Tag: federal

US Government Announces Nationwide Crackdown on Robocallers

The US government announced a nationwide crackdown on illegal robocalls on Tuesday, targeting companies and individuals who have collectively placed over 1 billion unwanted calls for financial schemes and other services, according to the Federal Trade Commission. From a report: The crackdown involves nearly 100 cases, five of which are criminal enforcement actions. They were brought by the FTC, Justice Department,…

A Group of Microsoft Employees Is Fighting the Company’s Political Action Committee

A group of more than 30 Microsoft employees is lobbying coworkers to stop donating to the company’s political action committee in an effort to starve the PAC of funds, multiple Microsoft workers with knowledge of the efforts told OneZero. From a report: While Microsoft pitches itself as an inclusive and progressive company — especially during Pride Month, with tweets and donations…

Cop Awarded $585K After ‘Dozens’ Of Police Officers Accessed Their DMV Data 500 Times

Slashdot reader Iwastheone shares a story from Ars Technica about what happened after Minnesota’s Department of Natural Resources sent a privacy notification to a police officer in 2013: An employee had abused his access to a government driver’s license database and snooped on thousands of people in the state, mostly women. Krekelberg learned that she was one of them. When Krekelberg…

Microsoft’s Mistakes: What Not To Do When The Government Investigates Your Monopoly

As America’s antitrust investigators eye Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon for possible government intervention, Bloomberg offers nine “lessons learned” from the way Microsoft handled its own antitrust investigation: Don’t deny the obvious… In the app-store business, Google and iPhone maker Apple together control more than 95 per cent of all US mobile app spending by consumers, according to Sensor Tower data….

America’s NSA Challenges Students With A Codebreaking Competition, Then Recruits Them

This year America’s National Security Agency (NSA) is once again “developing a cyber challenge and daring more than 330 schools and 2,600 students to solve it,” writes Federal News Network. Slashdot reader eatvegetables shares their report:
Kathy Hutson, the senior strategist for industry and academic engagement at the NSA, said the Codebreaker Challenge has become one of the best ways to attract…

Are Medical IDs ‘The Enemy of Privacy, Liberty, and Health’?

83-year-old former U.S. Senatior Ron Paul has published a new editorial on Zero Hedge: Last week, the House of Representatives voted in favor of a Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations bill amendment to repeal the prohibition on the use of federal funds to create a ‘unique patient identifier.’ Unless this prohibition, which I originally sponsored in 1998, is…

America’s Air Quality Is Slipping After Years of Improvement

The Grim Reefer shared this report from the Associated Press:
Over the last two years America had more polluted air days than just a few years earlier, federal data shows. While it remains unclear whether this is the beginning of a trend, health experts say it’s troubling to see air quality progress stagnate. There were 15% more days with unhealthy air in…

Smoking Bans Have Saved 15,000 Children’s Lives in Brazil, Imperial Study Shows

Second-hand smoke kills over 880,000 people every year globally, and a quarter of those deaths are among children 14 years or younger. These sobering statistics have helped drive smoking bans in public places in many countries, but these bans still cover just 20% of the world’s population. A new study led by Dr. Thomas Hone […]
The post Smoking Bans Have Saved…

YouTube Under Federal Investigation Over Allegations it Violates Children’s Privacy

The U.S. government is in the late stages of an investigation into YouTube for its handling of children’s videos, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing four people familiar with the matter, a probe that threatens the company with a potential fine and already has prompted the tech giant to reevaluate some of its business practices. From the report: The Federal…