SoylentNews

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd

Amazon has confirmed that civil rights organizations were correct about the threats Ring technology and police partnerships pose to privacy and civil liberties in statements to U.S. Senator Edward Markey.

Yesterday, Senator Markey released disturbing findings from his investigation into Amazon Ring. His findings reveal Amazon fails to provide any meaningful safeguards to protect data, privacy, or civil liberties. With over 600 partnerships across the country, millions of Americans are being swept up in captured video footage without any knowledge of the threats. And now Amazon openly admits that it has enacted no policies or oversight to protect them. They are completely vulnerable to the whims of whoever gains access to surveillance footage whether it be Amazon employees, police departments, or hackers taking advantage of Amazon’s lax security protections.

“Amazon plays on people’s fears to sell them surveillance products, and then turns around and puts them and their neighbors in danger,” said Evan Greer, deputy director of Fight for the Future. “Through consumer products like Ring, Amazon is collecting footage and all the data needed to build a nationwide surveillance network. They leverage government relationships to promote their own products, gain consumer trust and secure their position in the market. This is an unprecedented assault on our security, constitutionally protected rights, and communities. Amazon’s admissions to Senator Markey show that we need an immediate full scale Congressional investigation into this tech titan’s surveillance practices.”

Source: https://www.fightforthefuture.org/news/2019-11-20-amazon-admits-it-has-enacted-zero-civil-liberties/

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956_

Verizon's new 5G coverage maps show just how sparse the network is

Verizon has continually touted its rollout of 5G as it reaches more cities with the latest cellular technology, but new coverage maps confirm what consumers have experienced: Verizon's 5G network is only sparsely deployed even in major cities.

You can check out Verizon's new coverage maps that show 5G mobile deployment in 18 cities on the Verizon website, and we'll show you some highlights in this article. In many of the maps, you'll see one or two densely populated areas covered by 5G, with just small pockets of 5G scattered throughout the surrounding streets. You'll also see a lot of areas where there is 5G on each street but not between each street, suggesting that Verizon 5G doesn't penetrate indoors.

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956_

Right to repair advocates have described Apple's recent claim to lose money on repairs as 'absurd' and 'misleading.'

Apple made the claim to a Congressional judiciary committee investigating, among other things, whether Apple's locked-down approach to device repairs is anti-competitive...

Apple has always insisted that its control of the repair process is for reasons of safety and reliability. Others have, however, argued that Apple is deliberately preventing customers from obtaining lower-cost repairs from independent shops in order to force them to use Apple Stores.

Source: https://9to5mac.com/2019/11/21/lose-money-on-repairs/

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://decrypt.co/11947/moscow-bans-sale-of-gadgets-without-russian-made-software

The potential to integrate mass surveillance into the common Internet infrastructure has analysts worried. A booming blackmarket for foreign smartphones seems likely.

A law requiring that foreign-made consumer-electronic devices must be pre-installed with Russian-made software was passed by Russia's lower house of parliament on Thursday. It covers smartphones, computers and smart televisions, and will go into effect in July, 2020.

The aim of the new legislation is to promote Russian technology, according to its proponents. But some fear that making Russian-made apps mandatory will provide a backdoor for surveillance. Critics also claim that this promotes technologically inferior software, and might cause international manufacturers to pull out of the Russian market.

[...] On Reddit, users expressed concerns about the quality of the Russian alternatives, in comparison to international brands such as Windows and Google.
"I'm sure you meant Gugal, comrade. You no use Gugal, you go to Gulag," quipped one Redditor.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for chromas

Google is shutting down its cloud printing service

Printing documents over the web using Google Chrome is about to get a bit more complicated for some users as Google has announced that Cloud Print will no longer be supported in 2021.

Cloud Print is a useful service that allows users to print directly from Chrome on desktop and mobile without having to physically connect a printer to their device.

Despite being released in 2010, the service is actually still in beta but now it will never see a full release as Google has published a support document advising Cloud Print users to look for alternative online printing solution before the beginning of next year, which reads:

“Cloud Print, Google’s cloud-based printing solution that has been in beta since 2010, will no longer be supported as of December 31, 2020. Beginning January 1, 2021, devices across all operating systems will no longer be able to print using Google Cloud Print. We recommend that over the next year, you identify an alternative solution and execute a migration strategy.”

Original Submission

martyb writes:

RDP Loves Company: Kaspersky Finds 37 Security Holes in VNC Remote Desktop Software:

This is all according to [PDF] a team at Kaspersky Lab, which has uncovered and reported more than three dozen CVE-listed security holes, some allowing for remote code execution.

VNC, or Virtual Network Computing, is an open protocol used to remotely access and administer systems. Much like with the BlueKeep flaw in Microsoft's RDP service, miscreants can exploit these holes in VNC to potentially commandeer internet or network-facing computers.

Kaspersky says that, based on its best estimates from Shodan searches, about 600,000 public-facing machines offer VNC access as do around a third of industrial control devices.

"According to our estimates, [more] ICS vendors implement remote administration tools for their products based on VNC rather than any other system," said Kaspersky researcher Pavel Cheremushkin earlier today. "This made an analysis of VNC security a high-priority task for us."

[...] The investigation kicked up a total of 37 CVE-listed memory corruption flaws: 10 in LibVNC, four in TightVNC, one in TurboVNC, and 22 in UltraVNC. All have now been patched, save for the bugs in TightVNC 1.x which were present in a no-longer supported version: you should be using version 2.x anyway.

[...] Admins can protect themselves from RDP and VNC exploitation by updating their software (or migrating off, in the case of TightVNC) and using network filters to lock down access.

Who's in control?

Original Submission

upstart writes in with a submission, via IRC, for Runaway1956.

Former USS Fitzgerald CO Benson to Retire as Commander Next Month - USNI News

The former commander of a guided-missile destroyer that was involved in a fatal collision in 2017 will retire at his current rank and will be eligible for retirement and medical benefits, his lawyer confirmed to USNI News on Wednesday.

Cmdr. Bryce Benson will retire from the Navy on Dec. 29 after a two-year legal battle with the Navy over his role in the June 17, 2017, collision of USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62) and container ship ACX Crystal off the coast of Japan that resulted in the death of seven sailors.

Benson's retirement was first reported by ProPublica.

The Navy had scheduled a Board of Inquiry for Benson following the dismissal of criminal charges earlier this year, USNI News had learned. The ruling of the board could have threatened his medical care for treatment for traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder Benson suffered during the collision. The stateroom where Benson was sleeping during the time of the collision was crushed by the bow of Crystal, and Benson was flown off the ship for medical treatment as soon as help arrived on the scene. The Navy reversed course last month and allowed Benson to leave the service without a board of inquiry.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with a submission, via IRC, for chromas.

Absolutely humongous data breach exposes more than a billion records

Well, this is certainly not great: An unprotected database of more than a billion users' records from across the internet — including "social media accounts, email addresses, and phone numbers" — was discovered on an unidentified Elasticsearch server that could be accessed by anyone with the server's web address.

What's even weirder is, according to Bloomberg, no one is exactly sure how it got there.

The discovery was made in October by cybersecurity experts Bob Diachenko and Vinny Troia; the 4 terabytes of data they found also included Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn profile information. All told, the server contained information on four billion user accounts and 650 million unique email addresses, affecting 1.2 billion people.

As WIRED points out, though, it's important to keep in mind what the data does not include: things like passwords and credit card numbers. So at least there's that! Troia also told WIRED that the server is no longer online and that he reported its presence to the FBI.

Appalbarry writes:

(Disclaimer: I wrote the article Creating Online Environments That Work Well For Older Users but suspect that many Soylentils will find it useful.)

A significant part of the Internet-using population is aged 50 or older — including the people who invented it. Web designers need to understand what older users need and why it's not enough to just say, "I can read it, so what's the problem?"

If you're my age you have no doubt run into more than a few web sites that are just plain useless, either because you can't read the text, or because they were designed using assumptions that those of us over forty years of age don't find useful. Whether it's our need for high contrast text, or our preference for actual words and paragraphs over video, the needs of older users often get ignored.

We are the generation that invented and grew up with personal computers. It's absurd to suggest that we are less capable of using technology. In other words, you can't complain about old people not understanding tech, and then also complain that they've taken over Facebook and Twitter. Besides, we also usually have lots more disposable income, so catering to our needs is good for business.

Original Submission

martyb writes:

We get a lot of story submissions here on SoylentNews. Well over 37,000 so far and still counting. (THANK YOU!)

We occasionally see a story submission from an Anonymous Coward or new user that is an obvious attempt to increase the number of views of the linked story. We regularly decline to publish those stories. The self-seeking or self-promoting aspect is rather obvious. Or they have a political viewpoint they want to spearhead. They stand out from the more mainstream stories that you have seen posted here over the past 5+ years.

The next-scheduled story gave me pause.

I was somewhat hesitant because of the foregoing reasons. But, I decided to accept it anyway and I'd like to explain my reasoning. One, the story submission comes right out and candidly admits it is from the author. Two, the story provides a level-headed description of a technical problem, its causes, and suggestions for mitigations. Three, it provides reasons why the suggested changes would be beneficial to all readers; not just people in the target audience. Further, the submitter has been an active member and contributor to the site — even before it went live. I've seen him at work and have never seen any self-seeking behavior or pushing of an agenda of any kind. Quite the contrary, all of the contributions I have seen have been strictly for the benefit of the site and the community. Lastly, the submission had been reviewed by another editor and the only question is the one that is now posed to you here.

What do you think?

Is this the first step down a slippery slope? Should we have a "bright line" policy that strictly rejects even the appearance of self-promotion? Should the editors just use their best judgement, based on their past experience and informed from the feedback to this story? Other?

Original Submission

upstart writes in with a submission, via IRC, for Runaway1956__.

The EPA's Anti-Science 'Transparency' Rule Has a Long History

Sometimes a bad piece of legislation doesn't die, it just returns in another form—call it a zombie bill. In this case, the zombie is a bill that morphed into a proposed rule that would upend how the federal government uses science in its decisionmaking. It would allow the US Environmental Protection Agency to pick and choose what science it uses to write legislation on air, water, and toxic pollution that affects human health and the environment.

Republicans tried to pass this type of legislation from 2014 to 2017, with titles such as the Secret Science Reform Act, followed the next year by the Honest and Open New EPA Science Treatment Act. The idea, which on the surface seems like a good one, was to force the EPA to use only research that is publicly accessible, reproducible, and independently verified.

Critics, including much of the US scientific community, complained it would throw out nearly all epidemiological studies in which patients give consent to use their medical information but not their names, to protect their privacy. That would mean limiting studies on the effects of air pollution on lung disease or toxic chemicals' effects on Parkinson's disease and cancer, for example. Scientists also argued that some data, by its nature, can never be reproduced. That would include, for example, the collected particles spewed out by erupting volcanoes, or oil-stained creatures from the Deepwater Horizon spill, or tissue samples taken from soldiers exposed to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War.

[...] "This is not being driven by scientists at the agency, it's being driven by political staff who have spent their careers trying to reduce the authority that the EPA has," says Michael Halpern, deputy director of the Union of Concerned Scientists' Center for Science and Democracy. Halpern noted the proposal has been championed by chemical and tobacco industry groups that have for years sought to reduce the EPA's regulatory powers.

The Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science rule would require that scientists disclose all of their raw data, including confidential medical records, before the agency could consider an academic study's conclusions, according to a draft copy obtained this week by The New York Times.

upstart writes in with a submission, via IRC, for SoyCow1337.

Twitter says it may warn users about deepfakes—but won't remove them:

The news: Twitter has drafted a deepfake policy that would warn users about synthetic or manipulated media, but not remove it. Specifically, it says it would place a notice next to tweets that contain deepfakes, warn people before they share or like tweets that include deepfakes, or add a link to a news story or Twitter Moment explaining that it isn't real. Twitter has said it may remove deepfakes that could threaten someone's physical safety or lead to serious harm. People have until November 27 to give Twitter feedback on the proposals.

[...]A real threat?:The most notorious political deepfakes so far either have not been deepfakes (see the Nancy Pelosi video released in May) or have been created by people warning about deepfakes, rather than any bad actors themselves.

[...] The real problem: There is no denying that deepfakes pose a significant new threat. But so far, they're mostly a threat to women, particularly famous actors and musicians. A recent report found that 96% of deepfakes are porn, virtually always created without the consent of the person depicted. These would already break Twitter's existing rules and be removed.

Original Submission

Tesla Cybertruck

hemocyanin writes:

Tesla unveiled the Cybertruck. Apparently, many people think it's ugly. I absolutely love it. It took the jellybean esthetic of modern vehicles and ran it over. Twice. There's simply no point in saying anything about this truck -- you have to look at the pictures:

https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/22/20976539/tesla-cybertruck-test-drive-electric-truck-pickup-video-features-price-elon-musk

In order to make this TFS less short, a few specs, but really, they don't matter until you see if it appeals to you which it either will or won't in spades. The low end 250 mile range version is supposed to be about $40k. The body is unpainted cold rolled stainless steel. Upmodels will have a towing capacity variously described as 10-14k pounds and at the top end, a 500 mile range. They'll cost a lot more.

"Bulletproof" Musk Cybertruck fail

barbara hudson writes:

Elon Musk bragged that his "cybertruck" was bulletproof to a 9mm round, but two separate attempts to demonstrate just how tough it is failed when ball bearings thrown by hand literally caused the windows to come crashing down in pieces. So much for safety glass; even on cyber trucks, windows sucks.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/nov/22/cybertruck-tesla-unveils-the-pickup-truck-we-have-to-have

We created an exoskeleton," Musk said to rapturous whoops from those attending the Los Angeles launch. "It is literally bulletproof to a 9mm handgun."

Franz von Holzhausen, Tesla's chief designer, asked Musk if he could lob a metal ball at the window of the vehicle. "Really?" said Musk. The window smashed. "Oh my fucking God," said Musk. "Maybe that was a little hard."

Showing confidence in the vehicle, Von Holzhausen then suggested he should lob it at a second window. "Try that one? Really?" asked Musk moments before the rear window was also smashed. "It didn't go through, that's the plus side," a stunned Musk said.

Also at Ars Technica and Wccftech.

See also: Hot takes as opinion cools on Tesla Cybertruck
Tesla trademarked Cybertruck and 'Cybrtrk' ahead of its planned debut

Original Submission #1  Original Submission #2 

martyb writes:

US warships sail in disputed South China Sea amid tensions

Navy warships have sailed near islands claimed by China in the disputed South China Sea twice in the past few days, the United States military told Reuters on Thursday, at a time of tension between the world's two largest economies.

The busy waterway is one of a number of flashpoints in the US-China relationship, which include a trade war, US sanctions, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Earlier this week during high-level talks, China called on the US military to stop flexing its muscles in the South China Sea and adding "new uncertainties" over democratic Taiwan, which is seen as a wayward province and claimed by China.

[...] On Wednesday, the littoral combat ship Gabrielle Giffords travelled within 12 nautical miles of Mischief Reef[*], Commander Reann Mommsen, a spokeswoman for the US Navy's Seventh Fleet, told Reuters.

On Thursday, the destroyer Wayne E. Meyer challenged restrictions on innocent passage in the Paracel islands[**], Mommsen said.

"These missions are based in the rule of law and demonstrate our commitment to upholding the rights, freedoms, and lawful uses of the sea and airspace guaranteed to all nations," she added.

[...] China claims almost all the energy-rich waters of the South China Sea, where it has established military outposts on artificial islands.

However, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims to parts of the sea.

The United States accuses China of militarising the South China Sea and trying to intimidate Asian neighbours who might want to exploit its extensive oil and gas reserves.

[*] Mischief Reef
[**] Paracel Islands

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Nearly three-quarters of all clinically relevant antibiotics are natural substances, produced by bacteria. However, the antibiotics that are currently available are losing their effectiveness and increasing numbers of pathogens are becoming resistant. This means there is an urgent need for new antibiotics, but at present fewer than one per cent of known species of bacteria are available for the search for active substances. The remaining 99 per cent are considered ,impossible to cultivate' and are therefore hardly studied.

In addition, the ability to produce antibiotics is not evenly distributed among bacteria. "Talented producers are primarily microorganisms with complex lifestyles, an unusual cell biology and large genomes," explains microbiologist Christian Jogler of Friedrich Schiller University, Jena. "Such organisms produce antibiotic compounds and deploy them in the fight against other bacteria for nutrients and habitats," he adds. Anywhere that such microbiological battles over resources take place and nutrients are scarce is a promising place to search for potential producers of antibiotics.

That is exactly what Jogler and his team have done. With the help of diving robots and scientific divers, they looked for Planctomycetes in a total of 10 marine locations. "We know that Planctomycetes live in communities with other microorganisms and compete with them for habitat and nutrients," says Jogler, explaining what makes this group of bacteria of interest to the researchers.

With samples from the Mediterranean, the North Sea, the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea, as well as the Atlantic, the Pacific and the Arctic Ocean, the scientists succeeded in creating pure cultures of 79 new Planctomycetes. "These pure cultures together represent 31 new genera and 65 new species," adds lead author Dr Sandra Wiegand.

Journal Reference:

Sandra Wiegand, Mareike Jogler, Christian Boedeker, Daniela Pinto, John Vollmers, Elena Rivas-Marín, Timo Kohn, Stijn H. Peeters, Anja Heuer, Patrick Rast, Sonja Oberbeckmann, Boyke Bunk, Olga Jeske, Anke Meyerdierks, Julia E. Storesund, Nicolai Kallscheuer, Sebastian Lücker, Olga M. Lage, Thomas Pohl, Broder J. Merkel, Peter Hornburger, Ralph-Walter Müller, Franz Brümmer, Matthias Labrenz, Alfred M. Spormann, Huub J. M. Op den Camp, Jörg Overmann, Rudolf Amann, Mike S. M. Jetten, Thorsten Mascher, Marnix H. Medema, Damien P. Devos, Anne-Kristin Kaster, Lise Øvreås, Manfred Rohde, Michael Y. Galperin, Christian Jogler. Cultivation and functional characterization of 79 planctomycetes uncovers their unique biology. Nature Microbiology, 2019; DOI: 10.1038/s41564-019-0588-1

Original Submission