The Stupidity Of Making Porn Filters Mandatory On Mobile Devices (And Other Musings On Reality)

NSFW!

Lawmakers in the Alabama state legislature have voted for a bill that would require parental controls and NSFW content filters to be enabled on every phone and tablet sold in the state. House Bill (HB) 298, or the Protection of Minors from Unfiltered Devices Act, cleared the state House with an overwhelming 70-8 vote, with two dozen members abstaining from voting, last week. Now in the Senate, HB 298 is seeing success after the bill’s sole sponsor, state Rep. Chris Sells, failed in some previous legislative sessions to push this legislation to approval.

The Stupidity Of Making Porn Filters Mandatory On Mobile Devices (And Other Musings On Reality)

Privacy nightmare: FTC claims Drug Discount App GoodRx was leaked user data to Facebook and Google

FTC alleges that GoodRx, a drug discount site, has sold user data to Facebook. The Masters of the Universe are known for their insatiable desire for all personal information, but medical data is especially valuable for advertising purposes and in other ventures.

Privacy nightmare: FTC claims Drug Discount App GoodRx was leaked user data to Facebook and Google

H/T: Steve Lehto

This is disturbing because it means that the pharmacies are giving people’s information to GoodRX! You don’t have to enter your personal information on the GoodRX site (unless they’re using information from cookies)—you just print out the discount coupon to give to your pharmacist! The pharmacies should be penalized, as well!

The FBI and Zero-Click

During the Trump administration, the FBI paid $5 million to an Israeli software company for a license to use its “zero-click” surveillance software called Pegasus. Zero-click refers to software that can download the contents of a target’s computer or mobile device without the need for tricking the target into clicking on it. The FBI operated the software from a warehouse in New Jersey.

The FBI and Zero-Click

Related:

NSO Group Pitched Phone Hacking Tech to American Police

A former NSO employee told Motherboard that Phantom was “a brand name for U.S. territory,” but the “same Pegasus,” referring to NSO’s phone hacking tool that the company has sold to multiple countries including the United Arab Emirates, Mexico, and Saudi Arabia for millions of dollars. Infamously, Saudi Arabia used the software to surveil associates of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Motherboard granted the source anonymity to protect them from retaliation from NSO