Massive corporate databases become government tools of surveillance - Off-topic

The number of data requests the US government sent to Google has increased 510% since 2010. US government requests to Facebook have also increased 364% since the beginning of 2013. The databases of private companies are increasingly being used to monitor individuals with little transparency into the process.
In 2013, when Edward Snowden revealed the National Security Agency was conducting dragnet, mass surveillance, he forced the public to refocus on how to protect the right to privacy. These revelations inspired the founders of ProtonMail to begin thinking about how people could privately communicate with each other.
{Mod edit: Link removed - Oswald Boelcke, Moderator}

Two years later, the situation has not changed much. The only thing is user-awareness has now increased. People across the world are now awakening to the dangers of using social media apps which spy and collect our data and sell it off to the business houses.

ManojNairOnline said:
Two years later, the situation has not changed much. The only thing is user-awareness has now increased. People across the world are now awakening to the dangers of using social media apps which spy and collect our data and sell it off to the business houses.
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No need to answer spam threads of 2 yrs old

Related

R.I.P. M.U.

Hey guys, sad news is that we just lost our one of the common(est) way of sharing our files that is Megaupload. Here's some news update:
McLEAN, Va. — Federal prosecutors in Virginia say they have shut down one of the world’s largest Internet file-sharing sites, Megaupload.com, and charged its founder and others with violating piracy laws.
An indictment accuses the company of costing copyright holders more than $500 million in lost revenue from pirated films and other content. The indictment was unsealed Thursday, one day after Web sites shut down in protest of two Congressional proposals intended to thwart the online piracy of copyrighted movies and TV programs.
Megaupload.com has claimed it is diligent in responding to complaints about pirated material.
The indictment says that at one point, Megaupload was the 13th most popular Web site in the world.
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SOURCE. Looks like SOPA's taking over.
Note: Sorry if we're not allowed to talk about this website and / or this information is posted already somewhere else.
There was a topic but I'm not sure if it got moved or deleted.
moved http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1454197

Zurker : A New Social Networking Site

Can a cooperative social networking site that allocates shares between users take on Facebook? Zurker's founder Nick Oba thinks so.
Zurker's USP is that users are "coowners and investors" in the platform. By joining Zurker and inviting your friends, you get issued with "vShares". A vShare is a virtual share which you can monitor on your profile. You can buy additional vShares for $1 (£0.62) and one vShare is the equivalent to ownership of 1/1,000,000th of the Zurker in your territory -- eg Zurker UK or Zurker USA.
The project isn't promising anyone to break the bank or turn into a millionaire overnight. Zurker just gives that opportunity, but it doesn't promise anything. On the other hand, the chances for making some good money with Zurker are not bad and the uniqueness of the project makes everyone succeed together.
So, In a way Zurker promises to award you real shares and a chance to earn some free money if it ever strikes gold.
For More Info, Click Here
Sign Up for the service here
(And yeah it's my referral link)
Source : http://loggd.in/2012/05/review-zurker-social-network-you-own.html
Search: An old way to prevent reposts.
Sorry, it didn't show up in the results when I was typing the thread title.
Please post referral links in the referrals thread.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=840940
Thread closed.

The Final American Revolution. 4th of July

When a government has repeatedly and deliberately failed to follow its own laws, violated the fundamental human rights of its citizens, threatened the sanctity of a free press, created institutions intended to eliminate privacy of communication, waged war at the behest of special interests that threatens the public safety, killed hundreds of children with drone strikes, imprisoned and destroyed the lives of countless individuals for victimless crimes, stifled economic opportunity to maintain the dominance of the financial elite, stolen from the people through an absurd system of taxation and inflation, sold future generations into debt slavery, and abused its power to suppress political opposition, it is unfit to exist and it becomes the duty of the people to alter or abolish that government by whatever means necessary to secure liberty and ensure peace. A new American revolution is long overdue. This revolution has been brewing in the hearts and minds of the people for many years, but this Independence Day, it shall take a new form as the American Revolutionary Army will march on each state capital to demand that the governors of these 50 states immediately initiate the process of an orderly dissolution of the federal government through secession and reclamation of federally held property. Should one whole year pass from this July 4th while the crimes of this government are allowed to continue, we may have passed the point at which non-violent revolution becomes impossible. The time to sit idly by has passed, to remain neutral is to be complicit, just doing your job is not an excuse, and the line in the sand has been drawn between we the people, and the criminals in Washington, DC. While some timid souls will say that it is too early, that we can solve this problem through democratic means provided by government, that current levels of taxation are reasonable for the services provided, and that the crimes of this government are merely a tolerable nuisance; it may already be too late. While there is risk in drastic action, the greater danger lies in allowing this government to continue unchallenged. So if you are content with the status quo, stay home, get fat, watch the fireworks from a safe distance, and allow this Independence Day to pass like any other. But if you see as we see, and feel as we feel, we will see you on the front lines of freedom on July 4th 2013 for this: The Final American Revolution.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda premium
tl;dr
Sent from my Katana
While I agree with much of what you've posted, wouldn't dissolution of the federal government remove the last remianing bulkheads of federal regulation against the greater danger of corporate abuses, thus ushering in the new era of unabated corporotocratic despotry?
That's why I never cared for Ron Paul, as many good points as he made. I always figured behind the well-meaning facade he was just another corporate stooge.
Sorry I presume political discussions or debates based on it are not allowed on XDA.
Advanced Happy Independence Day U.S.A !!
Political discussions, no matter how well meaning, should be avoided on xda -they are expressly against the rules: 2.4 Personal attacks, racial, political and/or religious discussions: XDA is a discussion forum about certain mobile phones. Mobile phones are not racial, political, religious or personally offensive, therefore none of these types of discussions are permitted on XDA.
Sorry...but thread closed.

Looking for co-founder for revolutionary app idea

Hey there!
I have an idea for an app that could be wildly successful, however I can't code a single line on my own...
Would be excited to hand out co-ownership, etc. to anyone willing to help build the app:
A community involvement app that will safely connect like-minded users together, based on mutual interests.
Main features:
Hangout: Connecting based on categories of interest, such as wanting to play local sports, to finding a church buddy, to college kids needing a study-buddy, to musicians needing to connect, etc. Besides the base mutual interest, there'll be elaborated user profiles to help further identify who you'd connect with. Users can create temporary cliques for other users to join up in group activities.
Groups: Creating groups will allow like minded users to engage in large scale hangouts and discussions. Joining groups can be done openly or invite-only.
User-driven economy: Bolstered by a secure & elaborate Terms Of Service Agreement, Users can make real money by getting creative - from setting up their own business, to renting or selling their personal belongings, to renting out rooms, to posting job requests, etc. All of which will be able to be advertised. Users will also be able to post catch-all urgent help requests here, too.
Tipping: A real life currency tipping system will be available for users sending money to each other - perhaps for a paid service, to donating to a charity, to tipping artists, people offering help, and anyone in between.
Events: Displays all categorized local events for users to connect with. These will be created & broadcasted by groups, local services, and individual users. Adding events to your calendar & sharing events with fellow users will be amongst the main draws of the feature.
Interested? Feel free to further get connected at [email protected] for a deeper established connection beyond XDA
Thank you!

Censorship on social media platforms

Truth is the first casualty in a war or something similar is an often quoted saying these days. The recent reports of censorship on social media platforms are good examples of this censorship. Freedom of speech does not mean the license to troll or spread wrong information. I feel censorship by impartial judges is justified. The operative word being impartial.
What do you think? Do you agree with this view?
Do you think social media platforms should allow the unfiltered flow of content?
I don't use FB, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, Tic-tok or bother to view a any of the major US news network's bs.
They pushed too hard and the worm has turned...
blackhawk said:
I don't use FB, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, Tic-tok or bother to view a any of the major US news network's bs.
They pushed too hard and the worm has turned...
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Not using any of these social media apps is definitely one approach. The problem is if we have family members active on only these platforms!
ManojNairOnline said:
Not using any of these social media apps is definitely one approach. The problem is if we have family members active on only these platforms!
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Not good... my Mom didn't raise a fool.
Need to bring up their level of wherewithal.
All those sites are purveyors of disinformation at the very best and completely untrustworthy.
censorship is no longer a matter of social media, it's daily business on public media too and concerns all people around the world. nowadays it's even forced by law on governments outrage. we have passed 1984 long ago.
I don't see a reason why we should play their game and self-censor each own. On the other hand there are people out there spreading fake-news on telegram or whatever, so I am fine with our common board rules - no religion - no politics.
Having own opinion is part of our identity. we don't judge about someones avatar or profile signature - what we all have in common we are tech nerds, that's why we signed up here, don't we?
this is currently happen on xda? some true useful stuff is from 4pda (WwR MTK which is really great tool to create scatter files for mediatek devices, Orange State Disabler which patches little kernel to remove the 5 seconds delay on unlocked bootloader, just to mention two of them) and is mirrored on xda by members (not authors). some genius russian spend lot time and mind and offers it for free, so why not allow link to origin for respectful giving proper credits?
my opinion, xda should generally allow links to 4pda and only censor if necessary. each link should be surveyed for its advertising character on its own. only explicit links should removed, no generalized claims...
Oswald Boelcke said:
@Pervokur
Welcome to XDA! We're greatful that you share your knowledge.
However; I've removed the references to 4pda! Same applies to your post here.
4pda is not only another phone related website (and not at all affiliated with xda-developers) but also well known for the distribution of malware and warez. Links to 4pda are not accepted on XDA.
XDA Forum Rules (excerpt):
Regards
Oswald Boelcke
Senior Moderator
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aIecxs said:
this is currently happen on xda? some true useful stuff is from 4pda (WwR MTK which is really great tool to create scatter files for mediatek devices, Orange State Disabler which patches little kernel to remove the 5 seconds delay on unlocked bootloader, just to mention two of them) and is mirrored on xda by members (not authors). some genius russian spend lot time and mind and offers it for free, so why not allow link to origin for respectful giving proper credits?
my opinion, xda should generally allow links to 4pda and only censor if necessary. each link should be surveyed for its advertising character on its own. only explicit links should removed, no generalized claims...
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@Alecxs Thanks very much for sharing your opinion. Censorship is a very subjective qualification for an action especially on a completely private website. In all the years that I'm visiting, monitoring and contributing to XDA - even before I was allowed to join the very small team of volunteers who mediate this site - I've never seen that anything has been censored on XDA. What I've seen (and am actually also now doing as a moderator) is that posts were edited or removed in cases when no content would remain after an edit because those post were not in line with the rules of this private website.
Would you call it censorship if I remove a post with a link to a child-porn site and ban the author? I certainly wouldn't call it so, and I'd even report all information I have in such cases to my local police station. Would you call it censorship?
Would you call it censorship if I remove a link to a website that offers warez and cracked premium applications and inform the authors that we don't accept that at all and made all users aware about this stance shown in rule no. 6 of our forum rules? I certainly wouldn't call it so. Would you do?
If we've visitors at our home and we told them please not to smoke but they don't care and do, I ask them to immediately leave. Would you call that censorship of the actions of our visitors? I certainly wouldn't call it so. Would you do?
In your above post you clearly explain that 4pda is another phone related website; something I also mentioned in my post that you've quoted. And the third bullet of our rule no. 11 says:
Encouraging members to participate in forum activities on other phone related sites is prohibited.
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I think it's just fair and quite understandable that XDA doesn't want to be a promotional platform for another phone related website.
If I visit the restaurant "Bella Roma" and order my drinks but when the waiter brings the menu, I say negative, please bring me the menu of the "Bella Napoli", I like to order their food, I'm most likely told that I won't be served and eat at the "Bella Roma" but could leave any time.
no generalized claims. that's all I said
edit: google translate: no sweeping accusations. that's what I wanted to say

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