PayPal Made Changes To Its Robocalling Policy

Apparently PayPal didn't like it when the FCC said its robocalling policy might be illegal so the company has made changes its user agreement.
To clear up any confusion, we will be modifying the terms of Section 1.10 of our User Agreement. The new language is intended to make it clear that PayPal primarily uses autodialed or prerecorded calls and texts to:

• Help detect, investigate and protect our customers from fraud
• Provide notices to our customers regarding their accounts or account activity
• Collect a debt owed to us

In addition the new Sections (1.10(a) and 1.10(b)) will make it clear that:

• We will not use autodialed or prerecorded calls or texts to contact our customers for marketing purposes without prior express written consent
• Customers can continue to enjoy our products and services without needing to consent to receive autodialed or prerecorded calls or texts
• We respect our customers’ communications preferences and recognize that their consent is required for certain autodialed and prerecorded calls and texts. Customers may revoke consent to receive these communications by contacting PayPal customer support and informing us of their preferences.

Google Accused Of "Abusive" Conduct In Privacy App Case

The allegations in this case are serious, but I find it rather interesting that a company made up of former Google engineers didn't know all this stuff about the search giant already.

An award-winning company founded by former Google engineers is taking legal action against the search engine giant over claims it has engaged in a "pattern of abusive behavior" and is violating privacy rights on a "massive scale."

UK army parachutist rescues teammate after chute fail !!

London (CNN)A parachutist with the British Army's Red Devils stunt team rescued a fellow jumper in a midair drama after his parachute failed during a stunt jump.

The dramatic scene played out above the heads of anxious spectators at the Whitehaven Airshow in Cumbria, northern England.

A statement on the Facebook page for the airshow said one of the parachutists' chutes failed to deploy properly.

Brian Sherwen, an official photographer for the event who witnessed the incident, said he saw the two men "dropping through the sky."

He was able to see exactly how the rescue unfolded through a videographer's powerful zoom lens.

"It was obvious the top jumper was wrapping his legs around the ropes of the parachutist below -- his legs were carrying the weight of the man below and his tangled parachute," he said.

"There was quite a lot of flailing of the legs, then the bottom guy stopped struggling and just held his legs straight down.

Siri’s New Smart Home Already Needs Renovation

The Wall Street Journal seems more than a bit underwhelmed by Apple's HomeKit. Obviously they must be holding it wrong.

Unfortunately, Siri just isn’t very reliable. I’m running the first HomeKit hardware in my house, with hubs by Insteon and Lutron Caséta, but when Siri gets involved, I sometimes want to throw the iPhone out the window. She should know all my HomeKit-connected devices by name, but when I say, "Turn on the air filter," Siri presents a list of stores where I might buy one.

AMD Radeon R9 Fury X Video Card Review

We review AMD's new Fiji GPU comprising the new AMD Radeon R9 Fury X video card with stacked chip technology High Bandwidth Memory. We take this video card through its paces, make comparisons and find out what it can do for us in real world gameplay. Is this $649 video card competitive? Is it truly geared for 4K gaming as AMD says?

 

How China's 'Great Cannon' works -- and why we should be worried (June 5, 2015)

(CNN)Readers may have heard of the "Great Firewall," the powerful filters that the People's Republic of China uses to prevent Chinese citizens from accessing the whole Internet.

The Great Firewall monitors traffic entering and exiting China, and then disrupts prohibited content and connections. Imagine an eavesdropper on a party line: when one party says something objectionable, the eavesdropper shouts into the line until everyone hangs up. While very effective, the Firewall is not an offensive weapon.

The device we dubbed the "Great Cannon" is different; it acts as a "man-in-the-middle," able to not just shout down a conversation but actually able to change content as it passes through the Internet.

Unlike the Great Firewall, whoever designed the Great Cannon created a deliberately offensive tool, designed to selectively replace benign web content with malicious content.

The only known use of the Great Cannon was to further Chinese censorship.

Study: China cybercensors attack outside its borders with 'Great Cannon'

The organization GreatFire seeks to monitor and circumvent Chinese censorship. One technique it's developed has been dubbed "Collateral Freedom" -- hosting content on encrypted services that it believes are "too important to block."

Denial of service attack

During March and April, when a non-Chinese web surfer visited a page containing unencrypted content served by Chinese search engine Baidu, the Great Cannon would occasionally replace that content with a series of instructions for the web surfer's browser.

E3 2015 Booth Babes, Dudes and Cosplay Photos

Legit Reviews has a bunch of booth babe pictures from E3 2015 posted today. All images are work safe.

Navy Paying Millions To Keep Running Windows XP

This seems like a perfectly acceptable use of taxpayer money. Seriously though, how long has the Navy been paying Microsoft to continue support for Windows XP?

The US Navy has agreed to pay Microsoft at least $9m to help secure computers running Windows XP as it did not replaced the aged OS before support ended. The deal will see Microsoft provide critical hotfixes and software patches for Windows XP, Office 2003, Exchange 2003 and Server 2003 for a maximum of three years. The navy runs a number of "legacy applications" that require Windows XP, which it is in the process of replacing.

'Pong,' 'Tetris' make Video Game Hall of Fame's first class

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — The first inductees into the new World Video Game Hall of Fame include "Pong," the game that introduced millions to electronic play, "Doom," which triggered a debate over the role of games and violence in society, and "Super Mario Bros.," whose mustachioed hero has migrated to everything from fruit snacks to sneakers.

The first six games to enter the hall of fame cross decades and platforms, but all have impacted the video game industry, popular culture and society at large, according to the new hall at The Strong museum in Rochester, where the games were enshrined Thursday.
Joining "Pong," launched in 1972, "Doom," from 1993, and 1985's "Super Mario Bros." are arcade draw "Pac-Man" (1980); Russian import "Tetris" (1984); and "World of Warcraft" (2004), which has swallowed millions of players into its online virtual universe.

Is it OK to Bring a Loaded Rifle into an Airport? This Guy Did It

The story of a man who walked into Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on Friday carrying a loaded AR-15 semiautomatic rifle has gone viral. And here’s the most amazing partc of it: his actions were completely legal, thanks to Georgia’s gun laws. Passed in 2014, the HB 512 Safe Carry Protection Act allows people to openly carry a rifle in an airport, so long as they don’t try to go through security.  

The armed Cooley was dropping his daughter off for a flight, when  police officers approached Cooley, asking why he was carrying a semiautomatic weapon with an extended capacity 100-round magazine. 

His response? “Safety.”

Waco police seeking to bar information about Texas biker shooting

Civil attorney: ‘That’s game-playing by public officials’

As questions remain unanswered about last month’s deadly biker rampage in Waco, Texas, police there are trying to clamp down on public information about the case.

The move comes as scrutiny intensifies over the Waco Police Department’s handling of the sensational shootout that killed nine bikers, injured 18 and saw an unprecedented 175 people arrested and charged with engaging in organized crime.

By law, crime and arrest reports containing basic data — information such as a detailed description of the offense and the name and a description of the victim — have to be provided.
While some details about the dead, including identities, have trickled out, officials have been slow to provide information through documented reports as required by the Texas Public Records Act.

Documents that have been released to Yahoo News appear to be haphazardously redacted. Even though required by law, the names of arresting officers are omitted. But the identities, addresses and other contact information of suspects' next of kin are prevalent.

The melee unfolded during the lunch hour, as hundreds of bikers descended on the Twin Peaks restaurant for a regional motorcycle club meeting.

Still unknown is where each victim was killed and by whom. Police officers have acknowledged firing on armed bikers, but it is not clear how many of the dead were shot by gang members and how many were shot by officers.

Cyberattack compromises government workers

Washington (CNN)Four million current and former federal employees may have had their personal information hacked, the Office of Personnel Management said on Thursday.

The agency, which is responsible for security clearances and background checks, warned it was urging potential victims to monitor their financial statements and obtain new credit reports.

Investigators believe that the massive breach of the federal data system was carried out by the Chinese government, a law enforcement and U.S. official told CNN.

The Office of Personnel Management says only employees of the federal executive branch were affected by the hack they announced today.

Employees of the legislative and judicial branches, and uniformed military personnel, were not affected.

PayPal responds to Internet fury over its new ToS - terms of service

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paypal logo headquarters

Earlier this week, PayPal was lambasted for its new user agreement which allowed the online payments company to robocall and autotext customers at will. What was particularly jarring about the user agreement — set to go into effect on July 1 — is that PayPal reserved the right to contact customers not just for account problems, but also for surveys and promotions. Even worse, PayPal brazenly advised users who weren’t on board with the new agreement that they should simply close their account and move it along.

NSA loses some spying powers

(CNN)As chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, I regularly examine the scope and the scale of terrorist threats against the United States.

Our adversaries are countless, and each day they grow more capable and technically savvy, whether they come from al Qaeda, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the Taliban or any number of the organized terror groups in the world seeking to bring down the United States and her allies.

Over the last 10 years, those on the front lines facing down these threats on our nation have thwarted, anticipated, or derailed numerous attacks through a documented process under the Patriot Act. It wasn't perfect, but it was effective. Everyone in the intelligence and law enforcement communities, from the President to the heads of agencies to analysts and FBI field agents, recognized the critical value of the program.

Richard Burr

Now, however, our agents and analysts will be forced to track down our adversaries with greatly limited agility, while they beg phone companies for call logs on suspected terrorists who are in the process of plotting the next disaster. If companies refuse to cooperate with the government's request, the Justice Department will have to pursue the records through courts, which will likely render all information outdated and useless.

IRS believes massive data theft originated in Russia

Washington (CNN)The Internal Revenue Service believes that a major cyber breach that allowed criminals to steal the tax returns of more than 100,000 people originated in Russia, Rep. Peter Roskam confirmed to CNN on Thursday.

The Illinois Republican, who is chairman of a House subcommittee with IRS oversight, said IRS Commissioner John Koskinen told him about the theft's Russian provenance in a phone call.

CNN first reported the breach's Russian origin on Wednesday.

"It's a problem, no matter where it's coming from, for the taxpayers and the IRS. It surely doesn't help matters though that it's coming from Russia for all the obvious geopolitical reasons," Roskam said.

The IRS announced Tuesday that organized crime syndicates used personal data obtained elsewhere to access tax information, which they then used to file $50 million in fraudulent tax refunds.

Roskam said the breach is concerning because the IRS system wasn't hacked. Using personal data, he said, the thieves "went in the front door of the IRS and unlocked it with the key."

Roskam and Republican House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan sent a letter to Koskinen on Thursday asking him to explain how the breach occurred.

Related: Criminals use IRS website to steal data on 104,000 people

The IRS said the agency's Criminal Investigation Unit and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration are investigating the origins of the breach. The agency also alerted the Homeland Security Department of the breach, a DHS official confirmed. On Thursday, the FBI announced it had also opened an investigation into the incident.

Electro Sand Art

It's kind of like a spirograph that uses magnets, steel balls and sand.

Clint Eastwood's Next Movie: Capt. 'Sully' Sullenberger Tale

Clint Eastwood is tackling another real-life hero: Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger.

The prolific director’s next film will be the story of Sullenberger’s life and the dramatic tale of how the veteran pilot ditched U.S. Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River in January 2009, saving everyone on board. Eastwood will make the movie for Warner Bros., his longtime home studio.

“I am very glad my story is in the hands of gifted storyteller and filmmaker Clint Eastwood, and veteran producers Allyn Stewart and Frank Marshall. The project could not have found a better home than Warner Bros. Pictures. This is truly a dream team,“ Sullenberger said in a statement.

Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger in 2009 (Seth Wenig, file)

S. Korea tests missiles that can hit 'any target' in N. Korea

South Korea on Wednesday test-fired two ballistic missiles capable of hitting any part of North Korea, in an apparent response to recent bellicose boasts from Pyongyang about its nuclear and missile capabilities.

In an unusual move, President Park Geun-Hye personally observed the test exercise, a defence ministry official said.
"The military tested two home-developed, long-range missiles that could hit any target in North Korea," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The test came almost a month after North Korea said it had successfully tested a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) -- a claim which numerous experts said was probably exaggerated.
A fully developed SLBM capability would take the North Korean nuclear threat to a new level, allowing deployment far beyond the Korean peninsula and giving it the potential to retaliate in the event of a nuclear attack.

Obama signs bill reforming surveillance program

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama signed into law on Tuesday legislation passed by Congress earlier in the day reforming a government surveillance program that swept up millions of Americans' telephone records.

Reversing security policy in place since shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the bill ends a system exposed by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. The spy agency collected and searched records of phone calls looking for terrorism leads but was not allowed to listen to their content.

Passage of the USA Freedom Act, the result of an alliance between Senate Democrats and some of the chamber's most conservative Republicans, was a victory for Obama, a Democrat, and a setback for Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
After the Senate voted 67-32 on Tuesday to give final congressional approval to the bill, Obama used his Twitter account, @POTUS, to say he was glad it had passed. "I'll sign it as soon as I get it," the tweet said.

California's largest lake threatened by urban water transfer

SALTON CITY, Calif. (AP) -- Once-bustling marinas on shallow water in California's largest lake a few years ago are bone-dry. Carcasses of oxygen-starved tilapia lie on desolate shores. Flocks of eared grebes and shoreline birds bob up and down to feast on marine life.

An air of decline and strange beauty permeates the Salton Sea: The lake is shrinking — and on the verge of getting much smaller as more water goes to coastal cities.
San Diego and other Southern California water agencies will stop replenishing the lake after 2017, raising concerns that dust from exposed lakebed will exacerbate asthma and other respiratory illness in a region whose air quality already fails federal standards. A smaller lake also threatens fish and habitat for more than 400 bird species on the Pacific flyway.

Many of the more than 10,000 people who live in shoreline communities cherish the solitude but now feel forgotten. The dying lake must compete for water as California reels from a four-year drought that has brought sweeping, state-ordered consumption cuts.

Julie London, who moved to Salton City after visiting in 1986 from Washington state, hopes for help for the periodic, rotten odor from the lake that keep residents inside on hot, fly-filled summer nights. The stench in 2012 carried more than 150 miles to Los Angeles.

Curbing of US spy powers is 'historic': Edward Snowden

London (AFP) - Fugitive former US security contractor Edward Snowden on Tuesday hailed as "historic" efforts to end the bulk collection of Americans' phone records, while urging campaigners to go further.

The United States Senate passed landmark legislation that limits the powers of the National Security Agency, where Snowden was a contractor before he began leaking details of vast government spying programs in 2013.

Speaking by live video link from Russia at an Amnesty International event in London shortly before the bill was passed, Snowden called efforts to end mass surveillance "not enough" but "an important step".
"This is meaningful, it is important and actually historic that this has been refuted, not just by the courts, but by Congress as well and the president himself is saying this mass surveillance has to end," Snowden said.
"For the first time in recent history we found that despite the claims of government, the public made the final decision and that is a radical change that we should seize on, we should value and we should push further."
The USA Freedom Act halts the NSA's dragnet of telephone data from millions of Americans with no connection to terrorism -- the most controversial surveillance program among several signed into law after the 9/11 attacks on the United States in 2001.

Detainee alleges CIA sexual abuse, torture beyond Senate findings

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency used a wider array of sexual abuse and other forms of torture than was disclosed in a Senate report last year, according to a Guantanamo Bay detainee turned government cooperating witness.

Majid Khan said interrogators poured ice water on his genitals, twice videotaped him naked and repeatedly touched his "private parts" – none of which was described in the Senate report. Interrogators, some of whom smelled of alcohol, also threatened to beat him with a hammer, baseball bats, sticks and leather belts, Khan said.
Khan's is the first publicly released account from a high-value al Qaeda detainee who experienced the "enhanced interrogation techniques" of President George W. Bush's administration after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S.
Khan's account is contained in 27 pages of interview notes his lawyers compiled over the past seven years. The U.S. government cleared the notes for release last month through a formal review process.
Before the Senate report detailed the agency's interrogation methods last December, CIA officials prohibited detainees and their lawyers from publicly describing interrogation sessions, deeming detainee's memories of the experience classified.

New Exploit Leaves Most Macs Vulnerable To Permanent Backdooring

You know that feeling you get when you buy a Mac? They found a name for it, it's called permanent backdooring.

He found a way to reflash a Mac's BIOS using functionality contained in userland, which is the part of an operating system where installed applications and drivers are executed. By exploiting vulnerabilities such as those regularly found in Safari and other Web browsers, attackers can install malicious firmware that survives hard drive reformatting and reinstallation of the operating system.

Fallout 4 Official Trailer

The official Fallout 4 trailer is here. The game is coming to current-gen consoles and the PC.

Parents Forgive the Driver Who Killed Their Two Young Children. Could You Do the Same?

It was a heart-wrenching accident that captured news headlines across the nation: over Memorial Day weekend, a car driven by Hadley Eddings, a young, 8-months-pregnant mom, was hit by a truck that had failed to stop at a red light on a North Carolina highway.

The impact was so severe that her 2-year-old son, Dobbs Eddings, who was strapped into a car seat in the back seat, had to be cut out of the wreckage by first responders. Dobbs died on the way to the hospital.

Hadley was rushed to the ER for an emergency C-section. Baby Reed was born at 38 weeks, but he only survived a few days. Hadley’s husband and the boys’ father, Gentry Eddings, was driving a car ahead of Hadley’s that was also struck by the truck. He sustained minor injuries.

The loss of two boys in such a senseless accident is an unimaginable tragedy. It wouldn’t be hard to sympathize with the Eddings if they expressed deep anger and hatred toward truck driver Matthew Deans, whose actions reportedly led to the death of Dobbs and Reed. (Deans was charged with misdemeanor death by vehicle and failure to reduce speed.)