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mostlysignssomeportents · 8 months

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How the kleptocrats and oligarchs hunt civil society groups to the ends of the Earth

It's a great time to be an oligarch! If you have accumulated a great fortune and wish to put whatever great crime lies behind it behind you, there is an army of fixers, lickspittles, thugs, reputation-launderers, procurers, henchmen, and other enablers who have turnkey solutions for laundering your reputation and keeping the unwashed from building a guillotine outside the gates of your compound.

The field of International Relations has studied the enemies of the Klept in detail: the Transnational Activist Network is a well-documented phenomenon. But far more poorly understood is the Transnational Uncivil Society Network, who will polish any turd of sufficient wealth to a high, professional gloss.

These TUSNs are the subject of a new, timely scholarly paper by Alexander Cooley, John Heathershaw and Ricard Soares de Oliveira: "Transnational Uncivil Society Networks: kleptocracy’s global fightback against liberal activism," published in last month's European Journal of International Relations:

https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:5e5a3052-c693-4991-a7cc-bc2b47134467/download_file?file_format=application%2Fpdf&safe_filename=Cooley_et_al_2023_transnational_uncivil_society.pdf&type_of_work=Journal+article

The authors document how a collection of institutions – some coercive, others organized around good works – allow kleptocrats to take power, keep power, and use power. This includes "wealth managers, company providers, accounting firms, and international bankers" who create the complex financial structures that obscure the klept's wealth. It also includes "second citizenship managers and lawyers" that facilitate the klept's transnational nature, both to provide access to un-looted, prosperous places to visit, and boltholes to escape to in the face of coup or reform. It includes the real-estate brokers and other asset facilitators, who turn whole precincts of the world's greatest cities into empty safe-deposit boxes in the sky, while ensuring that footlose criminal elites always have a penthouse to perch in when they take a break from the desiccated husks they've drained dry back home.

Of course, it also includes the PR managers and philanthropic ventures that allow the klept to launder their reputation, to make themselves synonymous with good deeds rather than mass murder. Think here of how the Sacklers used charity to turn their family name into a synonym for culture and fine art, rather than death by opioid overdose:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/11/justice-delayed/#justice-redeemed

Beyond providing comfort to "Politically Exposed Persons" and "High Net-Worth Individuals," TUSNs are concerned with neutralizing TANs. Activists in these transnational networks play an inside-outside game: in-country activists will recruit peers abroad to bring attention to the crimes of their local kleptocrats. These overseas partners target the klept in the places they go to play and spend, spoiling their fun – and if they succeed in getting corrupt leaders censured abroad, then in-country activists can leverage that bad press to fight the klept at home.

To fight this "Boomerang Effect," TUSNs seek to burnish corrupt officials' reputations abroad, getting their names on humanitarian prizes, beloved sports teams, cultural institutions and great universities. They seek to capture international governance institutions that might wrong-foot kleptocrats, co-opting them to enable and even celebrate looters.

When it comes to elite philanthropy, TUSNs are necessarily selective. Kleptocrats' foundations don't fund anti-kleptocratic groups – they stick to "education, public health, the environment and the arts." These domains steer clear of human rights questions that might implicate their benefactors. Russian oligarchs love children's charities and disability rights – provided they don't target the Russian state.

If charitable giving is reputation laundering's carrot, then "reputation management" is the laundry's stick. Think of organized copyfraudsters who clone websites that have criticized their clients, then backdate the articles, then accuse the originals of infringing copyright in order to get them de-listed from Google or taken offline altogether:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/23/reputation-laundry/#dark-ops

Reputation managers also spend a lot of time in court. In the UK – the world's leader in libel tourism, thanks to a legal system designed to let posh monsters sue muckraking journalists into silence – Russian oligarchs have perfected the art of forcing their critics to shut up and go away:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/03/04/londongrad/#enablers

Indeed, London is a one-stop shop for the global klept, a place were forelock-tugging Renfields will buy you a Mayfair mansion under cover of a numbered company, sue your critics into silence, funnel your money into an anonymous Channel Islands account:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/01/07/the-klept/#pep

They'll sell you whole galleriesworth of "fine art" that you can have relocated to a climate-controlled container in a Swiss or Irish freeport:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/14/poesy-the-monster-slayer/#moneylab

They'll give your thick-as-pigshit progeny a PhD and never check to see whether he wrote his thesis himself:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LSE%E2%80%93Gaddafi_affair

Then they'll hook you up with a cyber-arms dealer to hunt your enemies by capturing their devices:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/07/27/gas-on-the-fire/#a-safe-place-for-dangerous-ideas

But don't let Brexit stop you from shopping for bargains on the continent. The Golden Passports of the EU – available in a variety of flavors, from Maltese to Cypriot to Portuguese – offer the discerning failson access to the luxury good shops and fleshpots of 27 advanced economies, making it a favorite of the Khmer Riche – the junior klept of Cambodia's ruling faction:

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/cambodia-hunsen-wealth/

But golden passports are for amateurs. Skilled klepts travel on diplomatic passports, which offer the twin benefits of free movement and consequence-free criminality, thanks to diplomatic immunity. The former Kazakh dictator's son-in-law enjoyed a freewheeling diplomatic life in Vienna; one daughters of the dictator of Tajikistan had a jolly time as an envoy to DC; another, to London (where else?).

All this globetrotting serves a second purpose: when rival elites seize power back home and force the old guard into exile, those ex-monsters can show up in the lands they called their second homes and apply for asylum. It turns out that even bomb-the-boats UK will welcome any asylum seeker who enters via the private jet terminal at City Airport (to be fair, these "refugees" have extensive properties in Zone 1 and country places in the Home Counties, so they won't need housing).

This stuff works. After Kazakh state goons murdered at least 14 protesters at a Zhanaozen oil facility in 2011, human rights groups around the world took up the cause. But they were effectively neutralized by TUSNs, with former UK PM Tony Blair writing on behalf of the Kazakh government to the EU condemning any kind of international investigation into the mass killings (add "former Prime Ministers" to the list of commodities for sale in the UK to sufficiently well-resourced murderer).

The authors close their paper with two case-studies. The first is of the daughters of Uzbek dictator Islam Karimov, Gulnara and Lola. And President Karimov was indeed a dictator: he trapped his population within his borders, forced them to use unconvertible scrip in place of money, and ordered the murder of hundreds of peaceful protesters, plunging the country into international isolation.

But while Uzbeks were sealed within their borders, Gulnara Karimov became an international player, running a complex network of businesses that mixed the products of the nation's oilfields with her family's fortune. She solicited – and received – bribes from Teliasonera, MTS and Vimpelcom, who were all vying for the contract to provide service in Uzbekistan. All told, she extracted more than $1b in bribes, laundering them through Latvia, Hong Kong and New York. She acquired real-estate in France and Switzerland, and her spree continued until her father collaborated with Uzbek security to seize her assets and place her under house-arrest.

Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva was Gulnara's estranged younger sister. She and her husband Timur Tillyaev ran the Dubai-based SecureTrade, which did extensive business with "opaque Scottish Limited Partnerships," laundering more than $127m in a single year to offshore accounts in the UAE and Switzerland. They acquired many luxe assets – a jet, a Californian villa, and an LA perfumier.

Lola styled herself as the face of the Karimovas abroad, a "philanthropist and cultural ambassador." She was a UNESCO ambassador and commissioned works of monumental art – and also sued the shit out of news outlets that reported factual matters about her family repressive activity at home. She organized AIDS charities in the name of Uzbekistan – even as her father was imprisoning a writer for publishing a book explaining how to have safer sex.

The second case-study is on Isabel dos Santos, "Africa's richest woman," daughter of Angolan dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos. Isabel's vast fortune stemmed from her personal capture of vast swathes of the third-largest economy in Africa: "telecommunications, banking, diamonds, real estate and cement, among many others." Isabel enjoyed seemingly limitless access to state credit and co-investment, and was given first crack at newly deregulated industries. Foreign firms that invested in Angola were required to "partner" with Isabel's businesses.

Isabel claimed to be a "self-made woman" – a claim credulously parroted by the western press, including the FT. She used her homegrown fortune to become a major player abroad, especially in Portugal, where she was represented by the leading Portuguese law-firm PLMJ. Her enablers are who's who of corruption-loving lickspittles: McKinsey, Ernst and Young, Boston Consulting Group, and the Spanish BigLaw firm Uri Menendez.

Isabel cultivated a public facade of philanthropic giving and public spirited activism, serving as head of the Angolan Red Cross. She attended Davos and spoke at the LSE (she was also invited to Oxford, but her invitation was subsequently rescinded). On social media, she dismissed critics of her wealth and corruption as "colonialists," decrying their "racism" and "prejudice."

Isabel dos Santos's corrupt sources of wealth were finally, irrefutably exposed through the Luanda Leaks, in which the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists mapped the network of "top banks, management consultants and legal firms that were central to dos Santos’s operations."

Both case studies shed light on the network of brilliant, driven enablers and procurers without whom the world's greatest monsters would falter. It's a rare window on a secretive world, one that is poorly understood even by its inhabitants. As Michael Mechanic wrote in Jackpot, his 2021 book on vast, intergenerational fortunes, the winners of the lucky orifice lottery often lack any real understanding of how The Money is structured, grown and protected:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/13/public-interest-pharma/#affluenza

This point was reiterated by Abigail Disney, in a brave piece on what it's like to grow up subject to the oversight of these millionaires who babysit the children of billionaires:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/19/dynastic-wealth/#caste

This is an important contribution to the literature. We naturally focus on the ultrawealthy individuals whose reputations and fortunes are the subject of so much attention, but without the TUSNs, they would be largely helpless.

Going to Burning Man? Catch me on Tuesday at 2:40pm on the Center Camp Stage for a talk about enshittification and how to reverse it; on Wednesday at noon, I'm hosting Dr Patrick Ball at Liminal Labs (6:15/F) for a talk on using statistics to prove high-level culpability in the recruitment of child soldiers.

On September 6 at 7pm, I'll be hosting Naomi Klein at the LA Public Library for the launch of Doppelganger.

On September 12 at 7pm, I'll be at Toronto's Another Story Bookshop with my new book The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/24/launderers-enforcers-bagmen/#procurers

Image: Sam Valadi (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/132084522@N05/17086570218/

CC BY 2.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Colin (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Palace_of_Westminster_from_the_dome_on_Methodist_Central_Hall_(cropped).jpg

CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

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vizreef · 19 days

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Stellavox Fi-Cord 101S // portable tape recorder (Switzerland, 1962)

via

#spyware #the red dotted knob unscrews to the battery compartment

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malwary · 10 months

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a little while ago @neuro-typical sent me this post by @bye2k of a popup that appeared when trying to right-click images on a shadow the hedgehog fan forum, known as Wishes are Eternal (after the SA2 line). this version of the site appears to be an archived snapshot on the wayback machine, and I'm happy to confirm that it is indeed real. though i couldn't get the popup to work in my own browser, the javascript does exist in the source code of the site, so it's very real and very cool.

i had a lot of things to say about this, but i didn't want to blast the notes of the OG post into oblivion with my big funny wall of text, so I've made my own post. below the readmore I'll explain javascript popups on the internet, some malware that has utilized this, and some very interesting sonic fan community history.

first of all: what is this? how did the webmaster manage to create a popup window in your computer to stop you from downloading images?

well, that would be javascript. because JS is just a normal script language that can do whatever you want, creating a popup is no exception. now, whoever ran the site did not write this script themself, this much is evident by the credit you can see in the source code for the site.

this script is offered by a site called dynamicdrive.com, specifically for disabling right-clicks. you see how simple this is? javascript makes it possible to bother users in all sorts of creative ways. plenty of malware on the web utilizes javascript, and you're probably already aware of most good examples.

you're most likely familiar with offiz, better known by the colloquial name "You Are An Idiot". though its status as malware is somewhat debated, most people can agree that the sites it was on abused a javascript function that allowed it to create hundreds upon hundreds of bouncing windows, slowing the user computer to a crawl and forcing the user to restart their machine, meaning any unsaved work they had open was now lost. in that way it was destructive, though indirectly.

offiz is an example of javascript malware that is harmless on its own, but not all JS malware is that friendly. javascript can be used to force your machine to download software, steal user data, serve you all manner of popups, employ many kinds of malicious code through xss, and more. although these cases are rarer than they were, say, a decade ago, that doesn't mean they don't still happen. here is a fascinating little instance of javascript being used maliciously very recently. it's hard to suggest ways to avoid these without just telling you to use common sense, but there's no other way to put it. as is the case with all malware, your best bet when it comes to not getting it is thinking before you click.

browser malware is extremely common. you may have encountered it going to a suspicious website. there is certainly a necessary aspect of social engineering to this type of malware, you have to be paying less attention to where you're going and what you're doing to stumble upon a site so unsecured that it could infect you. users who get themselves into these situations are typically looking for either p_rn or pirated stuff, so they're more likely to act in irrational or desperate ways to get to their content. don't be a fool online and you won't get played for one.

so, why? why does this old, obscure sonic fan forum have javascript that prevents you from right clicking images? prevents you from downloading images?

this forum is very, very old. the last posts on the entire site were about 10 years ago, even to this day. it's no surprise to me that a lot of this site is a relic of its time. the photobucket watermark on the header image, the collecton of midis of shadow themes playable on the site, the use of the term "ripped off" (as opposed to ripped) to describe the action of taking sprites from a game. it's all there on the very first page, the only one in this archive. despite what youtube video slideshows with a single text scroll that says "no copyright intended, pictures found on google" may imply, reposting images was indeed taken seriously at this time. this was a time when it wasn't too uncommon to see a credit to the person who made an anime girl image transparent (a render, for those unaware) in a forum signature. this was a time when someone got caught tracing every 5 days.

that's not to say there were no issues, but people were still very defensive over what they deemed to be theirs. this was especially prevalent in fanart. fan works are hard and are always a labor of love, so it's no surprise nobody wanted their work reposted, especially not without credit. this was especially clear when looking into some parts of the sprite ripping community. making spritesheets was much harder then than it is now, and it was especially impressive if sprites were hand-edited or even made from scratch. this incredibly painstaking work combined with sonic fans reputation for... unwavering passion... could often culminate in a very serious attitude towards doing something as simple as saving an image. in fact, for some people, this mindset has never truly left.

in 2014, fangame creator Leemena Dan published Sonic Gather Battle on SAGE (the Sonic Amateur Games Expo) to mostly positive reception but ultimately little attention outside of sonic fans online. that is, until 2017, when after a seemingly inconspicuous update, players discovered what appeared to be an audaciously malicious form of DRM present in the game.

this malware had everything. all the bells and whistles. when a player would do any number of things from opening software made to decompile games to simply typing "sonic gather battle cheat" into their internet browser search bar, the payload would activate. (which, of course, means it tracks your keystrokes!)

it's difficult to find good footage of both layers of this DRM (or, rather, both payloads of this malware) that doesn't include a facecam of some gamer dude gawking and screaming at his computer screen. even so, I've found two decent ones. layer 1, and layer 2. this DRM also sends your IP address to a privately owned server, presumably so that the DRM would activate even when the game is uninstalled, and when trying to play it, a splash screen would show telling you to abide by the rules.

unsurprisingly, people did not consider this a proportionate way to respond to the threat of people ripping the sprites from a fangame, and the creator has since been banned from SAGE. to this very day, some people are simply so protective of their work that they'd be willing to go to any length to prevent you from saving it. as obnoxious as that can sometimes seem, it does make for some very interesting history.

#trojan #spyware #scareware #Offiz #Sonic Gather Battle #sonic

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humanrightsupdates · 1 month

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A U.S. district court has ordered Israeli spyware firm NSO Group to disclose documents and code related to its notorious Pegasus spyware, to WhatsApp.

Responding to the news, the Head of the Security Lab at Amnesty International, Donncha Ó Cearbhaill said:

“This decision brings us a step closer towards accountability for up to 1,400 WhatsApp users targeted with Pegasus spyware in this case, as well as the countless other individuals around the world, who have continued to be targeted since this case was filed in 2019. This court order sends a clear signal to the surveillance industry that it cannot continue to enable spyware abuse with impunity.

“NSO Group says that it only sells Pegasus to authorized government customers. Our Security Lab has documented the massive scale and breadth of the use of Pegasus against human rights defenders and journalists across the world. It is vital that targets of Pegasus find out who has purchased and deployed the spyware against them so that they can seek meaningful redress.” (Amnesty International)

#pegasus #spyware #nso group #human rights #amnesty international

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subrage · 10 months

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So I recently enabled the DuckDuckGo Android browser "app tracking protection" and it is enlightening. I know protection software stats can be a bit self-serving but

23,000+ blocked tracking attempts blocked today.

Apps attempting to track me when they're not running. They're not even running in the background.

All apps that track are using multiple agencies, eg Tumblr (not the worst but not good) has trackers from Google, Amazon, The Trade Desk, Adjust, Integral Ad Science, comScore, Double Verify, Liftoff, Smaato, RhythmOne and AcuituAds running.

Mostly ad-targeting but all of them are trying to get enough information to discern exactly who I am and where I am at all times

Fuck sake. No wonder the term Spyware has become outmoded.

#surveillance capitalism #spyware #late stage capitalism #privacy

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itsmaferart · 2 years

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SPY X FAMILY ·· Chap 66 ·· Melinda Desmond

··········Warning: This contains spoilers ············

Now moving on from analyzing the Forger family's dilemma individually and collectively. I want to talk about the most mysterious topic, the woman who has raised so many suspicions among the fandom. Yes! Melinda Desmond, Donovan's wife, and the first lady of the National Union

In this chapter, which continues through a flashback. We can see several interesting elements. In further analysis I do mention the similarities I find in the character of Melinda with the character of Twilight, as I said, I'm not claiming that Melinda necessarily "is a spy" - although it may be possible. But she shows to have a quite interesting level of intellect and whose only difference is that in her, we don't see her POV, something that does happen with Twilight (Mainly because Anya reads her thoughts)

Breeding Methods:

As we had already suspected, Melinda is not exactly a mother "attached to her children." In a rather curious Twiyor parallel, we see that Donovan and Melinda's "happy" reactions gave both Twilight and Yor a "prick" in their respective encounters. We know very well that although Twilight and Yor are possibly the characters with the sharpest instincts when it comes to danger, and while many normal people will find these reactions "pleasant". For them it was an obvious "alert" signal. But, neither of them managed to decipher the true nature behind these strange faces that hide something.

Both parents sounded indifferent to the Forger parents' apologies for Anya's punch to their son, Damiand.

Something that I highlight is how Endo manages that each element, no matter how small it may seem, ends up being a connecting thread throughout the plot and not a random element. Anya's blow towards Damiand has always had repercussions throughout the entire plot

Both parents downplay the matter, taking it as "child's play." And when Yor insists on apologizing, what does she get?

One of the scariest looks!

Evidently, this is a subject that Melinda makes it clear that she "doesn't want to discuss." and it becomes more curious when you hear close friends mention that it is all about parenting principle: the Laissez Faire

Phrase originated in France in the eighteenth century and means let do or let work freely. Where it was exhorted to eliminate the rules and not to impose the children to follow it.

However, for me and I think the whole fandom. This is probably more of an excuse to cover up their disinterest in raising their children. Obviously, if we take into account Dimitrius' apparent success as an Imperial scholar, and the Desmonds' influential image in society, no one questions this philosophy and sees them as "successful parents."

Now... Why are they so indifferent to their children?

There are multiple possibilities, from "not wanting to have children, but they did so because of their influential image, because they belong to a conservative party that follows the idea of the family canon to the letter"; "because their interest is focused on their respective jobs and political and social ambitions" or "because they consider that this supposed freedom will give their children the formation of character, since attachment is weakness"... Or all this happens simultaneously... Which results in how lonely Damiand is, his desire to be recognized for even the smallest crumb of affection or approval.

It may be because she "just didn't want to have them." She may have been forced to marry, due to issues of power, politics and social pressures, or she just didn't want Donovan's children... In that case, it seems that Melinda is more focused on her "own freedom" and not on the been her family

Circle of friendship

Imagine that Melinda's circle seems "impenetrable". They confirm that her current friendships are all those before getting married. But Melinda deliberately interrupts this conversation. She also comments that because of her status she doesn't have many friends: It's probably to avoid relationships with people who want to get something from her but also for security so that any spy doesn't try to get something from her.

And it reveals important details:

The omission of her identity:

In a supposed "white lie", Melinda confesses that she intentionally didn't mention his name. Because she is surely pondering Yor's reactions, from the moment she saved her. If this was a chance meeting, then Melinda was analyzing the reasons why Yor saved her. Did he do it because he knows who I am? Or did he just decide to do it? If she's as analytical a person as Twilight himself, then she could have instantly noticed that Yor was ignorant of who she was with, plus it was so easy to drag her into a match. In a very short time, Yor opened up to Melinda and showed her insecurities as a Mother, and being in a club with many other moms, possibly this woman noticed how "vulnerable" Yoru can be, despite her magnanimous strength.

There is something clear that all this leaves me and it is that: Melinda found in Yor something that "she wants or needs"

Although, there is a possibility that Melinda has an interest in being friends with Yor. She may also have an interest in "influencing her," other than ideas like "parenting, and political and social concepts." And she uses "friendship" as her means to get closer to her. I don't know if she does it specifically out of interest in Loid Forger's character (since we don't know how Donovan had described Loid in private) or if her interest is really in Yor.

Remember how Loid (Twilight) mentioned (lied) that Anya was very moved by Damiand's presentation regarding his parents' professions?

Although I know that Twilight has been a wonderful father to Anya, he is still a spy and will not miss these opportunities to "alter the truth" at his convenience. I wouldn't be surprised if Melinda in this scene played with this same strategy, of "using her son as a pretext" for a rapprochement. (Because obviously Anya doesn't talk about sy-on boy as a friend, she does it for the mission)

Her second look

I don't know if Melinda was trying to contain herself and she can't…or if this look has a subtext…if there is. I'm not sure which one it is.

Now, speaking a bit about the shopkeeper

I think the little that the shopkeeper made clear to us in this chapter is that his view of the Desmonds is... "derogatory." While not radical enough to forbid Yoru, his best assassin, from being friends with Melinda-a clear Conservative Party figure-he makes it clear with hints that he has his own reservations about this family...and can Whether or not this affects the future.

Shopkeeper may have foreseen that they will have to finish off the Desmonds if they discover more background to officially declare him "traitors". And that's when having a bond with them becomes risky. This could be an indirect way of telling us that Melinda (or Donovan) is in favor of the radical faction that took over the "secret government" and caused the division (which may be the same one in charge of the human/animal experiments of the scientist with glasses )

A brief theory would be that in the past: When the conservative party that Desmond now leads financed these secret projects as a future strategy for war, seeking a radical peace where Ostania destroys Westalis. But, the current party, which rules Ostania, although it pursues acts of espionage with the SSS, it may seek peace, but not through a war conflict.

So, now, these secret projects and Donovan's party seek from the shadows to reactivate the war, through other strategies to finance. The Desmonds seek the gratitude and absorption of other companies, financiers and collaborators, and at the same time caused a division in the secret government where the man with glasses is leading the group against Garden and sought to eliminate the entire Gretchen family, as was Olga's case.

Now, Melinda may be directly involved with her husband, they may be pursuing their plans simultaneously, or she may be the one pulling the strings.

If this is so, it is possible that Melinda has also recognized Anya's name (because of the experiments) or as I said, her interest lies in Yor, her husband, or in the entire Forger family. Which would make some sense of her sudden interest in the two sons actually becoming friends.

The freedom of this woman

Another interesting idea mentioned by other very good posts is the idea that Melinda, despite being very intelligent, feels overshadowed in political power for being a woman. Although it seems strange to me that he manipulates Donovan because it is implied that they are not close, she may have strategies and plans independent of his. Socially, she has a lot of power, but at the same time she is very limited by not being able to have much contact with other people and is only limited to her social circle.

Maybe this is the cause that draws her so much towards Yor (personally). Yor is a common woman, with a common life (or so she appears) but she seems to have many more freedoms. In addition, she is incredible and imposes herself with her own physical power, althoung Yoru doesn't realize. Yor ir someone who attracts attecntion and people quickly realizes her potential, but is overshadowed by her insecurity and clumsiness

A chance encounter?

The most intriguing thing so far is whether Melinda did find Yor by chance. Her surprised expressions looked quite genuine so it's possible that this was an event in her favor. This would be the best case, since it puts Twilight and Melinda on the same board. For each one to make their own strategies and meditate the reactions

If it was a planned meeting, it would be much more dangerous. Indicating that Melinda or the Desmond Family has been watching the Forgers closely enough to know that Yor would go to the mall, and that it would save her. And it would imply that they have managed to override Twilight and Yor's keen instincts.

What we know so far is that Melinda is a mystery.

What are you thinking?

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snudibranchs · 4 months

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Using Firefox since I was little because it's what my mom used is like being born into the right religion when the spyware/Adblock rapture came

#nudi babbles #shitpost #spyware #firefox #rapture

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kspeciale · 8 months

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#spyware #malware chan spyware #spyware character #webcomic #comic #my oc #original character #computer virus #computer virus oc #computer virus demon #90saesthetic #vaporwave #Webtoon #malware Chan #malware Chan comic

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odinsblog · 1 year

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“Smart Cars” + Capitalism = a very dystopian future

Ford’s patent ranges from having a “self driving” car return itself to the dealership if you miss a payment, to having the car abruptly disable itself, to “minor inconveniences” like having the air conditioner or heater stop working until you voluntarily return the car.

Don’t think for one second that all carmakers aren’t thinking about doing the same things. Especially Tesla Motors.

Carmakers are already trying to monetize even the most basic features, like charging monthly fees for the ability to use your car’s seat warmers.

Anyway, nobody does more to radicalize people against capitalism more than greedy capitalists.

#fsd #self driving cars #smart cars #ford #volkswagen #capitalism #corporate greed #greed #tesla #ford motor co #spyware #geolocation data #geolocation tracking

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lost-carcosa · 1 month

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#tiktok #spyware #social media #zuckerberg

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dougielombax · 7 months

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Just leaving these articles here.

Seriously, fuck Azerbaijan for this bullshit.

Reblog the shit out of this.

#dougie rambles #political crap #news #Europe #caucasus #armenia #artsakh #azerbaijan #fuck azerbaijan #fuck Erdogan #turkey #EU #spyware #war crimes #terrorism #genocide #reblog this #reblog the shit out of this

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cassiantheburrito · 7 months

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So my school board has started using a software called Impero on all school laptops. It basically watches your screen, takes screenshots of what you do, and has access to all your information. I’ve been looking into it and many people agree that it seems more like spyware than school appropriate software. Aside from it being able to do all that, which is a huge breach of privacy, even if the laptops aren’t technically ours, it’s downright dangerous. I’m trans and my parents aren’t accepting. I’ve looked up things related to trans shit on that laptop. Now screenshots of those things could make their way back to my parents, which, as I’ve said, would be dangerous. It’s also useless. Pretty much everyone in my high school has a phone and internet access. It’s not gonna do shit. I’m panicking right now because of this. I don’t know about anyone else, but I feel like this needs to be removed from all computers as soon as fucking possible.

#Serious #schoolboards #Impero software #Spyware #privacy #online privacy #privacy at school #important

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dipstick-university · 3 months

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A huge deal in this weeks' tech news is there is now confirmation that the spyware in phones has been spying on individuals, and that this is a huge risk to both personal and national security.

Hundreds of thousands of ordinary apps, including popular ones such as 9gag, Kik, and a series of caller ID apps, are part of a global surveillance capability. [It] starts with ads … and ends with the apps’ users being swept up into a powerful mass monitoring tool advertised to national security agencies that can track the physical location, hobbies, and family members of people. … The company says it can also help push malware to targets.

And from another source:

Patternz strikes deals with smaller ad networks, willing to engage in shady practices, to gather the device fingerprints, and to use them to trigger surveillance. … When Apple changed the rules, to require apps to seek your permission before tracking you, it wasn’t long before companies started working on a backdoor method of achieving the same thing: Device fingerprinting.

It really was only a matter of time until someone did this.

Foreign spy company signs up for one of the many real time bidding ad networks, pretends to bid on many many adverts and starts to de-anonymize ad bids. [It] starts unpicking the 45 y/o male who has a gym app that locates him next to the military base, but also drinks in the … pub on the base and visits the cycle-maniac website. And suddenly you are tracking the colonel at the base.

Quote Sources

An explainer from one of recent researchers to name this

Worse yet, kind of behaviour isn't new, Israel has been doing it on the record for years

The mention of the "Ferengi" the quote sources is what gets me. The colonel's data could go to enemy intel, or it could be used by his own government to ensure he doesn't engage in anti-national acts. A world where money talks louder than any human right.

#tech news #spyware #smart phones #data security #the reason no one has a smart phone on star trek is they already went through this--especially on ferenginar--and decided it wasnt worth it #a scifi world where citizens decided its was better to be alone with ones thoughts and miserable than be in a panopticon and complaisant #star trek #star trek for no good reason but star trek

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a-gin-soaked-raccoon · 2 months

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Just learned that my (now formerly) favorite disk imager, balenaEtcher, contains intentional Spyware that reports user activity to various analytics groups (including google analytics) without the user’s knowledge or consent.

Thank Torvalds for the Arch Wiki and the contributors there who included a warning about it, but goddammit now I have to find a new disk imager.

#balenaEtcher #linux #data privacy #spyware #tech #technology #cyber security #itsecurity

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melikefish · 10 months

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Brave browser is no longer trustable

TLDR: Brave is manipulating what your browser does to profit the developers personally, sacrificing your security, privacy, bandwidth, and computer resources…. Again

u/Materidan on r/ios came upon a interesting discovery (https://www.reddit.com/r/ios/comments/14fdadr/brave_browser_may_be_compromised/)

To quote the post

> Brave Browser may be compromised.

> Really not sure where to post this, especially during the current API chaos in most subs.

> At any rate, I run a small informational website and had a message from someone complaining that whenever they tried to post using Brave on their iPhone or iPad, my adult filter would be triggered.

> So I downloaded Brave from the App Store onto my iPhone, tried it out and... same thing. Digging deeper, it turns out that if you have an input box using an HTML WYSIWYG editor such as CKEditor, a 36kb block of HTML set as invisible is being added to the bottom of anything submitted. This does not happen on plain text inputs.

> The block is full of links to adult sites, scam sites, referral links, trackers and so forth. This is the block I saw being added:

> https://controlc.com/353fb266

> To state the obvious, this is not happening on any other browser I own mobile or desktop, and the user was able to post fine using Safari. So the issue seems to have something to do with Brave. Take it for what it is.

> EDIT: I think I've found a way for anyone to confirm this. In Brave Browser (for iOS), go to:

> https://surveyjs.io/form-library/examples/custom-widget-ckeditor/angular

> Put something in the form, then hit COMPLETE. It will show you at the bottom what was submitted. There's even a button to copy it to clipboard, since on my iPhone I can't see much. But I end up with that huge block of HTML.

u/Asleep-Dingo-19 recorded the process described in the edits (in a comment) and uploaded it to imgur (https://imgur.com/gallery/o16w9CA).

I would also like to note that Brave already has a history of manipulating browser functions for their own benefit. For example when they made specific URLs redirect to the developer’s affiliate links in 2020.

What does this mean for you?

It means that the developers of Brave, have 2 times now manipulated the browser’s functionality in a attempt to profit themselves.

This is not the first time they have done something like this, and most likely won’t be the last time.

If the devs have done this two times, the next time may be even worse, and more privacy reducing then the prior attempts. Even spyware chrome doesn’t do this kind of thing. To give you a idea of how bad this is, if the devs chose to, they could theoretically log your passwords right as you enter them. Though I do not think that they would do something extremely illegal like this, they will definitely find in the future even more ways of profiting themselves (not even the company, just themselves) at your own loss.

I am afraid to say that I, personally, no longer trust Brave and won’t be recommending it to anyone, and I think that you should stop using it too.

#cybersecurity #fuck up #internet #browser #privacy #security #internet security #spyware #brave #brave browser #chrome #chrome browser

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