Many chess players have been disappointing us as of late.
How to keep your data from brokers and marketers
Fast Company: “It’s no secret that private intel companies compile vast dossiers on us. But the extent is breathtaking. Here’s how it works—and what you can do about it. We’ve seen a stream of revelations about data brokers in recent months, and though the stories vary, the takeaway is consistent: Our privacy has never been more vulnerable. In May, Vice found that data brokers have been collecting and selling location information of people visiting abortion clinics. That same month, Human Rights Watch revealed that most edtech companies are collecting information on children.
And earlier this year, comedian John Oliver famously showedhow easy it is to target and compile embarrassing information on members of Congress. Even a conservative estimate by Privacy Rights Clearinghouse puts the number of data brokers in the U.S. at over 500. And the information they collect is vast, although details about it are scarce. In a 2014 article in MediaPost, an executive at one of the largest data brokers, Acxiom, said that, “For every consumer we have more than 5,000 attributes of customer data.” Experts say there is virtually no regulation of this data collection industry in the U.S. “Within the law, anyone could be doing pretty much anything with your data,” says Bennett Cyphers, a staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “And they don’t have to tell anyone about it.” There are, however, ways to fight back against data tracking. The first step is knowing how—and where—you’re being tracked….”
Covid in Scotland: One in 18 people had virus last week BBC
Following up on my previous post, A Half-Century with the Internal Revenue Code: The Memoirs of Stanley S. Surrey (Lawrence Zelenak (Duke) & Ajay Mehrotra (Northwestern; Google Scholar) eds. Carolina Academic Press 2022) (reviewed by Tracey Roberts (Cumberland; Google Scholar) here): Daniel Shaviro (NYU), 'Moralist' Versus 'Scientist': Stanley Surrey and the Public Intellectual Practice of Tax Policy:
Nearly forty years after his untimely death, Stanley Surrey, the renowned Harvard law professor (and Treasury official), remains perhaps the most important and influential tax law scholar in American history. The recent publication of his highly illuminating memoirs offers a convenient occasion for reassessing his work.
In offering such a reassessment, this essay takes its title from William F. Buckley’s 1974 observation that, while Surrey claimed to analyze tax policy issues with “scientific detachment,” in fact he was a tax “moralist,” whose policy recommendations were “based on a highly articulated set of personal value principles.” Largely agreeing with Buckley as a descriptive matter, the essay considers what Surrey’s work both gained and lost intellectually by hewing so strongly to a set of career-long, deeply held beliefs. Along the way, the essay contrasts Surrey’s moral and intellectual certainty with the skepticism and resistance to grand system-building of Boris Bittker of Yale Law School, Surrey’s only mid-century rival for intellectual leadership of the tax legal academy. ...
Two individuals, including a former Australian Taxation Office (ATO) employee, faced Parramatta Local Court on 5 July 2022 in relation to alleged corruption offences as part of Operation Barker, a joint-agency investigation led by the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity (ACLEI).
It was alleged in court that the former ATO employee accepted a bribe of $150,000 from a taxpayer they were auditing to reduce personal and business tax debts of that taxpayer, in excess of $6 million dollars.
The ACLEI-led investigation is supported by the ATO, the Australian Federal Police (AFP), NSW Police Force (NSWPF), the Department of Home Affairs, and assisted by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC).
ACLEI, with the assistance of ATO, AFP and NSWPF, executed search warrants at a number of residential and business premises in Sydney and surrounding suburbs on 9 June 2022.
Two individuals, including former ATO employee, appear in court as part of joint ACLEI investigation
EU Moves to Rein in ‘Wild West’ of Crypto Assets with New Rules The Guardian
Most Hospitals Are Ignoring a Federal Law Requiring Transparency on Prices Jacobin
Enemy Within? Hardly…Most People See Why We Need Unions Prepared to Strike The Guardian
I Got Fired for Unionizing at Starbucks. And I’d Do It Again. Jacobin
Brave Blog – Debuts Goggles feature that allows users to choose their own search rankings: “One year ago, we launched Brave Search to give everyone online a real choice over Big Tech: a privacy-protecting, unbiased alternative to Google and Bing, and a truly independent alternative to providers—such as DuckDuckGo or Startpage—that rely on Big Tech to run. Today, Brave Search is exiting its beta phase. It’s the default search engine for most new Brave browser users, and any user can search privately using Brave Search in their favorite browser by going to search.brave.com. It’s had rapid user growth, released a slew of innovative features, and challenged the Big Tech monopolies head on. All while staying true to core principles:
- Independence: We serve results from our own built-from-scratch index of the Web
- Privacy: We don’t track you, your searches, or your clicks
- User-first: We put you first, not the advertising or data industries
- Transparency: We don’t censor, bias, filter, or downrank results (unless legally required to)
- Seamlessness: Brave can offer a best-in-class integration between the browser and search—from personalization to instant results as you type—without compromising privacy
To celebrate this one-year anniversary, we’d like to take a moment to highlight growth, give a sneak peek of Goggles, and review other innovative features of Brave Search…”
