Google Sensorvault Giving 10y of Geofence General Warrants https://gizmodo.com/the-feds-police-are-using-googles-location-history-fea-1... https://gizmodo.com/black-market-for-your-location-data-apparently-thriving-... https://www.cnet.com/news/law-enforcement-taps-googles-sensorvault-for-locat... https://www.cnet.com/news/google-clarifies-how-it-tracks-you-even-if-locatio... US ISP and Corp 230 CDA Exemption Under Threat https://www.recode.net/podcasts/2019/4/11/18306834/nancy-pelosi-speaker-hous... Internet companies are not responsible for what is posted on their platforms. "230 is a gift to them, and I don't think they are treating it with the respect that they should," she said. "And so I think that that could be a question mark and in jeopardy.... For the privilege of 230, there has to be a bigger sense of responsibility on it, and it is not out of the question that that could be removed." --Pelosi Your Social Score Sifted https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-secret-trust-scores-companies-use-to-judge-... https://support.sift.com/hc/en-us/articles/207522687-How-are-Sift-Scores-cal... Nearly everything we buy, how we buy, and where we're buying from is secretly fed into AI-powered verification services Google Amazon Microsoft Spy Your Microphones https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/ywyzm5/big-tech-lobbying-gutted-a... https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/04/illinois-bill-banning-eavesdropp... Illinois State Senate passed the Keep Internet Devices Safe Act, a bill that would ban manufacturers of devices that can record audio from doing so remotely without disclosing it to the customer. But after lobbying from trade associations that represent the interests of Google, Amazon -- makers of the microphone-enabled Google Home and Alexa smart speakers, respectively -- and Microsoft, among other companies, the interests of big tech won out... In its current, neutered form, the bill provides exclusive authority to the Attorney General to enforce the Act, which means regular citizens won't be able to bring forward a case regarding tech giants recording them in their homes. Ars Technica notes the move comes after Amazon admitted thousands of their employees listen to Alexa recordings -- "something not mentioned in Echo's terms of service or FAQ pages." Vice points out that sometimes those recordings are shared "even after users opt out of having their data used in the program." Microsoft Lobby Kills Right to Repair https://mspoweruser.com/microsoft-has-been-quietly-lobbying-against-right-to... https://youtu.be/i51YOXCAXJ0?t=1262 https://medium.com/u-s-pirg/microsoft-named-as-stopping-right-to-repair-in-w... Microsoft "has been quietly lobbying against Right to Repair legislation, which would prevent Microsoft from penalizing customers when they open up their devices," claims MSPoweruser: Jeff Morris, Democratic member of the [Washington state] House of Representatives claims Microsoft has blocked legislation from being passed despite strong bipartisan support. In an interview on iFixit's Repair Radio [YouTube], Rep. Jeff Morris said that "word on the street" was that Microsoft, "marshalled forces to keep the bill from moving out of the House Rules committee." He claimed "there was a tax proposal here ... to pay for STEM education," and that "in exchange for Microsoft support[ing that tax,] having Right to Repair die..." was a condition, as well as another privacy policy Microsoft wanted to advance. The state representative hedged that "I can't confirm or deny this, because I have not seen a smoking gun." But he also told his interviewer that to paint a discouraging picture of the landscape after passage of the bill, "Microsoft was going around telling our members that they wouldn't sell Surface Tablets in Washington any longer."