May 2022 - cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

Cryptocurrency: PayPal Censor Bans IndyMedia Services and Users
by grarpamp 13 May '22

13 May '22

PayPal's IndyMedia Wipeout https://taibbi.substack.com/p/paypals-indymedia-wipeout In the last week or so, the online payment platform PayPal without explanation suspended the accounts of a series of individual journalists and media outlets, including the well-known alt sites Consortium and MintPress. Each received a variation of the following message: Unlike many on the list, Consortium editor Joe Lauria succeeded in reaching a human being at the company in search of details about the frozen or “held” funds referenced in the note. The PayPal rep told him that if the company decided “there was a violation” after a half-year review period, then “it is possible” PayPal would keep the $9,348.14 remaining in Consortium’s account, as “damages.” “A secretive process in which they could award themselves damages, not by a judge or a jury,” Lauria says. “Totally in secret.” Consortium, founded by the late investigative reporter Robert Parry, has been critical of NATO and the Pentagon and a consistent source of skeptical reporting about Russiagate, as well as one of just a few outlets to regularly cover the Julian Assange case with any sympathy for the accused. Ironically, one of the site’s primary themes involves exploring disinformation emanating from the intelligence community. The site has had content disrupted by platforms like Facebook before, but now its pockets are being picked in addition. This episode ups the ante again on the content moderation movement, toward the world hinted at in the response to the Canadian trucker protests, where having the wrong opinions can result in your money being frozen or seized. Going after cash is a big jump from simply deleting speech, with a much bigger chilling effect. This is especially true in the alternative media world, where money has long been notoriously tight, and the loss of a few thousand dollars here or there can have a major effect on a site, podcast, or paper. As MintPress founder and executive director Mnar Adley points out, the current era of content moderation — characterized by private platforms either overtly or covertly working with government to identify accounts for censure — really began with PayPal’s historic decision in 2010 to halt donations to Wikileaks. In that case, PayPal acted after receiving a letter from the State Department claiming the site’s activities were illegal. “PayPal banning donations from WikiLeaks really set up the blueprint for today’s censorship,” Adley says. Lauria believes PayPal is basing a potential claim on his company’s funds on a list of restricted activities in its service agreement that includes providing “false, inaccurate or misleading information.” He notes, of course, that “false” is “what they think is false, that is,” which is troubling for a pair of big reasons. One is the ongoing possibility of government or law enforcement involvement in fact-checking decisions, as PayPal announced just last year it would be cooperating with authorities in a content moderation campaign. The other is that the thread connecting the recent affected accounts — which include the former RT contributor Caleb Maupin and the host of the Geopolitics and Empire podcast Hrvoje Morić, among others — is that they’re all generally antiwar voices, who’ve been critical either of NATO or of official messaging with regard to the Ukraine conflict. Alan McLeod of MintPress is one of the writers who received the notice about improper “activity” in his account. He assumed at first there had to be a mistake. “The claim that my activity is ‘inconsistent’ with their user agreement is complete nonsense because I literally haven’t used my PayPal account since at least August of 2021,” he says. “I actually assumed [the suspension] was because it’d been inactive for too long.” McLeod’s most recent article is entitled, “The NATO to TikTok Pipeline: Why is TikTok Employing So Many National Security Agents?” In it, he laid out a long list of “former spooks, spies, and Mandarins” hired by TikTok: While simultaneously being the Content Policy Lead for TikTok Canada, Alexander Corbeil is also the vice president of the NATO Association of Canada, a NATO-funded organization chaired by former Canadian Minister of Defense David Collenette… Another NATO-linked new recruit is Ayse Koçak, a Global Product Policy manager at the company. Before joining TikTok last year, she spent three years at NATO… If this is what qualifies as “false, inaccurate, or misleading information,” while CNN, MSNBC, and Fox’s daily rollout of ex-military analysts with undisclosed lobbying ties is upheld as the unobjectionable truth, it’s more or less finita la commedia for independent media. “I guess writing about big social media outlets being staffed with former NATO officials might be controversial,” McLeod quipped. The experience of MintPress exemplifies the logistical Whac-a-Mole controversial publishers have to play now in order to survive as businesses. In addition to the PayPal ban — which hit McLeod, Adley, and one other former Mint contributor, forcing the company to stop paying its writers via the platform — MintPress last month saw two of its fundraising campaigns on GoFundMe shut down. According to Adley, the outlet was able to receive about 90% of donations across a two-year campaign before they were abruptly cut off. At least GoFundMe didn’t try to keep “damages,” as several thousand dollars earmarked for MintPress were instead returned to donors. Adley believes the chief crime of MintPress is that it exists as an alternative to monolithic messaging surrounding issues like Ukraine. Moreover, she believes it’s in trouble with PayPal not for being false, but precisely for printing true uncomfortable things, like McLeod’s NATO-to-TikTok story, or Dan Cohen’s recent piece about the 150-odd Western public relations firms working with Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry. Several of these MintPress pieces about Ukraine have gone viral in recent weeks. “We name the names, we break through the propaganda, we show the profiteers,” Adley says. “There’s so few of us left that do that, and I think that’s why we’ve become a target.” As is the case with a lot of these accounts, MintPress falls out of the mainstream on whole ranges of issues. It’s come under heavy fire for its coverage of Syria, for instance. A lot of political moderates will struggle to connect with its point of view. This however is the whole point of alternative media, whose brief is to explore themes the traditional press won’t or can’t. If traditional news consumers feel comfortable reading them, these sites probably aren’t doing their jobs correctly. Censorship of them is especially concerning if law enforcement plays any role, since these are among the last media concerns to evince any skepticism about national security messaging. Unfortunately, there is reason to suspect this is the case. On July 26th of last year, PayPal announced a new partnership with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to “fight extremism and hate through the financial industry and across at-risk communities.” In describing the arrangement, PayPal talked about a third actor — the government: PayPal and ADL have launched a research effort to address the urgent need to understand how extremist and hate movements throughout the U.S. are attempting to leverage financial platforms to fund criminal activity. The intelligence gathered through this research initiative will be shared broadly across the financial industry and with policymakers and law enforcement. While companies like Facebook, Google, and Twitter at least occasionally explain why prominent accounts have been suspended, neither PayPal nor the ADL will comment about how suspensions and confiscations of companies like MintPress and Consortium fit into their efforts to head off “criminal activity.” I reached out this week not just to the media relations offices of PayPal and the ADL, but to figures quoted in last year’s announcement, including ADL’s Jonathan Greenblatt and PayPal Chief Risk officer Aaron Karczmer, getting no response anywhere. The ADL’s silence is particularly galling because some of the suspended accounts have written extensively about neo-Nazi movements not just in Ukraine, but in the U.S. and in other countries, including Russia. McLeod only just recently published a thread on the Nazi symbols worn by soldiers on both sides of the Ukraine conflict: Lol. This article from German outlet Die Welt, 'the lie of the neo-Nazi battalion' is all about downplaying Nazis' role in the Azov Battalion. But in the image ititself chose to illustate the article, there are 3 separate unambiguous, objectively Nazi symbols. [Thread 🧵] pic.twitter.com/TNxsEW1a9y — Alan MacLeod (@AlanRMacLeod) April 22, 2022 Some person in the replies doing whataboutism and asking why I don't highlight Russian Nazis. Well, I do. https://t.co/v0GOMmNyxo — Alan MacLeod (@AlanRMacLeod) April 22, 2022 Is the ADL really interested in suppressing these voices? Why will they not answer questions on this front? At the very least, the ADL and PayPal should both explain the nature of their relationship to “policymakers” and “law enforcement.” Are they getting recommendations on whom to suspend from authorities? How do they identify sites for censure? So long as PayPal takes money from customers without guaranteeing they will explain suspension or confiscation decisions, or at least deigns to answer media queries about its decisions, media outlets should probably think twice about using their services. PayPal was sued earlier this year by three other account-holders for similar freezing of accounts without explanation. One of the original complainants was Chris Moneymaker, winner of the 2003 World Series of Poker, who claimed PayPal placed a hold on $12,000 of his money (the firm ultimately returned the funds, according to Bloomberg). The litigation involving the other complainants is still pending. PayPal meanwhile has periodically cut off other controversial media outlets, on both the left and the right. A former Infowars employee named David Knight, for instance, saw his independent broadcast show cut off last year, ironically after he broke with Alex Jones over the Stop the Steal issue. All of this is going on at a time when the Biden administration just announced the formation of a dystopian “Disinformation Governance Board,” preposterously headed by a bubbly former Kennan Institute fellow, Nina “The Singing Neoliberal” Jankowicz. In a detail Jonathan Swift couldn’t have written better, Jankowicz — who once cited the author of the greatest news hoax of our generation, Christopher Steele, as an expert on the “evolution of disinfo” — last year put out a video of herself as the “Mary Poppins of Disinformation.” In it, she sang a variation of “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” featuring lines like: They’re laundering disinfo and we really should take note And not support their lies with our wallet voice or vote… You can just call me the Mary Poppins of disinformation 💁🏻‍♀️ https://t.co/eGV9lpctYn pic.twitter.com/WVQFA2bPmq — Nina Jankowicz 🇺🇦🇺🇸 (@wiczipedia) February 17, 2021 As many have pointed out, this is a literal nanny singing about the joys of the nanny state, in a song that includes lines about using the “wallet” to starve speech. There’s a fine line between parody and horror, and we’re tumbling fast to the horror side. https://consortiumnews.com/2022/04/28/caitlin-johnstone-being-anti-war-isnt… https://consortiumnews.com/2017/01/30/rachel-maddow-plays-glenn-beck/ https://consortiumnews.com/assange-hearing/ https://scheerpost.com/2022/04/12/facebook-warns-about-consortium-news-stor… https://www.bbc.com/news/business-11945875 https://www.mediamatters.org/fake-news/multiple-fake-news-sites-are-using-p… https://www.mintpressnews.com/nato-tiktok-pipeline-why-tiktok-employing-nat… https://natoassociation.ca/about-us/alexander-corbeil/ https://natoassociation.ca/partners-sponsors/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayse-k/ https://taibbi.substack.com/p/the-gentlemens-agreement-when-tv https://www.mintpressnews.com/ukraine-propaganda-war-international-pr-firms… https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosiegray/the-inside-story-of-one-webs… https://www.adl.org/news/press-releases/paypal-partners-with-adl-to-fight-e… https://www.mintpressnews.com/tag/neo-nazi-factions/ https://t.co/TNxsEW1a9y https://twitter.com/AlanRMacLeod/status/1517526318426243073 https://t.co/v0GOMmNyxo https://twitter.com/AlanRMacLeod/status/1517531962096898049 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-13/paypal-sued-for-freezing… https://www.thedailybeast.com/a-massive-purge-is-underway-at-alex-jones-inf… https://twitter.com/libertytarian/status/1334251713247780871 https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/3472471-bidens-mary-poppins-of-disinf… https://twitter.com/wiczipedia/status/1291692143262814209 https://t.co/eGV9lpctYn https://t.co/WVQFA2bPmq https://twitter.com/wiczipedia/status/1362153807879303171

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[ot][spam][crazy] Going Outdoors was: Describing One's Experiences As Abuse
by Undiscussed Horrific Abuse, One Victim of Many 13 May '22

13 May '22

it's 1947 and I'm standing outdoors. I talked with my therapist today. He asked me to change my email name. It's nice to be outdoors.

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John Young walking down corridor in his Mannathan Apartment
by razorleaker 13 May '22

13 May '22

“So ı thought it was one of my kids, who can usually breeze up,went to door and two guys in business suits were there,said were and the FBI” https://grabify.link/AZRGMS

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The Far-Right Is Doxxing Judges and Calling For Their Assassinations
by jim bell 13 May '22

13 May '22

The Far-Right Is Doxxing Judges and Calling For Their Assassinations https://share.newsbreak.com/12c59vze The Far-Right Is Doxxing Judges and Calling For Their Assassinations Peaceful activists have been camping out near homes of Supreme Court justices in protest over Roe v. Wade. Meanwhile, the far-right is calling for assassinations of Democrat-appointed judges. By Ben Makuch May 12 2022, 3:20pmAs peaceful protesters camp outside the homes of Supreme Court justices after the leaked draft that would overturn Roe v. Wade, far-right activists are doxxing Democratic federal judges and calling for their assassination. The posts, which appear on a far-right Telegram channel, feature the names and addresses of federal court judges (among other public figures perceived as enemies to the far-right) alongside a bio and a slick red graphic with a Kalashnikov rifle.

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Cryptocurrency: No One Understands The Monetary System, And That's Not OK
by grarpamp 13 May '22

13 May '22

No One Understands The Monetary System, And That's Not OK https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/nobody-understands-the-monetary-system https://twitter.com/SymbolSatoshi/status/1509325939444183040 https://www.aier.org/article/we-can-still-have-a-century-of-liberty https://www.aier.org/article/pornhub-victim-of-visa-and-mastercard-censorsh… https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/16/jerome-powell-promotes-cbdc-digital-dollar-… https://www.alt-m.org/2022/02/09/making-money-myths/ https://www.aier.org/article/escape-hatches-migration-bitcoin-and-the-abili… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdfeXqHFmPI https://bitcoinmagazine.com/business/bitcoin-is-money-for-enemies https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/bitcoin-is-not-democratic-part-five https://authory.com/JoakimBook/We-Can-Still-Have-a-Century-of-Liberty-ad2f6… Bitcoin is freedom money for a century of liberty. But to truly grasp why that is, you need to see what’s wrong with the system it attempts to overthrow... Understanding the monetary system is foundational to seeing what’s wrong with the current system and to have a true grasp of Bitcoin and its importance. “If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” – Carl Sagan Among the first objections that arise for anyone who has just learned about Bitcoin is “this is too complicated to understand.” And it’s true; private keys, block times, difficulty adjustments, UTXOs, uncensorable CoinJoin transactions, hash-something — the learning curve is steep and, for most, the reasons to ascend it seem few and far between. The first time I was introduced to Bitcoin in practice (not in theory — techno-babbling libertarians had unsuccessfully pitched me the idea for years), the intimidatingly tech-savvy guy who did so botched the process. First, he had me download some shady-looking app — which I didn’t have space for on my phone, and so, ironically, I first had to remove a few podcasts on monetary economics. Second, he had the app generate some random words, and in the absence of pen and paper, had me type them into my phone’s (cloud-saved!) note-taking app. Third, he tried to send me 100,000 sats, but the spotty internet on his phone kept interrupting the process. Clearly, I wouldn’t become a convinced Bitcoiner that evening; the hardships of the process seemed altogether useless — the cure worse than the central banking disease it supposedly tried to solve. After he had gotten his shit together, and my polite patience having run out a half-dozen times, he finally managed to send the sats — and triumphantly expressed “See, see! This transaction happened without anybody knowing! And nobody could stop it!” Not impressed, I pulled out a $5 dollar bill, handed it to him and mockingly imitated his triumph: “See, see! That happened without anybody knowing, and nobody could stop us from doing it!” Bearer assets are nothing new in the history of money and all he had convinced me of was that bitcoin was some complicated digital way of doing that. But if the tech-raptured can’t effortlessly do it, what hope is there for you and me? And you’re disintermediating a banking system, the purpose of which is to efficiently and securely make payments, and to make lending and borrowing possible. Nobody was trying to stop anybody’s payments — what was this guy on about? It would be years before I would see those troubles of the current fiat payment networks. WHAT’S AMAZING ABOUT BITCOIN IS NOT THAT IT’S DIGITAL On the Bitcoin 2021 stage, Alex Gladstein wanted to illustrate the simplicity of using bitcoin by sending sats in real time to Strike’s fundraising campaign for Bitcoin development. It was eerily similar to the Bitcoin zealot I described above: Gladstein: “So I’m on the Strike page, right here, and I’m going to go ahead and donate, you know, two dollars’ worth of bitcoin, to Strike ... It is going to go ... and it’s gone. That’s a bearer asset that has just moved instantly around the world. And, I didn't ask permission from anybody.” Gladstein succeeded much better in illustrating a (Lightning) payment than the guy who first tried to send me bitcoin all those years ago. Naturally, the audience “woah”-ed and applauded, but the informed critic could equally well have responded with “Yes, and? Venmo does that too.” In an episode for the “Bitcoin Magazine Podcast,” Mark Maraia explained his approach to “onboarding boomers” — that demographic with money, time and a healthy fear of government overreach, yet not exactly known for their advanced technological know-how. “Forget all the theory,” Maraia says, pointing to everyday items like computers or iPhones — do you honestly know how they work? “I have absolutely no clue," he says, and adds crucially that “That’s OK!” His quip is nice and comforting: nobody understands technology X, and that’s fine, because we see what technology X does and we can use it. Similarly, if you don’t understand Bitcoin, that’s still OK. Except that it’s not. Understanding what Bitcoin can do for you — its use case — requires you to understand the incumbent monetary system. Unlike a phone, a car or a computer, there is no visible value-add in using bitcoin for a middle-of-the-road Westerner who has never been sanctioned, never done anything illegal, never tried to buy goods or services that a payment processor or government disapproves of, has their salaries (and savings!) indexed to inflation, don’t understand why recessions happen and (on a government payroll at least) don’t suffer from them, or what central banks do or where money comes from. I don’t need to understand any of the underlying tech in a phone to see how I might use it and how it could assist my life. In contrast, Bitcoin’s value-add is tied up with its “compared-to-what” alternative in the incumbent monetary system that 99% of us never think about, never cause us any payment-related troubles and we consequently pay no attention to. (Source) A Visa card in Apple Pay can “instantly” pay for things halfway across the world too. For international transfers, Wise or Revolut or a plethora of fintechs can move bank money across the world in seconds. Tech is not the thing. Digital is not the value-add. Of course, most Bitcoiners know that the Visa-Wise-Apple-Pay analogy is faulty. And my guy could have made Saifedean Ammous’ argument that bitcoin has salability across space, which my $5 bill lacks. But to understand much of what sets bitcoin apart you need to go well into the monetary plumbing weeds. What happens when we make a bank payment? What is money? International transfers or bank-issued Visa cards require identification in a way bitcoin doesn’t; they don’t provide final settlement (payments can be revoked later); bank transfers are often deferred net settlements (though real-time gross settlement payments are rolled out in more and more central bank payment networks). Funds in Venmo or PayPal or other lower layers of the dollar banking system are permissioned, in the sense that any of the half-dozen entities required for a payment to be successful could block it — for innocent technical reasons or more malign control/authoritarian reasons. Thinking that an effortless Venmo payment is akin to an on-chain bitcoin transfer because they look and “feel” the same, is a rather elementary error to make. They’re both digital; they both involve “money,” whatever that means; they both allow for transfer of value from one place to another. But in order to understand why they are different, you — like the Carl Sagan quote above — must first explain the whole monetary system: where it can go wrong, what it relies on, how new money enters into it, what banks do, which entities have the power to block, delay, inspect or charge fees for transactions, what you’re risking by passively holding a constantly depreciating currency. To Gladstein’s credit, he has an understanding of the banking realities of the bottom billion that dwarfs any payment troubles that most Westerners have ever encountered. But the average nocoiner doesn’t. Which is why we routinely get news articles where some clever-by-half financial journalist lumps together bitcoin with stablecoins, with non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Or when the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board says that CBDCs make the need for bitcoin or stablecoins obsolete: they’re all the same, really — new, hip, digital ways of storing and moving what seems to be valuable things. The Fed is here to help steward the dollar system, so once its own fancy-sounding technical solution is in place, there could be no need for private options. And “programmable money” sounds amazing — at least until the programming of the not-so-kind programmer stops you from purchasing what you require. (Source) >From Gita Gopinath at the IMF, we learn that the Russia-Ukraine debacle “would also spur the adoption of digital finance, from cryptocurrencies to stablecoins and central bank digital currencies.” What about the conflict could possibly spur anything but bitcoin? Finance is already digital. Fiat bank money is already digital. The Fed adjusts the monetary base, digitally, through purchases and sales of assets via its New York Fed branch. The dollar is already discretionary and permissioned, controlled, regulated and surveilled. What does a central bank digital currency (CBDC) bring to the table? If anything, it would make the politicization of banking-related problems on both sides of the Donetsk battlefield worse, with even more control by authoritarians who want to mandate what people may or may not do with “their” money. You don’t need a blockchain or a token to do 99% of what cryptocurrency projects attempt to do — and the ones that appear to do something useful, don’t do that better than Bitcoin. Beyond the first few hours and days, before international transfers could comfortably arrive to Ukraine’s banks in bulk, there was nothing that “cryptocurrencies” broadly speaking could do for Ukraine; its problem was real, not monetary. Help fleeing refugees smuggle out their savings against a hostile banking system? Sure, bitcoin always excelled at that, but how would a CBDC, issued and governed by the National Bank of Ukraine fare? Or worse, Ripple, whose CEO proudly stated: “To clear any confusion – RippleNet (while being able to do much more than just messaging a la SWIFT) abides by international law and OFAC sanctions. Period, full stop.” Instead of being the permissionless, uncensorable, F-U money that bitcoin aspires to, its cryptocurrency “competitors” proudly uphold censorship and government sanctions: “RippleNet, for example, has always been - and remains today - committed to NOT working with sanctioned banks or countries that are restricted counterparties. Ripple and our customers support and enforce OFAC laws and KYC/AML.” Complying with authoritarian sanctions is the opposite of what freedom money does. I repeat: Tech is not the thing. Digital is not the value-add. The value-add of Bitcoin is the liberty and independence that comes with holding your own money outright — unencumbered by a bank, a payment processor, a financial regulator or a tax man. It’s no longer being subject to the whimsical demands of your authoritarian ruler, democratically-elected or not. It’s to no longer suffer the asinine consequences of the monetary excesses that the dollar’s current stewards have so catastrophically botched. Bitcoin is freedom money for a century of liberty. But to truly grasp why that is, you need to see what’s wrong with the system it attempts to overthrow. Understanding how the fiat monetary system works is fundamental to understanding Bitcoin.

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USG linked to assassination of Guardian reporter
by professor rat 13 May '22

13 May '22

Makes perfect sense under parallel construction >>> emptywheel ·4h Folks, this Guardian story is misleading. DOJ did not obtain subscriber records to obtain “the phone number of Stephanie Kirchgaessner.” Think about how little sense that makes! They obtained subscriber records to learn whose phone number it was. https://theguardian.com/us-news/2022/may/12/us-government-subpoena-guardian… <<<< And who today speaks of the Simon Ross execution?

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US Court asks defunct crypto exchange to refund Bitcoin
by jim bell 13 May '22

13 May '22

US Court asks defunct crypto exchange to refund Bitcoin https://share.newsbreak.com/12c3m7gc

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Statement by Sima Bahous, UN Women Executive Director, on the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh
by Gunnar Larson 12 May '22

12 May '22

Statement by Sima Bahous, UN Women Executive Director, on the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh http://unwo.men/6HiZ50J6I9t I am deeply concerned and saddened by the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh. Ms. Abu Akleh was a prominent Palestinian-American journalist working for Al Jazeera. She had a long and impressive career covering the front lines of conflict. She was shot while on duty covering an operation by Israeli Security Forces in Jenin city in the occupied West Bank, despite wearing protective gear clearly marked with the word “Press”. Under international law, relevant authorities are obliged to ensure the protection of journalists and media workers as well as to ensure the protection of all civilians. Her death is a stark reminder of the multiple forms of violence experienced by women and girls living in conflict settings, in Palestine and in other parts of the world. These acts of violence are human rights violations and unacceptable under any circumstances. UN Women echoes the Secretary-General's call on the relevant authorities for a transparent and independent investigation into the killing of Ms. Abu Akleh. Those responsible must be held accountable. <https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2022-05-11/statement-attribut…> UN Women will continue its work in support of female journalists and women human rights defenders, amplifying their voices, and working to end impunity for violence against them. UN Women wishes a speedy recovery to Mr. Ali Samoudi, a fellow journalist wounded in the same incident. We send our condolences to the family of Ms. Abu Akleh and we honour her memory.

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[ePub Book] CompTIA Server+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide (Exam SK0-004)
by bookpdf＠keemail.me 12 May '22

12 May '22

Book description Complete coverage of every objective for the CompTIA Server+ exam Take the CompTIA Server+ exam with confidence using this highly effective self-study guide. CompTIA Server+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide (Exam SK0-004) offers complete coverage of every topic on the latest version of the exam. You will get in-depth explanations of the latest server types and components, virtualization, IPv4 and IPv6 networking, cloud computing, security, troubleshooting, and more. The book and electronic content provide 350+ accurate practice questions along with in-depth answers, explanations, learning objectives, and exam tips.

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United States: Workplace Monitoring: New Duties In New York
by Gunnar Larson 12 May '22

12 May '22

United States: Workplace Monitoring: New Duties In New York: https://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/employee-rights-labour-relations/119127… United States: Workplace Monitoring: New Duties In New York 10 May 2022 by Andrew Williamson (FordHarrison LLP) lus Laboris Beginning 7 May 2022, employers in the US state of New York will be required to notify and get written acknowledgment from employees if their electronic activity in the workplace is monitored. Employers often monitor employees for a number of reasons, including to ensure workplace policies and procedures are followed, to detect illegal behaviour such as trade secret theft, or to comply with regulatory obligations. As a result, many employers provide notice of electronic monitoring as a matter of practice, via their employee handbooks. However, due to amendments to the New York Civil Rights Law, New York employers are now required to explicitly notify employees if their electronic activity will be monitored and to obtain written acknowledgment from employees. The new law will see New York join Connecticut Delaware among the states requiring disclosure of workplace electronic monitoring. Which businesses and individuals are covered? The law applies to all private employers as it broadly defines 'employer' as any individual or entity, regardless of size, with a place of business in New York State. The law specifically excludes 'the state or any political subdivision of the state.' Notably, the law does not define 'employee,' making it unclear whether employers must provide notice and obtain written acknowledgment from individuals not considered employees (i.e. independent contractors or interns) but who nonetheless use the employer's monitored electronic systems. Also unaddressed is whether individuals hired by New York employers to work remotely out-of-state are entitled to the requisite notice. In the absence of guidance, it may be prudent for employers to extend notice to and obtain written acknowledgment from remote employees as well as other individuals who use the employer's monitored electronic systems. Which electronic monitoring activities are covered? The new law will apply to all private employers who monitor or intercept their employees' telephone conversations or transmissions, electronic mail or transmissions, or internet access or usage. Importantly, notice is not required for processes that are: designed to manage the type or volume of electronic mail, voicemail, or internet; targeted to monitor or intercept activities other than email, phone and internet activities; or performed solely for the purpose of computer system maintenance and/or protection. Accordingly, certain tasks such as spam filtering, proxy servers, or firewall protections in place merely to scan or block certain electronic transmissions are not covered. Similarly, because the law limits the notice requirement to email, telephone, and internet monitoring, surveillance by video cameras and location tracking should not be covered. What does the law require? In practice, the law imposes three requirements. First, it requires covered employers to provide employees with a notice of electronic monitoring upon hiring to all new hires. The law provides language akin to a model employee notice that employers may use, which states: '[A]n employee shall be advised that any and all telephone conversations or transmissions, electronic mail or transmissions, or internet access or usage by an employee by any electronic device or system, including but not limited to the use of a computer, telephone, wire, radio or electromagnetic, photoelectronic or photo-optical systems may be subject to monitoring at any and all times and by any lawful means.' Second, employers must also secure written acknowledgment from new employees that confirms their receipt of the notice. The notice can be provided, and the acknowledgment obtained, electronically. Note that the law does not require employers to provide notice to or obtain an acknowledgment from existing employees, though employers may choose to do so. Third, employers must also post a notice of monitoring in a 'conspicuous place which is readily available for viewing by [their] employees who are subject to electronic monitoring.' Employers should post this notice where they post all other legally required, employment-related notices. Although the law does not define a 'conspicuous space,' employers with a remote workforce would likely satisfy this obligation by posting the notice on their intranet page or other company portal commonly accessed by employees, or as part of the log-in process to access the company's computer system. How will the law be enforced? The law is enforced by New York's attorney general. Violations of the law may subject employers to civil penalties of up to USD 500 for the first offence, USD 1,000 for the second offense, and USD 3,000 for the third and each subsequent offence. There is no private right of action. The law does not specify whether the failure to notify an employee and the failure to obtain the employee's acknowledgment are separate violations. Next steps for covered employers Businesses with employees in New York should take steps now to comply with the law's requirements. Specifically, organisations should update their onboarding policies and procedures to ensure all new hires receive the required notice and execute the necessary acknowledgment. This includes identifying how new hires will be given notice and the collection and storage of acknowledgment forms. Further, employers should determine where the notice will be posted in the workplace, which may include their intranet sites or log-in portals. Employers should also review and, if necessary, update their employee handbooks to ensure existing monitoring policies reflect the law's notice requirements. Finally, although the law specifically applies to new hires, employers would be prudent to follow the same steps for existing employees subject to electronic monitoring before the effective date. The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances. AUTHOR(S) Andrew Williamson (FordHarrison LLP) lus Laboris ARTICLE TAGS United States Employment and HR Contract of Employment Employee Rights/ Labour Relations Media, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment IT and Internet Telecoms, Mobile & Cable Communications POPULAR ARTICLES ON: Employment and HR from United States An $890,000 Judgment? Why There's A Good Reason To Conduct A Wage And Hour Audit Sheehan Phinney Bass & Green In wake of recent ruling against NH restaurant company, it's time to review your firm's practices. 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