Demonstrators and police clashed in Lebanon this week as thousands of people rallied against the government’s handling of an economic crisis, in one of the biggest protests the country has seen in years. From a report: The government-backed down from plans, announced hours earlier, to tax voice calls made through the Facebook-owned WhatsApp messaging software as people vented their anger at…
Tag: tax
New Bill Promises an End To Our Privacy Nightmare, Jail Time To CEOs Who Lie
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: Oregon Senator Ron Wyden has unveiled updated privacy legislation he says will finally bring accountability to corporations that play fast and loose with your private data. Dubbed the Mind Your Own Business Act, the bill promises consumers the ability to opt out of data collection and sale with a single click. It also…
IRS Programmer Stole Identities, Funded A Two-Year Shopping Spree
A computer programmer at America’s tax-collecting agency “stole multiple people’s identities, and used them to open illicit credit cards to fund vacations and shop for shoes and other goods,” write Quartz, citing a complaint unsealed last week in federal court. An anonymous reader quotes their report:
The complaint accuses the 35-year-old federal worker of racking up almost $70,000 in charges over the…
Amazon Plans $800 Million Data Center In Argentina
Amazon’s cloud division plans to build a regional data center in a free-trade zone in Argentina. Bloomberg reports: The Seattle-based company is preparing to invest about $800 million in the project over 10 years and will reap considerable tax benefits by locating the data center in the Bahia Blanca-Coronel Rosales districts of the province of Buenos Aires, [said people familiar with…
Libre-RISC-V 3D CPU/GPU Seeks Grants For Ambitious Expansion
The NLNet Foundation is a non-profit supporting privacy, security, and the “open internet”. Now the open source Libre RISC-V hybrid CPU/GPU is applying for eight additional grants from the NLNet Foundation, according to this update from the project’s Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton (Slashdot reader #517,947): Details on each Grant Application are on the newly-opened RISC-V Community Forum. The general idea is…
Germany Shuts Down Illegal Data Center In Former NATO Bunker
German investigators say they have shut down a data processing center installed in a former NATO bunker (Warning: source paywalled; alternative source) that hosted sites dealing in drugs and other illegal activities. Seven people were arrested. The Washington Post reports: Officials said Friday that the former military bunker in Traben-Trarbach, a picturesque town on the Mosel River in western Germany, was…
MayPayrollHR CEO Arrested, Admits To $70 Million Fraud
After absconding with $35 million in payroll and tax deposits from customers, CEO of MyPayrollHR Michael T. Mann was arrested and charged with bank fraud. “On Monday, [Mann] allegedly confessed that the diversion was the last desperate gasp of a financial shell game that earned him $70 million over several years,” reports Krebs On Security. From the report: In court filings,…
AT&T Explores Parting Ways With DirecTV
According to The Wall Street Journal, AT&T is exploring parting with its DirecTV unit as customers are leaving the service in droves. From the report: The telecom giant has considered various options, including a spinoff of DirecTV into a separate public company and a combination of DirecTV’s assets with Dish Network, its satellite-TV rival, the people said. AT&T may ultimately decide…
People like the idea of a carbon tax – if the money is put to good use
Survey of people in the US suggests the public will support carbon taxes high enough to produce big emissions cuts – if they approve of how the revenue is used Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2216995-people-like-the-idea-of-a-carbon-tax-if-the-money-is-put-to-good-use/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
HP Printers Try To Send Data Back To HP About Your Devices and What You Print
Robert Heaton: Last week my in-laws politely but firmly asked me to set up their new HP printer. I protested that I’m completely clueless about that sort of thing, despite my tax-return-job-title of “software engineer.” Still remonstrating, I was gently bundled into their study with an instruction pamphlet, a cup of tea, a promise to unlock the door once I’d printed…