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Posts tagged ‘Breitbart California’

Former Employee: ‘Horrifying’ Misuse of User Data Was Routine at Facebook


Reported by Charlie Nash | 20 Mar 2018

URL of the original posting site: http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2018/03/20/former-employee-horrifying-misuse-of-user-data-was-routine-at-facebook/

Mark Zuckerberg

The Associated Press

Sandy Parakilas, a former Facebook platform operations manager, claimed the company’s “horrifying” misuse of user data was routine, and that Facebook preferred to have “no idea” what third parties were doing with the freely available data.

In their report, the Guardian noted that “hundreds of millions of Facebook users are likely to have had their private information harvested by companies that exploited the same terms as the firm that collected data and passed it on to Cambridge Analytica.”

“My concerns were that all of the data that left Facebook servers to developers could not be monitored by Facebook, so we had no idea what developers were doing with the data,” claimed Parakilas. “It has been painful watching… Because I know that they could have prevented it.”

“Once the data left Facebook servers there was not any control, and there was no insight into what was going on,” he continued, adding, “Facebook was in a stronger legal position if it didn’t know about the abuse that was happening.” 

“They felt that it was better not to know. I found that utterly shocking and horrifying,” Parakilas declared, also estimating that “a majority of Facebook users” probably had their data used by third party companies and developers.

In his interview with the Guardian, Parakilas even claimed that known “rogue developers” were rarely sanctioned for misusing data, and that app developers were encouraged to create apps on the platform by being offered user data by Facebook.

“In the time I was there, I didn’t see them conduct a single audit of a developer’s systems,” he proclaimed. “Facebook was giving data of people who had not authorised the app themselves, and was relying on terms of service and settings that people didn’t read or understand.”

“I didn’t feel that the company treated my concerns seriously. I didn’t speak out publicly for years out of self-interest, to be frank,” Parakilas expressed, before adding that the company only started to take action following the media’s allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

“They treated it like a PR exercise,” he concluded. “They seemed to be entirely focused on limiting their liability and exposure rather than helping the country address a national security issue.”

Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington, or like his page at Facebook.

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Business, Political

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Illegal Alien Stabbing Suspect Is Seven-Time Deported Felon


Reported by Michelle Moons | 18 Jan 2018

URL of the original posting site: http://www.breitbart.com/california/2018/01/18/illegal-alien-stabbing-suspect-7-time-deported-felon/ 

Weeks after Eulalio Miniz Orozco was arrested in December for a California restaurant stabbing, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has revealed that he has been deported seven times prior and has multiple criminal convictions on his record.

Santa Rosa Police Department

Weeks after Eulalio Miniz Orozco was arrested in December as the suspect in a California restaurant stabbing, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has revealed that he has been deported seven times and has multiple criminal convictions on his record.

Orozco, 39, was arrested on December 27, allegedly for the December 21 stabbing of a 61-year-old man at Santa Rosa’s Lola’s Supermarket, according to local Fox2 News. The two men had been sitting at separate tables and had not spoken when the elderly man was attacked, according to local authorities. Video surveillance provided authorities with images of Orozco.

Orozco also goes by the alias Ricardo Velasquez-Romero, an ICE official told the Daily Caller (DC).

Similarly, the illegal alien prosecuted for the killing of Kate Steinle in San Francisco was known for months as Juan Francisco Lopez Sanchez before ICE officials were able to determine that this was actually just one of the aliases for Jose Garcia Zarate.

In Orozco’s case, ICE placed a detainer request on Orozco on December 28 in connection with the stabbing, ICE spokesman James Schwab told the DC. Schwab added that according to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) databases, Orozco has been deported seven times since 2007 to his native Mexico and has a criminal record that includes felony drug and weapons charges.

Before initially tracking down Orozco, the Santa Rosa Police Department asked for the community’s help in identifying the stabbing suspect in the days after the crime, even offering a description from witnesses of “a large tattoo on one of his forearms of the grim reaper, commonly referred to as La Santa Muerte.” After tracking down leads that led to the arrest of the suspect, the department posted a photo of him. At the time, a motive for the crime was still unknown. The victim’s condition at the time was upgraded to stable.

Orozco was charged with attempted murder for the December 21 stabbing, according to the Santa Rosa Police Department. His Sonoma County Jail booking listed multiple charges in the case, including felony counts.

A DHS report released this week revealed that according to ICE:

From October 1, 2011, to September 30, 2017, a total of 355,345 non-U.S. citizen offenders were arrested by ICE for purposes of removal after previously having been convicted of an aggravated felony … or two or more crimes each punishable by more than one year (felony offenses).

In addition, during that period, “372,09821 non-U.S. citizen offenders were removed from the United States after conviction of an aggravated felony or two or more felonies.”

Follow Michelle Moons on Twitter @MichelleDiana.

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Law, Political

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Apple CEO: Trump Tax Plan ‘Will Result in Job Creation and a Faster Growing Economy’


Reported by Lucas Nolan | 18 Jan 2018

URL of the original posting site: http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2018/01/18/apple-ceo-trump-tax-plan-will-result-in-job-creation-and-a-faster-growing-economy/

AP Photo

The Associated Press

Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a recent interview that President Trump’s tax plan would result in a faster-growing economy and greater job creation.

In an interview with ABC News, Cook discussed a number of recent announcements by Apple, including their plan to invest $350 billion in the U.S. economy over the next five years and how President Trump’s tax plan will help the U.S. economy. Cook refused to “take a position” on how the new tax plan will affect individual Americans but commented on the corporate tax saying, “I do believe the corporate side will result in job creation and a faster growing economy.” Cook added that under Obama’s tax plan, the $38 billion tax payment the company plans to make as part of repatriating offshore cash would not have been paid.

“I hope — I have that faith — that it will be used for great purpose for the country,” said Cook, “whether that’s infrastructure or education, or what have you, that will further supply jobs in the U.S.” Cook criticized the Obama-era tax plans saying that he “never thought” that the old tax system was “good for the United States.” Cook stated that he believed the harsh tax restrictions forced “people to invest elsewhere instead of within the country.” Cook also believes that a company like Apple could only have been founded in America and they have a responsibility to give back to the country, “one of the ways to do that is to create jobs,” said Cook.

Cook also discussed the company’s decision to pay employees $2500 in stock grants, “We’re one of the few — we’re probably the only company of our size where every person is an owner in the company,” Cook said. “… Instead of a onetime kind of bonus, we wanted to do something that lasts a longer period of time.” Apple will reportedly be focusing on three areas in the future: direct employment by Apple, spending and investment with U.S. suppliers and manufacturers, and helping to grow the thriving app-store economy. 

“We believe deeply in the power of American ingenuity,” said Cook, “and we are focusing our investments in areas where we can have a direct impact on job creation and job preparedness. We have a deep sense of responsibility to give back to our country and the people who help make our success possible,” Cook said in a press release.

Watch the full ABC News interview here.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan_ or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com.

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Political

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Report: Google ‘Coming After Critics’ in Academia and Journalism, ‘Forming Into a Government of Itself’


by Charlie Nash | 1 Sep 2017

URL of the original posting site: http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2017/09/01/report-google-coming-critics-academia-journalism-getting-opponents-fired-think-tanks/

Google is increasingly similar to Big Brother’s Oceania in 1984 | Jeremie Lederman/ledermanstudio.com

Google is “coming after critics in academia and journalism,” according to the Washington Post, who added that the company “is forming into a government of itself.”

“Google has established a pattern of lobbying and threatening to acquire power. It has reached a dangerous point common to many monarchs: The moment where it no longer wants to allow dissent,” claimed Zephyr Teachout, an academic, activist, and former Democratic political candidate in an article for the Washington Post.

Referencing the news this week that members of the Open Markets team she was part of at the Google-funded New America Foundation think tank had been kicked out after they praised the European Union’s decision to fine Google for violating anti-trust regulations, Teachout highlighted the irony of Google’s former slogan “Don’t be evil,” adding, “It appears that Google may have lost sight of what being evil means, in the way that most monarchs do: Once you reach a pinnacle of power, you start to believe that any threats to your authority are themselves villainous and that you are entitled to shut down dissent.”

“Google is forming into a government of itself, and it seems incapable of even seeing its own overreach. We, as citizens, must respond in two ways,” proclaimed Teachout. “First, support the brave researchers and journalists who stand up to overreaching power; and second, support traditional antimonopoly laws that will allow us to have great, innovative companies — but not allow them to govern us.”

Teachout also wrote an article for the Intercept this week, where she explained, “In 2010, while I was pushing to break up big banks because they had become too powerful, I started to realize that the problem in America wasn’t just big banks, it was corporate monopolies.”

In the article, Teachout also announced she will be “the board chair of a new organization, comprised of the same team [kicked out of New America], doing the same work.” 

“We will be launching in the fall, and I am helping to create a new digital campaign, Citizens Against Monopoly, to help channel the tremendous public concern that we know exists around monopoly power,” she concluded. “Google’s actions make it more important than ever that we stand up to fight monopolies. At the end of the day, this is about freedom.”

Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington and Gab @Nash, or like his page at Facebook.

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Political

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