Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

Thanks For Helping Us Defend the California Consumer Privacy Act

The California Consumer Privacy Act will go into effect on January 1, 2020—having fended off a year of targeted efforts by technology giants who wanted to gut the bill. Most recently, industry tried to weaken its important privacy protections in the last days of the legislative session.

Californians made history last year when, after 600,000 people signed petitions in support of a ballot initiative, the California State Legislature answered their constituents’ call for a new data privacy law. It’s been a long fight to defend the CCPA against a raft of amendments that would have weakened this law and the protections it enshrines for Californians. Big technology companies backed a number of bills that each would have weakened the CCPA’s protections. Taken together, this package would have significantly undermined this historic law.

Fortunately, the worst provisions of these bills did not make it through the legislature—though it wasn’t for lack of trying. Lawmakers proposed bills that would have opened up loopholes in the law and made it easier for businesses to skirt privacy protections if they shared information with governments, changed definitions in the bill to broaden its exemptions, and made it easier for businesses to require customers to pay for their privacy rights.

These bills sailed through the Assembly but were stopped in July by the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson. The final amendments to the CCPA that passed through the legislature last week make small changes to the law, and do not weaken its important protections.

We want to thank everyone who called or wrote to their lawmakers to protect the CCPA this year and amplified how important data privacy is to the people of California. Your voices are invaluable to our advocacy.

We also appreciate the time that lawmakers, our coalition partners, and other stakeholders devoted to discussions about these amendments. As a result of this hard work, the California State Legislature stood up for the privacy law that they passed last year.

Still, while the CCPA is important for Californians’ consumer data privacy, it needs to be stronger. EFF and other privacy organizations earlier this year advanced two bills to strengthen the CCPA, which met significant opposition from technology industry trade association groups. Most importantly, these bills would have improved enforcement by allowing consumers to bring their own privacy claims to court. We particularly thank Assemblymember Buffy Wicks. Sen. Jackson, and the California Attorney General’s Office for leading the charge to improve the CCPA in the legislature.

More than anything, this year’s CCPA fight shows that when voters speak up for their privacy, it makes a big difference with legislators. We look forward to continuing to work with legislators and our coalition partners to advance measures that improve everyone’s privacy. We also look forward to offering input on the Attorney General’s regulations for the CCPA, expected this fall. And as technology trade groups redouble their efforts to weaken state privacy laws or override them with a national law, we encourage everyone to keep pushing for strong consumer data privacy laws across the country.

Huawei Opts for Linux on Its Laptops - PCMag UK
https://uk.pcmag.com/news/122567/huawei-opts-for-linux-on-its-laptops @thrrgilag

Dr Hannah Fry has joined calls for a Hippocratic oath for tech & maths specialists.

"The issue has become urgent now that researchers are building systems that gather and sell personal data, exploit human frailties, and take on life-or-death decisions."

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/aug/16/mathematicians-need-doctor-style-hippocratic-oath-says-academic-hannah-fry

Big Tech’s Disingenuous Push for a Federal Privacy Law

This week, the Internet Association launched a campaign asking the federal government to pass a new privacy law.

The Internet Association (IA) is a trade group funded by some of the largest tech companies in the world, including Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, and Uber. Many of its members keep their lights on by tracking users and monetizing their personal data. So why do they want a federal consumer privacy law?

Surprise! It’s not to protect your privacy. Rather, this campaign is a disingenuous ploy to undermine real progress on privacy being made around the country at the state level. IA member companies want to establish a national “privacy law” that undoes stronger state laws and lets them continue business as usual. Lawyers call this “preemption.” IA calls this “a unified, national standard” to avoid “a patchwork of state laws.” We call this a big step backwards for all of our privacy.

The question we should be asking is, “What are they afraid of?”

Stronger state laws

After years of privacy scandals, Americans across the political spectrum want better consumer privacy protections. So far, Congress has failed to act, but states have taken matters into their own hands. The Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), passed in 2008, makes it illegal to collect biometric data from Illinois citizens without their express, informed, opt-in consent. Vermont requires data brokers to register with the state and report on their activities. And the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), passed in 2018, gives users the right to access their personal data and opt out of its sale. In state legislatures across the country, consumer privacy bills are gaining momentum.

This terrifies big tech companies. Last quarter alone, the IA spent nearly $176,000 lobbying the California legislature, largely to weaken CCPA before it takes effect in January 2021. Thanks to the efforts of a coalition of privacy advocates, including EFF, it failed. The IA and its allies are losing the fight against state privacy laws. So, after years of fighting any kind of privacy legislation, they’re now looking to the federal government to save them from the states. The IA has joined Technet, a group of tech CEOs, and Business Roundtable, another industry lobbying organization, in calls for a weak national “privacy” law that will preempt stronger state laws. In other words, they want to roll back all the progress states like California have made, and prevent other states from protecting consumers in the future. We must not allow them to succeed.

A private right of action

Laws with a private right of action allow ordinary people to sue companies when they break the law. This is essential to make sure the law is properly enforced. Without a private right of action, it’s up to regulators like the Federal Trade Commission or the U.S. Department of Justice to go after misbehaving companies. Even in the best of times, regulatory bodies often don’t have the resources needed to police a multi-trillion dollar industry. And regulators can fall prey to regulatory capture. If all the power of enforcement is left in the hands of a single group, an industry can lobby the government to fill that group with its own people. Federal Communications Commission chair Ajit Pai is a former Verizon lawyer, and he’s overseen massive deregulation of the telecom industry his office is supposed to keep in check.

The strongest state privacy laws include private rights of action. Illinois BIPA allows users whose biometric data is illegally collected or handled to sue the companies responsible. And CCPA lets users sue when a company’s negligence results in a breach of personal information. The IA wants to erase these laws and reduce the penalties its member companies can face for their misconduct in legal proceedings brought by ordinary consumers.

Real changes to the surveillance business model

We don’t know what the IA’s final legislative proposal will say, but its campaign website is thick with weasel words and equivocation. For example, the section on “Controls” says:

Individuals should have meaningful controls over how personal information they provide to companies is collected, used, and shared, except where that information is necessary for the basic operation of the business[.]

The “basic operation” of data brokers involves collecting and selling personal data without your consent. Does that mean you shouldn’t be able to stop them?

The rest of IA’s proposals follow the same pattern. The section on “transparency” says that users should be able to know the “categories of entities” that their data is shared with, but not the names of actual companies or people that receive it. This will make it unnecessarily difficult for people to trace how their personal information is bought and sold. The section on “access” says that users’ ability to access their data should not “unreasonably interfere with a company’s business operations.” Again, if a business depends on gathering data about people without their knowledge, will users ever be able to access their information? Sometimes, exercising your privacy rights will mean “interfering” with a company’s business.

The bottom line is that tech companies are happy for Congress to enact a privacy law—as long as it doesn’t affect their “business operations” in any way. In other words, they’d like a privacy law that doesn’t change anything at all.

The Internet Association knows which way the wind is blowing. Across the country, people are fed up with Big Tech’s empty promises and serialmishandlingofpersonaldata. They want real change, and state legislatures are listening. We must allow states to continue passing innovative new privacy laws. Any federal privacy legislation needs to build a floor, not a ceiling.

Ecologists find strong evidence of fishing down the food web in freshwater lake

Research by ecologists shows strong evidence in a freshwater lake of 'fishing down the food web' - the deliberate shift away from top predatory fish on the food chain to smaller species closer to the base. While the effect has historically been observed almost exclusively in marine ecosystems and ocean fisheries, there has been little evidence of the effect in freshwater ecosystems.

Greta Thunberg Just Pulled an Iconic Move in Front of Congress

Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish environmental activist who has inspired weekly school strikes for climate action around the world, dedicated her Wednesday morning Congressional testimony to the scientists who have outlined the irrefutable facts of climate change. Instead of delivering prepared remarks at the joint hearing between the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Energy, and […]

If Trump Is Reelected, California’s Pollution Waiver Is History

Donald Trump, as part of his war against little ol’ California, says he is revoking the state’s waiver to set its own pollution rules under the Clean Air Act. Can he get away with it? My very tentative guess is yes. This is hardly the first time it’s happened, after all. George Bush refused to […]

The Dollyrots release a video for ‘Animal’

Florida-based Pop Punk husband and wife team The Dollyrots have released a video for ‘Animal’. The track is opener from their recent album, Daydream Explosion, which was released on Wicked Cool Records after Little Steven (The E Street Band) became a fan. Check out the video below.

The post The Dollyrots release a video for ‘Animal’ appeared first on Dying Scene.

Millions of Americans’ Medical Information Is Available on the Internet, Where Anyone Can Take a Peek

This story was originally published by ProPublica, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom, and co-reported with the German public broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox. Medical images and health data belonging to millions of Americans, including X-rays, MRIs, and CT scans, are sitting unprotected […]

Tortillas tell the story of folate deficiency in Mexico

A new study hat accounts for folic acid fortification in staple foods made from wheat and corn, such as bakery bread and tortillas, found that large proportion of women of childbearing age have FA intake below levels recommended by the World Health Organization, potentially raising the risk for neural tube defects in their offspring. The study is one of a few to investigate FA intake after fortification.

Saudi Arabia Denies Its Key Role in Climate Change Even As It Prepares for the Worst

Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, remains a principal funder of climate denialism even as it prepares for climate extremes.

The post Saudi Arabia Denies Its Key Role in Climate Change Even As It Prepares for the Worst appeared first on The Intercept.

We Can Dream

Assume we live in a healthy, functioning Democracy for this one.

Committing to the Bit

The bigoted-comedian-to-right-wing-welfare pipeline gets a new applicant.

GM Can Take Away Our Health Insurance, But They Can’t Stop Our Strike

Just after midnight on September 15, nearly 50,000 members of The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW) walked off their jobs at 33 General Motors (GM) plants across the Midwest and South. For two days, workers have been picketing against GM’s dismal wages and two-tier contracts. Steve Frisque was among them. Frisque is a full-time union steward and committee lead at the GM parts plant in Hudson, Wisconsin.

The Trump Administration Will Prevent California From Setting Its Own Fuel Efficiency Standards

The Trump administration is expected to announce on Wednesday that it will strip California from having any legal authority to require stricter tailpipe pollution standards than the federal government, the New York Times reported Tuesday. The Times reports: The formal revocation of California’s authority to set its own rules on tailpipe pollution—the United States’ largest […]

Trump’s Junk Insurance Is a Windfall for Scammy Insurance Companies

Back in 2017 Republicans did their level best to destroy Obamacare. They failed, and in a final act of pique Donald Trump issued an executive order related to junk insurance plans. These were bare-bones plans limited to three months and meant as a short bridge for emergencies. Trump’s order allowed them to last as long […]

Saudi First: Trump Wants to Start a War With Iran When MBS Gives the Order

Why is Trump deferring to Riyadh? Questions need to be asked about his financial ties with Saudis who bailed him out during the 1990s.

The post Saudi First: Trump Wants to Start a War With Iran When MBS Gives the Order appeared first on The Intercept.

Billions of license plate scans are part of a private surveillance database
https://www.engadget.com/2019/09/17/repo-drivers-scan-license-plates/ #privacy #security

49,000 Striking Auto Workers Should Vote No on “Two-Tier.” Here’s Why.

Auto workers on strike since midnight at General Motors are between a rock and a hard place—a hugely profitable company making outrageous demands for concessions and a union leadership that made no plan for winning a strike and has not even told members what they’re going out for. Picket signs say simply “UAW on Strike.”

Researchers see need for action on forest fire risk

How do humans affect forest fires? An international team of researchers has now shown for a region in north-eastern Poland that forest fires increasingly occurred there after the end of the 18th century with the change to organized forestry. The increased number of fires subsequently made it necessary to manage and maintain the forests differently. In the wake of climate change, the researchers suggest new strategies for the fight against forest fires.