DOJ eyeing Americans ‘like ATMs,’ spending over $6 billion to aid civil asset forfeitures, watchdog says

The Department of Justice is shelling out more than $6 billion to private companies to manage its asset forfeiture investigations, raising alarm from one nonprofit law firm that accuses police of “treating ordinary Americans like ATMs” and seizing their cash.

DOJ eyeing Americans ‘like ATMs,’ spending over $6 billion to aid civil asset forfeitures, watchdog says

H/T: Steve Lehto

A tiny company with a UPS Store address could help the government get around browser security

A report from The Washington Post has raised doubts about a root certificate authority used by Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and other tech companies with ties to US intelligence. The company in question, called TrustCor, works as a root certificate authority to validate the trustworthiness of websites — and while the report found no concrete evidence of wrongdoing, it raised significant questions about the company’s trustworthiness.

A tiny company with a UPS Store address could help the government get around browser security

Related:

[04-27-2021] Shadowy DARPA-Linked Company Took Over ‘Chunk’ Of Pentagon’s Internet

Elon Musk’s First Move Is To Fire The Person Most Responsible For Twitter’s Strong Free Speech Stance

Elon Musk’s First Move Is To Fire The Person Most Responsible For Twitter’s Strong Free Speech Stance

And, that wasn’t just in the US. Twitter was among the most vocal companies pushing back on foreign governments and their demands for information or their demands to censor people. Just as one example, in India, the government demanded that Twitter remove users critical of the government, and Twitter fought back, even as the government threatened to jail Twitter employees. And when India passed a law to give the government more control over internet censorship, Twitter sued the Indian government. In fact, this lawsuit was something that Elon Musk complained about, suggesting that he’s way more willing to go along with government demands. Indeed, Musk also praised the EU’s new Digital Services Act, which is a highly censorial bill that demands all sorts of content takedowns and other censorial actions. Twitter, under [Vijaya] Gadde’s leadership, was one of the most vocal companies in calling out how the Digital Services Act could harm speech online.

Related:

Elon Musk’s plan to turn Twitter into a super app is a step closer now that he owns the platform

PayPal Blames ‘Error’ For Policy Change With $2500 ‘Misinformation’ Fines

A PayPal Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) change set to go into effect on November 3 included the possibility of imposing penalties on users who “promote misinformation.” But after former PayPal president David Marcus and Tesla CEO and PayPal co-founder Elon Musk tweeted about the new rule on Saturday, a spokesperson for PayPal said that they never intended that to be the case.

PayPal Blames ‘Error’ For Policy Change With $2500 ‘Misinformation’ Fines After Elon Musk Calls Them Out

I’d be scared after that one word, too! 🙄 #clickbait