background propaganda

Hugh Pickens writes “Michael Wilson writes in the NY Times that top intelligence officials in the New York Police Department are looking for ways to target “apolitical or deranged killers before they become active shooters” using techniques similar to those being used to spot terrorists’ chatter online. The techniques would include ‘cyber-searches of language that mass-casualty shooters have used in e-mails and Internet postings,’ says Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly. ‘The goal would be to identify the shooter in cyberspace, engage him there and intervene, possibly using an undercover to get close, and take him into custody or otherwise disrupt his plans.’ There are also plans to send officers to Newtown and to scenes of other mass shootings to collect information says the department’s chief spokesman Paul. J. Browne adding that potential tactics include creating an algorithm that would search online “for terms used by active shooters in the past that may be an indicator of future intentions.” The NYPD’s counter-terrorism division released a report last year, ‘Active Shooter (PDF),’ after studying 202 mass shooting incidents. ‘So, we think this is another logical step,’ says Kelly.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

SOURCE Slashdot

Mobile data users have been exceptionally unhappy over data caps since they were first introduced. Many argue that these data caps have nothing to do with controlling congestion on mobile networks and everything to do with charging customers as much as possible. A white paper was published this week from the New America Foundation arguing that data caps were designed to maximize revenue rather than minimize congestion.

Apparently, the white paper caught the attention of a Democratic senator from Oregon named Ron Wyden. Wyden has introduced legislation to regulate the use of data caps this week. The Senators Bill would allow the use of data caps only to control congestion on a network and would not allow them to be used to maximize a carrier’s revenue.

Wyden plans to address three major issues with his bill. He wants to increase the accuracy and amount of information carriers provide consumers. This bill also proposes to allow the FCC to regulate methods used by carriers for measuring bandwidth. The second major issue the bill seeks to address would be to require any data caps used by ISPs to “reasonably limit network congestion without unnecessarily restricting Internet use.”

A statement released along with the legislation noted that some data caps might work to discourage Internet use even when it has no effect on network congestion. The third thing the legislation seeks to address could be the most controversial. The bill would require any data cap in place not be used to provide preferential treatment of data based on the source or content of the data. That would mean the legislation would eliminate any paid fast lane for data, which has been proposed by some users.

[via ArsTechnica]

Senator introduces bill in Washington to regulate data caps is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

SOURCE SlashGear

The much-awaited Redbox Instant (by Verizon) streaming service has just come into an official beta, with Android (and iOS) apps being released as well. The app is available in the Google Play Store right now, but you’ll need a beta invite first if you want to use it. You can hit up the source link below to try and get a code, but in the meantime you can download the app so you’re ready to go when the code arrives.

If you happen to be rooted — or using a Developer Edition device — you shouldn’t bother installing at this point though. Right off the bat when launching the app on any non-stock device you’ll be greeted with an error (5141, to be exact) and a “help” link that lets you know about what rooting is.

Source: Redbox; Via: Engadget

SOURCE Android Central – Android Forums, News, Reviews, Help and Android Wallpapers

SOURCE Crunching the Latest PS3 Scene News!

If you’re a frequent user of Instagram, then you may have heard about the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy update that is penciled in for January, 2013. To sum it up, Instagram, purchased by Facebook some three months ago to the tune of $1 billion, is attempting to “borrow” your photos and sell them to third party companies. Your photos will then be used in a manner that directly relates to a company’s product. CNET’s Declan McCullagh had a great example of how this will work. 

That means that a hotel in Hawaii, for instance, could write a check to Facebook to license photos taken at its resort and use them on its Web site, in TV ads, in glossy brochures, and so on — without paying any money to the Instagram user who took the photo.

By updating their ToS and PP, Instabook will become the largest stock photo distributor in the world, without having to do any work at all. Now, informed people are reasonably a little upset/confused about why their pictures will all of a sudden have price tags on them. From some perspective, you can’t really argue with Facebook for trying to make money back on that large of an investment. What did you think their plans were when they threw down that much money? A simple integration between the two services? Let’s not be naive.

Now, as for me, I wasn’t making money from my hundreds of “Thor and Loki” pictures anyways, so have at them Facebook. For what seems like thousands of other people who are putting their photography portfolios online, this may seem much more damaging. If you fear for your work, host it on your own and delete your account. Users have until January 16 to delete their accounts and back out of the new terms before the company takes “control” over the photos.

Please, read the updated Terms of Service and Privacy Policy and get yourself informed.

Will you continue to use Instagram in the event of this updated policy or have you already deleted your account?

Via: CNET

Cheers everyone who sent this in!

SOURCE Droid Life

A new kernel exploit has been found (credit to alephzain at XDA) that affects some Samsung Exynos chipsets — which happen to power many of Samsung’s more popular phones. Normally kernel exploits don’t make the rounds as news, but this time the word “malware” got attached to it so it’s got a bit of steam behind it.

Let’s start this by reminding everyone that any app or program that roots your Android phone or jailbreaks your iOS device is malware by this definition. People really need to give up on that damn click-bait, and instead worry about educating people to help keep them safer. That’s what we’re going to try to do, so read on and lets have a look.

Source: XDA; More: Chainfire’s ExynosAbuse root exploit thread

read more

SOURCE Android Central – Android Forums, News, Reviews, Help and Android Wallpapers

An anonymous reader writes “Cox Communications appears to be injecting JavaScript and HTML into subscriber’s traffic, as part of their effort to announce an email service outage. Pictures showing the popup.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

SOURCE Slashdot

An anonymous reader writes “Cox Communications appears to be injecting JavaScript and HTML into subscriber’s traffic, as part of their effort to announce an email service outage. Pictures showing the popup.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

SOURCE Slashdot

An anonymous reader writes “Cox Communications appears to be injecting JavaScript and HTML into subscriber’s traffic, as part of their effort to announce an email service outage. Pictures showing the popup.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

SOURCE Slashdot

This week, Verizon is to begin a campaign to show customers the benefits of opting into their new data-collecting service called Verizon Selects, part of the same Precision Marketing portfolio that we urged our readers to opt-out of.

First, you should know what Verizon Selects is. By acquiring usage data such as mobile web browsing history, your location, and “interest data” collected through application usage, Verizon Select allows third parties to offer advertisements that directly relate to you. Verizon is clear that the data is anonymous and is not distributed outside of Verizon, but to set your minds at ease, Verizon is offering customers who opt in a coupon or promotion to a major retailer of some kind.

We are asking customers to opt-in to Verizon Selects because of the types of information being used and because the capabilities provided to third-party marketers gives them the ability to reach customers directly. It’s important to remember that Verizon DOES NOT share information that identifies customers personally outside of Verizon.

You are not automatically signed up unless you do it yourself through their site, but if you either want to go sign up or make sure you’re not a part of this, then simply go here.

If you decide that a coupon is worth your personal information to be bundled up for special ads, then prepare to receive special offers in forms of texts, emails, postal mail, online ads, and mobile ads.

Via: Verizon

SOURCE Droid Life