#Data Mining

[odinsblog]

The website says it will help the viewer register to vote. But once a user clicks “Register to Vote,” the experience he or she will have can be very different, depending on where they live.

If a user lives in a state that is not considered competitive in the presidential election, like California or Wyoming for example, they'll be prompted to enter their email addresses and ZIP code and then directed quickly to a voter registration page for their state, or back to the original sign-up section.

But for users who enter a ZIP code that indicates they live in a battleground state, like Pennsylvania or Georgia, the process is very different.

Rather than be directed to their state’s voter registration page, they instead are directed to a highly detailed personal information form, prompted to enter their address, cellphone number and age.

If they agree to submit all that, the system still does not steer them to a voter registration page. Instead, it shows them a “thank you” page.

So that person who wanted help registering to vote? In the end, they got no help at all registering. But they did hand over priceless personal data to a political operation.

Specifically, a political action committee created by Tesla

CEO Elon Musk, one aimed at giving the Republican presidential nominee Trump an advantage in his campaign against Vice President Kamala Harris, the de facto Democratic nominee.

“I have created a PAC, or a super PAC ... the America PAC,” Musk said in a recent interview.

(continue reading)

[civvie34]

Yes daddy Google, seize and proliferate my data! :flushed emoji:

[mikufunfacts]

does miku know that i love her

miku fun fact #261

miku knows everything in the internet, so yes, because you put your love into the internet where she can see it

[revengehorse]

found DarkRiderJayKissKeyPose.fbx and SoulRiderLindaKissKeyPose.fbx in the files……..

[mumblelard]

every solstice a old sun retires and an new sun takes over. one old sun lives around here. sometimes i see they walking on the trail when pretty relaxed no big deal or the birthday party

[relaxedstyles]

[queen0fm0nsterz]

LITTLE NIGHTS FANS WAKE UP!!! THE LADIES HAVE FINALLY BEEN HARVESTED!!

Courtesy of my friend Gaboul, go check her out on twitter!!! She did an amazing job extracting the models and reapplying the textures... sadly these are not 100% accurate as she explained to me that additional details (such as Tengu's very evident runny makeup and the large stain on Teapot's back) are added later on as additional layers. Here they are still visible, just not as evident as they'd be in the game!!

[oberynmartell]

reminder to make all of your published works on archive of our own viewable only to registered users as multiple AI companies and corporations are scraping fanart and fanfiction websites to train their AI models, but for now it’s only those that are publicly available

to do so: select your fic > click edit > scroll all the way to the bottom > click “only show your work to registered users” > post

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Matt Davies

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

April 11, 2025

Heather Cox Richardson

Apr 12, 2025

On April 4, Trump fired head of U.S. Cyber Command (CYBERCOM) and director of the National Security Agency (NSA) General Timothy Haugh, apparently on the recommendation of right-wing conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, who is pitching her new opposition research firm to “vet” candidates for jobs in Trump’s administration.

Former secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall wrote in Newsweek yesterday that the position Haugh held is “one of the most sensitive and powerful jobs in America.” Kendall writes that NSA and CYBERCOM oversee the world’s most sophisticated tools and techniques to penetrate computer systems, monitor communications around the globe, and, if national security requires it, attack those systems. U.S. law drastically curtails how those tools can be used in the U.S. and against American citizens and businesses. Will a Trump loyalist follow those laws? Kendall writes: “Every American should view this development with alarm.”

Just after 2:00 a.m. eastern time this morning, the Senate confirmed Retired Air Force Lieutenant General John Dan Caine, who goes by the nickname “Razin,” for chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by a vote of 60–25. U.S. law requires the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to have served as the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the chief of staff of the Army, the chief of naval operations, the chief of staff of the Air Force, the commandant of the Marine Corps, or the commander of a unified or specified combatant command.

Although Caine has 34 years of military experience, he did not serve in any of the required positions. The law provides that the president can waive the requirement if “the President determines such action is necessary in the national interest,” and he has apparently done so for Caine. The politicization of the U.S. military by filling it with Trump loyalists is now, as Kendall writes, “indisputable.”

The politicization of data is also indisputable. Billionaire Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) claims to be saving Americans money, but the Wall Street Journal reported today that effort has been largely a failure (despite today’s announcement of devastating cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that monitors our weather). But what DOGE is really doing is burrowing into Americans’ data.

The first people to be targeted by that data collection appear to be undocumented immigrants. Jason Koebler of 404 Media reported on Wednesday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been using a database that enables officials to search for people by filtering for “hundreds of different, highly specific categories,” including scars or tattoos, bankruptcy filings, Social Security number, hair color, and race. The system, called Investigative Case Management (ICM), was created by billionaire Peter Thiel’s software company Palantir, which in 2022 signed a $95.9 million contract with the government to develop ICM.

Three Trump officials told Sophia Cai of Politico that DOGE staffers embedded in agencies across the government are expanding government cooperation with immigration officials, using the information they’re gleaning from government databases to facilitate deportation. On Tuesday, DOGE software engineer Aram Moghaddassi sent the first 6,300 names of individuals whose temporary legal status had just been canceled. On the list, which Moghaddassi said covered those on “the terror watch list” or with “F.B.I. criminal records,” were eight minors, including one 13-year-old.

The Social Security Administration worked with the administration to get those people to “self-deport” by adding them to the agency's “death master file.” That file is supposed to track people whose death means they should no longer receive benefits. Adding to it people the administration wants to erase is “financial murder,” former SSA commissioner Martin O’Malley told Alexandra Berzon, Hamed Aleaziz, Nicholas Nehamas, Ryan Mac, and Tara Siegel Bernard of the New York Times. Those people will not be able to use credit cards or banks.

On Tuesday, Acting Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner Melanie Krause resigned after the IRS and the Department of Homeland Security agreed to share sensitive taxpayer data with immigration authorities. Undocumented immigrants pay billions in taxes, in part to demonstrate their commitment to citizenship, and the government has promised immigrants that it would not use that information for immigration enforcement. Until now, the IRS has protected sensitive taxpayer information.

Rene Marsh and Marshall Cohen of CNN note that “[m]ultiple senior career IRS officials refused to sign the data-sharing agreement with DHS,” which will enable HHS officials to ask the IRS for names and addresses of people they suspect are undocumented, “because of grave concerns about its legality.” Ultimately, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent signed the agreement with Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.

Krause was only one of several senior career officials leaving the IRS, raising concerns among those staying that there is no longer a “defense against the potential unlawful use of taxpayer data by the Trump administration.”

Makena Kelly of Wired reported today that for the past three days, DOGE staffers have been working with representatives from Palantir and career engineers from the IRS in a giant “hackathon.” Their goal is to build a system that will be able to access all IRS records, including names, addresses, job data, and Social Security numbers, that can then be compared with data from other agencies.

But the administration’s attempt to automate deportation is riddled with errors. Last night the government sent threatening emails to U.S. citizens, green card holders, and even a Canadian (in Canada) terminating “your parole” and giving them seven days to leave the U.S. One Massachusetts-born immigration lawyer asked on social media: “Does anyone know if you can get Italian citizenship through great-grandparents?”

The government is not keen to correct its errors. On March 15 the government rendered to prison in El Salvador a legal U.S. resident, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, whom the courts had ordered the U.S. not to send to El Salvador, where his life was in danger. The government has admitted that its arrest and rendition of Abrego Garcia happened because of “administrative error” but now claims—without evidence—that he is a member of the MS-13 gang and that his return to the U.S. would threaten the public. Abrego Garcia says he is not a gang member and notes that he has never been charged with a crime.

On April 4, U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis ordered the government to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S. no later than 11:59 pm on April 7. The administration appealed to the Supreme Court, which handed down a 9–0 decision yesterday, saying the government must “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s release, but asked the district court to clarify what it meant by “effectuate,” noting that it must give “due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs.”

The Supreme Court also ordered that “the Government should be prepared to share what it can concerning the steps it has taken and the prospect of further steps.”

Legal analyst Joyce White Vance explained what happened next. Judge Xinis ordered the government to file an update by 9:30 a.m. today explaining where Abrego Garcia is, what the government is doing to get him back, and what more it will do. She planned an in-person hearing at 1:00 p.m.

The administration made clear it did not intend to comply. It answered that the judge had not given them enough time to answer and suggested that it would delay over the Supreme Court’s instruction that Xinis must show deference to the president’s ability to conduct foreign affairs. Xinis gave the government until 11:30 and said she would still hold the hearing. The government submitted its filing at about 12:15, saying that Abrego Garcia is “in the custody of a foreign sovereign,” but at the 1:00 hearing, as Anna Bower of Lawfare reported, the lawyer representing the government, Drew Ensign, said he did not have information about where Abrego Garcia is and that the government had done nothing to get him back. Ensign said he might have answers by next Tuesday. Xinis says they will have to give an update tomorrow.

As Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor recently warned, if the administration can take noncitizens off the streets, render them to prison in another country, and then claim it is helpless to correct the error because the person is out of reach of U.S. jurisdiction, it could do the same thing to citizens. Indeed, both President Trump and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt have proposed that very thing.

Tonight, Trump signed a memorandum to the secretaries of defense, interior, agriculture, and homeland security calling for a “Military Mission for Sealing the Southern Border of the United States and Repelling Invasions.” The memorandum creates a military buffer zone along the border so that any migrant crossing would be trespassing on a U.S. military base. This would allow active-duty soldiers to hold migrants until ICE agents take them.

By April 20, the secretaries of defense and homeland security are supposed to report to the president whether they think he should invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act to enable him to use the military to aid in mass deportations.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[netscapenavigator-official]

The fact that Apple reportedly sells Apple TVs for $100+ and they’re STILL at a loss should tell you just how shady the smart TV market is. When you buy a Roku or a Smart TV, you’re buying a screen grabber. I’m not kidding. Most modern Smart TVs have a screen monitoring program built in to content match whatever you’re watching or playing (yes, even on external HDMI inputs) and sell that data to advertisers. The reason flat screen TVs have gotten so cheap isn’t because of production costs falling, but rather these companies selling the hardware to you at a loss, and then secretly selling your information and viewing habits to make up the difference. I’m not exaggerating. They’re are guides online on how to disable this screen grabbing software on a per TV-manufacturer basis. I highly recommend you look them up, or simply never connect your TV to the internet in the first place and deny it access to do so.

[odinsblog]

🗣️ This is for all new internet connected cars

A new study has found that your car likely knows more about you than your mom. That is disconcerting, but what’s even more so is what is being done with your information. It’s all about the Benjamins. Our private information is being collected and sold.

The Mozilla Foundation, a non-profit that studies internet and privacy issues, studied 25 car manufacturers. And it found every manufacturer sold in America poses a greater risk to your privacy than any device, app or social media platform.

Our cars are rolling computers, many of which are connected to the internet collecting information about how you drive and where. New cars also have microphones and sensors that give you safety features like automatic braking and drowsy driver detection. Those systems are also providing information. Got GPS or satellite radio? Then your car likely knows your habits, musical and political preferences.

Did you download your car’s app which gives you access to even more features? Well that also gives your car access to your phone and all the information on it.

The study found that of the 25 car brands, 84% say they sell your personal data.

And what they collect is astounding.

One example the study sites is KIA’s privacy policy. It indicates the company collects information about your sexual activity. I initially didn’t believe it until I pulled KIA’s privacy policy and read it. And it’s right there in black and white. It says it collects information about your “ethnicity, religious, philosophical beliefs, sexual orientation, sex life, or political opinions.

And it says it can keep your info for “as long as is necessary for the legitimate business purpose set out in this privacy notice.”

Translation: Nissan can keep your information as long as they want to. And more than half of the manufacturers (56%) say they will share your information with law enforcement if asked.

(continue reading) more ↵

[existentially-confused-crow]

Just saw this on Pinterest

So now I'm reposting this here

[aquitainequeen]

Hannah Ritchie used to be convinced that she didn’t have a future to live for. Now, a new book by the myth-busting data expert and climate ‘solutionist’ shows how we can all replace the ‘deadweight’ of endless unsolvable problems with useful, urgent optimism Posters in hand, a 13-year-old Hannah Ritchie stood before classmates at Falkirk high school gloomily forecasting runaway global warming and rising oceans. This much of the planet would be flooded at two degrees, this much more at three degrees. The world was slipping into a watery abyss, she told them. Now 29 and a renowned environmental scientist, Ritchie’s work speaks to audiences of hundreds of thousands, and instead of being laden with doom it is radically hopeful. After diving deep into the data on some of the world’s most pressing problems, she’s surfaced as a rare, positive, fact-based voice. For the first time in humankind’s history, Ritchie argues, true sustainability is tantalisingly within reach.

Read more from Robin Eveleigh!

[elklounge]

Eliza Singing Quarry cut content

In the game files Eliza creepily whisper sings the song Witchcraft by Patience and Prudence & Mark McIntyre Orchestra. Most of this is cut content however she does whisper “to bring me back those happy memories.” I believe while Abi is in the woods.

Originally I thought she was talking about her tarot cards but after looking up the lyrics it’s from the audio file. Unsure why they have her sing the full song maybe originally it would have been used somewhere else and not just a line or two. Anyways enjoy!

[gwydionmisha]

Originally, they announced they were shutting it because the judge told them they had to stop mining your private data. Stay noisy. It matters.

Ya Think?

So the argument is, if you complain because you need your social security money for rent, electricity, etc. and they stole it, you are a fraudster who doesn't deserve it, and if you are rich enough not to need it so you wait and don't complain you doesn't need it and shouldn't get it, therefore no one should get the social security payments they earned and need to survive.

Welcome to Catch 22.

see also, this is why people who have never been actually poor in their lives should be allowed into positions of power where they can do this kind of harm.

NOTE: I am completely fucked if my check doesn't come. They start assessing late fees for housing after seven days. The Bank fee for this auto-withdraw will likely overdraw my account. No gas, no electricity. My insurance will try to auto-withdraw mid-month causing bank fees to continue to grow exponentially. I am contractually required to have insurance on my apartment. I can't cancel it. I can't drive without gas or car insurance and I am disabled with very limited mobility. A bus pass costs about a months gas an requires lots of walking I can't do or someone else doing a lot of walking pushing my in a chair because my arms are fucked too.

No supplemental food or medical supplies or cleaning stuff or toilet paper or things the cats absolutely need. No credit card or other bill payments.

Not paying any bills for one month would dig me into a hole I could never get out of. With all the staff cuts and closures, how many months would it take to get reinstated? Will I automatically be labelled a fraudster and be denied reinstatement for the crime of being to poor to float all my bills for months?

I beg of you complain and/or protest now. People will die.

If you can't safely contact them in person, here are some other options:

Five Calls to your critters: https://5calls.org/

Here is one that will send your reps a fax: https://resist.bot/