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Product and book counterfeiters run wild on Amazon

Product and book counterfeiters run wild on Amazon

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The NY Times (presented here via the Seattle Times) reports that counterfeit products run rampant on the Amazon.com web site. This is especially difficult for book authors whose works can takes months or years to create, but which are copied or scanned, re-titled and re-published under fake author names and fake publishers. Coupled with fake product reviews, counterfeits can end up stealing substantial revenue from those who wrote the books. I had one of my own books sold by counterfeit publishers on Amazon.com too.

Millions of #Facebook accounts and personal info exposed on servers

Millions of #Facebook accounts and personal info exposed on servers

UpGuard’s Cyber Risk team said Mexico City-based digital platform Cultura Colectiva openly stored 540 million records on Facebook users, including identification numbers, comments, reactions and account names. Another database, an app called At the Pool, listed names, passwords and email addresses of 22,000 people, UpGuard said. Source: Facebook removes exposed user records stored on Amazon’s servers | Reuters

Der Spiegel star reporter and editor admits to having made up stories and facts

Der Spiegel star reporter and editor admits to having made up stories and facts

A “star” reporter and editor at Der Spiegel has admitted to fabricating his stories over a period of many years. He was the four time winner of Germany’s “Reporter of the Year” award and a two time winner of CNN’s Journalist of the Year. Yet the journalists who selected the winner never saw problems. Think of the role that such fake news plays in shaping public opinion, and its sharing on social media as part of propaganda campaigns.

#Facebook will disable their features for ads that discriminate based on age, sex, ethnicity and 5,000 other factors

#Facebook will disable their features for ads that discriminate based on age, sex, ethnicity and 5,000 other factors

Facebook’s ad system was intentionally designed for advertisers to discriminate based on age, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, ethnicity, language spoken and so on. They defended it because, you know, everyone does it.

But lawsuits and a Federal investigation have changed their thinking and they will disable their networks age, sex, gender, sex orientation, ethnic, national origin, and so on, discrimination features.

When fictional news is life threatening – #CNBC earns an F for reckless errors in reporting

When fictional news is life threatening – #CNBC earns an F for reckless errors in reporting

Perennial fictional news reporter CNBC tops them all in an article about the shortage of epinephrine auto-injectors (also known by the brand name Epi-Pen).

They illustrate the article with a photo of a child being injected with insulin in the arm – but falsely label it as a child receiving an EpiPen injection. Epinephrine auto injectors are used on the thigh muscle, not the arm.

CNBC made a reckless and dangerous error that could be life threatening by training the public to misuse an EpiPen. The original photo they used was clearly labeled as an insulin injection but CNBC intentionally and false changed it to say it is an EpiPen injection.

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The Facebook advertising company continues to discriminate against workers based on their age and gender

The Facebook advertising company continues to discriminate against workers based on their age and gender

“Right now as we speak, Facebook is literally sending job ads that exclude people on the basis of their age,” he said. “It’s laudable that the AG has gotten Facebook to agree to some basic first steps, but this agreement really doesn’t do much more than what FB has agreed to do voluntarily.” The agreement also enables Facebook to continue doing ad discrimination on the basis of gender. Source: Facebook is now legally bound to stop advertisers from excluding people…

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"What you see is all there is" messaging

"What you see is all there is" messaging

Much propaganda messaging relies on showing us only a limited view of a story. Our quick acting thinking (Kahneman’s System 1 thinking style) jumps to a conclusion based on what we see, and usually fails to consider that there might be more to the story. Hence, this form of propaganda is “What you see is all there is”. Here is the example that went viral on social media. Here on Twitter, this video clip has been viewed over 3 million…

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WSJ: #Google let's most any software company read your #Gmail

WSJ: #Google let's most any software company read your #Gmail

Software developers scan hundreds of millions of emails of users who sign up for email-based services. Disclosures are often buried in user agreements. Source: Tech’s ‘Dirty Secret’: The App Developers Sifting Through Your Gmail – WSJ They also let employees of those companies personally read your email: this is “common practice”. As already suggested on this blog, they data mine the hell of our emails, logging your purchases, financial records, travel records and more. For companies that want data for…

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#Facebook under investigation by FBI, SEC, FTC and US Department of Justice

#Facebook under investigation by FBI, SEC, FTC and US Department of Justice

Representatives for the FBI, the SEC and the Federal Trade Commission have joined the Department of Justice in its inquiries about the two companies and the sharing of personal information of 71 million Americans, suggesting the wide-ranging nature of the investigation. Source: Facebook’s disclosures under scrutiny as federal agencies join probe of tech giant’s role in sharing data with Cambridge Analytica – The Washington Post

Facebook shared user data with 52 tech companies

Facebook shared user data with 52 tech companies

This is a fake resolution statement: It has already ended deals with most of them. Source: Facebook shared user data with 52 tech companies First, they already have the data. Second, in numerous cases on Android phones, the original code is installed on the device and without root access (which is the situation for most users), the code is not removable. Thus, in spite of the “ended deals”, the data collection will continue until users gradually replace their phones and…

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