---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <ndjeu7$9ih$1@dont-email.me> Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2016 11:18:33 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: How Apple, FBI can both claim victory: analysis By Jon Swartz San Francisco - In the end, like a peewee soccer game, everybody won. Apple wasn't forced to weaken its operating system to comply with the government's request to unlock the seized iPhone of San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook, preserving its stance on privacy and scoring a public relations coup with consumers. The FBI found a way to crack the phone - it won't say how - creating the possibility it can gain access to other devices in scores of other criminal investigations. http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/2016/03/30/how-apple-fbi-can-both-claim-victory-analysis/81847692/ -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <ndjfcj$bb9$1@dont-email.me> Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2016 11:26:12 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: The Real Story Behind The FBI Dropping The Suit With Apple By Frank Miniter The narrative is that the FBI, with the help of an outside party, managed to hack an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino terrorists. Because the FBI was successful, the Department of Justice (DOJ) dropped its legal action that was attempting to force Apple to write software to hack its own product. This narrative is too neat. Maybe the U.S. government did find a way into the iPhone or maybe it didn't. But it's interesting that DOJ attorneys and Apple were about to face off in a courtroom in Riverside, Calif., when the DOJ suddenly asked for, and was given, a postponement. http://www.forbes.com/sites/frankminiter/2016/03/31/the-real-story-behind-the-fbi-dropping-the-suit-with-apple/#32d5b5331d9c -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <ndjejo$87m$1@dont-email.me> Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2016 11:12:58 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Verizon reportedly planning to share customer location data with AOL advertisers Tim Armstrong wants to forge a mobile marketing juggernaut to rival Facebook and Google. By Ben Popper It's been clear since Verizon acquired AOL last year that the end goal was to combine the two companies' data and technology to build a massive advertising business. Verizon already made clear that it would share the data it had on user's browsing habits to improve AOL's ad targeting. Now The Wall Street Journal is reporting that a small group of AOL test customers can tap into Verizon data "about cellphone users' locations to show if anyone went to a brand's store after seeing an ad." AOL CEO Tim Armstrong has been out-selling clients on the idea that they should advertise with AOL so they can leverage this ability when it comes online for all clients later this year. Sharing this kind of data on consumers might get Verizon into hot water. It was already fined $1.35 million by the FCC for its use of "supercookies." As part of its settlement with the agency, Verizon also agreed to get customers permission before sharing tracking data with outside companies, or even with sites owned by AOL. The FCC has also proposed some new rules around how much data ISPs can share with outside parties without getting a customer's permission. http://www.theverge.com/2016/3/30/11330812/verizon-share-customer-location-data-with-aol-advertising -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <ndjf6a$ajj$1@dont-email.me> Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2016 11:22:51 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: FBI's Retreat from Apple Fight: A Reader Responds By Steve Rosenbush Some critics have maintained that it was clear from the start that the government could have cracked the iPhone without Apple's help. Edward Snowden made that case earlier this month, when he said that the security systems could have been overcome by "attacking" the hardware of the device, and that it wasn't necessary to enlist Apple's aid in writing software to break the encryption. He argued that convenience, and something more fundamental, drove the Justice Department's demands. The Morning Download revisited that point earlier today, in a post entitled "FBI's Retreat from Apple Battle Is Remarkable." As Edward Snowden said earlier this month: "They frame this false choice between security and privacy. But you can have both - Surveillance isn't about safety. It's about power." http://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2016/03/29/fbis-retreat-from-apple-fight-a-reader-responds/ -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <ndjee1$6tc$1@dont-email.me> Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2016 11:09:55 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Verizon customers may have been seriously overcharged by Michal Addady Verizon is currently facing claims that it has been overcharging customers for its landline service. Consumer-advocacy group New Networks Institute, which focuses specifically on benefitting the telephone customer, is considering taking legal action against Verizon, the New York Post reports. The New York-based group claims that the telecommunications provider has been overcharging its landline customers by $1,000 to $1,500. With 2 million Verizon landline customers in New York state, that adds up to billions of dollars. http://fortune.com/2016/03/28/verizon-overcharge/ -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <10zzachwwroju.17w5rykur8qsc.dlg@40tude.net> Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2016 16:54:32 -0400 From: tlvp <mPiOsUcB.EtLlLvEp@att.net> Subject: Re: The Real Story Behind The FBI Dropping The Suit With Apple On Thu, 31 Mar 2016 11:26:12 -0400, Bill Horne wrote: > ... > http://www.forbes.com/sites/frankminiter/2016/03/31/the-real-story-behind-the-fbi-dropping-the-suit-with-apple/#32d5b5331d9c > ... Alas, Forbes is too clever for its own good. I tried to visit the link above using a browser (an ancient edition of Safari running on Windows Vista) that is adblocker-free, but Forbes sniffed hard, and balked, saying: : We noticed you still have ad blocker enabled. By turning it off : or whitelisting Forbes.com, you can continue to our site ... Forbes should realize that there can be no sign that an adblocker has been turned off when there's no adblocker present to begin with :-) . Until then, ... . Cheers, -- tlvp -- Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP. ------------------------------ Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.4.64.1603311326020.28138@panix5.panix.com> Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2016 13:27:44 -0400 From: danny burstein <dannyb@panix.com> Subject: MD Appellate Court Rebukes Police for Concealing Use of Stingrays [The Intercept] Maryland Appellate Court Rebukes Police for Concealing Use of Stingrays A MARYLAND appellate court on Wednesday explained its reasoning for its landmark decision earlier this month requiring police to establish probable cause and get a warrant before using a Stingray, or cell-site simulator. The Maryland Court of Special Appeals rejected the state of Maryland's argument that anyone turning on a phone was "voluntarily" sharing their whereabouts with the police. And the 73-page opinion also harshly rebuked Baltimore police for trying to conceal their use of Stingrays from the court. ..... The panel of judges stated that "cellphone users have an objectively reasonable expectation that their cellphones will not be used as real-time tracking devices, through the direct and active interference of law enforcement." ======= rest: https://theintercept.com/2016/03/31/maryland-appellate-court-rebukes-police-for-concealing-use-of-stingrays/ _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] ------------------------------ ********************************************* End of telecom Digest Fri, 01 Apr 2016