03 August 2022

Techdirt: Selected posts today, this week and last week

 So much to read!

As Expected, Facebook Is No Longer Interested In Paying News Orgs To Post News On Facebook That No One Wants

from the what-else-did-you-expect dept

Just a few weeks we noted that this was inevitable, but Facebook has now made it official that it’s no longer interested in dumping money on news publishers.

A lot has changed since we signed deals three years ago to test bringing additional news links to Facebook News in the U.S. Most people do not come to Facebook for news, and as a business it doesn’t make sense to over-invest in areas that don’t align with user preferences,”

This should not be a surprise

Tim Hortons Doles Out Some Coffee Pocket Change In Response To Location Data Scandal

from the i-see-u dept

We’ve noted for years how U.S. consumer location data is routinely abused by a long list of bad actors, including wireless carriers, broadband providers, app makers, adtech companies, data brokers, police, people pretending to be police, governments, and more.

It’s also, not too surprisingly, a problem in Canada.

Restaurant chain Tim Hortons was recently found to have been collecting “vast amounts of sensitive location data” in violation of Canadian privacy laws. More specifically, one report found the app tracked a user’s location over 2,700 times in less than half a year any time they left home, visited a competitors, or hit a local sports venue, and the restaurant chain mislead users into thinking the tracking would only occur when the app was in use.

Worry not though, as part of a new settlement with the company, it says it will be giving impacted customers enough money for a “hot beverage and a free baked good” with a total retail value of $8.58:

Virginia Politicians Are Suing Books They Don’t Like

from the book-burning-but-for-lawyers dept

Civil asset forfeiture has shown us the government has a weird way of instigating lawsuits. In rem forfeiture cases allow government agencies to file suits against objects, rather than the people they’ve been seized from. This leads to some very amusing case names (even if the underlying process verges on legalized theft), like South Dakota v. 15 Impounded Cats and, um… UNITED STATES of America v. AN ARTICLE of hazardous substance CONSISTING OF 50,000 cardboard BOXES more or less, each containing one pair OF CLACKER BALLS, labeled in part: (Box) “* * * Kbonger * * It’s Fun Test Your Skill It Bounces It Flips Count The Hits * * * Specialty Mfg. Co., Seattle, Wash. * *.

A state law in Virginia allows residents to sue things rather than people. That’s what a couple of ridiculous politicians (Delegate Timothy Anderson and congressional candidate Tommy Altman) have done.

Indonesia Wields New Censorship Law To Block Yahoo, Paypal, And Several Gaming Websites

from the call-it-what-it-is dept

Early last year, Indonesia implemented a new internet regulation law. Referred to as “MR5,” the law gave the government the power to engage in widespread blocking of content. Not only did the law create intermediary liability, it required any site offering services to Indonesian representatives to register with the government. On top of that, service providers were expected to give law enforcement full access to any user content, including private communications and privately stored content.

On top of the normal sort of illegal content, service providers were supposed to proactively monitor user content to remove “prohibited information,” a catch-all term that includes such uber-vague things like content that “creates community anxiety” and

Daily Deal: Chronowatch C-Max Call Time Smartwatch

from the good-deals-on-cool-stuff dept

Bring your smartphone functionality to your wrist with the C-MAX CALL TIME. Over fourteen available features and functions on the 1.7” full color, touchscreen display. Answer calls, get message alerts, monitor your sleep, track multiple sports, and more! Also, the soft, flexible, silicone band makes C-MAX CALL TIME comfortable to wear all day, every day. There are four colors available and they’re on sale for $50.

Study Says Trump’s Truth Social Is Much More Aggressive, And Much More Arbitrary, In Moderating Content

from the the-freeze-peach-site dept

As you’ll recall, the defining moment that lead to Donald Trump creating his Truth Social Twitter clone was his being banned from Twitter for potentially egging on further violence on January 6th. Even before Truth Social was started, Trump’s most vocal and loyal… well, let’s just call them “fans,” kept insisting that what was needed was a social media site that didn’t do any moderation at all — or, at the very least, did no moderation based on viewpoint.

Of course, as we’ve explained for years now, such a thing is literally impossible

Telecom Lobbyists At WISPA, NCTA Throw Hissy Fit Over Doomed Net Neutrality Bill

from the the-house-always-wins dept

This week we noted how the Democratic party had introduced a new two-page bill that would simply give the FCC even clearer authority to restore net neutrality. Of course the bill won’t pass this corrupt Congress, was barely noticed in the summer heat, and couldn’t be implemented anyway because the telecom industry and GOP have successfully blocked the appointment of Gigi Sohn, gridlocking the agency.

Still, the faintest idea we might revisit net neutrality still sent a shiver up the spine of telecom companies, who got right to work pretending that base levels of competent oversight of their industry would be utterly apocalyptic for broadband investment

Older Stuff
12:00 UK's Likely Next Prime Minister Wants A Pony: A Magic Internet Where No One Ever Says Any Bad Things (36)
10:53 Twitter Reports Spike In Government Data Requests, Including Double The Amount Targeting Journalists (6)
10:48 Daily Deal: The 2022 CPD Certified Coding Bundle (0)
09:27 If Oculus Were Separate From Meta, Would The FTC Still Block Its Latest Acquisition? (10)
05:55 AT&T Gets Yet Another Pathetic Wrist Slap After Making Millions From Shitty Fees (21)
19:47 Stock Photo Company Decides To Treat 'Pirates' Like Humans, Rather Than Demons (17)
15:56 And Now EU Commissioners Are Reporting Their Phones Were Infected With NSO Group Malware (3)
13:59 How California's 'Transparency' Bills Will Only Make It Impossible To Deal With Bad Actors: Propagandists, Disinfo Peddlers, Rejoice (23)
12:27 ShotSpotter Asks Court To Hold It In Contempt Rather Than Turn Over Information To Defense Lawyer (17)
10:50 Marco Rubio Got Furious At Google Because His Fundraising Emails Were Going To Spam. Turns Out His Email Was Misconfigured (31)
10:45 Daily Deal: Huru Job Interview Prep Coach (0)
09:32 Michigan Supreme Court Says Photographing, Fingerprinting People Without Probable Cause Is Unconstitutional (7)
05:32 Democrats "Strategically" Push Net Neutrality Bill That Won't Pass And Won't Be Noticed In The Summer Heat (18)
12:00 Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt (32)
12:00 This Week In Techdirt History: July 24th - 30th (2)
19:39 Rapper IDK Calls Out Popeyes Over Trademark Because He's Trademark Illiterate (66)
15:48 Training And Expertise: Denver Cops Hit Five Bystanders While Shooting At 'Felony Menacing' Suspect (23)
13:43 The Case Against Reality Winner Was A Travesty (9)
12:16 76% Of U.S. Voters Don't Know Congress Passed A Huge Infrastructure Bill (12)
10:43 Trump Says It's Defamation To Call His Lying About The Results Of The 2020 Election 'The Big Lie' (70)
10:38 Daily Deal: The Complete 2022 Java Coder Bundle (0)
09:25 San Francisco Mayor Wants PD To Be Able To Commandeer Cameras Owned By Residents Because Reasons (19)
05:31 Comcast Loses 500k Video Customers, Fails To Add Broadband Users For First Time In History (12)
20:29 Kansas Police Officer Who Killed Innocent Man During A Swatting Denied Qualified Immunity (57)
15:32 The NFL's New Streaming Offering... Kind Of Sucks Thanks To Legacy Broadcasting Rights (7)
13:42 Colorado Appeals Court Again Reminds Cops That Marijuana Legalization Means Their Drug Dogs Are Mostly Useless (15)
12:12 Devin Nunes Drops SLAPP Case He Lost Against Guy He Claims Is The Husband Of The Satirical Tweeting Cow Who Mocks Him (8)
10:42 City Of Chicago, Chicago PD Officers Sued Over Their Use Of Questionable ShotSpotter Technology (12)
10:37 Daily Deal: The Complete Video Production Super Bundle (0)
09:30 Chuck Schumer Admits What's Been Obvious For A While: There Just Aren't Enough Votes To Pass Sketchy Antitrust Bill Targeting Tech Companies (1)
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