DHS Office of Inspector General Audit – CBP’s Searches of Electronic Devices At Ports of Entry / Redacted, December 3, 2018: “Between April 2016 and July 2017, CBP’s [U.S. Customs and Border Protection] Office of Field Operations (OFO) did not always conduct searches of electronic devices at U.S. ports of entry according to its SOPs. Specifically,… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: E-Mail
People from all over the world are sending emails to Melbourne’s trees
ABC.Net.Au: “Melbourne gave 70,000 trees email addresses so people could report on their condition. But instead people are writing love letters, existential queries and sometimes just bad puns…” Please take a couple of minutes and read this article – you may cry, you may appreciate how important trees are in our urban areas (and if… Continue Reading
UK just banned the NHS from buying any more fax machines
BBC News: “The National Health Service will be banned from buying fax machines from next month – and has been told by the government to phase out the machines entirely by 31 March 2020. In July, the Royal College of Surgeons revealed nearly 9,000 fax machines were in use across the NHS in England. The… Continue Reading
UK Investigation – Facebook allegedly offered advertisers special access to users’ data and activities
Washington Post: [see also Motherboard for coverage w/out payall]”A key British lawmaker alleged Wednesday that Facebook maintained “whitelisting agreements” that gave select companies preferential access to valuable user data several years ago, offering insight into how the company balanced concerns about user privacy with the business imperative of growing revenue. Damian Collins, chairman of a… Continue Reading
Is WikiLeaks a Russian Front?
Consider the ramifications of this article, via The Atlantic – The idea that the putative transparency group served as a connection between Moscow and the president’s associates is starting to become clearer – if it is an accurate appraisal of an expanding exposure of corruption and malfeasance perpetrated by public and private citizens and groups… Continue Reading
UK Parliament seizes cache of Facebook internal papers
The Guardian – Documents alleged to contain revelations on data and privacy controls that led to Cambridge Analytica scandal – “Parliament has used its legal powers to seize internal Facebook documents in an extraordinary attempt to hold the US social media giant to account after chief executive Mark Zuckerberg repeatedly refused to answer MPs’ questions.… Continue Reading
How to Tell if Your Account Has Been Hacked
Motherboard – How to check if your Gmail, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other accounts have been hacked. “Hackers routinely target high profile victims like politicians or wealthy cryptocurrency investors. But you could become a target too. Maybe an abusive former partner wants to stalk you, or a run-of-the-mill cybercriminal wants to get into your bank… Continue Reading
How to Track Specific Changes to Legislation with Email Alerts
In Custodia Legis – Congress.gov Search Tip – How to Track Specific Changes to Legislation with Email Alerts: “The Congress.gov team recently improved saved search alerts for legislation. This improvement applies to searches that are performed from the legislation homepage search form and the advanced search form. Initially, saved search alerts for legislation provided you with a… Continue Reading
Timeline to move users to new Google Contacts and shut down old Contacts
Another change announced by Google for Gmail users – via the Google Blog: “Over the next few months, we’ll completely replace old Google Contacts with new Google Contacts (also known as Contacts preview). We launched new Contacts in 2015 to provide a modern, smart, and quick contact management experience. We’ve added many features since then… Continue Reading
The Employer Surveillance State
The Atlantic – The more bosses try to keep track of their workers, the more precious time employees waste trying to evade them. “…In fact, electronic surveillance of employees, through technologies including not just video cameras but also monitoring software, has grown rapidly across all industries. Randolph Lewis, a professor of American Studies at the… Continue Reading
How to Disable Gmail’s Annoying New “Smart Compose” Predictive Typing Feature
Lauren Weinstein’s Blog: “It appears that at least some Gmail users are now getting an (apparently one-time) pop-up box giving the option to turn off “Smart Compose” when it first becomes active for them. This is definitely an improvement. However, if someone accepts that default (“Got it”) to try it out, there’s no clue provided… Continue Reading
Facebook Is Giving Advertisers Access to Your Shadow Contact Information
Gizmodo: “…One of the many ways that ads get in front of your eyeballs on Facebook and Instagram is that the social networking giant lets an advertiser upload a list of phone numbers or email addresses it has on file; it will then put an ad in front of accounts associated with that contact information.… Continue Reading
