INFORMATION
Media, radio, TV, websites, gossip, bulletin boards, advertising, magazines, government, information sources.
After House Speaker Mike Johnson pledged to release 44,000 hours of footage related to January 6th, only 90 hours have been released.
Apple has confirmed that “democracies allied to the United States” are using the information from push notifications in order to identify iPhone user accounts. Apple was previously placed under a gag order that restricted them from disclosing the practice, but after a whistleblower came forward, they confirmed the government requests.
The data of 6.9 million users of DNA-testing service 23 and Me were exposed by hackers. Previously the company claimed only 14,000 were affected. The hack exposed “the person’s name, birth year, relationship labels, the percentage of DNA shared with relatives, ancestry reports and self-reported location.”
“Last Thursday afternoon, The Gateway Pundit, a prominent conservative news platform, discovered that its website was covertly being blocked on the network within the US House of Representatives.”
“A whistleblower has come out with information pertaining to a group known as the Cyber Threat Intelligence League (CTIL), made up of a number of government officials, including at least a dozen from the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)…
The significance of CTIL is that some observers believe it turned out to be the “censorship ground zero” that grew to unprecedented size on both sides of the Atlantic, spawning an entire industry “dealing” with suppressing free speech on anything from Brexit to Covid, and the 2020 election.
According to the whistleblower, CTIL was essentially prompted into existence with Donald Trump’s 2016 election as president and involved representatives of both US and UK authorities, and private military contractors.
The same source claims that co-leader of CTIL is former UK defense researcher, contractor Sara-Jayne Terp, and that the group’s goal was to be preventing “a repeat of 2016” under the guise of fighting disinformation.”
“The Michigan State Capitol in Lansing is the first state capitol in the country to use artificial intelligence (AI) to detect people brandishing firearms.
The system is called ZeroEyes and uses a powerful AI to analyze over 36,000 images per second from security camera feeds to detect firearms. ZeroEyes has been trained by the company with over one million images. It takes the system only three to five seconds from identifying a person carrying a gun to a first responder being dispatched to the scene.
After the system detects a firearm, it will notify trained monitors in the 24/7 ZeroEyes Operation Center (ZOC). The monitors will review the footage to confirm the AI findings. All ZOC technicians are either former military or law enforcement. If the human monitor determines the AI is right, they will then dispatch officers to the site.”
“Attorneys for the Justice Department have revealed documents connected to their search warrant for Donald Trump’s Twitter account, indicating that prosecutors collected a massive collection of data about the former President’s social media activity—including information on every account that liked, followed, or retweeted him.”
“Politico reports that there was ‘some concern’ inside the Biden Administration that an ‘unintended consequence’ of the humanitarian pause is that it would ‘allow journalists broader access to Gaza’ which could ‘further illuminate the devastation there and turn public opinion on Israel'”
Microsoft’s new version of Outlook shares information including “users’ unencrypted mailbox, contact lists, and calendar along with other highly sensitive information (such as passwords and email addresses) with Microsoft.”
“Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has personally and repeatedly thwarted initiatives meant to improve the well-being of teens on Facebook and Instagram, at times directly overruling some of his most senior lieutenants, according to internal communications made public as part of an ongoing lawsuit against the company.
The newly unsealed communications in the lawsuit — filed originally by Massachusetts last month in a state court — allegedly show how Zuckerberg ignored or shut down top executives, including Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri and President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg, who had asked Zuckerberg to do more to protect the more than 30 million teens who use Instagram in the United States.”
“Sensitive personal information of active and veteran military members is being sold by U.S. data brokers that could pose a potential threat to national security, according to a recent report by Duke University…
The research team purchased details via data brokers for as low as 12 cents per record. Even the location data of military members were available for purchase.
“Access to this data could be used by foreign and malicious actors to target active-duty military personnel, veterans, and their families and acquaintances for profiling, blackmail, targeting with information campaigns, and more,” the report warned. The information in the dataset included:
+ Personal details like name, home address, email, specific branch and/or agency (active duty only), wireless phone numbers, age, gender, ethnicity, language, occupation, and levels of education.
+ Family information like marital status, presence of children at home, numbers of children, ages of children, sexes of children.
+ Ideological information like political affiliation, religion, interest in charitable donations, interest in current affairs/politics.
+ Financial information like income, net worth, credit rating, homeowner/renter status, home value, and interest in gambling/casinos.
+ Medical details like ailments and health conditions.
‘…Several data broker websites advertise data on military families, with dataset titles such as ‘Military Families Mailing List’ and ‘Hard Core Military Families,’’ the report said.
None of the datasets purchased by the team were anonymized, even when brokers provided sensitive information to unverified buyers.
The datasets cost between $0.12 and $0.32 per record when buying roughly 5,000 to 15,000 records at a time. For much larger purchases, the costs go down to as little as $0.01.”
“GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) will pay 23andMe $20 million to extend its five-year contract to mine the company’s consumer DNA data for another year.
The drugmaker is searching for hints about genes that might be at the root of disease. 23andMe will get royalties on any drugs developed.”
“Multiple US banks were hit by deposit delays on Friday caused by an error at a payment processing network, according to the Federal Reserve.
Banks stressed that customer deposits remain safe, and the bug was introduced by human error and not a malicious attack. Although the rare deposit delay affected deposits at a large number of banks, it appeared that other banking systems were functioning normally…
The ACH system allows banks to send electronic payments to each other. Everything from direct deposit paychecks to customer bill payments for mortgages and utility bills flow through this system.”
Americans visiting the EU will be subject to fingerprinting and facial scans by 2025.
Your searches will be used against you:
“Colorado’s Supreme Court this week had the opportunity to hand down a historic judgment on the constitutionality of ‘reverse keyword search warrants,’ a powerful new surveillance technique that grants law enforcement the ability to identify potential criminal suspects based on broad, far-reaching internet search results…
Critics fear these broad warrants, which compel Google and other tech companies to sift through its vast cornucopia of search data to sniff out users who’ve searched for specific keywords, could be weaponized against abortion seekers, political protestors, or even everyday internet users who inadvertently type a result that could someday be used against them in court.”
“At least 100 Israelis have been arrested for social media posts supporting Palestinians in Gaza and 70 remain in detention, according to a legal advocacy group in the country. Adalah, which represents Arab Israelis in human rights cases, said the arrests are part of an unprecedented crackdown on freedom of expression in Israel…
Police arrested Dalal Abu Amneh, a prominent Palestinian-Israeli singer, for “incitement” after her social media team posted a Palestinian flag with the caption: ‘There is no victor but God,’ her lawyer told The New Arab.
Mansour said that others were arrested for posts that consisted of Koran verses, prayers for the people of Gaza and political analysis of Israeli military operations. He said that so far nobody had been charged by prosecutors, but that police had held many of them in detention for several days.
He said that judges have rejected requests for house arrest or other forms of release with conditions, like prohibition on internet usage.”
Global Free Speech Is Eroding Fast:
“Israel’s Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi… is in the process of advancing regulations, authorizing the arrest of individuals and seizure of property based on the subjective judgment that their communication undermines ‘national morale’ or aids enemy propaganda.”
Meanwhile pro-Palestine and Hamas protests have been banned in France.
A woman who made a speech many believed was pro-Hamas was arrested in Britain for supporting a banned organization.
Germany banned all activities and organizations supporting Hamas.
Analyst Comment: While many will rationalize such restrictions because they relate to terrorist group Hamas, these precedents will be expanded against anyone who the relevant government does not like, most notably, its critics.
The EU could pass their new “Chat Control” regulations as early as next week. The regulations would nullify encryption and private messages: “The summary of the regulation is that online services that provide messaging and chat would, going forward, have to implement automatic scanning of all private text and images – looking for potential abusive content, and then let the EU know about it.”
“US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday that Washington had not had any ‘early warnings or indications’ that Hamas would launch its unprecedented attack on Israel.”
1,700 Kroger grocery stores now have AI-enabled cameras to monitor stores for theft and self-checkout errors.
“The homes of over 100 journalists, contractors, and former employees associated with the progressive news outlets Newsclick and Peoples Dispatch, as well as Tricontinental Research Services were raided by Indian authorities in the early morning of October 3 in the capital New Delhi. Several raids were also carried out in the cities of Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon and Mumbai. According to local reports around 50 individuals were taken in to the police station for additional questioning.”
“Genetic testing company 23andMe said on Friday that it had launched an investigation into a possible data breach after the personal data of millions of users was put up for sale on the dark web.
A hacker advertised the personal information of seven million users on an online forum, which includes the users’ origin estimation, phenotype, health information, photos, and identification data.”
US stadium testing or using facial recognition systems:
- Citi Field, in New York City, home of the Mets baseball team, made history by becoming the first MLB team to officially implement a facial recognition ticketing system through a program called Mets Entry Express.
- Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, home of the Phillies baseball team
- Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, home of the Falcons football team and the United soccer team
- Empower Field at Mile High in Denver, home of the Broncos football team
- FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland, home of the Browns football team
- Progressive Field, home of Cleveland Guardians, partnered with Clear to grant ballpark visitors expedited entry in exchange for their biometrics information
- Pechanga Arena, the home stadium for San Diego’s soccer and hockey teams, partnered with a firm called PopID to implement facial recognition-based ticketing
- Lower.com Field, in Columbus, Ohio, which is the home stadium for the Columbus Crew professional soccer team, has “Express Entry” for facial recognition ticketing
- The Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California, stands out as one of the earlier facial recognition adopters. The facility began using facial recognition at metal detectors around 2017 to keep tabs on VIPs, credentialed personnel, or even potentially dangerous individuals
- FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland, which uses facial recognition for entry
- Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, which uses facial recognition for ticketing
- Sun Devil Stadium at Arizona State University in Tempe, which was being used as a “living lab” to employ facial recognition technology that will analyze how fans feel based on their facial expressions
- Tropicana Field in Florida, where the Tampa Bay Rays play their home games, is also interested in adopting facial recognition technology
California’s “Covid Misinformation” bill that would punish doctors for medical “misinformation” is officially dead. Governor Gavin Newsom signed a new Senate bill which negates the previously passed section of the Business and Professions Code.
In the UK, GB news host Laurence Fox was fired, then his home raided and was subsequently arrested after he expressed support for UK residents who destroyed ULEZ cameras. These cameras are designed to monitor and fine older vehicles $15 a day as part of an emissions reduction scheme in London. So-called “blade runners” have been vandalizing, disabling and destroying many of the cameras.
“UK’s Department for Education has been conducting social media surveillance on some of the nation’s foremost education specialists. The Guardian’s investigation has revealed that the DfE maintained records of social media activities for at least nine educators, with some documentation extending to 60 pages of scrutinised interactions…
The DfE reportedly attempted to terminate a conference because two key speakers, Ruth Swailes and Aaron Bradbury, had previously expressed their disagreement with government policies… a senior government officer was deployed to the said event to “monitor” Swailes and Bradbury’s speech.”
More law enforcement agencies are using Google location data for both violent and non-violent crimes. Location data is collected by Google itself through location sharing options, by analyzing WiFi networks a phone recognizes, and through location-sharing with apps.
A major concern is that this data is obtained through geo-fenced warrants, which disclose private information of everyone in the area, including innocent bystanders and victims. Geo-fenced warrants have faced scrutiny in courts, but many law enforcement agencies take steps to obscure their use is cases to avoid key evidence being thrown out over 4th amendment violations.
“Six months after a deranged individual walked into a Nashville Christian school and killed six, including three children, the public still does not know what law enforcement officials from the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) know about the shooting…
Since then, the appeals on whether or not MNPD will be forced to release the manifesto and other writings left behind by the murderer of children have been held up in court. In court, the push to keep the records hidden has included support from families of The Covenant School, victims, and even the parents of the shooter.
As of the six-month mark, the appeals court case is still pending, with no date for a hearing on the matter scheduled as of the court’s docket on Friday, September 29.”
Florida residents are being required to register with ID.me to receive hurricane relief funds and services. ID.me uses facial recognition to authenticate users.