TheNewsGuru

Tag: Donald Trump

  • Apple co-founder shuts down Facebook

    Apple co-founder shuts down Facebook

    Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak closed his Facebook account as one of the latest tech leaders who started to distance themselves from the world’s largest social media firm following its scandal involving alleged misuse of user data.

    Wozniak told the USA Today daily that he was taken aback by the extent of Facebook’s data collection when he
    changed and deleted some of his information before deactivating his account.

    “I was surprised to see how many categories for ads and how many advertisers I had to get rid of, one at a
    time.

    “I did not feel that this is what people want done to them,” he said in an email to the American newspaper.

    “Users provide every detail of their life to Facebook and … Facebook makes a lot of advertising money off
    this,” he said.

    “The profits are all based on the user’s info, but the users get none of the profits back,” he added.

    He compared Apple with Facebook in their relations with users, saying “Apple makes its money off of good products,
    not off of you.”

    “With Facebook, you are the product,” said the Apple senior executive, who is one of the latest prominent users
    who have called for quitting Facebook.

    In March, Tesla CEO Elon Musk deleted Facebook accounts for his two major companies, Tesla and SpaceX, in response
    to a call from WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton in a #deletefacebook campaign on Twitter.

    The tech leaders expressed grave concern about the alleged revelation of the data of about 50 million Facebook
    users by a London-based data analysis company Cambridge Analytica.

    Cambridge Analytica was accused of illegally accessing Facebook user data in violation of Facebook terms of
    service after the data was allegedly misused for U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign efforts in 2016.

    Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will appear Tuesday and Wednesday before a joint hearing of the U.S. Senate Commerce
    and Judiciary committees, as well as the House Energy and Commerce Committee, on the data-privacy scandal
    and Facebook’s failure to properly protect its users’ data.

     

  • President Trump cancels first trip to Latin America

    President Trump cancels first trip to Latin America

    The White House on Tuesday abruptly announced the cancellation of US President Donald Trump’s first trip to Latin America, scheduled for later this week, saying he wants to “oversee the American response to Syria.”

    Vice President Mike Pence will travel to Lima in Trump’s stead for the Summit of the Americas, press secretary Sarah Sanders announced

    Details Soon….

  • FBI raids offices of Trump’s personal lawyer

    FBI raids offices of Trump’s personal lawyer

    Federal agents on Monday raided the New York offices of President Donald Trump’s longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen, who made a $130,000 payment to an adult film actress who says she had an affair with the former real estate magnate.

    Cohen’s own attorney Stephen Ryan said agents seized “privileged communications” between Cohen and Cohen’s own clients, in part based on a request from Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating links between Russia and the Trump campaign.

    Cohen has been Trump’s personal lawyer and confidant for years, advising him on real estate and personal matters, as well as supporting him since he became president.

    Cohen also made the $130,000 payoff to the porn actress Stormy Daniels, ahead of the 2016 election, which she claims was meant to keep her quiet about an alleged affair with Trump.

    Ryan lashed out at prosecutors over the raid, which came as Mueller seeks to interview Trump for his sprawling investigation.

    “The decision by the US attorney’s office in New York to conduct their investigation using search warrants is completely inappropriate and unnecessary,” Ryan said.

    “It resulted in the unnecessary seizure of protected attorney-client communications between a lawyer and his clients.”

    The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    Last week, Trump broke his silence over the payment to Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, denying he paid her hush money through his attorney and insisting he did not know why Cohen made the payment.

    AFP

  • Facebook CEO, Zuckerberg apologizes ahead of Congressional quizzing

    Facebook CEO, Zuckerberg apologizes ahead of Congressional quizzing

    Facebook Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mark Zuckerberg, on Monday told Congress the social media network should have done more to prevent itself and its members’ data from being misused and offered a broad apology to lawmakers.

    His conciliatory tone precedes two days of Congressional hearings where Zuckerberg is set to answer questions about Facebook user data being improperly appropriated by a political consultancy and the role the network played in the U.S. 2016 election.

    “We didn’t take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake,” he said in remarks released by the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee on Monday.

    “It was my mistake, and I’m sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and I’m responsible for what happens here.”

    Surrounded by tight security wearing dark suit and a purple tie rather than his trademark hoodie, Zuckerberg was meeting with lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Monday ahead of his scheduled appearance before two Congressional committees on Tuesday and Wednesday.

    He did not respond to questions as he entered and left a meeting with Sen. Bill Nelson, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee.

    He is expected to meet Sen. John Thune, the Commerce Committee’s Republican chairman, later in the day, among others.

    Top of the agenda in the forthcoming hearings will be Facebook’s admission that the personal information of up to 87 million users, mostly in the United States, may have been improperly shared with political consultancy Cambridge Analytica.

    But lawmakers are also expected to press him on a range of issues, including the 2016 election.

    “It’s clear now that we didn’t do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm…” his testimony continued.

    “That goes for fake news, foreign interference in elections, and hate speech, as well as developers and data privacy.”

    Facebook, which has 2.1 billion monthly active users worldwide, said on Sunday it plans to begin on Monday telling users whose data, may have been shared with Cambridge Analytica.

    The company’s data practices are under investigation by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

    London-based Cambridge Analytica, which counts U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign among its past clients, has disputed Facebook’s estimate of the number of affected users.

    Zuckerberg also said that Facebook’s major investments in security “will significantly impact our profitability going forward.” Facebook shares were up two per cent in midday trading.

    Facebook has about 15,000 people working on security and content review, rising to more than 20,000 by the end of 2018, Zuckerberg’s testimony said.

    “Protecting our community is more important than maximising our profits,” he said.

    As with other Silicon Valley companies, Facebook has been resistant to new laws governing its business, but on Friday it backed proposed legislation requiring social media sites to disclose the identities of buyers of online political campaign ads.

    Also introduced a new verification process for people buying “issue” ads, which do not endorse any candidate but have been used to exploit divisive subjects such as gun laws or police shootings.

    The steps are designed to deter online information warfare and election meddling that U.S. authorities have accused Russia of pursuing, Zuckerberg said on Friday.

    Moscow has denied the allegations.

    Zuckerberg’s testimony said the company was “too slow to spot and respond to Russian interference, and we’re working hard to get better.”

    He vowed to make improvements, adding it would take time, but said he was “committed to getting it right.”

    A Facebook official confirmed that the company had hired a team from the law firm WilmerHale and outside consultants to help prepare Zuckerberg for his testimony and how lawmakers may question him.

     

  • I didn’t know my lawyer paid prostitute $130,000 – Donald Trump

    I didn’t know my lawyer paid prostitute $130,000 – Donald Trump

    President Donald Trump, denied the allegation that his lawyer paid the sum of $130,000 to porn star, Stormy Daniels days before the 2016 election.

    Stormy Daniels’s attorney said on Thursday that President Trump claims he was unaware of the payment made to the porn star.

    “He’s effectively thrown, Michael Cohen now under the bus,” Michael Avenatti said.

    “This is an undisciplined guy, who you know, he finally cracked. We knew he would crack eventually. We’d been patient, I’ve been waiting, and low and behold, who would have thought that it would arrive on this Thursday on this glorious day in New York,” he continued.

    Avenatti said they he would file a petition to depose the president on Monday.

    “My understanding is that he denied a couple subsequent questions as to whether he has set up a fund from which this payment would be made or reimbursed.

    “I find that quite interesting. And I find that certainly a topic that we’re going to explore in connection with his deposition, which we’re going to be making a petition for on Monday,” he said.

    Trump for the first time publicly acknowledged the scandal regarding Daniels’s claim that the two had an extramarital affair on Thursday, telling reporters on Air Force One that he did not know where his attorney Michael Cohen obtained the funds to pay Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford.

    The money was part of an agreement to stop her from publicly discussing her affair with Trump and was made in the days before the 2016 presidential election.

    “You’ll have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael is my attorney. You’ll have to ask Michael,” Trump said.

    MSN

     

  • Alarming: Facebook privacy scandal widens

    Facebook said on Wednesday that the personal information of up to 87 million users may have been improperly shared with political consultancy Cambridge Analytica.

    This number is up from a previous news media estimate of more than 50 million.

    Most of the 87 million people whose data was shared with Cambridge Analytica, were in the United States, Facebook Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer wrote in a blog post.

    Cambridge Analytica worked on U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.

    Facebook said it was taking steps to restrict the personal data available to third-party app developers.

    The world’s largest-social-media company has been hammered by investors and faces anger from users, advertisers and lawmakers after a series of scandals about fake-news stories, election-meddling and privacy.

    Last month, Facebook acknowledged that personal information about millions of users wrongly ended up in the hands of Cambridge Analytica.

    Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg will testify about the matter next week before the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, the panel said on Wednesday.

    Shares in Facebook were down 1.4 per cent on Wednesday to 153.90 dollars . They are down more than 16 percent since the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke.

    The previous estimate of more than 50 million Facebook users affected by the data leak came from two newspapers, the New York Times and London’s Observer, based on their investigations of Cambridge Analytica.

    Schroepfer did not provide details of how Facebook came to determine its higher estimate.

    However, he said Facebook would tell people if their information may have been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica.

    A representative from Cambridge Analytica could not immediately be reached for comment.

    The British-based consultancy has denied wrongdoing.

    It says it engaged a university professor “in good faith” to collect Facebook data in a manner similar to how other third-party app developers have harvested personal information.

    The scandal has kicked off investigations by Britain’s Information Commissioner’s Office, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and by some 37 U.S. state attorneys general.

     

  • Twitter’s CEO battles President Trump over YouTube HQ shooting

    Twitter’s CEO battles President Trump over YouTube HQ shooting

    After shooting at YouTube headquarters left a man and two women injured with gunshot wounds, Twitter’s founder and chief executive officer Jack Dorsey has called out on President Donald Trump to other than praying, evolve policies to address incessant shootings in the United States.

    Chaos erupted at the Google-owned video sharing platform offices in California on Tuesday when Nasim Aghdam, 39, opened fire on the unsuspecting victims, and killing herself in the process.

    TheNewsGuru reports Police have since opened investigations into the motive behind the incident with several reports indicating Aghdam was angered her videos were not getting expected number of views due to YouTube’s filters.

    After the White House confirmed monitoring the situation, President Trump took to his Twitter handle to express his “thoughts and prayers are with everybody involved”.

    “Was just briefed on the shooting at YouTube’s HQ in San Bruno, California. Our thoughts and prayers are with everybody involved. Thank you to our phenomenal Law Enforcement Officers and First Responders that are currently on the scene,” he tweeted.

    Not before long, Jack responded to the tweet, retweeting it and saying: “We can’t keep being reactive to this, thinking and praying it won’t happen again at our schools, jobs, or our community spots. It’s beyond time to evolve our policies. This is a simple and reasonable approach, and it won’t solve all, but it’s a good start:” while adding a url to March for Our Lives.

    The Police in San Bruno, California, say there is no evidence yet that the attacker knew the victims, a 36-year-old man said to be in a critical condition, and two women aged 32 and 27.

    The suspect: Nasim Aghdam

    Nasim Aghdam lived in San Diego in southern California.

    Police have revealed few details about her but US media said she ran a number of channels and a website, posting videos on a variety of subjects including those highlighting animal cruelty. The channels have now been deleted.

    Aghdam has been variously described as a vegan bodybuilder, artist and rapper.

    In January 2017 she posted a video complaining that YouTube was filtering her content, leading to fewer views.

    On her website she also ranted against YouTube, saying: “Videos of targeted users are filtered and merely relegated, so that people can hardly see their videos.”

    She also quotes Adolf Hitler, saying: “Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.”

    She also wrote: “There is no equal growth opportunity on YouTube or any other video sharing site. Your channel will grow if they want [it] to!”

    Aghdam’s father, Ismail, told local US media she was angry because YouTube had stopped paying her for videos.

    Video posters can receive money from linked advertisements but the company can “de-monetise” channels for various reasons, taking adverts off. It is unclear if this happened with Aghdam’s material.

    Her father said Aghdam had been reported missing on Monday after not answering calls for two days. Police later found her sleeping in her car in Mountain View, 25km (15 miles) south of the YouTube offices in San Bruno and reported this to her family, but they did not detain her.

    Her father told police she might go to YouTube as she “hated the company”, local media said.

    YouTube terminated her account following the shooting. Her Instagram and Facebook accounts have also been removed.

    However, many Twitter users posted her Facebook video rant against YouTube:

    What happened in the attack

    The suspect is reported to have approached an outdoor patio and dining area at the offices in San Bruno, near San Francisco, at about lunchtime on Tuesday and opened fire with a handgun.

    San Bruno Police Chief Ed Barberini said officers arrived at the offices at 12:48 (19:48 GMT) local time to find a “chaotic scene”, with numerous people fleeing.

    Images broadcast on local TV stations showed employees leaving with their hands raised. Other footage showed evacuees forming a queue before being individually frisked by police.

    Police said officers had “encountered one victim with an apparent gunshot wound at the site and two additional gunshot victims that had fled to a neighbouring business”.

    Inside the complex, officers then found a woman dead from a gunshot wound that was believed to be self-inflicted.

    An employee at a nearby fast food restaurant told Fox station KTVU he had treated a young woman who suffered a bullet wound to the leg.

    He said he had fashioned a makeshift tourniquet from a bungee cord as they waited for first responders.

    Several YouTube employees tweeted about the attack as it was taking place.

    Product manager Todd Sherman said people fled the building in panic as the shooting unfolded.

    https://twitter.com/tdd/status/981262640830754817

    Another employee, Vadim Lavrusik, tweeted he was barricaded in a room with other staff. He later said he had been evacuated.

    The three wounded were taken to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. Officials said the 32-year-old woman’s condition was serious and the 27-year-old’s condition was fair.

    A fourth person was also taken to hospital with an ankle injury sustained while trying to escape, Mr Barberini said.

    Some 1,700 people work at the YouTube HQ. The company is owned by Google and is the area’s biggest employer.

    There had been earlier media reports that the man shot was Aghdam’s boyfriend, but police later said; “At this time there is no evidence that the shooter knew the victims of this shooting or that individuals were specifically targeted.”

    Such “active shooter” incidents are overwhelmingly carried out by men – an FBI report found that out of 160 incidents between 2000-2013, only six of the people who opened fire were women.

     

  • President Trump fires Amazon with tweet missile

    US President Donald Trump has accused Amazon.com of not paying enough tax, taking advantage of the US postal system and putting small retailers out of business.

    Trump voiced the accusation against the retail giant in a tweet he posted on his official Twitter handle on Thursday.

    However, the president did not substantiate his accusation with evidence, and did not suggest any actions he would take.

    Trump has attacked Amazon and its Chief Executive Jeff Bezos several times, and his latest comment came a day after reports he was obsessed with the world’s largest online retailer and wanted to rein in its growing power, possibly with federal antitrust or competition laws.

    “I have stated my concerns with Amazon long before the Election. Unlike others, they pay little or no taxes to state & local governments, use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy (causing tremendous loss to the US), and are putting many thousands of retailers out of business!” Trump tweeted early on Thursday.

    Amazon shares fell as much as 4.5 percent in morning trade, but recovered and closed up just over 1 percent. The stock dropped 5 percent on Wednesday following the reports.

    Amazon is yet to comment on the tweet.

    The retailer and cloud computing pioneer is the latest company Trump has singled out for praise or condemnation

     

  • British lawmakers publish evidence from Cambridge Analytica whistleblower

    A committee of British lawmakers on Thursday published written evidence provided by a whistleblower who said information about 50 million Facebook users ended up in the hands of political consultancy — Cambridge Analytica.

    Christopher Wylie, who worked for Cambridge Analytica, alleged that the data was used to build profiles on American voters and generate support for Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election.

    He also claimed that Canadian firm — AggregateIQ (AIQ) — was involved in the development of the software used to target voters.

    Wylie appeared before the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee of the British parliament on Tuesday.

    The committee said Wylie provided it with documents, including services agreement between AIQ and SCL Elections, Cambridge Analytica’s parent company, dated September 2014.

    AIQ did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment after Tuesday’s committee hearing, but in an earlier statement said it had never entered into a contract with Cambridge Analytica and had never been part of the firm.

    Cambridge Analytica said it did not share any Facebook profile data with AggregateIQ and did not use it in the campaign to elect Donald Trump.

    It added that it had no any data as it had deleted it.

     

  • Facebook “show of remorse” not enough in data scandal: German official

    Johannes Caspar, the German government official responsible for policing the activities of Facebook, on Wednesday criticised the U.S. social media company’s reaction in the ongoing Cambridge Analytica data scandal.

    “In so far it must be feared that this scandal will not result in any concrete consequences beyond Facebook’s apology statement and show of remorse,” Caspar told the newspaper “Handelsblatt”.

    “It is and will remain Facebook’s business model to collect data and make it accessible to people with the right profiles in exchange for money,” he said.

    Caspar attended a high-level meeting between German Justice Minster Katarina Barley (SPD) and senior Facebook representatives in Berlin on Monday.

    The data protection officer subsequently lamented that no convincing proposals had been made on behalf of Facebook to redress the situation.

    Barley has demanded a “comprehensive investigation” into whether German users were affected by the illegal use of information from millions of Facebook profiles during “electoral strategy” work by the company Cambridge Analytica for the U.S.

    Trump presidential campaign and the British Leave campaign during the Brexit referendum.

    The justice minister went as far as to describe the social network as a “threat to democracy and the rule of law”.

    She further emphasized that it was the responsibility and right of the European Union (EU) and its member state governments to determine the rules of the game by which tech companies must operate in the bloc.

    According to media reports, Cambridge Analytica used an application designed by the Russian academic Aleksandr Kogan to illegally access the data of around 50 million Facebook users.

    The information was used for targeted campaign advertisements, “micro-targeting” to sway voters in favor of casting their ballot
    for U.S. President Donald Trump or to vote Leave in the British referendum.

    In a recent appearance before the British parliament, ex-Cambridge programmer Christopher Wylie shocked delegates by stating that he had not doubt that his former employer had manipulated the Brexit referendum and broken the law.