Tuesday, September 08, 2020

Amazon’s creepy new health wearable analyzes your voice and your body

Service NSW has confirmed that the personal data of 186,000 customers and staff were leaked after a cyber attack earlier this year, in which 47 employees had their email accounts compromised.

A four-month investigation, which began in April, concluded that roughly 3.8 million documents had to be analysed to assess the severity of any possible breaches.


Data of 186,000 customers leaked in Service NSW cyber attack


NEWS YOU CAN USE:  Being a jerk won’t get you a promotion, study says.


22 Year Study Finds Hedge Fund Managers Collect 64% of Investors’ Gross Returns

Hedge fund managers claw an awful lot in fees out of their investors but the reasons look to be different than for private equity



Washington Post – “The Halo is a $100 wrist-worn device that, among other functions, listens to your conversations so you can understand how you sound to others. And it comes with a companion app that scans your body three-dimensionally to track your progress gaining your “quarantine 15. Amazon is upfront about Halo’s invasive functions, which require users to opt in. What’s revealing is that one of tech’s biggest companies thinks consumers in 2020 might want them. The Halo Band feels one second away from artificial intelligence saying, ‘Hey girl, why don’t you smile a little more?’”…


 Medium OneZero – Editor’s Note: “Surveillance capitalism is everywhere. But it’s not the result of some wrong turn or a rogue abuse of corporate power — it’s the system working as intended. This is the subject of Cory Doctorow’s new book, which we’re thrilled to publish in whole here on OneZero. This is how to destroy surveillance capitalism…”



Ice Sheet Melting on Track With Worst-Case Scenario TreeHugger (Re Silc).

The mystery of the Murray-Darling’s vanishing flowsABC Australia

Germany Ends Probe Into Wirecard Accusations Of Journalists PAYMNTS.COM

The Wirecard scandal is a warning to the EU to think twice before cutting itself off from London’s financial expertise City AM

Five Eyes nations start new club for competition regulators and paint target on digital giants The Register

Inside the Hidden World of Legacy IT Systems IEEE Spectrum


DECOUPLING: India bans 118 Chinese apps including PUBG.

Apart from PUBG and PUBG lite, the government has banned VPN for TikTok, Alipay, Sina News, Dual Space – Multiple Accounts & App Cloner, LivU, and ShareSave by Xiaomi. Right now, most of these apps are available on Google Play Store and Apple App Store. But we expect them to be removed soon.

India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology accessed these apps of “stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorized manner to servers which have locations outside India.”


Nearly 30,000 tonnes of sewage sludge containing human waste to enter UK Guardian

More than 10% of British shops vacant, survey shows Reuters

Germany’s Far-Right Is Fired Up After Its Fantasy Almost Came True Vice (Re Silc).

More than 200 lawyers file judicial complaint against Judge Lewis A. Kaplan over abusive targeting of human rights advocate Steven DonzigerInternational Association of Democratic Lawyers. See also here.


Police state governance and the civil liberties of an MP

In disdain for human rights and to display power, governments deploy police forces to harass or arrest citizens, and then justify their actions with claims about the influence of foreign forces.And it’s happening right now in Australia. Continue reading