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Many popular iPhone apps secretly record your screen without your permission

Zack Whittaker
Tech Crunch
Fri, 08 Feb 2019 10:15 UTC
iphone apps
Many major companies, like Air Canada, Hollister and Expedia, are recording every tap and swipe you make on their iPhone apps. In most cases you won't even realize it. And they don't need to ask for permission.

You can assume that most apps are collecting data on you. Some even monetize your data without your knowledge. But TechCrunch has found several popular iPhone apps, from hoteliers, travel sites, airlines, cell phone carriers, banks and financiers, that don't ask or make it clear - if at all - that they know exactly how you're using their apps.

Worse, even though these apps are meant to mask certain fields, some inadvertently expose sensitive data.

Apps like Abercrombie & Fitch, Hotels.com and Singapore Airlines also use Glassbox, a customer experience analytics firm, one of a handful of companies that allows developers to embed "session replay" technology into their apps. These session replays let app developers record the screen and play them back to see how its users interacted with the app to figure out if something didn't work or if there was an error. Every tap, button push and keyboard entry is recorded - effectively screenshotted - and sent back to the app developers.

Comment: Most phones record almost everything you do. That they also collect your screen interactions is par the course. See also:

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Eye 2

Arkansas Representative promotes bill against microchipping and asks: "Do we wait until after the snake bites?"

Daniel Taylor
Old-Thinker News
Thu, 07 Feb 2019 00:00 UTC
microchipping
Rep. Stephen Meeks of Arkansas introduced a bill last month that would prevent employers from forcibly microchipping employees.

Meeks introduced House Bill 1177 in January. He stated regarding the bill "Do we wait until after the snake bites and then try to come up with solutions for it?... I believe there's great wisdom in doing it beforehand."

The bill would allow employers to use chips, but prevent a chip implant as a condition of employment.

There is no current law in the United States regarding forcible microchipping.


Comment: Meeks is a wise politician. But do enough politicians see what he does and care enough to prevent what appears to be happening? Quite probably not.

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Evil Rays

Top journalism academic: 'The propaganda crisis surpasses every historic record'

James Wright
The Canary
Thu, 07 Feb 2019 00:00 UTC
Piers Robinson
Piers Robinson, academic at the UK's top university for journalism, systematically exposed the corporate media on 6 February.

"Worse than they've ever been"

Speaking to The Canary, Robinson said: Things are actually much worse than they've ever been at any point. We have a crisis.

The co-director of the Organisation for Propaganda Studies argued that's largely because of a combination of two points:
  • Academics Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman's propaganda model is more relevant than ever.
  • There is no longer any serious mainstream media challenge to establishment warmongering.
Quick lowdown: the propaganda model

Chomsky and Herman's propaganda model views the corporate media through five filters. These are:
  1. Concentration of media ownership among the powerful.
  2. Compromising funding sources, such as advertising.
  3. A mutually beneficial relationship between journalists and their official sources (whom they rely on for stories).
  4. Flak (attacks from pro-establishment institutions or individuals for deviating from the official narrative).
  5. A culture of fearmongering, for example about foreign states or the 'war on terror'.

Comment: See also:

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X

Award-winning 'Gaza' filmmakers faced threats and censorship from Jewish groups


RT
Thu, 07 Feb 2019 11:55 UTC
Gaza: A look into the eyes of barbarism
© A screenshot RT
The director of a Goya Award-winning documentary 'Gaza: A look into the eyes of barbarism' says members of the Jewish community repeatedly used threats to get screenings scrapped in a bid to suppress the film.

"Israel uses its Jewish organizations which tried to censor our film... they tried to do it at various festivals and sometimes they succeeded, even when the film was already on the shortlist. We received many threats," director Julio Perez told RT.

"We started planning to make this film after the last Israeli army invasion when lots of people in Gaza were killed."


Comment: Try as they might, the anti-BDS Israel Lobby and all its many far-reaching tentacles will continue to have a very difficult time tamping down the truth of their barbaric treatment of Palestinians. And the truth of this dire situation is becoming better known and understood everyday:

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Eye 1

Marriot Hotels team with the surveillance state to 'spot sex trafficking'

Elizabeth Nolan Brown
Reason
Tue, 05 Feb 2019 20:12 UTC
traveling woman
When a tweet accused Marriott Hotels of "working with the feds and keeping [an] eye on any women who are traveling alone," training staff to "spot an escort," and "not allowing some women [to] drink at the bar alone," Marriott's official account proudly confirmed the observation: "You are correct. Marriott employees all over the world are being trained to help spot sex trafficking at our hotels."

The brief Twitter exchange, which occurred in January, revealed some of the hidden presumptions behind Marriott's efforts to stop sexual exploitation. Not only did it suggest that the company conflates all sex work with forced or underage prostitution, but it also hinted the world's largest hotel chain considers all unaccompanied women to be worth monitoring-or, at the very least, that there's confusion about this among staff.

After many on Twitter responded that they didn't believe the policy would be non-discriminatory or effective at stopping sex trafficking, Marriott deleted the tweet without explanation. A spokesperson for the company later told Reason that the tweet was "inaccurate" and that "there is nothing in the training that advises hotel workers to look for young women traveling alone," while crediting the company's training program for removing young people from "dangerous situations." Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) tweeted that his office would be looking into the incident.
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Video

Bryan Singer's BAFTA nomination suspended amid sexual misconduct allegations

Marie-Louise Gumuchian, Alison Williams
Reuters
Thu, 07 Feb 2019 13:50 UTC
bryan singer

Firing back: Singer has denied all allegations of rape, molestation, or engaging in inappropriate contact with a minor(Singer above with Bret Tyler)
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has suspended "Bohemian Rhapsody" director Bryan Singer's nomination for Sunday's awards ceremony following allegations of sexual misconduct.

The 53-year-old was listed alongside producer Graham King and screenwriter Anthony McCarten for the Queen biopic's nomination in the "Outstanding British Film" category.

But in a statement posted on its website late on Wednesday, BAFTA said it had informed Singer that his nomination had been suspended "in light of recent very serious allegations".

Comment: See also:

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Attention

Outrage culture excited to discover Gucci balaclava 'blackface' jumper


CNN
Thu, 07 Feb 2019 19:48 UTC
Gucci blackface
Gucci has apologized and discontinued selling a sweater that social media users said resembles blackface because of its design.

In a Twitter post Wednesday, the Italian luxury brand said it "deeply apologizes for the offense caused by the wool balaclava jumper." The top, which is no longer on the company's website, is a black turtleneck sweater that pulls up over the bottom half of the face with a cut out and oversized red lips around the mouth.

"We can confirm that the item has been immediately removed from our online store and all physical stores," Gucci said in a statement on Wednesday.

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Whistle

Thought Police alert: Peter Hitchens slams University of Portsmouth after his talk is cancelled


RT
Thu, 07 Feb 2019 19:50 UTC
Portsmouth Students' Union
© Facebook / University of Portsmouth
Portsmouth Students' Union.
Conservative journalist Peter Hitchens has hit out at the University of Portsmouth after it postponed his talk because of his "unacceptable" opinions. He accused it of surrendering freedom of speech and rushing to silence dissent.

Hitchens was due to speak at the university on February 12, but its students' union has announced that the Mail on Sunday columnist's event will be delayed so that it does not clash with their month of LGBT+ celebrations.

They argue that Hitchen's views "are not necessarily aligned with the... LGBT+ community." The journalist has taken to social media to condemn the decision, accusing the university of taking on the role of the Orwellian thought police.

He added: "Censorship and thought policing are the future. Our schools teach their pupils what to think, not how to think. So they are afraid of dissent.

Comment:

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Arrow Down

'Offended' journalist has Twitter suspend user after being faux-outraged at 'learn to code' career advice


RT
Thu, 07 Feb 2019 18:49 UTC
learn to code
© Reuters / Marko Djurica
With all of the trolling and abuse that happens daily online, Twitter has revealed some odd priorities when policing its platform, suspending users who jokingly advise jobless journalists that they should "learn to code" instead.

Following recent major layoffs at BuzzFeed and HuffPost, a number of their former employees looking for sympathy online were met with derisive advice to "learn to code" - mirroring the "career advice" offered by journalists during the Obama administration to blue-collar workers who'd lost their jobs.

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Hardhat

10 underground electrical explosions send smoke flying through Atlanta, Georgia

Chelsea Prince, Ben Brasch & John Spink
WHIOTV7
Wed, 06 Feb 2019 16:26 UTC
Electrical explosion in Atlanta, GA
© John Spink/AJC
Ten "very large explosions" sent thick smoke into the air in Atlanta's Midtown neighborhood and shut down major streets during the height of the Wednesday morning commute, according to authorities.

Atlanta Fire Rescue spokesman Sgt. Cortez Stafford said rainwater runoff may have caused an underground transformer to explode in the area. No one was injured in the explosions and there was no apparent damage to Emory University Hospital Midtown, which next to where the explosions occurred, he said.

When firefighters arrived at 8 a.m., Stafford said the breakers on another street had already tripped.

"That cut the power that was going to those transformers, which in turn put the fire out and caused the explosions to cease," he said. The smoke eventually dissipated.
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