Other political forums/news sites?

[No_0ne]

1 hour ago, Grayfox54 said:

Honestly, while I do like Star Wars, I'm really a Star Trek guy.

Star Trek is good too.  I liked the original TV show so much, I refused to watch TNG while it was on - then saw the series after it finished, thoroughly enjoyed it.  When the reboot movies came out, once again I figured they would be a poor substitute for either of the prior series, so skipped the first one.  A year or 2 later, saw it online, and once again, wound up liking it.  If they ever do another, I think this time around I may withhold judgement until actually seeing it ...

[Alleycat72]

[MacGyver]

I spoke a little bit earlier about Parler having no meaningful information security protections in place.

It gets worse (better?)

It seems that their lack of forward planning is now having the entire site mined of data - and that even when users deleted stuff - they didn't actually get rid of it.

So, now you have users who uploaded their actual drivers license being added to no fly lists in realtime.

We've had questions about who's behind Parler for months now.  I mean, their founder went to Russia, met a girl, got married in a government facility, and came back and developed the app with no apparent source of funding other than Dan Bongino (who doesn't have anywhere close to the funding it would take to scale something like this.)

I want to say this clearly to anyone here who might have uploaded their license data to be a "verified citizen."  Make sure you've invested in good identity theft protection from a provider who knows what they're doing.  You're likely to need it in the coming months.

Forget the fact that you uploaded your ID to a foreign intelligence service.  Since all of this data is about to be publicly available - there are going to be plenty of folks who will be quite willing to misuse that data to purchase cars, open credit accounts, traffic in stolen goods...you get the idea.

[Erik88]

 

1 hour ago, MacGyver said:

So, now you have users who uploaded their actual drivers license being added to no fly lists in realtime.

Thanks for sharing all this. It helps explain the video I saw earlier where some guy threw a tantrum at the airport after learning he'd been added to the no-fly list.

[Defender]

So, I'm guessing there is NO safe social media outlet where folks can have an opposing view to the left?  I'm starting to be reminded of the 1930's in Germany.

[FUJIMO]

I figured there were several here looking at the big tech situation but wasn't sure where that would be posted or where the line between tech safe/ conspiracy nut would be lol. I've purposely practiced moderation when it came to social media sites and I am SO thankful for that right now.

Edited January 11, 2021 by FUJIMO
read it wrong

[TripleGGG]

I saw the process to verify and told my wife I hope people really don't upload their drivers license. Unfortunately I'm sure many did.

[FUJIMO]

NVM

Edited January 11, 2021 by FUJIMO

[Erik88]

22 minutes ago, Defender said:

So, I'm guessing there is NO safe social media outlet where folks can have an opposing view to the left? 

Have you been to Facebook? There are PLENTY of conservatives voicing their opinion on there. 

[No_0ne]

2 hours ago, MacGyver said:

I spoke a little bit earlier about Parler having no meaningful information security protections in place.

It gets worse (better?)

It seems that their lack of forward planning is now having the entire site mined of data - and that even when users deleted stuff - they didn't actually get rid of it.

So, now you have users who uploaded their actual drivers license being added to no fly lists in realtime.

We've had questions about who's behind Parler for months now.  I mean, their founder went to Russia, met a girl, got married in a government facility, and came back and developed the app with no apparent source of funding other than Dan Bongino (who doesn't have anywhere close to the funding it would take to scale something like this.)

I want to say this clearly to anyone here who might have uploaded their license data to be a "verified citizen."  Make sure you've invested in good identity theft protection from a provider who knows what they're doing.  You're likely to need it in the coming months.

Forget the fact that you uploaded your ID to a foreign intelligence service.  Since all of this data is about to be publicly available - there are going to be plenty of folks who will be quite willing to misuse that data to purchase cars, open credit accounts, traffic in stolen goods...you get the idea.

So the "new", conservative-friendly social media platform is secretly a Russian disinformation and hacking application.  its almost too rich to be true, if indeed it is.  It would be hard to come up with a more improbable but dastardly plot for a cheap spy movie ...

[hipower]

41 minutes ago, TripleGGG said:

I saw the process to verify and told my wife I hope people really don't upload their drivers license. Unfortunately I'm sure many did.

I tried singing up for Parler a day or so back, but didn't quite understand all the things I was asked to do. Never got that far as to being asked for that sort of verification. Good I guess.

But I will say that I do not add DOB, DL, anything like that to a random inquiry or site. Even these Gun Contests like Classic Firearms as an example. they ask for DOB. That stops me right there. I won't pass that out. The same with SS numbers.

Now it's not that I think I'm invisible or invincible on line; I know just enough to know that a reasonably intelligent guy with tech say can pretty much have my entire life in just minutes.

And that truly is frightening for me and all the rest of us.

Now a sidebar...listening to Fox today doesn't really make me feel good about the coming administration. Boils down to this I think...You were not with me. You are my enemy and will be destroyed. And Heaven help you if you are identified as being a speaker(or an attendee one source said on interview); you will be targeted. 

Social media, politicians, business, now banking industry getting involved. 

Unless you are RED, and wildly, loudly, goose-stepping in line...you are nothing. 

[gregintenn]

2 hours ago, MacGyver said:

I spoke a little bit earlier about Parler having no meaningful information security protections in place.

It gets worse (better?)

It seems that their lack of forward planning is now having the entire site mined of data - and that even when users deleted stuff - they didn't actually get rid of it.

So, now you have users who uploaded their actual drivers license being added to no fly lists in realtime.

We've had questions about who's behind Parler for months now.  I mean, their founder went to Russia, met a girl, got married in a government facility, and came back and developed the app with no apparent source of funding other than Dan Bongino (who doesn't have anywhere close to the funding it would take to scale something like this.)

I want to say this clearly to anyone here who might have uploaded their license data to be a "verified citizen."  Make sure you've invested in good identity theft protection from a provider who knows what they're doing.  You're likely to need it in the coming months.

Forget the fact that you uploaded your ID to a foreign intelligence service.  Since all of this data is about to be publicly available - there are going to be plenty of folks who will be quite willing to misuse that data to purchase cars, open credit accounts, traffic in stolen goods...you get the idea.

I assume you've somehow verified this information?

The removal of Parler is currently being played on talk radio as a blatant shutdown of free speech. It fits. Your explanation also makes sense.

I never dreamed I'd see that day where truth was so hard to find.

[MacGyver]

1 minute ago, gregintenn said:

I assume you've somehow verified this information?

The removal of Parler is currently being played on talk radio as a blatant shutdown of free speech. It fits. Your explanation also makes sense.

I never dreamed I'd see that day where truth was so hard to find.

Unfortunately, we’ve known them to be susceptible to stuff like this for a while. They built their site on a platform (Wordpress) that had some known vulnerabilities.

When Twilio (their authentication provider) booted them, they still wanted people to be able to login - so they basically set the site to “fail open.”

The combination of these things is what’s letting people mine the data.

The fact that they failed to take basic precautions like removing EXIF (location metadata) is so comical that it’s either extremely incompetent or by design.

Or maybe both.

We’ve been warning about the fact that a hostile foreign intelligence service is almost certainly involved for a while. They’ll have access to all that data. Now “hacktavists” will to.

If you know people who this applies to, I’d certainly plan accordingly.

[Garufa]

"Security researchers claim to have downloaded a huge amount of information from Parler before the service was taken offline by Amazon Web Services. The app, which was popular with many supporters of US President Trump, contained many posts, photos, and videos from the January 6 attack, and after the social network got deplatformed by multiple tech companies (including Google Play, Apple's App Store, and AWS) this information would have been lost forever. However, before that happened, security researchers claimed to have downloaded and leaked around 70TB of data from Parler, which is being distributed online."

Complete article here:  https://gadgets.ndtv.com/social-networking/news/80tb-parler-posts-photos-videos-leaked-by-security-researchers-law-enforcement-can-use-to-identify-january-6-attackers-2350920

[MacGyver]

9 minutes ago, Garufa said:

"Security researchers claim to have downloaded a huge amount of information from Parler before the service was taken offline by Amazon Web Services. The app, which was popular with many supporters of US President Trump, contained many posts, photos, and videos from the January 6 attack, and after the social network got deplatformed by multiple tech companies (including Google Play, Apple's App Store, and AWS) this information would have been lost forever. However, before that happened, security researchers claimed to have downloaded and leaked around 70TB of data from Parler, which is being distributed online."

Complete article here:  https://gadgets.ndtv.com/social-networking/news/80tb-parler-posts-photos-videos-leaked-by-security-researchers-law-enforcement-can-use-to-identify-january-6-attackers-2350920

All of the above - plus Amazon is almost certainly in receipt of a preservation order. 

[E4 No More]

6 minutes ago, MacGyver said:

All of the above - plus Amazon is almost certainly in receipt of a preservation order. 

So do you think that the "security researchers" will be investigated for violating the CFAA and 18 U.S.C. 1030? Personally, I think those crimes will be ignored.

[gregintenn]

How do you guys feel about mewe?

[Omega]

32 minutes ago, MacGyver said:

All of the above - plus Amazon is almost certainly in receipt of a preservation order. 

You are talking about the same people that helped steal the election?  Don't hold your breath waiting for someone to do anything about the "accidental" erasure of all their data. 

[MacGyver]

10 minutes ago, E4 No More said:

So do you think that the "security researchers" will be investigated for violating the CFAA and 18 U.S.C. 1030? Personally, I think those crimes will be ignored.

It’s hard to say - but I doubt it.

Frankly, most of the cases I’ve been in over the years with stuff like this have been brought by private action.

I guess Parler would have some remedies available to them. That’s assuming they’ve got the money/desire to go to court.

I doubt they do. 

[E4 No More]

7 minutes ago, MacGyver said:

It’s hard to say - but I doubt it.

Frankly, most of the cases I’ve been in over the years with stuff like this have been brought by private action.

I guess Parler would have some remedies available to them. That’s assuming they’ve got the money/desire to go to court.

I doubt they do. 

My guess is that if they have a senator or a few representatives affected by this it MIGHT make a difference to the FBI, but I doubt it.

[Omega]

1 minute ago, E4 No More said:

My guess is that if they have a senator or a few representatives affected by this it MIGHT make a difference to the FBI, but I doubt it.

Ooooh look, a noose.

[Grayfox54]

I never have understood the whole social media thing. Aside from a couple of gun forums like this one, I don't do social media at all. I don't face. twit, or anything else. What info I do put on the internet about myself I'm very selective about. 

It seems that the people in this country, especially the young folks, are so insecure about themselves that they feel the need to put their entire life on the internet and seek validation from total strangers. How sad is that? And what does it say about the state of our nation? 

I prefer to be the Gray Man. Just easing through life un-noticed, minding my own business and attracting very little attention at all. I'm much happier that way. 

[MacGyver]

1 hour ago, gregintenn said:

How do you guys feel about mewe?

There are probably two ways to think about them:

1. It looks like they've gotten a few hundred thousand overall downloads.  That's not quite to the point where they need to think about scale like Facebook - but it's quickly approaching where they need an actual business model that lets them make money.  To my knowledge they haven't received VC funding, so that cliff is going to come sooner rather than later. Especially now that downloads seem to be slowing - it'll be hard to fundraise if your subscribers aren't going "up and to the right."

2. Probably more relevant right now in that people are looking for a place to go since Parler shut down is the conversation that practically every corporate attorney in America is having today. That is, how do you define "providing material support" to an insurrection?

That's what has caused Apple, Google, and Amazon to remove Parler.

It's what's caused 14 of the biggest tech companies on the planet to deplatform the most powerful man in the world.

It's what's caused companies like DOW and Ford to immediately suspend all donations to members of Congress who supported overturning the results of AZ, GA, and PA - https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/ford/2021/01/11/ford-dow-suspend-political-donations-capitol-riot/6623557002/ 

It's what caused Cumulus Media to tell hosts like Mark Levin, Ben Shapiro, and Dan Bongino to stop talking about the election being stolen at risk of having their contracts terminated: https://www.ajc.com/life/radiotvtalk-blog/cumulus-media-tells-its-conservative-talk-show-hosts-to-stop-talking-about-a-stolen-election/PE2VM6SQKBFBZBULQTFZLQUV7A/

Y'all can form your own opinion on whether you think this is justified or not - but I expect you'll see more examples in coming days. This is just to give an idea of the conversations management teams are having with counsel behind the scenes.

[MacGyver]

I should have also added to the above, there *is* a new administration about to start - and all the tech companies are going to bend over backwards without any prompting to look like they're playing nice for a while to avoid regulation.

[gregintenn]

As always, I value and appreciate your perspective, Mac! Thanks for taking the time.