they know what you are doing

[ArMaP]

Doctors can prescribe safer drugs by listening to patient's. They can also quit prescribing whatever the pharma representative displays as the flavor of the week.

Some years ago we had a change in the laws and regulations related to doctors when several cases emerged about doctors having trips paid by labs. Small gifts were very common, some times there were more representatives from the labs than patients waiting for the doctors in the waiting rooms.

[ArMaP]

DNA of every baby born in California is stored.
Who has access to it?

In the EU, on May 25th a new regulation starts being applied, and any personal data needs either a legal reason or a specific authorization from the person to be collected and processed. Minors are a special case, with more controls on how data can be gathered and processed.

There are the usual security and judicial reasons that allowed the state to have a different position, but the person's rights still apply, one of them being the right to know how the data is used.

[zorgon]

oh yeah   ps

did you know that the foreskins from the circumcision of baby boys is used in research also and one of the researchers used her discovery to form a company, then sold at a large profit,
at one time called nu-skin ( I think)  and was the basis for skin for burn patients...
a good result but  also a profit made from a body part  parents had no knowledge or say over

yes I knew this....  they use the stem cells from the foreskin....  I was a lab rat with my leg ulcers... They were testing a spray with these stem cells that would heal the wound...

The cost per spray was $5,000 per shot and the wound needed 2 prays.  One for the deep tissue cells and one for the epidermis

They give a tiny squirt of each, bot at the same time...  over 8 weeks  once a week.  Then they just wrap the wound with a 4 layer compression wrap.

The spray was paid for by the study...  they do the 120.00 wrap for free, they pay the doctor substantially to do the program and they paid me 75.00 a week to be lab rat They also take every blood test known to man to see how you react (for your safety)

It WORKED  It closed the holes and has pretty much stayed closed since. It also worked for many others that had larger wounds. The biggest pluse was for some reason the stem cell spray STOPPED the pain...  maybe because the body recognized the healing?  It also stopped the odor of rotting flesh.

yes Nu-Skin was one of the trade names

But here is the thing most people don't understand  THERE IS NO PROFIT for the compamies UNZTIL the product is proven and accepted by the FDA

In this case there was ONE single batch of the product that failed in the tests  and because of that the FDA didn't approve the trials...

The company had spent 900 MILLION on these series of tests.... the product worked 99% of the time... but that one failed batch killed it with the FDA  so all that research money just went POOF

I hope they do it again  as it REALLY WORKS  The stem cells heal the body because stem cells can become anything

I do hear that they have a new way to create stem cells from your own fat cells. If that turns out to work... we are well on the way to a major break through without using body parts... just your own tissue

New Stem Cell Treatment Using Fat Cells Could Repair Any Tissue in The Body
Human trials are expected in 2017

Patient uses fat stem cells to repair his wrist
https://www.cnn.com/2017/05/22/health/fat-stem-cells-fix-wrist-injury-cartilage/index.html
https://www.sciencealert.com/new-stem-cell-treatment-using-fat-cells-could-repair-any-tissue-in-the-body

[space otter]

yes this is an editorial

http://triblive.com/opinion/editorials/13657988-74/peter-pitts-23-and-me-and-facebook

Facebook recently informed 87 million users that Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm, harvested their confidential information using it to create targeted ads that may have influenced the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.

Many users were shocked to learn that Cambridge had access to their data.

Now, Congress is demanding reforms from Facebook and other social-media sites. Our lawmakers want social networks to simplify privacy terms and conditions.

But Facebook isn't the only firm that puts users' privacy at risk. Some genetic testing companies such as Invitae, 23andMe and AncestryDNA do, too — and the consequences of irresponsibly sharing DNA data are far more serious than a social-media data breach.

Lawmakers and regulators ought to demand these genetic testing companies clearly inform consumers whether, and how, their data will be shared.

Every year, millions of people undergo genetic testing to help predict health problems or just discover their heritage.

Doctors send patients' blood or saliva samples to lab-testing companies such as Invitae. Millions of people have bought DNA testing kits from companies like 23andMe and AncestryDNA and submitted their samples through the mail.

After sequencing the DNA samples, genetic testing firms often sell or share the genetic information to third parties. For instance, 23andMe agreed to share its data with biopharmaceutical firm Genentech in exchange for as much as $60 million.

Testing firms seek users' permission to share the data. But they gloss over the risks. As a result, consumers sign away their rights with little comprehension of the privacy violations and discrimination that could ensue.

Take Invitae. Its privacy policy states that it may use patients' "de-identified" data for "general research purposes" which may include "research collaborations with third parties" or "commercial collaborations with private companies."

The problem is that the data isn't permanently "de-identified." It can easily be tied back to specific people.

Just ask Harvard Medical School Professor Latanya Sweeney. She recently identified the names of more than 40 percent of participants in a supposedly anonymous DNA study. Sweeney cross-referenced participants' provided ZIP codes, birthdays and genders with public records such as voter rolls. She then was able to match people up to their DNA.

Your DNA contains a wealth of sensitive medical information. Imagine what employers might do if they got access to people's DNA. They easily could exploit this information to discriminate against prospective hires.

Genetic privacy is a human right. To protect consumers from such abuses, the government should increase regulation of genetic testing companies to protect people.

Some DNA testing companies aren't waiting for regulators to act. They're already voluntarily promising to not share any genetic samples, leaving the important privacy decisions in patients' hands where they belong.

Social-media platforms such as Facebook are failing to secure users' personal information. Most genetic testing companies are failing, too.

It's time for lawmakers and regulators to impose tougher consumer protections so we don't have a Facebook-like crisis involving people's most sensitive genetic information.

Peter Pitts, a former FDA associate commissioner, is president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest.




if you have time this is interesting

[zorgon]

Many users were shocked to learn that Cambridge had access to their data.

LOL most average facebook users are stupid and easy to shock... but have the memory capacity of a worm 

When Ed Snowden released the NSA spying network called PRISM at the risk of his own life and freedom  everyone was shocked  A month later it was all forgotten and they when back to posting their personal info




Mark Zuckerberg Called People Who Handed Over Their Data "Dumb F****"

Now it appears an IM exchange Mark had with a college friend back in 2004, might have been telling of things to come as he expressed disbelief that so many people would willingly hand over their information.

As reported by Business Insider, the conversation according to SAI sources, went as follows.

Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard

Zuck: Just ask.

Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS

[Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How'd you manage that one?

Zuck: People just submitted it.

Zuck: I don't know why.

Zuck: They "trust me"

Zuck: Dumb frigs.

Sure, this was 19-year-old Mark Zuckerberg, not long after he had launched Facebook from the comfort of his own dorm room.

He might have just been bragging to his friend, he wasn't to know the data treasure trove Facebook would become 14 years later with 2.2 billion users.

Back then he wasn't the sixth richest person in the world, with a net worth of $70 billion.

He was just some student probably sitting in his pants IM'ing.

What a week its been for Facebook, the social media giant has plummeted $37bn in value after news broke of a so-called data grab on more than 50 million profiles by Cambridge Analytica, a political research company with links to Trump. Then there's Alex Stamos, Facebook's Chief Security Officer who seems to be refusing to step down. And we're only on Tuesday.

https://www.esquire.com/uk/latest-news/a19490586/mark-zuckerberg-called-peple-who-handed-over-their-data-dumb-f/

[zorgon]

Facebook's Objectors Are Getting Louder. They Should Know: They Used To Work There

Chamath Palihapitiya, the former vice-president of user growth at Facebook, has spoken about his "tremendous guilt" over creating "tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works" when working at the social media company.

The Verge yesterday reported that the ex-VP, who left the company in 2011, made the comments while speaking at a Stanford Business School event last month.

"The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops that we have created are destroying how society works. No civil discourse, no cooperation, misinformation, mistruth," Palihapitiya argued.

"This is not about Russian ads," he went on to say. "This is a global problem ... It is eroding the core foundations of how people behave by and between each other."

Palihapitiya also spoke about no longer using the site or allowing his children to. "I can control my decision, which is that I don't use that shit," he said. "I can control my kids' decisions, which is that they're not allowed to use that shit."

Last month ex-Facebook president Sean Parker also made damning comments, about the site's lack of social and moral responsibility arguing that from the beginning it exploited "a vulnerability in human psychology".


"It literally changes your relationship with society, with each other. It probably interferes with productivity in weird ways. God only knows what it's doing to our children's brains," he said.

Zuckerberg himself has said he doesn't use the site and both Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ive (Apple's chief design officer) admitted they have strict limitations on how their children are allowed to interact with technology designed to be so addictive.

https://www.esquire.com/uk/life/a14413677/facebook-ripping-society-apart/

[zorgon]

How Ex-Facebook And Google Employees Are Uniting To Battle The Monsters They Created

In December 2017, Facebook's former vice-president of user growth Chamath Palihapitiya confessed to his "tremendous guilt" over creating "tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works."

His comments followed former Facebook president Sean Parker, who the previous month criticised the site's lack of social responsibility, arguing that from the beginning it exploited "a vulnerability in human psychology" adding "God only knows what it's doing to our children's brains."

https://www.esquire.com/uk/latest-news/a16571021/center-for-humane-technology-social-media-former-employee-fightback/

[Ellirium113]

How Ex-Facebook And Google Employees Are Uniting To Battle The Monsters They Created

https://www.esquire.com/uk/latest-news/a16571021/center-for-humane-technology-social-media-former-employee-fightback/

Reminds me of an old Star Trek episode where a super-addictive game was used as a weapon to control the crew...

[space otter]

well i don't know how serious this is but thought someone here would chime in and let us know

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/the-fbi-says-you-should-reboot-your-router-should-you/ar-AAy3hIP?li=BBnb7Kz

The FBI says you should reboot your router. Should you?
Rick Broida  11 hrs ago
Last Friday, the FBI issued a report recommending that everyone reboot their routers. The reason? "Foreign cyber actors have compromised hundreds of thousands of home and office routers and other networked devices worldwide."

That's a pretty alarming PSA, but also a somewhat vague one. How do you know if your router is infected? What can you do to keep malware away from it? And, perhaps most important of all, can a simple reboot really eliminate the threat?

What's the threat?
The FBI's recommendation comes on the heels of a newly discovered malware threat called VPNFilter, which has infected over half a million routers and network devices, according to researchers from Cisco's Talos Intelligence Group.

VPNFilter is "able to render small office and home office routers inoperable," the FBI stated. "The malware can potentially also collect information passing through the router."

Who distributed VPNFilter, and to what end? The Justice Department believes that Russian hackers, working under the name Sofacy Group, was using the malware to control infected devices.

How do you know if you're infected?
Unfortunately, there's no easy way to tell if your router has been compromised by VPNFilter. The FBI notes only that "the malware targets routers produced by several manufacturers and network-attached storage devices by at least one manufacturer."

Those manufacturers are as follows: Linksys, Mikrotik, Netgear, QNAP and TP-Link. However, Cisco's report states that only a small number of models — just over a dozen in total — from those manufacturers are known to have been affected by the malware, and they're mostly older ones:

Linksys: E1200, E2500, WRVS4400N

Mikrotik: 1016, 1036, 1072

Netgear: DGN2200, R6400, R7000, R8000, WNR1000, WNR2000

QNAP: TS251, S439 Pro, other QNAP NAS devices running QTS software

TP-Link: R600VPN

Consequently, there's a fairly small chance you're operating an infected router. Of course, you can never be too careful, so let's talk about ways to fix the problem and, hopefully, avoid it going forward.

Will a reboot really work?

It definitely can't hurt. Rebooting — or power-cycling — your router is a harmless procedure, and in fact is often among the first troubleshooting steps when you're having network or connectivity issues. If you've ever been on a tech-support call because of an internet problem, you've probably been advised to do exactly that.

However, according this Krebs on Security post, which cites the aforementioned Cisco report, rebooting alone won't do the trick: "Part of the code used by VPNFilter can still persist until the affected device is reset to its factory-default settings."

So is it possible the FBI misinterpreted the "reset" recommendation as "reboot"? Perhaps, but the bottom line is that a factory-reset is the only sure-fire way to purge VPNFilter from a router.

The good news: It's a pretty easy process, usually requiring little more than holding down a reset button on the router itself. The bad news: When it's done, you'll have to reconfigure all your network settings. Check your model's instruction manual for help with both steps.

What other steps should you take?
We reached out to a couple of the aforementioned manufacturers to solicit their advice for combating VPNFilter. Linksys responded first, noting that VPNFilter is "proliferating itself using known vulnerabilities in older versions of router firmware (that customers haven't updated) as well as utilizing common default credentials."

Its advice: Apply the latest firmware (something that happens automatically in Linksys' newer routers) and then perform a factory reset. Linksys also recommends changing the default password.

That's our advice as well. By keeping your router patched with the latest firmware and using a unique password (rather than the one provided out of the box), you should be able to keep ahead of VPNFilter and other kinds of router-targeting malware.

Update: According to the FBI's PSA regarding VPNFilter, the reboot recommendation is not intended to remove the malware, but rather to "temporarily disrupt (it) and aid the potential identification of infected devices." In other words, the FBI is enlisting you in a search-and-destroy operation. Needless to say, we recommend the aforementioned firmware update and factory reset if you own one of the affected router models.

[zorgon]

VPNFILTER MALWARE AFFECTS 500,000 ROUTERS ACROSS THE WORLD
by ASHWIN
MAY 24, 2018

Networking giant CISCO has identified a new threat called the VPNFilter malware, that has affected over 500,000 routers across the World. The list of affected devices include those which were made by Netgear, TP-Link, Linksys, MicroTik, QNAP network-attached storage devices.

The malware is found to be similar to the BlackEnergy malware which targeted routers in Ukraine networks. But it does go beyond too, and is now believed to affect users in 54 Countries. Cisco alleges that this malware could be a state-sponsored one, or at least staged by someone affiliated with the state. Alarmingly, this malware has been active since 2016, and has slowly been spreading across the World.

Normally, when such a malware is released in the wild, there is a simple fix. All you need to do is reboot the router, by powering it off and back. But that method will have no such impact on this new malware. Basically, it is capable of surviving router reboots, in what is referred to as stage one.

And it gets worse. In Stage 2, it can be used for file collection, command execution, data exfiltration and device management. The research also indicates that the VPNFilter malware is a destructive one, in that it can brick a device, i.e., kill a router completely. This in turn can shut down the network for hundreds of thousands of users worldwide. A third stage exists where the malware can collect website login credentials, and for monitoring of Modbus SCADA protocols.

The third stage in fact is dependent on stage 2, and is kind of like a plugin which the malware creators could use for the above mentioned attacks. Talos' post mentions that they may discover more such plugins in the malware. The report also goes on to mention that infected devices ran TCP scans using the ports 23, 80, 2000 and 8080, in over 100 Countries. The motive remains unclear, although it is speculated that the malware is used as a data collection tool, and also for analyzing the worth of a targeted network.

It is not easy to protect your router from the VPNFilter malware, simply due to the nature of how people use it. Most routers are directly connected to the internet, with no security device to secure it from attacks. You could try rebooting it or resetting the device to factory default settings. Beyond that, the only thing to do is to wait for your router's manufacturer to release a firmware update, to patch the security vulnerabilities in the device.

https://www.filecritic.com/vpnfilter-malware-affects-routers-world/

[space otter]

wow  it gets worser and worser...back to two can's and some string


06/01/2018 03:32 pm ET Updated 4 hours ago
Google Employees Discuss Staging Protest Of Their Own Company
Some employees are disturbed about the potential applications of a project for the military.

By Rebecca Klein

A small group of Google employees, in response to a company contract with a Pentagon-backed program called Maven, have discussed the idea of staging a protest at a conference in July. Employees fear that the project, which provides artificial intelligence tools to the military, could be used in fatal drone strikes.

The protest, as discussed in preliminary exchanges over Google's internal communications platform, would take place at a Google Cloud conference in San Francisco, according to messages obtained by HuffPost and an interview with an employee.

More than a dozen Google employees have resigned over the project, according to Gizmodo, and thousands of employees have signed a letter protesting it.

Now Google employees are debating showing resistance in a more active way, through a potential demonstration. 

Discussions regarding the possibility of a protest took place this week on an internal thread devoted to criticism of Maven. The thread, called "maven conscientious objectors," includes hundreds of employees, but only a small percentage of those were active in the discussion.

The debate about staging a physical demonstration took place on Wednesday and Thursday and was started by a departing engineer. The employee called the project "the greatest ethical crises in technology of our generation" and suggested that "Maven protesters" go to the conference with the aim of "making some noise."

The employee's last day was Friday, but by late morning, someone from human resources had asked them to leave immediately due to their "recent statements" related to the conference. "As such, we're going to move up your exit by a few hours and we've ended access, effective immediately," the HR person wrote.

In response to the initial thread, another employee called the engineer an "agent provocateur." Someone else said such an action would "be enough reason to fire us lot with popular support."

The debate became heated and personal, with some employees questioning whether their colleague who originally suggested the idea of a physical protest should even belong in the "conscientious objectors" group.

But there were a few employees who supported the idea, calling the discussion "legitimate topics for this mailing list." Another said that while they were not based in San Francisco and were thus unable to join the action, they personally thought the protest was "a good idea since it increases Google's PR cost of getting involved in military projects."

Representatives for Google did not respond to HuffPost's request for comment. The Intercept reported Friday afternoon that Google will not renew its contract to work on Project Maven, though the company plans to work on the project through June 2019 and has not ruled out taking on similar work in the future.

This isn't the first round of discord from Google employees. In an April petition to Google CEO Sundar Pichai protesting the Pentagon contract and signed by thousands, petitioners referenced "Don't be evil," Google's famous former unofficial motto, as an argument for canceling the contract.

"This contract puts Google's reputation at risk and stands in direct opposition to our core values. Building this technology to assist the US Government in military surveillance ― and potentially lethal outcomes ― is not acceptable," the signers of the petition wrote.

Hundreds of academics subsequently wrote a letter to Google co-founder Larry Page, as well as Pichai and other company leaders, supporting the petitioning employees.

The academics expressed concern that Project Maven will help the military become "just a short step away from authorizing autonomous drones to kill automatically, without human supervision or meaningful human control." The letter also cited recent Cambridge Analytica scandals as demonstrating "growing public concern over allowing the tech industries to wield so much power."

At a recent companywide meeting, Sergey Brin, one of Google's co-founders, reportedly responded to a question about the project and addressed some of the controversies, according to The New York Times. Brin explained that he thought it was better for the world's militaries to be partnered with an international company like Google, rather than nationalistic defense contractors.

The employee who started the discussion about protesting Google's involvement with Maven implied on the thread that they gave notice due to a violation of their own ethical standards.

"The time to protest is now or never," the employee wrote.

Are you a Google employee who wants to talk about your experience with Maven? Email rebecca.klein@huffpost.com.

This story has been updated with information from The Intercept's report.

......................................................


and if that isn't enough  how's this?...

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/signs-of-sophisticated-cellphone-spying-found-near-white-house-us-officials-say/ar-AAy65tD?li=BBnb7Kz

The Washington Post
Signs of sophisticated cellphone spying found near White House, U.S. officials say
Craig Timberg  6 hrs ago
A federal study found signs that surveillance devices for intercepting cellphone calls and texts were operating near the White House and other sensitive locations in the Washington area last year.

A Department of Homeland Security program discovered evidence of the surveillance devices, called IMSI catchers, as part of federal testing last year, according to a letter from DHS to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) on May 22. The letter didn't specify what entity operated the devices and left open the possibility that there could be alternative explanations for the suspicious cellular signals collected by the federal testing program last year.

The discovery bolsters years of independent research suggesting that foreign intelligence agencies use sophisticated interception technology to spy on officials working within the hub of federal power in the nation's capital. Experts in surveillance technology say that IMSI catchers — sometimes known by one popular brand name, StingRay — are a standard part of the tool kit for many foreign intelligence services, including for such geopolitical rivals as Russia and China.

A DHS spokesman confirmed the contents of the letter to Wyden but declined further comment.

"This admission from DHS bolsters my concern about stingrays and other spying devices being used to spy on Americans' phones," Wyden said in a statement on Thursday. "Given the reports of rogue spying devices being identified near the White House and other government facilities, I fear that foreign intelligence services could target the president and other senior officials."

The DHS letter came in response to a meeting last month in which Wyden pushed for a more aggressive federal response to cellular system insecurity. IMSI catchers are widely used by local, state and federal police, as well as foreign intelligence agencies.

The devices work by simulating cell towers to trick nearby phones into connecting, allowing the IMSI catchers to collect calls, texts and data streams. Unlike some other forms of cellphone interception, IMSI catchers must be near targeted devices to work.

When they are in range, IMSI catchers also can deliver malicious software to targeted devices for the purpose of stealing information stored on them or conducting longer-term monitoring of communications.

The same May 22 letter revealed that DHS was aware of reports that a global cellular network messaging system, called SS7, was being used to spy on Americans through their cellphones. Such surveillance, which can intercept calls and locate cellphones from anywhere in the world, are sometimes used in conjunction with IMSI catchers.

ESD America, a defense and law enforcement technology contractor based in Las Vegas, has reported detecting IMSI catchers throughout the Washington area while conducting testing for private clients.

The company, which said it has federal contracts, declined to comment on work it has done for the U.S. government but said in a statement, "ESD America has several corporate and foreign government clients whom we have assisted in the detection of potential IMSI Catcher operation across many cities including Washington, D.C."

In the tests that ESD conducted for private clients, which took place over the past three years, the company said it had detected signs of IMSI catchers near the White House, the FBI headquarters, the Senate, the Pentagon, the Russian Embassy and along the collection of other foreign embassies in an area known as Embassy Row in Northwest Washington.

The Washington area's dense collection of U.S. officials and sensitive facilities makes it prime real estate for cellular interception, experts say.

"For any large intelligence agency, the United States, especially now, is a high-value target," said Thomas Rid, a political-science professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. "They get paid to go after high-value targets. It's their job. ... It's a complete no-brainer."

The letter said DHS officials, during a pilot program last year, "did observe anomalous activity that appeared consistent with IMSI catcher technology" within the Washington area, including near the White House. It cautioned that DHS "has neither validated nor attributed such activity to specific entities, devices or purposes" and said that some of the suspicious signals may have been "emanating from legitimate cell towers."

Experts on cellular interception say that various IMSI catchers have distinctive designs, making it clear from the resulting cellular signals and behavior whether they were made by U.S. companies or by manufacturers in other countries.

Civil liberties groups have long warned that IMSI catchers are used with few limits by U.S. authorities, who collect calls, texts and other data from innocent bystanders as they conduct surveillance on criminal suspects or other legitimate targets. Increasingly, though, critics have sought to portray the technology as posing threats to national security because foreign intelligence services use them on Americans, both while in the United States and abroad.

"This is a huge concern from a national security perspective," said Laura Moy, deputy director of Georgetown Law's Center on Privacy & Technology. "People have been warning for years ... that these devices were used by foreign agents operating on American soil."

The surveillance devices are hard to counteract, although encrypted calling and messaging apps — such as Signal, WhatsApp or Apple's FaceTime — provide protection against IMSI catchers. Some experts advocate wider deployment of such encrypted communication tools within the U.S. government, along with a move away from traditional cellular calling and texting.

Wyden and others also have called on the Federal Communications Commission, which along with DHS oversees the security of U.S. cellular networks, to institute stronger protections against IMSI catchers, including possible technical fixes that cellular carriers or devicemakers could implement to resist surveillance.

The FCC said in response to questions about the discovery of IMSI catchers in Washington: "We continue to monitor reports of the use of IMSI devices and to coordinate closely with our counterparts at DHS, DOJ, and the FBI. The FCC strenuously enforces its rules against the unauthorized use of licensed radio spectrum and harmful interference with licensed users of the airwaves."

Correction: The IMSI testing that took place over three years was conducted by ESD America for private clients. A previous version of this story said incorrectly that DHS conducted the tests. DHS commissioned separate tests during 2017.

[space otter]

this does not sound like privacy exists anymore anywhere  sigh




Investigators say DNA database can be goldmine for old cases
By:  JULIAN HATTEM, Associated Press
Updated: Jun 16, 2018 12:09 PM EDT


article here
http://www.wavy.com/ap-top-news/investigators-say-dna-database-can-be-goldmine-for-old-cases/1243203239

[zorgon]

Google has now decided to control what you do on your website...

They just this week in their latest upgrade to CHROME decided to stop ALL autoplay for audio and video...

The intent (they claim) is to stop those annoying autoplay advertisements that everyone hates and the news service videos that play on the side while your trying to read and artcle..

But it also stops all websites (like my Medieval Page) from loading music as part of the artistic presentation and it is causing problems for online games as well

Google says that if a visitor engages the website  ie clicks on another page, that the person is obviously liking that page and blocking will stop... However that is NOT happening  and even when you manual start the player, using the back button blocks it again

There is NO OPTION for user settings to allow the content

Do I need the music?  No I do not BUT a lot of the sound effects on that page are a key part of the presentation...  Do you watch a movie with the sound turned off?


But here is the REAL problem.. Google has decided which websites are automatically WHITE LISTED  Guess what?  The sites they white list (all their own of course ) are the very news services like CNN and Fox that are the worst offenders of the autoplay ads and news feeds  so the only one getting affected by this is the Little People

https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/18/google-chrome-now-mutes-annoying-videos-that-autoplay-with-sound/

[ArMaP]

Autoplay is very annoying, but not giving the possibility of turning it on or off is equally annoying.

[space otter]

maybe privacy has caught a break....maybe not 

Reuters
U.S. top court rules warrants required for cellphone location data
Lawrence Hurley  2 hrs ago

Video by MSNBC

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday imposed limits on the ability of police to obtain cellphone data pinpointing the past location of criminal suspects in a major victory for digital privacy advocates and a setback for law enforcement authorities.

In the 5-4 ruling, the court said police generally need a court-approved warrant to get the data, setting a higher legal hurdle than previously existed under federal law. The court said obtaining such data without a warrant from wireless carriers, as police routinely do, amounted to an unreasonable search and seizure under the U.S. Constitution's Fourth Amendment.

In the ruling written by conservative Chief Justice John Roberts, the court decided in favor of Timothy Carpenter, who was convicted in several armed robberies at Radio Shack and T-Mobile stores in Ohio and Michigan with the help of past cellphone location data that linked him to the crime scenes.

Roberts stressed that the ruling did not resolve other hot-button digital privacy fights, including whether police need warrants to access real-time cellphone location information to track criminal suspects. The ruling has no bearing on "traditional surveillance techniques" such as security cameras or on data collection for national security purposes, he added.

Roberts was joined by the court's four liberal justices in the majority. The court's other four conservatives dissented.

Although the ruling explicitly concerned only historical cellphone data, digital privacy advocates are hopeful it will set the tone for future cases on other emerging legal issues prompted by new technology.

"Today's decision rightly recognizes the need to protect the highly sensitive location data from our cellphones, but it also provides a path forward for safeguarding other sensitive digital information in future cases - from our emails, smart home appliances and technology that is yet to be invented," said American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Nate Wessler, who represents Carpenter.

"We decline to grant the state unrestricted access to a wireless carrier's database of physical location information," Roberts said.

Roberts said the ruling still allows police to avoid obtaining warrants for other types of business records. Police could also avoid obtaining warrants in emergency situations, Roberts added.

The high court endorsed the arguments made by Carpenter's lawyers, who said that police needed "probable cause," and therefore a warrant, to avoid a Fourth Amendment violation.

Police helped establish that Carpenter was near the scene of the robberies by securing from his cellphone carrier his past "cell site location information" that tracks which cellphone towers relay calls. His bid to suppress the evidence failed and he was convicted of six robbery counts.

The big four wireless carriers - Verizon Communications Inc, AT&T Inc, T-Mobile US Inc and Sprint Corp - receive tens of thousands of such requests annually from law enforcement.

Carpenter's case will now return to lower courts. His conviction may not be overturned because other evidence also linked him to the crimes.

'BIG BROTHER'

The case underscored the rising concerns among privacy advocates about the government's ability to obtain an ever-growing amount of personal data. During arguments in the case in December, liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who joined Roberts in the ruling, alluded to fears of "Big Brother," the all-seeing leader in George Orwell's dystopian novel "1984."

Conservative Justice Samuel Alito, a former prosecutor, said in a dissenting opinion that the ruling could do "far more harm than good."

The decision "guarantees a blizzard of litigation while threatening many legitimate and valuable investigative practices upon which law enforcement has rightfully come to rely," Alito added. Alito also said the ruling does not address "some of the greatest threats to individual privacy" that may come from data collection by private companies.

It was the third ruling in recent years in which the court has resolved major cases on how criminal law applies to new technology, each time ruling against law enforcement. In 2014, it required police in most instances to obtain a warrant to search a cellphone's contents when its user is arrested. In 2012, it decided a warrant is needed to place a GPS tracking device on a vehicle.

The U.S. Justice Department argued that probable cause should not be required to obtain customer records under a 1986 federal law. Instead, it argued for a lower standard: that prosecutors show only that "reasonable grounds" exist for the records and they are "relevant and material" to an investigation.

Roberts said the government's argument "fails to contend with the seismic shifts in digital technology that made possible the tracking of not only Carpenter's location but also everyone else's."

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment.

There has been rising concern over the surveillance practices of law enforcement and intelligence agencies, and whether companies like wireless carriers care about customer privacy rights.

Various tech firms, including Alphabet Inc's Google and Microsoft Corp, joined a brief in the Carpenter case urging the court to adopt strong privacy protections.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/us-top-court-rules-warrants-required-for-cellphone-location-data/ar-AAz0MJO?li=BBnb7Kz