Media is covering why people
disable cameras by covering up the camera with tape on their laptops and mobile devices. Is this paranoia? Does the NSA or hackers really get into your phone or PC just to take pictures of you in the nuddy? Pipedot, I ask you: Do you cover up the camera on your devices, and if so, why?
I'm searching for a Linux LiveCD which includes the proprietary NVIDIA driver.
I would like to find one on a LiveCD since installing the proprietary NVIDIA driver usually requires a reboot so I cannot do it myself.
Several years ago when desktop effects in Linux finally hit it big, there were one or two distros which rolled the proprietary NVIDIA driver into the LiveCD to showcase the desktop effects.
While I don't need flashy desktop effects, I would like one or more Linux distros which roll the proprietary NVIDIA driver into the LiveCD so installation is not required.
Thank you.
Admit it, we have all thought about it. Off the grid. Disconnected. Bushed out. Gone. Ever wondered what happens when an entire town of people disconnects on purpose? Ever wanted to join such a community?
Now you can as seen here on Unplanned America. The question though is: Would you?
"Digital analyzer. IMSI catcher. Stingray. Triggerfish. Dirt box. Cell-site simulator. The list of aliases used by the devices that masquerade as a cell phone tower, trick your phone into connecting with them, and suck up your data, seems to grow every day[1]. But no matter what name cell-site simulators go by, whether they are in the hands of the government or malicious thieves, there's no question that they're a serious threat to privacy[2]." (By Nadia Kayyali - remainder of article @ [1])
That's why EFF[3] is launching the cell-site simulator section[4] of Street Level Surveillance[5] today. "EFF's Street Level Surveillance Project[5] unites our past and future work on domestic surveillance technologies into one easily accessible portal. On this page, you'll find all the materials we have on each individual technology gathered into one place. Materials include FAQs about specific technologies, infographics and videos explaining how technologies work, and advocacy materials for activists concerned about the adoption of street level surveillance technologies in their own community. In the coming months, we'll be adding materials on drones, stingrays, and fusion centers."
[1]
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/12/government-can-you-hear-me-now-cell-site-simulators-arent-secret-anymore[2]
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/10/stingrays-biggest-unknown-technological-threat-cell-phone-privacy[3]
https://www.eff.org/[4]
https://www.eff.org/sls/tech/cell-site-simulators[5]
https://www.eff.org/sls
Under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, any company wanting to make robocalls to consumers must obtain "prior express written consent." Additionally, the consumer must not be required to agree to accept these calls "as a condition of purchasing any property, goods, or services." But the FCC says
First National Bank and Lyft violated these rules by telling people that if they wanted to be customers of these businesses, they had to accept robocalls or spam texts.
While the First National citation appears pretty cut-and-dry, the Lyft citation is a little more complicated. The ridesharing service's Terms of Service automatically opt-in a customer to robocalls and texts. The company claims in the terms that it offers an "unsubscribe" option but no details could be found on the Lyft site for avoiding robocalls. And stopping marketing texts from Lyft was only possible by stopping
all texts from Lyft, including security confirmation texts needed to log in to one's Lyft account. "In other words, exercising the option to decline marketing messages made it impossible to use Lyft's services," reads the citation, which deems Lyft's opt-out representation as "illusory in nature."
The FCC has given both companies 30 days to reply to the citations and called on them to cease the allegedly unlawful practices. Failure to comply could result in fines of up to $16,000 for each future violation or for each day of a continued violation.
Our Monday poll is essentially a blatant pitch by zafiro17 for site feedback. I personally bounce among several sites for my tech news but always find myself back at Pipedot, and that got me thinking about what I like about the site that keeps me coming back for more. In this Borda poll you'll find choices related to the subject matter and the community, but also a small subset of some of the technical innovations that make Pipedot unique. Rank your choices from 1 (the strongest reason I like the site) and continue downward, assigning 2 to your second strongest preference, and so on.
For a list of some of Pipedot's features, check out the
Pipedot category of this site: there are possibly some you haven't discovered yet. If I've forgotten anything, tell us about it in the comments.
Trying to get back to a 'new poll every Monday' routine, if possible, and I've hit the ground running with a vague, poorly-organized question about where we'd like to see some more innovation. Probably could have put more thought into categories and parameters for the question, but fire away: the world could use some improvement; where shall we begin? Curious to hear the debate. Enjoy!
The Tor project has decided to stop using the Startpage search engine and will be standardizing on the
Disconnect Search Engine, a project that, in theory, uses VPN technology to permit you to use Google, Bing, and Yahoo search services without revealing your IP address or any personal information that would allow companies to build a profile using data revealed as you search. Disconnect
was written by former Google and NSA engineers.
Sound like a good choice of technology?
Not everyone is impressed. Though the Tor project has stated that
Startpage was not happy with our traffic and showed sometimes CAPTCHAs. Disconnect on the other hand approached us with respect to search engine traffic and donated some money, a few choice comments from the article reveal that many users wonder whether money had anything to do with the change in technologies.
What prompted the change in search engine? Are we now getting paid to include disconnect as the default search engine?"
and
So what's next, Torproject? Keystroke logging for Amazon or another company? Partnering with Recorded Future or something like it? Is this what the project has come to now? But that "Disconnect" Search Engine site is so pretty. So nice and clean, WOW! It sort of reminds me of the polished DoD sites I have wandered through.
and
With this new "Search Engine", I feel like a rug is being pulled out from underneath me and damn it "that rug really tied the room together."
What say the |.ers?
Ben Everard | April 23, 2015