Facebook plan uncovered to SPY on users through their own smartphone cameras to analyze their facial expressions
Wednesday, June 14, 2017 by: Ethan Huff
(Natural News) The internet is buzzing with chatter about a new Facebook “feature” that allegedly peers into smartphone users’ eyes to detect their emotional states. The social media giant has reportedly filed a patent for the new technology which, should it be officially launched, would allow for more customized advertising tailored to people’s feelings.
It’s a downright creepy concept – that Facebook has the capacity to hijack smartphone cameras and literally watch users scroll through their news feeds – but one that people need to be aware of if they’re at all concerned about their personal privacy. Facebook’s facial analysis technology has been in secret development for years, and now that the cat is out of the bag many users are reconsidering their use of the platform altogether.
Imagery of what Facebook submitted to obtain a patent for the technology depicts users peering into their smartphones as the devices detect and analyze certain features like mouth shape and eye movement. From this, Facebook is able to gather data on how its users respond to videos, photos, news, and advertising.
Software company CBI Insights discovered the renderings back in 2015 and linked them to Mark Zuckerberg’s efforts to develop “emotion technology” for Facebook. The plan all along seems to have been to pick up on “emotion characteristics” via smartphone cameras and use this data to further hone Facebook’s monetization.
“Patent documents contain illustrations showing a person holding a smartphone with a camera taking a picture from which ’emotion characteristics’ like smiling or frowning are detected,” writes Margi Murphy for The Sun (U.K.).
“If the person appears to like what they’re seeing, Facebook could place more of the same type of content in front of them.”
Facebook to sense user emotions through touch habits on smartphone keypads
The secret development of this technology is only just now making headlines, which is why many people still don’t know it exists. But according to experts, they’re about it find out, and it could put off a great many of them from ever using the service again.
“On the one hand, they want to identify which content is most engaging and respond to audience’s reactions,” the company wrote in a blog post. “[O]n the other, emotion-detection is technically difficult, not to mention a PR and ethical minefield.”
And it’s just a patent, after all. Facebook may choose to never bring it to fruition, should it decide that doing so would damage the company’s user base. At the same time, based on the amount of effort being put into its development, it’s a safe bet that Facebook fully intends to make it a reality – the only question is when.
Another project that Facebook’s been working on involves tracking the way users touch their smartphone keypads to detect their emotional states. A patent granted on May 25 reveals that Facebook has the ability to sense how its users are feeling while writing text messages. Using this data, Facebook plans to automatically start inserting emojis and other indicators to provide proper context during a chat conversation.
“The system picks up data from the keyboard, mouse, touchpad, touchscreen to detect typing speed and how hard the keys are pressed,” explains Murphy. “Facebook will accordingly change the text font and size, before shaping to make it more emotive and relevant to your mood.”
If you recall, this is not the first time Facebook has been caught using some questionable technology. A few years back, Facebook was accused of breaking the law by tracking its users’ behaviors while browsing the internet. The Belgium-based Privacy Protection Commission (PPC) says Facebook routinely “tramples” on the law with its privacy invasion practices, which only continue to get worse with each passing year.
Sources:
Blockchain developer: #WannaCry Ransomware Exposed as a False Flag Attack on Bitcoin
May 20, 2017 By Vin Armani
In this video, software and blockchain developer Vin Armani examines the WannaCry ransomware that the corporate media acted like it was the end of the world. Ultimately it appears to be an amateurish false flag attack on bitcoin. But upon digging into the bitcoin addresses used in the attack, Vin discovers a potentially much more nefarious attack on bitcoin.
Watch the full broadcast here
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Another Huge Global Cyber Attack Underway
Wannacry Ransomware Attack Suspected North Korean Link
From Wired.com:As the WannaCry ransomware epidemic wreaked havoc across the globe over the past three days, cybersecurity researchers and victims alike have asked themselves what cybercriminal group would paralyze so many critical systems for such relatively small profit? Some researchers are now starting to point to the first, still-tenuous hint of a familiar suspect: North Korea.
On Monday, Google researcher Neel Mehta issued a cryptic tweet containing only a set of characters. They referred to two portions of code in a pair of malware samples, along with the hashtag #WannaCryptAttribution. Researchers immediately followed Mehta’s signposts to an important clue: An early version of WannaCry—one that first surfaced in February—shared some code with a backdoor program known as Contopee. The latter has been used by a group known as Lazarus, a hacker cabal increasingly believed to operate under the North Korean government’s control.
“There’s no doubt this function is shared across these two programs,” says Matt Suiche, a Dubai-based security researcher and the founder of the security firm Comae Technologies. “WannaCry and this [program] attributed to Lazarus are sharing code that’s unique. This group might be behind WannaCry also.”
According to Suiche, that chunk of commands represents an encoding algorithm. But the code’s function isn’t nearly as interesting as its Lazarus provenance. The group rose to notoriety following a series of high-profile attacks, including the devastating hack of Sony Pictures in late 2014, that were identified by US intelligence agencies as a North Korean government operation. More recently, researchers believe that Lazarus compromised the SWIFT banking system, netting tens of millions of dollars from Bangladeshi and Vietnamese banks. Security firm Symantec first identified Contopee as one of the tools used in those intrusions.
Researchers at the security firm Kaspersky last month presented new evidence tying those attacks together, pointing to North Korea as the culprit. On Monday, Kaspersky followed up on Mehta’s tweet with a blog post analyzing the similarities in the two code samples. But while they noted the shared code in the Lazarus malware and the early version of the WannaCry, they stopped short of definitively stating that the ransomware stemmed from state-sponsored North Korean actors.
“For now, more research is required into older versions of Wannacry,” the company wrote. “We believe this might hold the key to solve some of the mysteries around this attack.”
In its blog post, Kaspersky acknowledged that the repetition of the code could be a “false flag” meant to mislead investigators and pin the attack on North Korea. After all, the WannaCry authors cribbed techniques from the NSA as well. The ransomware leverages an NSA exploit known as EternalBlue that a hacker group known as Shadow Brokers made public last month.
Kaspersky called that false flag scenario “possible” but “improbable.” After all, the hackers didn’t copy the NSA code verbatim but, rather, lifted it from the public hacking tool Metasploit. The Lazarus code, by contrast, looks far more like a reuse of unique code by a single group out of convenience. “This case is different,” Kaspersky researcher Costin Raiu wrote to WIRED. “It shows that an early version of WannaCry was built with custom/proprietary source code used in a family of Lazarus backdoors and nowhere else.”
Any link to North Korea is far from confirmed. But WannaCry would fit the Hermit Kingdom’s evolving playbook of hacker operations. Over the past decade, the country’s digital attacks have shifted from mere DDoS attacks on South Korean targets to far more sophisticated breaches, including the Sony hack. More recently, Kaspersky and other firms have argued that the impoverished country recently expanded its techniques to outright cybercriminal theft, like the SWIFT attacks.
If the author of WannaCry isn’t Lazarus, it would show a remarkable degree of deception for a cybercriminal group that has in other respects shown itself to be rather inept at making money; WannaCry included inexplicable an “kill switch” in its code that limited its spread, and even implemented ransomware functions that fail to properly identify who’s paid a ransom.
“Attribution can be faked,” concedes Comae’s Suiche. “But that would be pretty smart. To write ransomware, target everyone in the world, and then make a fake attribution to North Korea—that would be a lot of trouble.”
For now, plenty of unanswered questions remain. Even if researchers somehow prove that the North Korean government cooked up WannaCry, its motive for indiscriminately handicapping so many institutions
The WannaCry Ransomware Has a Link to Suspected North Korean Hackers
Russian Ambassador To UN Dies of “Apparent” Heart Attack
Just a day before his 65th birthday, Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin has died of an “apparent” heart attack.
Early reports say he passed out at his desk at the Russian Mission to the UN on East 67th Street in Manhattan around 9:30 a.m. this morning. Churkin was rushed to the hospital where he could not be revived. He was pronounced dead at 10:55 a.m.
The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed Churkin “unexpectedly died” but provided no further details confirming exactly how he died. Western mainstream outlets are reporting “apparent heart attack” and an unnamed law enforcement official reportedly told CNN it was “cardiac arrest” with no further details.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is reportedly “deeply upset” at Churkin’s sudden and unexpected passing.
And suddenly everyone thinks we’re living in a James Bond movie.
Then again, there is the fact that a security officer was found dead with facial and head wounds inside the Russian Consulate in NYC on election day…
Don’t forget another Russian Ambassador was shot dead in Turkey in front of everyone in a truly unbelievable terrorist attack back in December…
Delivered by The Daily Sheeple
Contributed by Piper McGowin of The Daily Sheeple.
Piper writes for The Daily Sheeple. There’s a lot of B.S. out there. Someone has to write about it.
Full article with tweet captures here:https://www.thedailysheeple.com/breaking-russian-ambassador-to-un-just-passed-out-and-died-of-an-apparent-heart-attack-in-nyc_022017
Manning’s Freedom, Assange’s Expedition: The Game is Afoot.
“President Barack Obama has defended his decision to free Wikileaks source Chelsea Manning, 29 years before her scheduled release.
He told his final news conference that “justice has been served”.
Manning was sentenced to 35 years for leaking diplomatic cables to the group, one of the largest breaches of classified material in US history.
The commutation of her sentence has been attacked by Republicans as sending the wrong message.”
More:https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38667163
Now, it doesn’t take a genius to tie that story to this one:
So, the commuting of Manning’s sentence is a ploy to “get” Assange as a final “victory” for Obama and co.
The WikiLeaks founder, however, is no fool, as his latest move demonstrates:
“The attorney for Julian Assange said President Obama’s commutation of Chelsea Manning’s sentence does not meet the conditions of the WikiLeaks head’s offer to be extradited to the United States if Manning were pardoned.
Obama on Tuesday commuted Manning’s sentence for leaking classified information to WikiLeaks, leading many to wonder whether that meant Assange was ready to surrender to the Department of Justice.
“Mr. Assange welcomes the announcement that Ms. Manning’s sentence will be reduced and she will be released in May, but this is well short of what he sought,” said Barry Pollack, Assange’s U.S.-based attorney, via email.
“Mr. Assange had called for Chelsea Manning to receive clemency and be released immediately.”
Assange has not been publicly charged with a crime in the United States, but his legal team believes he may be charged “under seal,” where charges are kept secret to prevent a suspect from preparing an escape.
Assange first offered in September to trade extradition to the U.S. for a pardon for Manning. He reiterated the claim as recently as last week on Twitter.
“If Obama grants Manning clemency Assange will agree to US extradition despite clear unconstitutionality of DoJ case,” tweeted WikiLeaks’s official account on Thursday.
On Tuesday, the White House denied that tweet had anything to do with commuting Manning’s sentence.”
Now, the WikiLeaks founder, who is no fool, makes his next move:
The game is afoot. Next move…?
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Infowars And Natural News “Under Attack”
There is a story going viral right now that potentially affects all alternative media. I’ll let Jon Rappoport do the explaining:
Breaking: Infowars and Natural News under attack
by Jon Rappoport
February 22, 2017
Alex Jones’ infowars.com and Mike Adams’ naturalnews.com are both under attack.
Infowars has been dropped by its ad platform provider — adroll.com, which spreads ads for Infowars products to many, many media outlets. Last year, that ad operation accounted for more than $3 million in sales for Infowars.
Natural News has been “delisted” by Google. Google appears to have wiped out 140,000 pages of listings for Mike’s website. I just typed in “natural news” at Google and what came up was something different, natural.news — another tiny site owned by Mike, not naturalnews.com, as the top listing.
The Empire is striking back. This isn’t debate or discussion or even baseless accusation. This is war by attrition. And censorship.
This is part of the elite mantra: if we don’t like it, wipe it out.
If you’ve been awake for the past year, you’ve seen an escalation, along many fronts, of the so-called “Progressive” forces to censor what they don’t want to read or hear.
It’s taken a new turn. They want to take down key independent media outlets.
They want to narrow down the “information superhighway” to a one-lane road that runs directly into their headquarters, where all the big-time fake news is dispensed, every day, to the hypnotized masses.
Don’t let them win. At the very least, take the independent news you judge is vitally important and spread it out far and wide.
Finally, for now, a message to those individuals who, by work and sweat and intelligence, by their own efforts, have built and created independent news sites:
WHATEVER DIFFERENCES YOU MAY HAVE HAD, FROM TIME TO TIME, WITH ONE ANOTHER, THIS IS BIGGER THAN THAT. MUCH BIGGER. THIS IS ABOUT CENSORSHIP OF FREE SPEECH. THIS IS ABOUT A WAR AGAINST THE FREEDOMS WE HOLD DEAR, THE FREEDOMS THAT MEAN THE MOST WHEN THEY ARE UNDER ATTACK. DEFEND EACH OTHER.
https://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/
My personal reaction is to stay calm and see how this plays out over the next few days. I smell a “wheels within wheels” plot of some sort. A trap perhaps? Are these sites being targeted in order to generate panic? If so I’m not taking the bait.
I’ll continue fighting for freedom of choice and freedom of speech in a calm and rational manner, and monitor the situation.
There are many ways to fight a war. Know thine enemy, and as the British say, Keep Calm And Carry On.
Martin.
UPDATE, 27 FEB.
IF YOU WISH TO HELP NATURAL NEWS, HERE’S A LINK TO THE PETITION:
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/petition-ban-googles-blatant-suppression-free-speech
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