Message-ID: <20220722230449.8EF55795@telecom2018.csail.mit.edu>
Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2022 23:04:49 +0000 (UTC)
From: Bill Horne <malQRMassimilation@gmail.com>
Subject: CWA Organizing Update
Activision Blizzard
Quality Assurance testers at Activision Blizzard in Albany, N.Y.,
formerly Vicarious Visions, became the second group of Activision
Blizzard workers to form a union with CWA. On Tuesday, a supermajority
of the workers announced the formation of the Albany Game Workers
Alliance/CWA and filed for a union representation election with the
National Labor Relations Board after requesting voluntary recognition
last week.
Wise Connect (Lumen)
Technicians in Colorado who work for Wise Connect, a contractor for
Lumen, have been organizing for a union with CWA to fight for better
working conditions. The workers are facing various challenges
including low pay, unsafe working conditions, lack of supplies, and a
lack of dignity and respect on the job. They recently won an Unfair
Labor Practice (ULP) case which galvanized many of the workers to join
the organizing effort. The ULP charge was regarding unfair
surveillance and a veiled threat by the company to shut down the
contract if workers join the union. The technicians who are organizing
firmly believe that, by doing so, they can create a better environment
for themselves and provide a better path for future contract
technicians at Lumen.
https://cwa-union.org/news/organizing-update-166
--
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Message-ID: <20220722224006.AD23C795@telecom2018.csail.mit.edu>
Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2022 22:40:06 +0000 (UTC)
From: Bill Horne <malQRMassimilation@gmail.com>
Subject: Multiple Vulnerabilities in Apple Products Could Allow for
Arbitrary Code Execution
OVERVIEW:
Multiple vulnerabilities have been discovered in Apple Products, the
most severe of which could allow for arbitrary code execution.
Successful exploitation of the most severe of these vulnerabilities
could allow for arbitrary code execution in the context of the logged
on user. Depending on the privileges associated with the user, an
attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or
create new accounts with full user rights. Users whose accounts are
configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less
impacted than those who operate with administrative user rights.
https://www.cisecurity.org/advisory/multiple-vulnerabilities-in-apple-products-could-allow-for-arbitrary-code-execution_2022-037
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Message-ID: <8AAF044F-6C0F-40E8-AD5E-CE90755E0269@roscom.com>
Date: 21 Jul 2022 18:13:35 -0600
From: "Monty Solomon" <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: FCC chair tries to find out how carriers use phone
geolocation data
Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has
ordered mobile carriers to explain what geolocation data they collect
from customers and how they use it. Rosenworcel's probe could be the
first step toward stronger action--but the agency's authority in this
area is in peril because Congress is debating a data privacy law that
could preempt the FCC from regulating carriers' privacy practices.
Rosenworcel sent letters of inquiry Tuesday "to the top 15 mobile
providers," the FCC announced. The chairwoman's letters asked carriers
"about their policies around geolocation data, such as how long
geolocation data is retained and why and what the current safeguards
are to protect this sensitive information," the FCC said.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/07/fcc-orders-top-carriers-to-explain-how-they-use-and-share-phone-location-data/=
Message-ID: <81F79F09-EECD-4650-B0D0-2A9218745E65@roscom.com>
Date: 20 Jul 2022 21:35:10 -0600
From: "Monty Solomon" <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: DHS bought "shocking amount" of warrantless phone-tracking
data, ACLU says [Updated]
Documents show Homeland Security is tracking way more phone data than
predicted.
By Ashley Belanger - 7/19/2022
Update: Venntel is a subsidiary of Gravy Analytics, which provided
comments from its Chief Privacy Officer and Vice President of Legal
Jason Sarfati. In a blog post, Sarfati responded to Politico's
reporting by requesting corrections of "material inaccuracies about
Venntel's data and business practice."
Sarfati makes two claims that contradict Politico's reporting. First,
he says that Venntel did not sign a new contract last winter that
extends through June 2023. "This is objectively false. Venntel does
not have any active contracts with DHS." Rather, the June 2023 date on
that contract was a "potential end date" that "marks the end of this
contract's potential period of performance or when the recipient will
finish its work if all remaining contract extension options are
exercised." In an email, a Gravy Analytics spokesperson confirmed that
this contract has closed and cannot be extended to the June 2023
potential end date.
Original story:
For years, people have wondered not if, but how much, the Department
of Homeland Security accesses mobile location data to monitor US
citizens. This week, the American Civil Liberties Union released
thousands of heavily redacted pages of documents that provide a
"glimpse" of how DHS agencies came to leverage "a shocking amount" of
location data, apparently purchasing data without following proper
protocols to ensure they had the authority to do so.
Documents were shared with the ACLU "over the course of the last year
through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit." Then Politico
got access and released a report confirming that DHS contracted with
two surveillance companies, Babel Street and Venntel, to scour
hundreds of millions of cell phones from 2017 to 2019 and access "more
than 336,000 location data points across North America." The
collection of emails, contracts, spreadsheets, and presentation slides
provide evidence that "the Trump administration's immigration
enforcers used mobile location data to track people's movements on a
larger scale than previously known," and the practice has continued
under Biden due to a contract that didn't expire until 2021.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/07/dhs-bought-shocking-amount-of-warrantless-phone-tracking-data-aclu-says/
***** Moderator's Note *****
My son was about ten when I first saw him using AOL Instant
Messenger. I didn't choose to censor it, but I warned him that he was
giving up something very important and very private: that he was
telling total strangers the names of his friends.
I doubt he understood what that meant, and I doubt even most adults
understand what it means today. AFAICT, America is turning inward, and
it will soon revert to a more vicious and more effective kind of
McCarthyism, when anyone who points out what they feel is wrong will
be targeted for "reeducation" and will be threatened with
guilt-by-association, using the location data from their cell phones,
if they don't bow down.
I hope I'm wrong, but I doubt it.
Bill Horne
Moderator
Message-ID: <tbckno$2l2m9$1@dont-email.me>
Date: 21 Jul 2022 22:42:00 -0000
From: "Steve Watt" <telecom.removethis@steve.wattlink.net>
Subject: Configuring my VoIP box for 988
Greetings all! Old reader of the Digest, but feeling pretty out of touch -
haven't done telecom-related work in about 20 years.
With the rollout of 988 supposedly fully live in NANPA, I've been poking
around trying to figure out if I need to do anything to my home setup. I
have a Poly (sigh) Obi200 using Google Voice (SP1) and PunchAlert (SP2 for
E911).
So is there something I need to do to make 988 work on my configuration? It
seems likely, but in my digging, there doesn't seem to be quite the right
combination of information to figure out *what* I need to do.
Thanks all! Please cc: (after deobfuscating) on replies.
--
Steve Watt KD6GGD PP-ASEL-IA factories.words.yappy
Don't let your schooling get in the way of your education
--
Steve Watt KD6GGD PP-ASEL-IA ICBM: 121W 56' 57.5" / 37N 20' 15.3"
Internet: steve @ Watt.COM Whois: SW32-ARIN
Free time? There's no such thing. It just comes in varying prices...
