FCC Will Blacklist Phone Service Providers For Allowing Robocalls

The Federal Communications Commission will remove seven voice-over IP providers out of its list of trusted carriers for failing to apply safeguards against robocalls.

The FCC implemented ID verification protocols known as “STIR/SHAKEN” last summer, and compiled a Robocall Mitigation Database of certified voice providers, as part the 2019 Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (TRACED) Act. The regulation requires that companies in the database certify they are following the FCC’s robocall mitigation practices.”

— “‘Fines alone aren’t enough:’ FCC threatens to blacklist voice providers for flouting robocall rules,” Tonya Riley, CyberScoop [links added]

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Tech Is Trapping Kids

How do we protect kids for the pitfalls of tech? A New York Times opinion essay.

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Hey Alexa, what are you doing with those recordings of me?

Do you have a smart speaker? At least 20% of U.S. households do. Those speakers are recording you and yours all the time. What happens to those files?

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Pegasus

Pegasus spyware can bypass your cellphone’s security and access your emails, messages, GPS location, photos, video, and even turn on your phone’s microphone. Manufacturer NSO Group has sold Pegasus to some of the world’s most oppressive regimes. These clients have used to spy on journalists, world figures, and human rights groups. Read about The Guardian‘s extensive investigation.

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Feds Fine Fraudsters for Making a Billion Robocalls

“The U.S. communications regulator on Tuesday proposed a $225 million fine, its largest ever, against two health insurance telemarketers for spamming people with 1 billion robocalls using fake phone numbers.

The Federal Communications Commission said John Spiller and Jakob Mears made the calls through two businesses. State attorneys general of Arkansas, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas also sued the two men and their companies, Rising Eagle and JSquared Telecom, in federal court in Texas, where both men live, for violating the federal law governing telemarketing, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.”

— “Feds seek $225M fine for pair who made a billion robocalls,” By Tali Arbel, Associated Press

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Facial Recognition

Joss Fong explains the real costs of facial recognition. a Vox video.

Related:

“Meet the scholar who diagnosed ‘surveillance capitalism,'” Frank Bajak, Associated Press

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Congress Passes Another Anti-Robocall Bill.

“The Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act, or the TRACED Act, empowers the federal government with new abilities to go after illegal robocallers. Once TRACED is enacted, the Federal Communications Commission could fine robocallers up to $10,000 per call. It also would require major carriers like AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile to deploy a new technology called STIR/SHAKEN into their networks, which will make it easier for consumers to know if they’re receiving a call from a spoofed number.”

— “Robocall fines rise to $10,000 per call under newly passed law,” Makena Kelly, The Verge

More:

“Senate passes anti-robocalls bill; Trump expected to sign,” Tali Arbel, Associated Press

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Cambridge Analytica Got Data on 87 Million Facebook Users

Remember learning that Trump campaign data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica grabbed personal information from 50 million Facebook users? Fake News! it was 87 million.

But that’s nothing. Facebook now admits it let all kinds of skeevy cyber customers (it calls them “malicious actors”) scrape personal data from 2 billion people. Yes, that’s most Facebook users. Oops.

Looks like Mark Zuckerberg will have some ‘splainin’ to do when he testifies before Congress next Tuesday. Fun Fact: Three of his congressional questioners own FB stock.

Shut-the-Barn-Door-After Department: There are Plans to Restrict Data Access on Facebook.

More:

“Mark Zuckerberg knows he screwed up,” Kurt Wagner, ReCode

“Facebook says it should have audited Cambridge Analytica,” Associated Press

“Facebook’s dizzying spin on ‘the Cambridge Analytica thing,’” Callum Borchers, Washington Post

“Facebook suspends Canadian firm linked to Cambridge Analytica,” Kia Kokalitcheva, David McCabe, Axios

“As Facebook confronts data misuse, foreign governments might force real change,” Nick Noack, Washington Post

Related:

“This is how Zuckerberg’s Facebook will likely get regulated,” Chase Purdy, Quartz

“It’s about to get harder to trick people with political ads on Facebook,” Hanna Kozlowska, Quartz

“Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg Says Data-Sharing Tool Complied With FTC,” Sarah Frier, Bloomberg

“AP sources: EPA chief spent millions on security and travel,” Michael Biesecker, Associated Press

“Private Messages Aren’t Exactly Private at Facebook,” Shira Ovide, Bloomberg Gadfly

“Facebook retracted Zuckerberg’s messages from recipients’ inboxes,” Josh Constine, Techcrunch

“Facebook may need group therapy to fix its engineering culture,” Janet Guyon, Quartz

“Can We Be Saved From Facebook?” Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone

“Don’t Fix Facebook. Replace It.” Tim Wu, New York Times

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Why GOP Congressman Killed Web Privacy: ‘Nobody’s got to use the Internet’

At at recent Town Hall, 73-year-old Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI, 5) explained why he and his fellow Republicans voted to allow your Internet Service Provider to sell your browsing history:

“Nobody’s got to use the Internet. … And the thing is that if you start regulating the Internet like a utility, if we did that right at the beginning, we would have no Internet. … Internet companies have invested an awful lot of money in having almost universal service now. The fact is is that, you know, I don’t think it’s my job to tell you that you cannot get advertising for your information being sold. My job, I think, is to tell you that you have the opportunity to do it, and then you take it upon yourself to make that choice. … That’s what the law has been, and I think we ought to have more choices rather than fewer choices with the government controlling our everyday lives.”

You may recall that the Internet (and the Web as we know it) was developed by government, with your federal tax dollars.

More:

“‘Nobody’s got to use the Internet’: A GOP lawmaker’s response to concerns about Web privacy,” Kristine Phillips, Washington Post

“Why one Republican voted to kill privacy rules: ‘Nobody has to use the Internet,’” Jon Brodkin, Ars Technica

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Mass Surveillance

Anti-terrorism mass surveillance practices examined by Kurzgesagt (German for “in short; in a nutshell”).

More:

“What’s the Evidence Mass Surveillance Works? Not Much,” Lauren Kirchner, Pro Publica

“Peekaboo, I See You: Government Authority Intended for Terrorism is Used for Other Purposes,” Mark Jaycox, Electronic Frontier Foundation

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