Facebook Faces Class-Action Lawsuit For Collecting Texts, Phone Call Data

by Kyle Perisic   Facebook is facing a class-action lawsuit following revelations it collects text messages and phone calls via its smartphone apps on Android devices. The social network giant’s actions “presents several wrongs, including a consumer bait-and-switch, an invasion of privacy, wrongful monitoring of minors and potential attacks on privileged communications” such as those between attorneys and clients or doctors and patients, the lawsuit alleges. “Facebook has collected and stored information in a scope and manner beyond that which users knowingly authorized. The practice is ongoing” on the Android version of the Facebook apps, according to the lawsuit. “This activity includes assessing users’ call and text histories (including metadata such as the names and number of persons contacted), the times of such contacts, and the lengths of such contacts,” the lawsuit shows. The extent of Facebook’s data collection activity was brought to light when it was revealed in March Cambridge Analytica, a tech consulting firm, had sold Facebook users’ data to President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign. Former President Barack Obama also used Facebook users’ data in his 2012 campaign. (RELATED: Obama Staffer: Facebook Knew Presidential Campaign Improperly Seized Data, Looked the Other Way) Facebook began collecting the texts and phone call information before…

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‘Hacked’ DNC Servers Under Scrutiny As Possible Data Manipulation and Loss Point to Purposeful Destruction

Hillary Clinton

By Robert Romano   On Twitter on April 20, President Donald Trump has said if there’s an upside to the DNC lawsuit against the Trump campaign, Wikileaks and Russia, he said “we will now counter for the DNC Server that they refused to give to the FBI…” But according to the DNC’s filing, the committee may have destroyed all the evidence of the alleged hack by Russia of the DNC emails: “As a result of the persistence of the Russian state-sponsored infiltration, in order to remove the unauthorized users from its network, the DNC was required to decommission more than 140 servers, remove and reinstall all software, including the operating systems, for more than 180 computers, and rebuild at least 11 servers.” Which sounds familiar. Anyway, 18 U.S.C. 1519 states, for anyone who still cares, “Whoever knowingly alters, destroys, mutilates, conceals, covers up, falsifies, or makes a false entry in any record, document, or tangible object with the intent to impede, obstruct, or influence the investigation or proper administration of any matter within the jurisdiction of any department or agency of the United States or any case filed under title 11, or in relation to or contemplation of any such matter or case, shall be…

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Michelle Malkin Commentary: The Student Data-Mining Scandal Under Our Noses

by Michelle Malkin   While congresscritters expressed outrage at Facebook’s intrusive data grabs during Capitol Hill hearings with Mark Zuckerberg this week, not a peep was heard about the Silicon Valley-Beltway theft ring purloining the personal information and browsing habits of millions of American schoolchildren. It doesn’t take undercover investigative journalists to unmask the massive privacy invasion enabled by educational technology and federal mandates. The kiddie data heist is happening out in the open—with Washington politicians and bureaucrats as brazen co-conspirators. Facebook is just one of the tech giants partnering with the Department of Education and schools nationwide in pursuit of student data for meddling and profit. Google, Apple, Microsoft, Pearson, Knewton, and many more are cashing in on the Big Data boondoggle. State and federal educational databases provide countless opportunities for private companies exploiting public schoolchildren subjected to annual assessments, which exploded after adoption of the tech industry-supported Common Core “standards,” tests, and aligned texts and curricula. Americans need an alternative to the mainstream media. But this can’t be done alone  Find out more >> The recently passed Every Student Succeeds Act further enshrined government collection of personally identifiable information—including data collected on attitudes, values, beliefs, and dispositions—and allows…

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Marsha Blackburn Pushes for Universal Privacy Standards after Facebook Data Breach

Rep. Marsha Blackburn said Tuesday that she wants to ask Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg about universal privacy standards. “I would ask him if he would agree to privacy standards that are in statute, in federal statute, that he would agree to one set of privacy standards for the entire ecosystem – both your internet service provider and your edge providers,” Ms. Blackburn, Tennessee Republican, said on Fox News.

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A Hacker’s Guide to Cyber-Safety

Tennessee Star

by Timothy Summers   Protecting individual privacy from government intrusion is older than American democracy. In 1604, the attorney general of England, Sir Edward Coke, ruled that a man’s house is his castle. This was the official declaration that a homeowner could protect himself and his privacy from the king’s agents. That lesson carried into today’s America, thanks to our Founding Fathers’ abhorrence for imperialist Great Britain’s unwarranted search and seizure of personal documents. They understood that everyone has something to hide, because human dignity and intimacy don’t exist if we can’t keep our thoughts and actions private. As citizens in the digital age, that is much more difficult. Malicious hackers and governments can monitor the most private communications, browsing habits and other data breadcrumbs of anyone who owns a smartphone, tablet, laptop or personal computer. As an ethical hacker, my job is to help protect those who are unable, or lack the knowledge, to help themselves. People who think like hackers have some really good ideas about how to protect digital privacy during turbulent times. Here’s what they – and I – advise, and why. I have no affiliation or relationship with any of the companies listed below, except…

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