Technology – Page 3 – Really Right

Apple Breaks Tesla App

Elon Musk has been rewarded by the 90-day calendar guys after surviving the third quarter report. Elon apparently sprinkled magic pixie dust on the financials and turned a year over year sales loss into a $50 a share boost in one day.

Tesla Inc’s (TSLA.O) third-quarter revenue tumbled 39% in the United States, its first drop in more than two years…

U.S. sales, which account for the biggest share of the company’s total revenue, fell to $3.13 billion from $5.13 billion a year earlier.
Tesla filing shows U.S. sales tumbled 39% in third quarter

If it weren’t for all the hysteria about saving the planet from imaginary destruction and other automakers being forced into giving billions to Tesla in the name of carbon credits, his goose would have been cooked years ago.

Speaking of cook, our friend of the blog, Tim Cook, has found a new way to be featured in tech blogs, he broke Apple’s Tesla app. Yep, iOS 13 has struck again. The latest iteration of this troubled operating system—also known here as “Apple’s Vista” —has killed the iPhone’s ability to run apps in the background and multitask.

iOS has of course never been famous for being an operating system which placed multi-tasking first, but some developers have come to rely on having their app running in the background.

One of these has been Tesla, which lets you replace your car keys with your phone. Tesla owners are now complaining that their doors do not open when they approach with iOS 13.2.

Of course, not only Tesla owners are affected. Many home automation systems like electronic door locks rely on the same feature.

Apple is rapidly earning a reputation of delivering more issues than features with their software updates, and I suspect more iOS users will be reconsidering installing the latest OS update without it being well tested in the market first.
iOS 13.2 aggressive killing of background apps is causing problems for Tesla owners

Elon Musk is the Svengali of the green religion

Apple ‘s iOS 13.2 update was supposed to fix bugs introduced with the initial buggy iOS 13 release and add a few new features, but it seems like all is not well over in Cupertino.

iOS’s RAM management is so heavy-handed that it shuts down apps almost as soon as you switch away from them. Users find it hard to maintain a conversation on say WhatsApp and switch to Safari to get some information because the former app will reload when they switch back to it and Safari will shut down tabs when they switch away. This issue has shown itself on iPhones as expensive as the top-end iPhone 11 Pro, so it has been a frustrating experience even for superfans.

“I’m sure Apple has good excuses about why their software quality is so shitty again,” Overcast and Instapaper creator Marco Arment said over on Twitter. “I hear the same thing over and over from people inside: they aren’t given enough time to fix bugs. Your software quality is broken, Apple. Deeply, systemically broken. Get your shit together.”

Modern software is often developed with a ship first, fix later attitude. Apple’s fast updates mean that while users can get fixes as soon as they’re ready, they’ll also be more likely to experience bugs due to the initial shipping scramble.
iOS 13.2 may be killing your apps faster than you’d expect

Last I heard, north of 60 percent of Apple phone users—that don’t loose support November 3rd—were running this version of the operating system. I have faith that Apple will eventually get it right. I know it will irritate their customers but when you have folks locked into your eco system on two and three year contracts, then these sorts of errors don’t hurt the 90-day clock too badly.

Back to Tesla’s founder; California’s looming solar mandate for new construction and PG&E blackouts are breathing new life into another Elon Musk venture. This convergence of mandates and malfeasance is looking like the next step in cordcutting, being able to live off the grid in suburbia.

Once again, Elon is benefitting from government interferrence in the free market under the guise of saving the planet. It’s amazing how he has inserted himself into the minds of many as the high priest of the green religion. Musk’s use of captalism to fleece socialists is kind of poetic.

Fear of China Governs American Life

When it comes to business and entertainment, China seems to be dictating American policy. Just as they govern their own nation with fear, American companies are succumbing to fear of the Dragon of the East. When given a choice, Americans are choosing profit over principle every time.

China has made a huge investment in Hollywood over the last several years. As a result, they have actively reshaped the plots and casting of many big budget movies. Sometimes the changes made headlines and other times it hasn’t. One of the earliest changes that I recall was the remake of Red Dawn.

In the original 1984 movie, troops from Cuba and Russia make a surprise attack on the United States and get bogged down in a protracted fight. A group of high school students wage a guerrilla war against the invader’s supply routes.

As Hollywood often does, they remade the movie in 2012. Since the Soviet Union had fallen decades before, they needed a new villain, an aggressor nation with the military might to take on the United States. The logical choice was China. However, a curious thing happened in the midst of post-production. The studio nixed the China thing and made the producers change the aggressor nation to North Korea.

Was China originally the country invading the USA?

Yes, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was originally presented as the invading regime, but after pressure from the PRC government and studio concerns on how it could impact the international box office, the film was digitally altered in post-production to replace all the PRC flags, posters and dialogue with that of North Korea.
From IMDB Red Dawn (2012)

Since then, it has become commonplace to change scripts or edit movies in such a way to get distribution in China. Even Hollywood “tent pole” movies like the Avengers have been altered to make it marketable in China.

Such changes are just the tip of the proverbial spear.

Today, two more news stories about compromising to please China are in the headlines. First up, the National Basketball Association (NBA).

The headline from ultra-rightwing publication Rolling Stone says it all.

The NBA Chooses China’s Money Over Hong Kong’s Human Rights

Daryl Morey did the right thing — at first.

In a Friday night tweet that he has since deleted, the Houston Rockets general manager expressed support for the legions of protesters who have taken to the streets of Hong Kong.

However, the problem for Morey is that the Chinese also love basketball. And thanks surely to the stardom of former Rockets great Yao Ming — now the head of the Chinese Basketball Association — Houston trailed only Golden State in popularity in the nation, per a recent survey. There appears to be too much money to be made in China for the NBA to stand up for human rights.
Yao himself responded to Morey’s tweet with condemnation, calling it “an inappropriate comment related to Hong Kong” and the CBA suspended its “exchanges and cooperation” with the Rockets. Chinese sportswear maker Li-Ning did the same, suspending its association with the team. The Chinese government also weighed in via its consulate, saying that it was “deeply shocked” by the tweet. The Rockets owner, Tilman Fertitta, quickly disowned Morey’s tweet:

Listen….@dmorey does NOT speak for the @HoustonRockets. Our presence in Tokyo is all about the promotion of the @NBA internationally and we are NOT a political organization. @espn https://t.co/yNyQFtwTTi
— Tilman Fertitta (@TilmanJFertitta) October 5, 2019

The Rockets and the NBA could have stood up for Morey, for decency, and for the protesters and their human rights.

The NBA issued a sorry statement, declaring the league realizes that the tweet may have “deeply offended” Chinese fans and that they “have great respect for the history and culture of China,” as if that had anything to do with a bill that could be used to disappear journalists and critics of an autocratic regime. Morey, who The Ringer reports was at one point in jeopardy of losing his job, tweeted his own apology that read like it was dictated by his boss. Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai, a co-founder of Chinese e-commerce conglomerate Alibaba, published an open letter on Facebook that referred to protesters as a “separatist movement.” Even James Harden, the Rockets’ star guard, issued a mea culpa for some reason, even though he wasn’t involved.

That last bit of rank submission to an autocratic regime captured the full extent of the NBA’s sellout to China. Several politicians on the left and right, including presidential candidate Julián Castro and Rep. Ben Sasse (R-MO), called out the NBA’s cowardice. Even Rockets fan Ted Cruz took a principled stand:

We’re better than this; human rights shouldn’t be for sale & the NBA shouldn’t be assisting Chinese communist censorship.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) October 7, 2019

Wow. Folks when Rolling Stone is singing the praises of Ted Cruz, you know that something is seriously wrong.

The next story probably won’t make it to your INBOX but it goes much the same way. Before getting into the particulars here’s a few nuggets of background. eSports is a big thing in a small segment of popular culture. This is where aspiring kids go to make millions of dollars playing video games competitively. A big hub of this activity is South Korea. Blizzard Entertainment was purchased a few years ago by Activision. Blizzard is best known for their World of Warcraft game. Hearthstone is a virtual card game that is modeled after Warcraft type characters.

Blizzard’s Hearthstone

The popular player ended a recent livestream with a call for his country’s liberation in a post-game interview. “Liberate Hong Kong,” Ng Wai said. “Revolution of our age!”

During the Hearthstone Grandmasters stream, the Hearthstone Pro was wearing a mask similar to those used by rioters in Hong Kong.

After the livestream ended, Ng Wai was immediately removed from the game’s Grandmasters rank and the developer is currently withholding his tournament prize money. The player also received a 12-month ban from the game’s professional events. The player will be unable to participate in Hearthstone eSports until October 5th 2020.

Unfortunately, government interference within China is a constant issue for its citizens. Even amongst the horrendous police brutality shown within the Hong Kong riots, the country still finds time for rampant censorship. With some developers being destroyed for slight anti-government inclusions, Blizzard’s huge Chinese presence does need to be protected in a business standpoint. From a moral and ethical standpoint, however, Blizzard is certainly not looking good.
Hearthstone Pro player Chung Blitzchung Ng Wai has been exiled by game developer Blizzard after supporting the Hong Kong riots.

For those of you that self-identify as low information voters, this is why I have problems with the way we conduct business with China. This also should help explain why I support President Trump’s efforts to change our relationship with China. Do I agree with everything Trump does with China? Probably not, but his instinct is correct. America businesses that put profit over principle are behaving shamefully.

Tesla Bad for Environment

It doesn’t take a genius to know that electric vehicles are a scam based on wishful thinking and junk science plus a healthy dose of government intervention to try to manipulate markets to be more favorable to these politically endorsed ideas. If you needed a little more documentation to share with friends to prove the obvious, here are three more articles for your consideration. Oh, if you look them up, there are links in them to even more evidence.

Article One

A Tesla Model 3 is touted as a zero-emissions car by government regulators, but it actually results in more carbon dioxide than a comparable diesel-powered car, according to a recent study.

When the CO2 emissions from battery production is included, electric cars, like Teslas, are “in the best case, slightly higher than those of a diesel engine, and are otherwise much higher,” reads a release from the German think tank IFO.

“It’s better read as a warning that new technologies aren’t a climate-change panacea. Recall the false promises about corn and cellulosic ethanol,” The Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote of the study.

A study released in 2018 also found driving electric cars might come with higher emissions than diesel vehicles, largely because of lithium-ion battery production.
Likewise, a Manhattan Institute study from 2018 also found putting more electric cars on the road would likely increase emissions compared to internal combustion engine vehicles.
Driving A Tesla Results In More CO2 Than A Mercedes Diesel Car, Study Finds

Article Two

A battery pack for a Tesla Model 3 pollutes the climate with 11 to 15 tonnes of CO2. Each battery pack has a lifespan of approximately ten years and total mileage of 94,000, would mean 73 to 98 grams of CO2 per kilometer (116 to 156 grams of CO2 per mile), Buchal said. Add to this the CO2 emissions of the electricity from powerplants that power such vehicles, and the actual Tesla emissions could be between 156 to 180 grams of CO2 per kilometer (249 and 289 grams of CO2 per mile).

German researchers criticized the fact that EU legislation classifies electric cars as zero-emission cars; they call it a deception because electric cars, like the Model 3, with all the factors, included, produce more emissions than diesel vehicles by Mercedes.

They further wrote that the EU target of 59 grams of CO2 per kilometer by 2030 is “technically unrealistic.”

The reality is, in addition to the CO2 emissions generated in mining the raw materials for the production of electric vehicles, all EU countries generate significant CO2 emissions from charging the vehicles’ batteries using dirty power plants.

For true emission reductions, researchers concluded the study by saying methane-powered gasoline engines or hydrogen motors could cut CO2 emissions by a third and possibly eliminate the need for diesel motors.
“Methane technology is ideal for the transition from natural gas vehicles with conventional engines to engines that will one day run on methane from CO2-free energy sources. This being the case, the German federal government should treat all technologies equally and promote hydrogen and methane solutions as well.”

So maybe Elon Musk’s plan to save the world with electric cars is the biggest scam of our lifetime…
Electric Car-Owners Shocked: New Study Confirms EVs Considerably Worse For Climate Than Diesel Cars

Article Three

It’s becoming a joke all around the world — the EVs in Australia powered by dirty diesel. But what’s the difference?

Most EVs in Australia are running on fossil fuel — the generators are just hidden behind longer extension cords. (Ones that carry 240,000V). EVs on our grid are running on 80% of fossil fuels every day.

The sign on the charger above says “Nullarbor” — the vast treeless and grid-free center of Australia — but this is actually a test site in Perth (the trees were the giveaway).

The 3,000 kilometer trip across the Nullarbor from Perth to Adelaide is such an achievement for an EV that it’s practically a news story each time one makes it.

Electric Car owners carry a chip about not being able to drive across the country as any real car owner could.

So Jon Edwards, a retired engineer from Perth, set up this test site in his backyard. He wanted to know if it could be a realistic stop-gap for our far remote roads.

To me, this looks like a chain of efficiency losses going from diesel to mechanical to electrical to battery to mechanical, but Edwards tested it with ten friend’s cars last December and estimates it works out slightly better on fuel use than just driving a diesel.

The charger is a Tritium Veefil 50kW DC (a big fast one) and took 9 hours to charge all 10 cars and used 108L of fuel. Good for fuel. Bad for time. (The 6,600km return trip across the Nullabor took 13 days in case you were wondering, though they were not in a race).

There’s a good reason EVs are only 0.2% of all new Australian car purchases — with vast distances, a fragile grid, expensive electricity and heavy towing loads.

Plus these fast chargers are like adding “20 houses” to our grid, so will cripple the system or require billions of dollars of infrastructure costs.

The dumbest thing is that as long as they run off fossil fuels, they’ll probably increase our CO2 emissions, doing the exact opposite of what they’re supposed to be doing, but yet perversely helping plants grow.

Their big environmental benefit being mainly achieved by failing to do what they are intended to do.
What’s Powering The Electric Car Charging Station? A Diesel Generator

Makes you wonder which uses more energy in their production life-cycle a Tesla or a Humvee?

Tesla’s PR Can’t Fix This

These next two stories hit so many different strands of product liability and malfeasance for Tesla that I couldn’t pass them up. Photos are from the respective articles quoted below. Oh, and NHTSA is National Highway Transportation Safety Administration.

It was just days ago that we reported that the NHTSA was opening an inquiry into the use of Tesla’s “Smart Summon” feature. Then, just hours ago we followed up by reporting that a petition had been filed with the NHTSA claiming that Tesla was using over the air software updates to cover up dangerous battery issues.

Today, we offer a stark reminder that just because the NHTSA has started to perk up its ears, doesn’t mean that Teslas haven’t stopped going up in flames all over the world. The most recent example comes from Austria, where after a Tesla was involved in an accident and caught fire, firefighters had to use a special container to transport the remains of the vehicle and the battery.

According to a translated version of this ORF News story, a 57 year old driver lost control of his Tesla and crashed into a tree, after first hitting the guardrail. It was then that the vehicle caught fire.

The driver was lucky, as “people passing by the scene of the accident took the man out of the vehicle and called emergency services.”

In order to put out the fire, the street had to be closed and fire authorities had to bring in a container user to cool the vehicle. The container held 11,000 liters (11 tons) of water and was designed to eliminate the biggest risk in an EV accident which is the battery catching fire.

The Tesla battery is mounted on the underside of the vehicle and contains acids and chemicals that can easily escape during a fire, placing the firefighters in danger.

Here is the problem: according to the article, some 11,000 liters of water are needed to finally extinguish a burning Tesla but an average fire engine only carries around 2,000 liters of water.

Fire brigade spokesman Peter Hölzl warned that the car could still catch fire for up to three days after the initial fire.

Bath tank to insure car doesn’t re-ignite

The container used is said to be suitable for all common electric vehicles. It measures 6.8 meters long, 2.4 meters wide and 1.5 meters high, it is (obviously) waterproof and weighs three tons.
11 Tons Of Water And “Special Container” Used To Extinguish Burning Tesla In Austria

(emphasis in original story)

We have previously documented the failure of Tesla’s Smart Summons on the blog and now we learn of another issue about Tesla batteries which I will get to in a moment. Then the hazards faced by firefighters. Why does Europe have a full immersion bathtub for electric vehicle fires, and nobody here does? You did catch the part about a Tesla can catch fire up to three days after an accident? I bet that little nugget isn’t in the owner handbook.

Here’s part of the battery story.

A notice published on Tuesday by the NHTSA said they had received reports about a possible defect in Tesla battery packs that could cause fires. The battery packs affected reportedly received new management software as part of over the air updates that were issued by Tesla in May.

The petition was filed by the Law Offices of Edward C. Chen, a California law firm representing a number of Tesla drivers in the U.S., according to Bloomberg.

Chen argued that Tesla is using software updates to cover up a potentially wide spread and dangerous issue: “Tesla is using over-the-air software updates to mask and cover up a potentially widespread and dangerous issue with the batteries in their vehicles.”

Chen has also argued that Tesla owners “saw the range of their Teslas on a charge fall by 25 miles (40 kilometers) or more after Tesla released two battery software updates beginning in May.”

The notice states: “The petitioner alleges that the software updates were in response to a potential defect that could result in non-crash fires in the affected battery packs and that Tesla should have notified NHTSA of the existence of this potential defect and conducted a safety recall. The petitioner also alleges that this software update reduces the driving range of the affected vehicles.”
The NHTSA Is Now (Finally) Looking Into Tesla Battery Fire Issues

(emphasis in original story)

Folks, I keep saying that the moment the government subjects Tesla to the same standards as other automakers that they are in for a world of hurt. Thankfully that day may finally be approaching.

Electric vehicles are a novelty not a solution. In a fair and free market, they would all but disappear. We tried electric vehicles a century ago and they failed in the market. It would take much more than cheap and abundant electrical power to make them mainstream. The proof that such a day is still far from us is the insistence of politicians and environmentalists that wind and solar are the answer.

Why Apple Users Shouldn’t Own Smart Home Devices

My wife is fond of quoting Dr. Laura Schlessinger, “Even a bird knows, you have to make a nest before laying an egg.” Truth is that birds seem to have more sense than people. We drag all sorts of stuff back to our nest that we shouldn’t. Sometimes it’s from the local watering hole and sometimes the local Best Buy or whatever vendor of electronic gizmos hits your fancy.

When you put a Google Nest or similar product in your house, you should be wary of what you’re letting thru the front door. Every electronic device in your house is collecting information about you and sending it to others. Here’s a partial list of stuff that is already collecting data on you.

Television
Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, and all the other streaming services that you use are collecting information about you, but did you know your television and Blu-ray/DVD plays are too? Have a PlayStation, XBOX, or Nintendo product connected too? Many of these devices and associated peripherals have cameras and microphones and are never truly shutoff even when the power light is de-energized.

Computer
If you own a computer—whether desktop or laptop, tablet, or smartphone—then all sorts of folks all over the world are collecting information on you. They know what websites you visit (even in private mode), what you have installed on you device, where you are—often in real time, where you work, live, send your children to school, shop, and much more.

Folks, the Internet allows the outside world into yours, but the reverse is true as well. The Amish say that Satan travels thru wires, but he went wireless decades ago.

The new trend is having mesh networks with smart devices on them. This technology has been available for about a decade, but it has gone mainstream in the last couple of years. Folks, I can understand protecting the perimeter of your property but, I can’t understand why you’d want high definition cameras with microphones in every room in your house.

Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and others have people listening to you and watching you at will any time they wish. Never thought of yourself as the Truman Show, too bad ‘cause you might be.

A Milwaukee couple said hackers broke into their smart home devices and raised the thermostat while blasting vulgar music through the wireless electronics, a report said.

Samantha and Lamont Westmoreland, who purchased a Nest camera in 2018, experienced the shocking breach on Sept. 17, they told FOX 6.
“It gives me the chills just talking about it,” Samantha told the network, describing the virtual intrusion that began when she returned from work to a scorching home with the thermostat set at 90 degrees.

She turned the temperature back down, chalking it up to a one-time malfunction.

But soon after, somebody started speaking through her kitchen security camera.

Then she heard vulgar music coming from the same device.
Couple says hackers took over Google Nest — then raised temps and blasted vulgar music

I can understand the family feeling violated but should their feelings really be the issue here? If the people had watched them without saying something, is that somehow better? By the way, they only found out about this because the watchers decided the reveal themselves, so we don’t know how long they were watched first? Yes, it might have just been kids in this instance, but others know how to cover their tracks better. Folks, nothing would prevent someone from recording something happening in the house and then posting it on the Internet, what then?

Google of course disavowed any responsibility and blamed the family. What else can they do?

The bottom line is, just because it’s on sale at Costco doesn’t mean it belongs in your home. Folks, if you want a system like this to protect your home’s perimeter, you should hire someone who knows more than you do. However, if you want this system in every room in your house then you’re a nut.

iOS 13 Shares Your Credit Card Info with Strangers

More bad news hit the streets today as multiple people using Apple’s iOS 13 report gaining access to credit card data of complete strangers.

That, however, doesn’t change the fact that iOS 13 is riddled with bugs that forced the US Department of Defense to issue a warning asking users not to update. Unfortunately for Apple, this wasn’t the end of it as a Reddit user found a severe bug in iOS 13. According to u/Thanamite, he was changing his iTunes credit card when he noticed that his credit card info was replaced by someone else’s credit card. He noted that the credit card belonged to a woman in Illinois and he was able to access all the information including the address and credit card number. This is enough information for someone to empty the card without the user even realizing it. This wasn’t the only case as another user published the same experience on Reddit a few hours ago.

Both the users noted that they have reported it to Apple who then escalated the issue to the senior management. Apple has told that the company is aware of the issue and is working actively to fix it. We don’t know if the issue will be patched with iOS 13.1 or not.
iOS 13 might be leaking your Credit Card details to random strangers

Apple’s spin doctors have yet to respond to these reports. The article concludes with this warning:

In the meantime, we would urge our readers to remove their payment information from their iPhone. We are not sure if the issue is specific to iOS 13 or not…

“…not sure if the issue is specific to iOS 13…” that’s comforting. I guess Apple’s ideas of sharing user data with third parties is a rather fluid definition of the concept.

Government Warns Apple Owners not to Upgrade to iOS 13

The United States Department of Defense issued a warning today telling iPhone users not to upgrade to Apple’s newest Operating System iOS 13. Despite fan boy, Rush Limbaugh’s recent on air praise of everything Apple, I think, were I unfortunate enough to own such a device, in this instance, I would do what the guys with black helicopters tell me to do.

It’s also worth noting the US Department of Defense (via INC) sent the following email to its users:

DOD Mobility strongly encourages you to NOT update, to avoid known Apple iOS 13 bugs. Apple is expected to release iOS 13.1 at the end of September 2019 to address bugs. DMUC users can expect follow-on messaging within the next two weeks with updated guidance.
US DOD advices against installing today’s iOS 13.0 as 13.1 scheduled for next week

If you dig further into the reasons, apparently the wiz kids from Cupertino forgot to pay the exterminator last quarter and as a result, the shiny new OS comes with a wide assortment of bugs that they forgot to squash. Apple has already promised that they are working feverishly on iOS 13.1 which will hit the street in about another week.

Apple has also moved up iOS 13.1 to September 24 from September 30. The reason? Bugs. Apple’s new iPhones will ship with iOS 13.0 tomorrow, an experience that has been panned by reviewers as being full of bugs. Users have reported crashes, hangs, and random reboots in use.

As a follower of 90-day Guy, it seems no surprise that 13.1 hits just before the end of the calendar quarter. Coincidence? I think not. Wanna bet 13.2 or whatever the next number is will be out around Christmas?

Oh, if you haven’t heard, Apple wants you to know they put cameras in their phones. For some reason, Apple’s marketing department has decided to lead with this feature. Based on the fact that Apple phones have the worst picture quality I’ve ever seen, it wouldn’t be hard for them to improve their phone’s cameras. My old Windows Lumia phone takes better pictures than my coworker’s new iPhone.

Tech blogs are also underwhelmed by Apple’s new product offerings. We agree that innovation left the building about the time Steve Jobs left the planet. I’m still wondering if SD Cards and USB-C will ever be a thing for Apple users. Probably not… unless Apple can convince people they invented the technology.

Limbaugh Defends Apple

We here at Really Right like Rush but don’t listen to him very often. (FYI to Liberals, we don’t get our marching orders from Rush despite your ridiculous notion that we can’t think for ourselves. We like Rush because he believes the way we do about many, but not all things.) This is one occasion where we disagree, at least in part.

Yesterday, Rush spent part of his show talking about the recent report of Apple phones being hacked just by visiting a website with no user intervention. Rush does not dispute that it happened but the where and why are interesting. I am quoting this extensively because most of Rush’s stuff ends-up behind a pay firewall.

Now, last week there was this massive news report. It went way beyond the tech blogs. It went into the Drive-By Media that iPhones been had been hacked en masse for the past number of years. The story was put out by something called Project Zero at Google. Google has a department, a team of people that try to hunt down and find — they’re white hat guys. They’re the good guys.

They try to find malware and hacks and vulnerabilities in computers and hand-held devices, mobile devices so that the people that manufacture those devices can patch the software and continue their security.

And they came out with a story that a massive vulnerability had been found in the iPhone. And that all you had to do was visit a website. It did not name the website. All you had to do was visit a website and virtually everything on your phone was in the hands of bad guys. Your passwords, your key chain, your credit card information, your contacts, your photos, everything. They didn’t tell you which websites, and they didn’t specify the specific years, but they made it sound like it was multiple years, and they made it sound like it only affected iPhones.

And when I first read this, ’cause I don’t believe anything in the media anymore. I just don’t, folks. And Google is a competitor of Apple. I’m not sure this was a factor here, but let me tell you what this ended up being.

It was the ChiComs. It was Chinese websites. And it was every phone. It was Samsung. It was Huawei, it was LG, it was every operating system, and it was the ChiComs targeting Chinese Muslims. You had to log onto a Chinese website for anybody to be able to get into your phone. They knew this, but they only reported it as an iPhone vulnerability, and they made it look like it could be any and every website that anybody would be using every day, and it’s strickly a Chinese issue.

It’s ChiComs trying to find everything they can on these renegade Muslims, the Uyghurs, and wipe ’em out, put ’em in reeducation camps and so forth. Now, this was known, but the Google Project Zero team did not report that aspect of it. Your phone is fine for the most part. The story was way exaggerated.
Massive Misinformation from Google on Supposed iPhone Hack

Rush makes several points, some of which we knew. The Apple vulnerability was discovered by a hacker group employed by Google. This was part of the original story. It is no surprise that China is behind the exploit or that the primary mission of the cyber operation was to go after Muslims in their country; however, I have yet to see a story corroborating Rush’s claim. Out of respect, I’m willing to grant that he is probably correct on this point.

Rush’s second point is weaker to me; namely, that Android phones were similarly hacked. Apple is the one claiming their superiority in security—mobile and PC, over any other operating systems—asserting that they are the best and most secure. It is this point, that they are not, that was the focus of the story. Rush thinks this is tech media bias against Apple, I disagree. Apple should abide by the old axiom of people in glass houses not throwing stones. Apple doesn’t admit to any OS flaws, bugs, or hacks until such issues are outed by third parties. It is their argument from silence that I disagree with. They are using circular reasoning to maintain this claim.
Claim 1: Since Apple OS is secure, there are no bugs, hacks, or flaws.
Claim 2: Since no bugs, hacks, or flaws exist, Apple OS is the most secure.
Therefore Apple can maintain that they are the most secure OS as long as they admit nothing to the contrary.

FAANG is Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google

That China spies on its own people is nothing new. They’ve been doing that since Mao. China and other nations use our electronic gizmos to gather data on us all the time, but to what end? I’m more concerned about the censorship on free speech in this country by the FAANG companies and MS than what other nation-states are doing with my address book and lackluster text messages. The secrets that I have are not in my phone.

iPhone Security Epic Failure Again

Apple users always swear that their gear is more secure than other operating systems; once again, this is proven to be a lie. The difference between Apple and Microsoft (or Google) is that the other guys are actively looking for security flaws and Apple does not. As we have repeatedly documented on this blog, Apple will only reluctantly admit to a security issue once the issue has been made public, and then only half-heartedly will they acknowledge it. Apple will refuse to fix known issues for years until outed by third parties.

Today another story is out and this one is as bad as it gets. Just by visiting a compromised website, hackers could get the following:

You location in real time, updated every minute
All your passwords
Chat histories on WhatsApp, Telegram, iMessage
Address book
Gmail database

In total, 14 bugs were exploited for the iOS attack across five different “exploit chains” – strings of flaws linked together in such a way that a hacker can hop from bug to bug, increasing the severity of their attack each time.

Please note that it was Google that informed Apple of the security flaws which had been exploited in the wild for a mere two and a half years.

An unprecedented iPhone hacking operation, which attacked “thousands of users a week” until it was disrupted in January, has been revealed by researchers at Google’s external security team.

The operation, which lasted two and a half years, used a small collection of hacked websites to deliver malware on to the iPhones of visitors. Users were compromised simply by visiting the sites: no interaction was necessary, and some of the methods used by the hackers affected even fully up-to-date phones.

Once hacked, the user’s deepest secrets were exposed to the attackers. Their location was uploaded every minute; their device’s keychain, containing all their passwords, was uploaded, as were their chat histories on popular apps including WhatsApp, Telegram and iMessage, their address book, and their Gmail database.
Google says hackers have put ‘monitoring implants’ in iPhones for years

Oh, as usual, it is a British news outlet breaking the story not the American media. As a rule, the UK has better coverage of national news in the United States than our own media. I guess they’re all too busy trying to make stuff up about Trump and Russia instead of doing their jobs. Back in the day, Woodward and Bernstein worked hard to break their story; they would not be contented just to be part of the echo chamber that passes for the mainstream media today.

Oh, there is other hacking news out there today as well.

Teenager hacked government file sharing website known as Army Aviation and Missile Research Development and Engineering Center Safe Access File Exchange (AMRDEC SAFE) Click here for story

Lastly, there is a fair chance your dentist had their data compromised by a ransomware attack. Click here for story.

Big Tech Surveillance

The NSA may be the only government entity that listens to you but the private sector has gone crazy doing the same thing. Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Apple have all been outed as doing the same type of surveillance.

Listening

Today, a report has surfaced that Apple has fired their Siri transcription company in Ireland with virtually no notice.

Apple is terminating the contracts of 100 of workers who were hired to listen to Siri recordings according to a report from the Guardian.

Last month, Apple was revealed to be sending audio data over to contractors to improve Siri. The contractors would accidentally hear private or personal information sometimes, and a few users were scandalised that this wasn’t made clear when signing up for Siri originally.

The firm has put an abrupt end to the program, leading to mass job loss.

As per the report, more than 300 employees have been fired in one facility in Cork, Ireland, and some have been sent home with less than one week’s notice.
Apple fires hundreds of workers hired to listen to Siri recordings

Microsoft is also listening and plans to continue the practice.

After Apple and Google, it turns out Microsoft is also doing the same thing.

According to a report from Motherboard which cites an anonymous contractor, Microsoft is listening in to your Skype and Cortana audio as well. Much like Google and Apple do, the firm sends a little bit of audio to its small army of human contractors around the globe for analysis, ranging between 5 – 10 seconds.

The bone of contention here appears to be that while Microsoft does tell users that some of their audio will be analysed, it leads them to assume that it would be AI-based as opposed to human contractors.
Microsoft’s contractors are also listening to your Skype and Cortana recordings

Microsoft terms of service authorize third party folks to listen.

In a statement released to Motherboard, the firm said:

“We’re always looking to improve transparency and help customers make more informed choices. Our disclosures have been clear that we use customer content from Cortana and Skype Translator to improve these products, we engage third party expertise to assist in this process, and we take steps to de-identify this content to protect people’s privacy.”

The Motherboard report reveals that contractors are mean to transcribe up to 300 pieces of audio per hour and are paid between $12 and $14 for it with a max bonus taking it to $15 per hour. Contractors have noted that personal and private information has slipped into these audio snippets as originally reported.
Microsoft’s Cortana transcribers are apparently overworked and underpaid

Watching

Yesterday, Amazon received national coverage for allowing law enforcement access to Ring video cameras, without any warrant or suspicion of wrongdoing.

Amazon-owned doorbell-camera manufacturer Ring has formed partnerships with hundreds of police departments that allow them to automatically request access to footage after the fact, according to a report in The Washington Post.

Ring has arrangements with more than 400 departments, under which they can request recordings within a specific time and area, according to the Post. Ring gives homeowners the option to decline requests, according to the Post.

Police can use a map interface to select the time and geographic range, which will generate an automated email to all users within the range with a message from the department, according to the newspaper.

Ring, as a private-sector enterprise, has found “a clever workaround for the development of a wholly new surveillance network, without the kind of scrutiny that would happen if it was coming from the police or government,” he added.
Amazon’s Ring doorbell-camera firm partners with over 400 police forces to share surveillance: report

Ring also sells consumers both external and internal cameras so what keeps law enforcement or other interested parties from viewing the inside of your house in real time? Also, please note the weasel words in the article above; homeowners are given “the option to decline the requests.” This sounds like a one-time, blanket terms of service option given when the system is first being configured. If so, is a third-party installer giving Ring (Amazon) that permission as part of the equipment setup or the actual resident of the dwelling? This point might be potential legal fodder in the not too distant future.

Bottom Line

If you are on the Internet using any program, device, or service, then rest assured that you are under surveillance by someone; the only question is whether the other party is a program or person. Most folks just want to legally separate you from your money but others harbor more nefarious intentions. If you own a smartphone then Apple, Google, and Microsoft know where you live, work, and shop. If you own a car, then the automakers and others in their industry know where you’ve been in your car.

Amish–the only folks living “off the grid”

If you truly want privacy, build a Faraday Cage in your home or become Amish. Trust me, your digital footprint is way bigger than your carbon one and much more likely to be dangerous to your liberty.