New legislation has entered Parliament that would give the AFP god mode on pretty much any computer system. If "Surveillance Legislation Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Bill 2020" is passed, the AFP will be able to "disrupt data, access networks of anonymous individuals and take control of the accounts of alleged criminals and lock them out of these accounts". I don't know how they'd actually go about logging in to a service as you and not alert the suspect they're being watched, but if they can do it, they're now allowed to. As usual, the aim is to stop pedos, dark web drug sales and terrorism, but we all know it'll be used for way more than that. The powers can only be used for crimes that attract a 3 year or longer prison sentence - which is a fat stack of potential crimes. The Guardian has a solid article with further info.
The USA's National Labor Relations Board has filed a complaint against Google for "interfering with, restraining, and coercing employees" letting other employees know of their rights in the workplace. Google claimed these employees were sacked due to "intentional and often repeated violations of our longstanding data security policies", but the NLRB reckons those rules were put in place specifically to "discourage employees from forming, joining, [or] assisting a union". Separately, Facebook has been busted by the DoJ for "discriminating against U.S. workers" by refusing "to recruit, consider, or hire qualified and available U.S. workers for over 2,600 positions that Facebook, instead, reserved for temporary visa holders it sponsored". Why? Because those temporary visa holders are cheaper and easier to control.
Warner Brothers has decided to release a bunch of 2021 films to streaming service HBO Max the same day they are made available in US cinemas. These are movies like Matrix 4, Dune, and 15 others that would have probably made some serious bank if it wasn't for COVID (sitting in a small room for 2 hours with a bunch of strangers is probably the riskiest COVID thing you could do), but sets an interesting precedent for the argument of holding back the release of a movie for streaming for a few months after its been in cinemas. WB plans for it only to happen during the pandemic, but who knows - if viewers like it and the pandemic crawls along (particularly in the USA), maybe we will get same-day streaming & cinema releases?
There's a range of products sold on Amazon called "router guards". Literal Faraday cages you place your wi-fi router into as to protect you and your family from harmful radiation - often advertised to "block" 5G. Of course, this totally fucks up wi-fi performance, so much so that the router is basically useless. These cages aren't cheap either, selling for over US$100! On one hand, this is dumb and it is cruel to prey on people who are irrationally scared. On the other, there's no excuse for being so ignorant so fuck it, an idiot's cash is still green.
📻 Borderline - Freeland & Brody Dalle
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