocking tool GrayKey…
The government says only government-owned libraries are legal:
In September, a federal appeals court dealt a major blow to the Internet Archive…[by upholding] a lower court ruling that [claimed] the Internet Archive’s huge, digitized lending library of copyrighted books was not covered by the “fair use” doctrine and infringed on the rights of publishers…The Internet Archive [has]…an online collection of 44 million books and texts [and]…operates a digital lending library called the Open Library. The Archive owns a physical copy of every book in the Open Library, and it scans and uploads them. Except for a period during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Archive has allowed only one digital copy of a book to be checked out at a time—a one-to-one owned-to-loaned ratio, just like a brick-and-mortar library. In 2020, four publishers—Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, John Wiley & Sons, and Penguin Random House—sued the Archive, alleging copyright infringements…”It’s absurd that the Internet Archive is allowed to mail me a physical book it owns. The physical publishers can’t stop that. But [the Archive] can’t give me the same content in digital form,” [said] Cara Gagliano, senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is representing the Archive in court…
Cops believe all women’s bodies are for their sexual use:
A [typical and representative] Missouri [cop] is [being sued for]…pull[ing women over and using]…traffic stops a[s a pretext to steal] nude photos [from their] cell phone[s]…at least [eight times in all]…Julian Alcala…[used the pretext of] a broken taillight on two separate occasions…for [the woman who filed the suit. Her] proof of insurance….was on her cell phone, [so] he took her phone back to his car, where he searched her phone for nude photos…took photos of them with his own cell phone and later distributed these photos to others…this isn’t [even close to] the first time…a [cop] has stolen intimate photos off women’s phones. In 2014, a group of California [cops made]…a “game” of stealing nude photos from arrested women’s phones…
Civil liberties violations only start with people the government has demonized:
…early in the first Trump administration…the incoming president…call[ed] for “extreme vetting”…of…migrants…and visitors…the U.S. government wanted access to people’s online lives, especially their social media accounts, to continuously monitor their statements and opinions…[via] media, blogs, public hearings, conferences, academic websites, social media websites…radio, television, press, geospatial sources, internet sites, and specialized publications…The monitoring soon applied to millions of people entering legally…Biden…kept the program in place…The Knight First Amendment Institute assisted two documentary filmmakers’ associations who [have] sued to end the program. The plaintiffs feared government officials peering through their correspondence with colleagues visiting from overseas and scrutinizing the opinions expressed in their communications and their work (arguments are scheduled for December)—and, maybe, sharing the results with partner agencies in other countries…
Australia’s rulers seem even more eager to destroy the internet than US rulers:
Australia’s government says it will introduce…legislation to ban [people] under 16 from social media. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese [belched out magic words like]…”harm”…and…”safety”…to [justify a plan that could only be enforced by forcing everyone to produce ID in order to use the internet]…the government said the ban will not apply to young people already on social media…[politicians and puritans claim] that social media platforms can harm the mental health of adolescents, [but in actuality these problems are caused by government-encouraged intrusive surveillance and infantilization of young adults]…
Seven weeks ago, I told y’all that I’m facing a projected $3000 shortfall for my annual operating budget, and asked for help making up that difference. Well, several of my loyal readers have already stepped up, generously helping me to the tune of $2500. So that now leaves only a $500 shortfall! If you can spare some or all of that remainder right now, I’d really appreciate it; that would get this done before Thanksgiving, so it doesn’t interfere with my annual toy drive!
Why are people shocked when men paid and encouraged to behave violently, behave violently?
…in August…a [typical and representative Wyoming cop named]…Michael Hughes [got drunk and] wa…ved his [gun around]…at his…apartment [complex. Responding cops]…evacuat[ed]…some o[f his neighbors after]…he put two bullets…into the apartment above him and “threatened to shoot anyone who comes through the door”…hi[lariously,]…when the S[WAT] Team flew a drone through a broken window [to spy on him] Hughes snatched it out of the air, bent the propellers and threw it back out the window…[yet they continued to play footsie with him for 17 hours instead of attacking with overwhelming force as they would’ve done had there been children, minorities, or old people in the apartment]…
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