They can talk about carbon footprints all day long and it won’t do any good. The world population has MORE THAN DOUBLED in the last 50 years. There’s your problem. The human virus is spreading faster than either nature or our own inclinations for self-destruction can keep up with.
No one wants to even think about solving that problem, but it’s there. Just ask an introvert.
Apple’s iOS team has had a pretty stellar record of secure designs and security-minded intent for a long time now. Android has never been a trustworthy system, and Google doesn’t care. Thanks to the “wutan-flu” as the kids call it, both are leaving vulnerabilities unpatched on purpose and tracking us.
Google did this BEFORE the joint announcement of Google and Apple working on APIs for contract tracing. They did not ask users consent, users didn’t even know this could be done until the datawas already gathered and the report published.
April 3, 2020 – Google’s announced report based on data it had already been gathering for who knows how long: https://www.blog.google/technology/health/covid-19-community-mobility-reports
April 18, 2020 – Google and Apple announce partnership to produce APIs for contract tracing. https://www.wired.com/story/apple-google-bluetooth-contact-tracing-covid-19/
The Bluetooth vulnerabilities are critical, but since the companies can make money from tracking us, they won’t be fixing them any time soon. https://www.zdnet.com/article/contact-tracing-apps-unsafe-if-bluetooth-vulnerabilities-not-fixed/
All this has been a waste of time, as people aren’t installing the apps that use these APIs. https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2020/05/22/contact-tracing-apple-google-coronavirus-security-update-android-iphone/#496197251d59
I refuse to update my phone to 13.5 or higher because they’re tracking users without consent, leaving vulnerabilities open, colluding with Google to compromise our privacy and security, and creating unused APIs for apps to track people. A malicious app could be installed which takes advantage of the APIs and the Bluetooth problems.
Obviously the FBI must be loving this “feature” to instantly trace a baddie’s circle of contacts. Just as with the end-to-end encryption debate, once that backdoor is created, there’s just no guarantee that it can’t be used maliciously. Apple & Google did this on purpose, which I would expect from Google, but Apple? Such betrayal will not soon be forgotten.
Congress wants to extend the copyright on some sound recordings to 144 years
Or more accurately (by the url text) : Orrin Fucking Hatch.
No one lives to 144 years old, and certainly would have no copyright interest in anything they created (namely poop) for that long. No, this is obviously a continuation of the cancer that is Corporate Personhood.
Things in the Public Domain are not “orphaned” and up for adoption by yet another corporation looking to profit from possible copyright lawsuits. There’s so much wrong with that idea that I’m nauseous and may need to go lay down for a while.
All this corporate goatfuckery is going to destroy this country. That, and the social media turning everyone with an opinion into a terrorist, but that’s a topic for another rant.
Peter Thiel and Palantir Are at the Heart of the Iran Nuclear Deal
This quote, referring to the French President, caught my eye:
Macron warned over the weekend that abrogation by the U.S. could lead to war.
US President Trump is expected to announce withdrawal from the Iran nuclear accord today, so I guess we’ll learn more about what Macron was referring to soon enough.
Perhaps it’s time the adults took charge.
Kevin Williams 