Tag: personal data

U.S. Press Starts To Figure Out College TikTok Bans Are A Dumb Performance

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

U.S. Press Starts To Figure Out College TikTok Bans Are A Dumb Performance

One, the bans are generally designed to agitate a xenophobic base and give the impression the GOP is “doing something about China.” But the party that couldn’t care less about rampant corruption or privacy violations isn’t doing much of anything meaningful to thwart China. In fact, letting adtech, telecom, and app companies run rampant with little oversight runs contrary to any such goal.

Two, the bans distract the public and press from our ongoing failure on consumer privacy and security issues. Banning TikTok, but doing nothing about the accountability optional free for all that is the adtech and data-hoovering space, doesn’t actually fix anything. China can just obtain the same data from a universe of other international companies facing little real oversight on data collection.

Three, the ban is really just about money. Trump gave the game away with his proposal that TikTok be chopped up and sold to Oracle and Walmart. That cronyistic deal fell through, but it’s pretty clear that this moral panic is designed to either help TikTok’s competitors (Facebook lobbyists are very active on this front), or force the sale of the most popular app in modern history to GOP-allies. At which point they’ll engage in all the surveillance and influence efforts they pretend to be mad about.

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State TikTok Bans Are A Dumb Performance And Don’t Fix The Actual Underlying Problem

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

For decades, U.S. politicians leaders utterly refused to support most meaningful privacy protections for consumers. They opposed any nationwide privacy law, however straightforward. They opposed privacy rules for broadband ISPs. They also fought tooth and nail to ensure the nation’s top privacy enforcement agency, the FTC, lacked the authority, staff, funds, or resources to actually do its job.

State TikTok Bans Are A Dumb Performance And Don’t Fix The Actual Underlying Problem

Bad News For The Internet: Congress Looking To Sneak In Dangerous ‘Save The Kids!’ Internet Bill Into Year-End Omnibus

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Over the last week or so, I keep hearing about a big push among activists and lawmakers to try to get the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) into the year-end “must pass” omnibus bill. Earlier this week, one of the main parents pushing for the bill went on Jake Tapper’s show on CNN and stumped for it. And, the latest report from Axios confirms that lawmakers are looking to include it in the lameduck omnibus, or possibly the NDAA (despite it having absolutely nothing to do with defense spending).

Bad News For The Internet: Congress Looking To Sneak In Dangerous ‘Save The Kids!’ Internet Bill Into Year-End Omnibus

Related:

KOSA Would Let the Government Control What Young People See Online

Canadian Journalist Added to Ukrainian Hitlist + NATO is behind the site of Ukrainian nationalists “Peacemaker”

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)1 Comment

Guy Boulianne of Quebec targeted by “Mirotvorets”

Canadian Journalist Added to Ukrainian Hitlist (archived)

Related:

Important data from the “Myrotvorets” site on crimes against minors in Russia, Donbass and Ukraine have been published by the Foundation for Combating Injustice (original in French)

[2015] NATO is behind the site of Ukrainian nationalists “Peacemaker”

State Dept. gives law enforcement, intelligence agencies unrestricted access to Americans’ personal data

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The State Department is giving law enforcement and intelligence agencies unrestricted access to the personal data of more than 145 million Americans, through information from passport applications that is shared without legal process or any apparent oversight, according to a letter sent from Sen. Ron Wyden to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and obtained by Yahoo News.

State Dept. gives law enforcement, intelligence agencies unrestricted access to Americans’ personal data

Stop the Ukrainian Myrotvorets kill list that targets children

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Vanessa Beeley, Oct 29 2022

The hit list of the Ukrainian nationalists (aka “Myrotvorets”) that publishes personal information on the people deemed as “enemies of the Kiev regime” has been endangering the lives of children, journalists and ordinary people since 2014. The Russian Mission to the UN in Geneva has transmitted an open letter from the “Foundation to Battle Injustice” NGO to Volker Türk, the UNHCHR, regarding the malicious activities of “Myrotvorets.” The letter, signed by the journalists who are listed on the “Myrotvorets” and receive death threats, and the journalists who wish to stop these flagrant violations of human rights, calls on the UNHCHR to condemn the activities of “Myrotvorets.” The Russian Mission to the UN in Geneva joins this call and urges the High Commissioner to pay special attention, duly assess and publicly react to the existence and operation of “Myrotvorets,” which violates human rights and puts people’s lives in jeopardy. (Russian MFA on Telegram)

SIGN THE PETITION HERE

Stop the Ukrainian Myrotvorets kill list that targets children