More Zuckerberg crimes EXPOSED: Internal documents prove that Facebook is a lawless, data-mining criminal operation

Friday, December 07, 2018 

(Natural News) After weaseling his way through a series of congressional hearings this past spring, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is back in the news following the revelation that his social media empire committed even more crimes with its mishandling of private user data.

A bombshell cache of documents recently handed over to lawmakers in the United Kingdom prove once and for all that Facebook repeatedly disregarded the law to get where it is today – as well as show that every single one of its movers and shakers, including Zuckerberg himself, belongs in prison.

According to the contents of these internal documents, Facebook used a virtual private network (VPN) from Onavo, a company that it later acquired, to spy on the activities of major competitors like Snapchat and WhatsApp, both of which were also targets of acquisition for Facebook. Facebook also selectively targeted the applications of its competitors, disallowing them from fully functioning as designed.

Furthermore, after thoroughly reviewing these same documents, top U.K. lawmakers discovered that secretive “whitelisting agreements” had been established by Facebook with select companies, giving them preferential access “to vast amounts of user data” – information that had previously been sealed by a California court.

“A trove of internal correspondence, published online Wednesday by U.K. lawmakers, provides a look into the ways Facebook bosses, including Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg, treated information posted by users like a commodity that could be harnessed in service of business goals,” revealed Nate Lanxon and Sarah Frier in a piece for Bloomberg about these revelations.

“Apps were invited to use Facebook’s network to grow, as long as that increased usage of Facebook. Certain competitors, in a list reviewed by Zuckerberg himself, were not allowed to use Facebook’s tools and data without his personal sign-off.”

For more news about the crimes of Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, be sure to check out Facebook.Fetch.news.

Facebook further violated user privacy by conducting secret global surveys of mobile app usage without consent

Many of our readers will recall a story we published earlier this year about how Facebook had allegedly breached the private call logs and contacts of Android mobile phone users. Well, we now know that this was, indeed, taking place without users’ knowledge.

So-called “global surveys” were being conducted by Facebook that allowed the multinational corporation to monitor customer usage habits without their knowledge or consent. It was a secret change that Bloomberg says allowed Facebook to record “call and message data” without users knowing what was actually happening.

Within these now-released documents is an email dated February 4, 2015, from a Facebook engineer who admitted that Facebook’s Android app contained the ability to “continually upload” a user’s call and SMS (text message) history, which of course wasn’t publicly revealed. If it had been, this same engineer explained, it would have been a “high-risk thing to do from a PR perspective.”

For more news on technocracy crimes, check out Technocrats.news.

Facebook deliberately blocked Vine video-sharing tool under direction of Zuckerberg

While Facebook claims to be committed to fairness and quality, the Silicon Valley giant was also caught targeting a video-sharing tool developed by Vine back in 2013 that would have allowed Vine users to connect to Facebook and search for their friends through the platform.

A Facebook engineer, internal emails reveal, had suggested disabling this friend-finding feature in order to enrich the Facebook monopoly. In response, Zuckerberg gave his blessing, having written, “Yup, go for it.”

Facebook had also facilitated the propagation of a data-mining app developed by a company known as Six4Three that pored through people’s Facebook profiles and pulled out all photos of girls in bikinis. The app was made possible through an application programming interface (API) given special privileges by Facebook to access such data freely, and again without users’ consent.

Six4Three founder Ted Kramer obtained a treasure trove of eye-opening documents about this and other malfeasances by Facebook as part of a major lawsuit against the social media monolith.

“A small number of documents already became public last week, including descriptions of emails suggesting that Facebook executives had discussed giving access to their valuable user data to some companies that bought advertising when it was struggling to launch its mobile-ad business,” The Washington Post revealed.

“The alleged practice started around seven years ago but has become more relevant this year because the practices in question – allowing outside developers to gather data on not only app users but their friends – are at the heart of Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal.”

Facebook, of course, denies any wrongdoing as it pertains to any of these powerful revelations. The company says the documents are “misleading without additional context,” and that the various platform changes were made to protect Facebook users from data breaches rather than encourage them.

But this hasn’t stopped things from “boiling over” at Facebook’s headquarters. With crisis after crisis coming at the tech giant, many within the company’s ranks are having a hard time coping. Reports indicate that “internal tensions” are now so extreme that they’re “spilling out into public view.”

“Internally, the conflict seems to have divided Facebook into three camps: those loyal to Zuckerberg and chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg; those who see the current scandals as proof of a larger corporate meltdown; and a group who sees the entire narrative – including the portrayal of the company’s hiring of communications consulting firm Definers Public Affairs – as examples of biased media attacks,” Buzzfeed Newsreported.

See MarkZuckerberg.news for more coverage of pure evil in the tech industry.

Chinese and Australian scientists develop Terminator-like liquid robot

 Oct 25, 2018 

T-1000, the self-repairing, shape-shifting robot in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator films. Youtube

Scientists from China and Australia have made progress in the development of a liquid metal robot inspired by T-1000, the self-repairing, shape-shifting robot in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator films.

Researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), the University of Wollongong in Australia and Suzhou University, have designed a wheeled robot consisting of a plastic wheel, a small lithium battery and drops of gallium liquid‐metal (LM) alloys that possess the quality of controlled actuation.

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The robot’s wheel rolls when the liquid metal changes the centre of gravity, which is controlled by altering the voltage running through the embedded battery.

“We were inspired by T-1000 from Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” Li Xiangpeng, a robotics professor from the research team, told the South China Morning Post.

It is hoped the study will inspire a new method of fixing traditional mechanism problems, expand on current research related to LM‐based actuators in order to realise future complex robotic systems, and promote the development of micro robots and special robots, according to a statement by USTC.

The team is currently working on using multiple wheels and trying to make the robot move in a three-dimensional environment, according to Tang Shiyang, a research fellow.

The study was published in Advanced Materials, a scientific journal, last week.

   

Chinese and Australian scientists develop Terminator-like liquid robot

'The perfect crime': Aussie business battles counterfeit wine in China

'The perfect crime': Aussie business battles counterfeit wine in China

30 December 2018

Following the discovery of 14,000 bottles of fake Penfolds wine for sale in China in November, Wine Australia had to concede it can't keep track of the extent counterfeit Australian wine is being sold in the country.

"We don't have any data which makes it the perfect crime," says Wine Australia's general counsel Rachel Triggs. "It is extremely hard to work out how much is going on."

One solution to the problem has been developed by Australian business YPB which has created a specially designed serialised QR code with an embedded covert tracer.

The ProtectCode covert tracer enables wine producers to track and trace every bottle and batch of wine throughout the entire supply chain using a small handheld scanner.

At the point of sale the QR code is readable by any smartphone and when scanned takes the customer to a quick digital authentication process.

If the wine is genuine they see a screen that says its authentic; if it’s fake they are taken to a screen where they can report it back to the wine producer.

Accolade deal

John Houston started YPB in 2011 and the business is now listed on the Australian Securities Exchange with a market capitalisation of $11.19 million.

YPB reported a post tax loss of $4.3 million in August however Hewson says the business has significant growth potential with the global counterfeiting industry projected to be worth about $4.3 trillion by 2022.

"As an industry it is an enormously big problem because there is so much organised crime involved in it and the cost to brands is enormous," he says.

"Anecdotal stories are that for some products 50 per cent of the wine in China is counterfeit."

Winemaker Grant Burge. 

YPB has inked a deal with Accolade, Australia's largest producer of wine by volume to apply ProtectCode to its Grant Burge range of wines.

"It's a breakthrough for YPB as it is the largest wine opportunity we have ever had. It will validate the need for this solution in the China market," Hewson says.

Accolade declined to comment on the deal.

CHINESE STUDENT POISONED ROOMMATE IN SERIES OF RACIST ATTACKS

• Police arrested and charged Chinese international student Yukai Yang Thursday for allegedly trying to poison his roommate, Juwan Royal, at Lehigh University.
• Yang was previously charged for vandalizing Royal’s room and leaving racist graffiti on Royal’s desk.
• Investigators said Yang’s motive remains unclear. Chinese cultural views of black people might have factored into his actions, however, in light of the racist graffiti.

Pennsylvania police arrested a Chinese international student Thursday for allegedly vandalizing his black roommate’s belongings with racist graffiti and poisoning him with thallium.

Authorities charged Yukai Yang with attempted homicide, aggravated assault, simple assault and reckless endangerment for his alleged attempts to kill his roommate, Juwan Royal, at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli said Yang attempted to poison Royal over a period of time from February through March by adding thallium to food and drinks in their refrigerator. (RELATED: Google’s Secret Chinese Censorship Project Effectively Ends After Employees Revolted)

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Authorities also believe Yang ransacked Royal’s room and left graffiti on Royal’s desk that read “N***** get out of here,” according to Morganelli.

“This was over a period of time with small amounts of poisoning occurring. It was added to food and drinks in the refrigerator,” Morganelli said, according to The Washington Post.

Authorities first responded to an act of poisoning against Royal in February. One night that month, Royal said he felt a burning sensation in his mouth immediately after drinking from a water bottle. Concerned, he woke up Yang and the two ran to the restroom where Royal washed out his mouth.

Morganelli said Yang then commented to Royal “so the substance that they are putting in your drink is colorless, odorless and dissolves in water,” much the same way that Dr. Cyrus Rangan, assistant medical director of the California Poison Control System, described thallium as a “tasteless, odorless, and extremely potent poison.” Yang’s description of what happened did not immediately garner suspicion, as both he and Royal were chemistry majors.

As little as one gram of the chemical can kill an adult if ingested. The chemical is used as poison in Russia and China, and was also used in the 1980s to kill dissident scientists in the late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s regime.

“Thallium affects one’s nervous system, lungs, heart, liver and kidney if large amounts are eaten or ingested for short periods of time,” Morganelli said. “Temporary hair loss, vomiting and diarrhea can also occur, and death may result after exposure to significant amounts of thallium.”

Royal’s tongue was sore for several days after the first incident. He fell ill again March 18, and Yang told authorities then that he suspected someone had sabotaged the liquids in their room, as Royal’s mouthwash and the milk in their refrigerator had changed color, seemingly inexplicably. Royal’s condition worsened March 29, when he began vomiting and shaking and could not stop. He was taken to the hospital.

Police were called to Royal’s room one week later, in response to the vandalism and racist graffiti. Yang had alerted Royal to the vandalism, leading Royal to become suspicious of Yang.

“Mr. Royal told officers at that time he felt Mr. Yang his roommate was somehow responsible for the damages that had been done to his property,” Morganelli said. “Mr. Royal stated that Mr. Yang was the person who always found the strange incidents happening in his room.”

Authorities matched Yang’s handwriting from a written statement he provided to investigators to the graffiti on Royal’s desk.

Yang’s alleged involvement reportedly came as a surprise, both to school officials and to Royal. They arrested Yang in April and charged him with ethnic intimidation, institutional vandalism and criminal mischief. Lehigh University suspended Yang shortly thereafter, and authorities found information on Yang’s computer and cellphone that implicated him in the poisoning incidents. Authorities also had a blood test performed on Royal and found 3.6 micrograms of thallium in his system — an amount that is harmful to the human body.

Police said Yang later confessed in a May 25 interview with investigators that he in fact bought thallium and used it to poison food and drinks, but claimed he did so intending only to poison himself in the event that he failed exams.

Investigators said Yang’s motive for allegedly attempting to kill his roommate remains unclear. Culture, however, might have factored into Yang’s alleged racist graffiti and alleged poisoning attempts. Incidents of racism against black people are reportedly common in China from everyday citizens, state-run media, the authorities and even Chinese airlines.

“To be Black or African in China is to be labeled unintelligent, dangerous, unattractive, or to see an empty seat next to you on a crowded subway,” wrote Leroy Adams for Inkstone News.

During China’s Spring Festival broadcast, a Chinese woman shuffled onto the stage in blackface, wearing a prosthetic butt and breasts, hailing China for bringing railroads and medical care to Africa. The Chinese social media platform WeChat issued an apology in 2017 for translating the Chinese word for “black foreigner” to “n*****” in English. Air China magazine also issued an apology in 2016 for advising passengers that “precautions are needed when entering areas mainly populated by Indians, Pakistanis, and black people,” in London.

Black citizens of the Chinese city Guangzhou also report frequent, unprovoked police harassment, accusations of crime, and passport checks. The Chinese call Guangzhou the “Chocolate City,” in reference to its significant African community.

“Initially, Mr. Royal was dumbfounded by this as everyone else, because he believed they had a fairly cordial relationship as roommates,” said Assistant District Attorney Abraham Kassis, according to Lehigh Valley Live.

“We’re trying to explain the unexplainable because, right now, everyone is like, ‘What could have happened?'” said  Kevelis Matthews-Alvarado, resident adviser for the building where Yang and Royal roomed together. “We just don’t know.”

Yang remains in custody. His charges related to the vandalism of Royal’s room are pending and he is no longer enrolled at Lehigh University. Royal graduated, but unfortunately still deals with the after-effects of the poison.

US Presses Germany To Ditch Huawei Over 'Security Concerns'

by Tyler Durden

Wed, 12/19/2018Print

First it was Australia, New Zealand and Japan, now the US is pressing the German government to refuse to use equipment manufactured by Chinese telecom giant Huawei as Europe's largest economy seeks to build out its 5G infrastructure.

According to Bloomberg, a US delegation met on Friday with German Foreign Ministry officials in Berlin to talk about the security risks presented by Huawei's equipment, which the US says is vulnerable to spying. The meeting in Germany follows a report from late last monthclaiming the US had launched an "extraordinary outreach campaign" to warn its allies against using Huawei equipment (while its vulnerability to Chinese spying has been cited as the reason to avoid Huawei, it's also worth noting that the US and China are locked in a battle for who will dominate the global 5G space...a battle that Huawei is currently winning).

Germany is set to hold an auction early next year to find a supplier to help expand its 5G network. The Berlin meeting took place one day after Deutsche Telekom said it would reexamine its decision to use Huawei equipment.

US officials are optimistic that their warnings are getting a hearing, though any detailed talks are in early stages and no concrete commitments have been made, according to one of the people.

The US pressure on Germany underscores increased scrutiny of Huawei as governments grapple with fears that the telecom-equipment maker’s gear is an enabler for Chinese espionage. The Berlin meeting took place a day after German carrier Deutsche Telekom AG said it will re-evaluate its purchasing strategy on Huawei, an indication that it may drop the Chinese company from its list of network suppliers.

France is also reportedly considering further restrictions after adding Huawei products to its "high alert" list. The US has already passed a ban preventing government agencies from using anything made by Huawei. But the telecoms equipment provider isn't taking these threats to its business lying down.

U.S. warnings over espionage are a delicate matter in Germany. Revelations over the scale of the National Security Agency’s signals intelligence, including reports of tapping Merkel’s mobile phone, are still fresh in Berlin five years after they came to light.

Huawei is pushing back against the accusations. The company’s rotating chairman warned this week that blacklisting the Chinese company without proof will hurt the industry and disrupt the emergence of new wireless technology globally. Ken Hu, speaking at a Huawei manufacturing base in Dongguan, cited "groundless speculation," in some of the first public comments since the shock arrest of the company’s chief financial officer.

This news will likely not go over well in Beijing, which is still struggling with the US and Canada over the arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver. In an editorial published Sunday, the Global Times, an English-language mouthpiece for the Communist Party, warned that China should retaliate against any country that - like Australia - takes a hard line against Huawei. So, if you're a German citizen in Beijing, you might want to consider getting the hell out of Dodge.