Facebook is removing Trump campaign ads | Huawei execs admit they don't know whether their tech is used for surveillance | Peter Dutton pushes for overseas police to tap Australians’ phones
Facebook is removing Trump campaign ads | Huawei execs admit they don't know whether their tech is used for surveillance | Peter Dutton pushes for overseas police to tap Australians’ phones
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Facebook said Thursday it will remove some ads run by President Donald Trump's re-election campaign that it says ran afoul of its policies to "prevent confusion around the official US census." CNN
When asked whether Huawei ensures its employees refrain from participating in other countries’ surveillance programs, Purdy acknowledged “no company is perfect.” “It’s a major challenge within companies,” Purdy said. “I think in the last years I’ve been there we’ve dramatically improved our ability to have strong ethics and compliance.” CyberScoop
Peter Dutton has released a bill to increase cooperation between Australian law enforcement agencies and international partners by creating a system to authorise interception of phone calls or access of electronic communications. The Guardian
ASPI ICPC
The national security implications of extreme misogyny
The Strategist
@elisethoma5
Online radicalisation has been a significant point of focus for the national security community in recent years. Much of this attention has been directed, rightly, at the risks posed by Islamic extremism, far-right extremism and white supremacist movements. However, far less attention has been paid to an equally dangerous and arguably more pervasive form of radicalisation taking place online: extreme misogyny.
China’s Uighurs trapped in factory toiling for tech titans
AP NEWS
@dakekang @yananw
The connection between OFILM, the supplier that owns the Nanchang factory, and the tech giants is the latest sign that companies outside China are benefiting from coercive labor practices imposed on the Uighurs, a Turkic ethnic group, and other minorities. OFILM’s website indicates the Xinjiang workers make screens, camera cover lenses and fingerprint scanners. It touts customers including Apple, Samsung, Lenovo, Dell, HP, LG and Huawei, although there was no way for the AP to track specific products to specific companies.
A report Sunday from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, researched separately from the AP, estimated that more than 80,000 Uighurs were transferred from Xinjiang to factories across China between 2017 and 2019. The report said it found “conditions that strongly suggest forced labor” consistent with International Labor Organization definitions.
What happens when China’s Uighurs are released from re-education camps
The Economist
A report published on March 1st by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (aspi), a think-tank in Canberra, reveals that some former detainees in Xinjiang have swapped one form of coercion for another, and have been obliged to go work in other provinces. In 2017-19, the study found, more than 80,000 Uighurs were shipped out of Xinjiang to take jobs in factories across China under conditions that “strongly suggest forced labour”.
China Moves Uyghur Muslims Into ‘Forced Labor’ Factories. Forbes
'Uyghurs for sale': Your gadget may be a product of forced labor. Rappler
Chinese envoy accuses Western media of ‘fake news’ on Xinjiang detention camps. The Globe and Mail
Australia
Wanting privacy doesn’t mean you’re hiding something
The Australian
@lesleyseebeck
We’re seeing the censorship of online content, increasing levels of surveillance and data collection by public and private organisations, decreased transparency and accountability of government actions, and a push to ban or erode end-to-end encryption. Governments are rightly concerned over child exploitation and criminal and terrorist activity on the internet — no sane person is going to argue in favour of the protection of either.
A wary eye on metadata watchers
The Australian
@chris_griffith
There’s concern that our data retention law is spiralling out of control and that the privacy of ordinary Australians is being compromised unnecessarily by organisations accessing citizens’ metadata without a warrant.
Australian government is currently juggling 62 high-cost IT projects
ZDNet
Information revealed to ZDNet under freedom of information has shown all of them are valued at over AU$10 million, and one was contracted to Telstra back in 2013.
Peter Dutton pushes for overseas police to tap Australians’ phones
The Guardian
@Paul_Karp
Peter Dutton has released a bill to increase cooperation between Australian law enforcement agencies and international partners by creating a system to authorise interception of phone calls or access of electronic communications.
China
Huawei execs admit they don't know whether their tech is used for surveillance
CyberScoop
@shanvav
When asked whether Huawei ensures its employees refrain from participating in other countries’ surveillance programs, Purdy acknowledged “no company is perfect.” “It’s a major challenge within companies,” Purdy said. “I think in the last years I’ve been there we’ve dramatically improved our ability to have strong ethics and compliance.” Last year, when the Wall Street Journal reported that Huawei technicians helped the governments of Uganda and Zambia surveil political opponents or dissidents, the company said its internal investigation “shows clearly that Huawei and its employees have not been engaged in any of the activities alleged.”
Conspiracy theorists blame the U.S. for coronavirus. China is happy to encourage them.
The Washington Post
@gerryshih
In recent days, run-of-the-mill mockery of the White House has taken a darker turn as the Chinese Internet became inundated by the theory, subtly stoked by the Chinese government, that the coronavirus originated in the United States. The U.S. government, one version of the theory goes, has been covering up mounting cases, and perhaps thousands of deaths, by classifying them as regular flu.
How a Dating App Helped a Generation of Chinese Come Out of the Closet
The New York Times
@yilingliu95
Blued, one of the biggest gay dating apps in the world, has succeeded because it plays by the ever-shifting rules for L.G.B.T.Q. China — bringing together a minority community without activism.
USA
Facebook is removing Trump campaign ads
CNN
@donie
Facebook said Thursday it will remove some ads run by President Donald Trump's re-election campaign that it says ran afoul of its policies to "prevent confusion around the official US census."
U.S. legislation targets online child sexual abuse; threatens encryption on Facebook, Google
Reuters
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators on the powerful judiciary committee on Thursday introduced a bill aimed at curbing online distribution of child sexual abuse material that technology and civil liberties groups said was an attack on strong encryption critical to billions of people.
North Asia
How Taiwan Used Big Data, Transparency and a Central Command to Protect Its People from Coronavirus
healthpolicy.fsi.stanford.edu
The authors note that Taiwan integrated its national health insurance database with its immigration and customs database to begin the creation of big data for analytics. That allowed them case identification by generating real-time alerts during a clinical visit based on travel history and clinical symptoms. Taipei also used Quick Response (QR) code scanning and online reporting of travel history and health symptoms to classify travelers’ infectious risks based on flight origin and travel history.
UK
The UK risks plunging the Five Eyes alliance into crisis
The Telegraph
@JohnHemmings2
The Five Eyes alliance has long been a bulwark of the free world. Yet it is able to function as perhaps the most comprehensive espionage alliance in history because of implicit trust between its members, based on an understanding that they share the same interests and ambitions. Now it is approaching a crisis. And although the UK's decision to involve Huawei in its 5G infrastructure is the leading cause, this dispute is a symptom of far more fundamental differences over the alliance's approach to China.
Tory grandees will seek amendment to bar Huawei
Financial Times
Senior Conservative MPs will try to pass a law next week to ensure that the UK’s telecoms networks, including 5G mobile phone infrastructure, do not contain any Huawei equipment after 2022. The move comes after Boris Johnson in January decided to grant the Chinese telecoms equipment maker a limited role in supplying kit for the UK’s 5G networks, although it proposed confining Huawei’s market share to 35 per cent.
Misc
Hackers Can Clone Millions of Toyota, Hyundai, and Kia Keys
Wired
Over the past few years, owners of cars with keyless start systems have learned to worry about so-called relay attacks, in which hackers exploit radio-enabled keys to steal vehicles without leaving a trace. Now it turns out that many millions of other cars that use chip-enabled mechanical keys are also vulnerable to high-tech theft. A few cryptographic flaws combined with a little old-fashioned hotwiring—or even a well-placed screwdriver—lets hackers clone those keys and drive away in seconds.
Twitter tests 'fleets' - tweets that disappear after 24 hours
Sky News
@luciabinding
Called "fleets" due to their ephemeral nature, the vanishing posts are similar to the "stories" feature on Instagram.
We need to better support women facing online hate just for doing their jobs
Mumbrella
Ahead of International Women's Day, Quiip's Amber Robinson looks at the abuse women face online in the course of doing their jobs, and explains why employers need to do better, starting with ensuring women don't have to moderate their own hate.