government – Page 7

Bitcoin, Blockchain, government, Money Talk, Science & Technology News

How Crypto could bring tax evasion to the masses

August 2, 2019

Loopholes in lending laws are allowing cryptocurrency users to escape taxes — and the government can’t keep up

WWealthy families and merchants first conjured up the idea of offshore banking in 19th century Europe, seeking a place to store funds away from tax-hungry governments in the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars. Since then, it’s been a race to the bottom. Over the course of the last two centuries, deregulation and lenient financial laws have allowed the rich to tread the fine line between legal tax avoidance and illegal tax evasion.

But blockchain, which first emerged as a concept in 2008, is now offering ordinary people the same possibilities. Using cryptocurrency, anyone with a little technical know-how can open what is effectively the equivalent of an offshore bank account — albeit offshore in cyberspace.

Continue reading… “How Crypto could bring tax evasion to the masses”

government, Healthcare, Legal Issues, Science & Technology News

Netherlands passes law making everyone an organ donor by default

July 26, 2019

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Dutch senators have approved a new law that makes everybody a potential organ donor unless they decide to opt out of the system.

The new system narrowly passed a vote in the upper house of the Dutch parliament Tuesday. The lower house last year passed the legislation with a one-vote majority.

The new law’s drafter, lawmaker Pia Dijkstra, says under the new system — which is similar to donation laws in Belgium and Spain — every person over 18 who is not yet registered as a donor will receive a letter asking if they want to donate their organs after death.

Those who do not respond will be considered organ donors, although they will be able to amend their status at any time.

Via Canoe.com

App, government, Law Enforcement, Legal Issues, privacy, Science & Technology News

Revealed: This is Palintir’s top-secret user manual for cops

July 24, 2019

Motherboard obtained a Palantir user manual through a public records request, and it gives unprecedented insight into how the company logs and tracks individuals.

Palantir is one of the most significant and secretive companies in big data analysis. The company acts as an information management service for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, corporations like JP Morgan and Airbus, and dozens of other local, state, and federal agencies. It’s been described by scholars as a “secondary surveillance network,” since it extensively catalogs and maps interpersonal relationships between individuals, even those who aren’t suspected of a crime.

Palantir software is instrumental to the operations of ICE, which is planning one of the largest-ever targeted immigration enforcement raids this weekend on thousands of undocumented families. Activists argue raids of this scale would be impossible without software like Palantir. But few people outside the company and its customers know how its software works or what its specific capabilities and user interfaces are.

Continue reading… “Revealed: This is Palintir’s top-secret user manual for cops”

government, Latest Trend, Money Talk, Science & Technology News

India going cashless could be a model for the world

July 15, 2019

India aims to curb cash – but this time it wants to do it properly.

A cashless society wasn’t the original goal of the country’s draconian currency ban in November 2016. But when an acute shortage of banknotes gave a fillip to digital wallets, that purpose was added as an afterthought to justify an act of farcical state overreach.

The real innovation in mobile payments in India began a few months prior to the cash ban. It’s called a unified payment interface, or UPI. The name is clunky, but the idea is simple. One smartphone owner who’s a customer of Bank A can request a payment from, or initiate a payment to, another owner who has an account with Bank B. Neither party needs to know anything more than each other’s mobile number or a virtual ID. They don’t even need to use the same mobile app to transact.

Continue reading… “India going cashless could be a model for the world”

drones, government, Science & Technology News, Weapons

The US Air Force has a new weapon called THOR that can take out swarms of drones

July 4, 2019

Ding, the drone is done

In recent years, small drones have made their way onto battlefields where they’ve been used to surveil US forces or drop bombs on them, prompting the US military to develop new ways to take them down. This week, the US Air Force unveiled a new tool that can be stationed at bases around the world: a high-powered microwave system called Tactical High Power Microwave Operational Responder (THOR), which is designed to protect bases against swarms of drones.

Continue reading… “The US Air Force has a new weapon called THOR that can take out swarms of drones”

Big Problems, Bitcoin, government, Hackers, Science & Technology News

Florida city gives in to $600,000 bitcoin ransomware demand

July 3, 2019

But there’s no guarantee hackers will actually restore Riviera Beach’s systems.

Riviera Beach, a city in Florida, is set to pay hackers $600,000 in bitcoin with the hope of having its systems restored. Hackers took over the systems several weeks ago, when a police department employee opened a malicious email that allowed them to inject the city’s network with malware. Now the council has voted to pay the ransom in the hopes of getting Riviera Beach’s encrypted records back — even though there’s no actual guarantee the hackers will restore them.

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2019 Predictions, Business, government, Healthcare, Science & Technology News

Five traditional industries on the verge of an innovation boom

July 1, 2019

According to the technology and data company Crunchbase, an astounding $825 million in venture capital investment has flowed into legal and legal-tech sectors just since the start of 2018.What do you think about when you hear the terms “disruption” and “technological innovation?” What industries and sectors come to mind?

Autonomous cars, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, genetic testing, cryptocurrencies and various other technologies likely populate the top of your list.

However, if you strictly limit your perception of innovation to these flashy concepts, you could be missing out on transformational booms that are happening across industries that wouldn’t be categorized as cutting edge.

Because of significant injections of investment capital and a traunch of fresh ideas, new companies and opportunities are arising in traditional fields that may challenge your perception about which markets are hot versus which are not.

Continue reading… “Five traditional industries on the verge of an innovation boom”

government, mobile technology, privacy, Science & Technology News, women

The Saudi government is hunting down women who flee the country by tracking the IMEI number on their cellphones

June 26, 2019

Soldiers checking the IMEI number of a mobile phone during a regional anti-insurgent operation in Mali. Reuters

Saudi Arabia is using military-grade technology to track down the cellphones of women who flee its patriarchal system, several runaways have told INSIDER.
Four women, all speaking anonymously for fear of reprisal, said they were made aware of attempts to track their cellphones via their IMEI number.
The unique ID number can pinpoint a phone virtually anywhere but is rarely used by civilians. The US military uses IMEIs to direct drone strikes.
The technique shows how seriously Saudi Arabia takes the escalating numbers of women fleeing its repressive, male-dominated society.
Saudi authorities declined to respond to INSIDER’s requests for comment.

Continue reading… “The Saudi government is hunting down women who flee the country by tracking the IMEI number on their cellphones”

AI, facebook, government, Science & Technology News, Video

‘Deepfakes’ called new election threat, with no easy fix

June 26, 2019

WASHINGTON (AP) — “Deepfake” videos pose a clear and growing threat to America’s national security, lawmakers and experts say. The question is what to do about it, and that’s not easily answered.

A House Intelligence Committee hearing Thursday served up a public warning about the deceptive powers of artificial intelligence software and offered a sobering assessment of how fast the technology is outpacing efforts to stop it.

With a crudely altered video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., fresh on everyone’s minds, lawmakers heard from experts how difficult it will be to combat these fakes and prevent them from being used to interfere in the 2020 election.

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Cancer, China, government, Science & Technology News

The U.S. is purging Chinese cancer researchers from top institutions

June 25, 2019

The NIH and the FBI are targeting ethnic Chinese scientists, including U.S. citizens, searching for a cancer cure. Here’s the first account of what happened to Xifeng Wu.

The dossier on cancer researcher Xifeng Wu was thick with intrigue, if hardly the stuff of a spy thriller. It contained findings that she’d improperly shared confidential information and accepted a half-dozen advisory roles at medical institutions in China. She might have weathered those allegations, but for a larger aspersion that was far more problematic: She was branded an oncological double agent.

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Big Problems, government, Legal Issues, privacy, Science & Technology News

The best reason for your city to ban facial recognition

June 17, 2019

The technology isn’t ready. Society isn’t ready. And the law isn’t ready.

This week, San Francisco became the first major U.S. city to bar itself from using facial recognition systems. The city’s Board of Supervisors voted 8–1 on Tuesday to prohibit the police and other public agencies — though not private companies — from using the emerging technology in any form as part of a larger bill to regulate broader surveillance efforts.

Some cheered the move as a victory for privacy and civil liberties. Some criticized it as a blow to law enforcement and public safety. And cynics dismissed it as an empty gesture, given that San Francisco wasn’t using facial recognition technology in the first place. Continue reading… “The best reason for your city to ban facial recognition”

Bitcoin, Blockchain, Crypto-Technology, government, Science & Technology News

Bitcoin regulation : South Korea is making progress

June 11, 2019

On June 8th, the South Korean Advisory Committee met to develop a legal framework for national crypto exchanges. Following the Coinrail Market’s recent hack, the South Korean government is enforcing stricter investor protection guidelines: Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML).

Continue reading… “Bitcoin regulation : South Korea is making progress”