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EDRi on data mining

Did Donald Trump become president because he hired the data mining firm Cambridge Analytica, which uses profiling and micro-targeting in political elections? Some say yes, many say no. But what we know is that we are subjected to extensive personalised commercial and political messaging on the basis of data, including metadata, collected and used without our awareness and consent. It can result in changes in our behaviour, at least to some extent.

EDRi: Data mining for profit and election result – how predictable are we? »

Njalla – the new anonymous domain registration service

Pirate Bay founder Peter Sunde has a new privacy-oriented startup. Today he launches the domain registration service Njalla, which offers site owners full anonymity, shielding them from the prying eyes of outsiders. “Think of us as your friendly drunk (but responsibly so) straw person that takes the blame for your expressions.”

Torrentfreak: Pirate Bay Founder Launches Anonymous Domain Registration Service »

Njalla »

IoT botnets – the next generation

Mirai, the botnet that threatened the Internet as we knew it last year with record-setting denial-of-service attacks, is facing an existential threat of its own: A competing botnet known as Hajime has infected at least 10,000 home routers, network-connected cameras, and other so-called Internet of Things devices.

Ars Technica: Vigilante botnet infects IoT devices before blackhats can hijack them »

Wikileaks a “non-state hostile intelligence service”?

In a speech Thursday at a Washington DC think tank, CIA Director Michael Pompeo called the whistleblower site WikiLeaks a “non-state hostile intelligence service” and said news organizations that reveal the government’s crimes are “enemies” of the United States. (…)

Referring to WikiLeaks’ founder, Pompeo declared that “Julian Assange has no First Amendment freedoms.” (…)

In his remarks, Pompeo said, “We have to recognize that we can no longer allow Assange and his colleagues the latitude to use free speech values against us. To give them the space to crush us with misappropriated secrets is a perversion of what our great Constitution stands for. It ends now.”

WSWS: CIA Director calls WikiLeaks an “enemy,” says Assange has “no First Amendment freedoms” »

Update, also read:

Techcrunch: Hypocritical CIA Director Goes On Rant About Wikileaks, Free Speech »

The Intercept: Trump’s CIA Director Pompeo, Targeting WikiLeaks, Explicitly Threatens Speech and Press Freedoms »

Facebook gearing up for French presidential elections

Facebook says it has targeted 30,000 fake accounts linked to France ahead of the country’s presidential election, as part of a worldwide effort against misinformation.

The company said Thursday it’s trying to “reduce the spread of material generated through inauthentic activity, including spam, misinformation, or other deceptive content that is often shared by creators of fake accounts.”

It said its efforts “enabled us to take action” against the French accounts and that it is removing sites with the highest traffic.

ABC News: Facebook targets 30,000 fake France accounts before election »

EU: The DRM problem

German Member of the European Parliament Julia Reda has published an open-letter signed by UK MEP Lucy Anderson, raising alarm at the fact that the W3C is on the brink of finalising a DRM standard for web video, which — thanks to crazy laws protecting DRM — will leave users at risk of unreported security vulnerabilities, and also prevent third parties from adapting browsers for the needs of disabled people, archivists, and the wider public.

Boingboing » MEP to Commission: World Wide Web Consortium’s DRM is a danger to Europeans »

Meanwhile, in France…

French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron has become the latest high-profile European politician to threaten U.S. tech companies over their use of end-to-end encryption, and for how digital platforms enable the spread of terrorist propaganda online.

Techcrunch: French presidential candidate Macron talks tough on tech firms over terrorism »