Law
Facebook says it didn’t Violate user Privacy
Facebook gave companies such as Apple, Amazon and Yahoo extensive access to users’ personal data, effectively exempting them from the company’s usual privacy rules, according to a New York Times report .
Facebook enabled partners to offer services that tap into Facebook accounts and features. For example, Spotify was able to offer a feature that lets a user share song lists with his or her Facebook friends. But to do that, Facebook had to give Spotify the user’s list of Facebook friends.
Facebook says it didn’t violate its users’ privacy in doing any of this. But Facebook has a history of playing fast and loose with the word “permission.” That appears to be the case here, too.
A look at the claims:
Facebook: “To be clear: none of these partnerships or features gave companies access to information without people’s permission.” — from a blog post late Tuesday by Konstantinos Papamiltiadis, the company’s director of developer platforms.
The facts: In this case, the company says that its “integration partners” — such as Amazon, BlackBerry or Microsoft — had to get authorization from people to turn on these features. Users would have done this by using their Facebook account to log in to the other services, which, technically, counted as giving permission. But people may not have realized just what they were granting permission for.
In addition, according to the Times report, Facebook from its early days formed key data-sharing partnerships with companies, sometimes giving them special access to data — without asking for users’ permission.
For example, according to the report, the company used contact lists from “partners” such as Amazon, Yahoo and China’s Huawei to suggest potential Facebook friends to users. Facebook argues that its partners are essentially an extension of itself, as service providers, and thus they don’t need to get permission from users as long as they limit data use to providing Facebook-related services.
In all, the report says, more than 150 companies benefited from Facebook’s data-sharing practices. While most were technology companies, there were also automakers and media organizations. Some, the Times notes, were still in effect this year.
The permissions issue came up earlier this year, when Facebook was found to have been collecting call and text histories from Android users. The company said at the time that it got permission from users to do this. Nonetheless, many users, including the New Zealand man who discovered the practice after downloading his Facebook data in March, were surprised that the company was logging this data.
According to internal emails made public as part of a lawsuit , the company was aware that the Android data collection could look bad. A product manager, Michael LeBeau, wrote in a February 2015 email that the permissions feature — which prompted users to grant access to call logs and text-message history — is “a pretty high-risk thing to do from a PR perspective.” But, he added, “the growth team will charge ahead and do it.”
Facebook: “Nor did they violate our 2012 settlement with the FTC,” or Federal Trade Commission. — from the same blog post.
The facts: As part of the settlement, Facebook is required to obtain people’s “affirmative express consent” before making changes that override their privacy preferences. This could apply to sharing the content of private messages, friends’ lists and other information that Facebook gave its partners access to.
Thus, Facebook’s assertion that most of its data-sharing partnerships were exempted is on shaky ground.
The FTC’s former chief technologist, Ashkan Soltani, and three former employees of its consumer protection division told the Times that the data-sharing deals probably violated the agreement. One said the partnerships seemed to give third parties permission to harvest data without users being informed of it or giving consent.
Facebook argues that it subjected those partners to its own rules about data use. But the Times report raises questions about how well Facebook managed those partners’ access.
The matter could ultimately be decided by the FTC. The agency said in March it was looking into whether Facebook engaged in unfair acts that might have violated the decree.
Education
Puthuppally bypoll: Meet Chandy Oommen who broke father Oommen Chandy’s record
Puthupally Bypoll News: In the Keralan constituency of Puthuppally, Chandy Oommen of the Congress could very easily beat his father’s previous record of 33,255 votes.
Chandy Oommen, the late Congress leader Oommen Chandy’s son, won the byelection for the Puthuppally assembly seat in Kerala on Friday by a margin of more than 36,000 votes.
Shashi Tharoor, a member of the Congress, campaigned at Kottayam for the party’s candidate and Chandy Oommen, son of former chief minister of Kerala Oommen Chandy. Chandy Oommen, son of former Kerala governor Oommen Chandy, and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor during Chandy Oommen’s election campaign in Kottayam, ahead of the Puthuppally assembly constituency by-elections. (PTI)
Since the first round, the opposition Congress-UDF candidate has gained a definite advantage; in contrast, Jaick C. Thomas, the candidate for the ruling LDF, has never been able to take the lead in any rounds. Chandy Oommen may probably beat his father’s record of 33,255 votes in the district, which the late Congress leader held for more than 50 years while representing Puthuppally in the state assembly.
On September 5, elections were held to fill the seat that Oommen Chandy’s death left empty.
Chandy Oommen, who is he?
Chandy Oommen, who was born in Puthuppally, Kottayam district, in March 1986, graduated from Loyola School in 1992 and earned a BA with honors and an MA in history from the prestigious St Stephen’s College in New Delhi.
From 2006 to 2007, he served as the college students’ union’s president. Chandy earned his LLB from Delhi University and LLM in constitutional law at Christ University in Bengaluru after completing his post-graduate studies in 2015–16.
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Scaler Academy: Supported 3. Chandy Oommen finished his LLM in criminology at the National Law University, New Delhi, in 2016, following the completion of a summer course at the London School of Economics. He is a practicing attorney who also teaches as an adjunct professor at Vivekananda Institute of Professional Studies in Delhi and Amity University.
Since his college days, Chandy Oommen, 37, has been a part of the Congress’ organizational structure. He is currently a member of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) and the chairman of the national outreach cell of the Youth Congress.
In 2013, Chandy Oommen served as the Youth Congress’ state secretary. Additionally, he had taken part in the Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, which was led by Rahul Gandhi. But because of his father’s illness, he had to abandon the padyatra in the middle.
Drugs
Danny Masterson sentenced to 30 years to life for two rapes
Danny Masterson, a US actor, was found guilty of raping two women and was given a sentence of 30 years to life in jail.
At the time of his offenses in the early 2000s, Masterson was a cast member of the TV show That ’70s Show.
Masterson, 47, was accused of avoiding responsibility by relying on his fame as a famous Scientologist, according to the prosecution.
Before imposing a sentence, Judge Charlaine Olmedo enabled the victims of his acts to read impact statements in court.
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Leah Remini, a well-known former Scientologist and actress, was present at the court on Thursday and consoled the women before and after they gave their testimony.
US media stated that one of the women remarked, “I wish I had reported him to the police earlier.”
I’m sorry, another woman said to Masterson. I can no longer bear your illness, according to Reuters.
Masterson didn’t say anything at all during the hearing.
His wife, Bijou Phillips, was spotted in court sobbing as the judge pronounced his sentence—the harshest penalty permitted.
After the initial jury was unable to reach a verdict in 2022, Masterson underwent a retrial and was found guilty in May. After being found guilty, Masterson was placed under jail because he posed a flight risk.
Three women who said he had sexually assaulted them at his Hollywood home between 2001 and 2003—during the height of his television fame—led to the actor’s conviction.
He gave them drugs before assaulting them, according to testimony presented to the jury.
Of his three accusers, he was found guilty of rape by two of them. A mistrial was declared over the third accuser’s allegations, and the prosecution stated they have no plans to retry the case.
In a statement provided to BBC News, Alison Anderson, a lawyer for two of the victims, said that the ladies “have displayed tremendous strength and bravery, by coming forward to law enforcement and directly participating in two grueling criminal trials.”
These brave women helped hold a cruel sexual predator accountable today “despite persistent harassment, obstruction, and intimidation,” she said.
Prosecutors claimed throughout the trial that the Church of Scientology had assisted in covering up the assaults, a claim that the group has vehemently refuted.
Both Masterson and all three of his accusers were Scientologists at the time of the attacks. Many of the women claimed it took them years to come forward because Church of Scientology leaders allegedly told them not to call the police about the rape.
Prosecutors claim that Scientology leaders threatened one survivor with losing her membership unless she agreed to a non-disclosure agreement and took a $400,000 (£320,000) payment.
Judge Olmedo permitted discussion of the theology and practices of Scientology during the trial, which infuriated the group.
The Church of Scientology said there was “not a scintilla of evidence supporting the scandalous allegations that the Church harassed the accusers” in a statement following the verdict in May.
Leah Remini, an actress, has a reputation for being a vocal opponent of religion.
SOURCE OF IMAGE: GETTY IMAGES
picture caption
Leah Remini, an actress, has been vocal in her criticism of the Church of Scientology and is shown here during a movie screening.
One woman testified in court on Thursday about being rejected by her mother, a Scientologist who is still active.
According to her account, “She texted me and told me to never contact her again,” as quoted by the LA Times.
She had told me beforehand that she wanted Danny Masterson to be imprisoned for what he had done to me, but not at the expense of her religion.
Another woman claimed that the Church of Scientology had treated her unfairly ever since she spoke out.
“For almost seven years now, the cult of Scientology has terrorized, harassed, and invaded my privacy daily since the week I came forward to police,” she claimed, adding, “But I don’t regret it.”
At the height of the #MeToo movement in 2017, Masterson was accused of rape for the first time. He refuted the charges and insisted that all of the interactions were consensual.
After a three-year investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department, charges were filed. Due to insufficient evidence and the passing of the statute of limitations, prosecutors decided not to press charges in two other cases.
Jessica Barth, who established Voices in Action in the wake of the #MeToo movement, also attended Thursday’s sentence.
One of the women who accuse scandalized Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein of assault was Ms. Barth. Her nonprofit promotes reporting of abuse and encourages others to do the same.
According to a Los Angeles court official, the judge rejected Masterson’s defense team’s plea for a new trial prior to the hearing.
Law
Jawan box office collection Day 1: Shah Rukh Khan film likely to open at ₹75 cr, as per early estimates
Few people would have predicted that the record-breaking opening day attendance of Shah Rukh Khan’s spy thriller Pathaan earlier this year would be quickly exceeded. According to early predictions, Shah Rukh’s own action film Jawan might possibly succeed, according to a report from Sacnilk.com. (See also: In most of his films, Shah Rukh Khan flawlessly blends the personal and the political; Jawan is not one of them.)
Jawan, Shah Rukh Khan’s newest movie, is probably going to surpass Pathaan.
New movie starring Shah Rukh Khan Pathaan will probably lose to Jawan.
There are preliminary estimations.
According to the source, Jawan’s domestic box office debut on September 7 is predicted to bring in roughly 75 crore across the three languages of Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu. This is merely a selection from Day 1, which also happens to be a holiday because of Janmashtami and falls on a Thursday. Before the first Monday arrives, it is expected to have a fantastic run on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Statistics & facts
According to the same survey, the Hindi version had a 46% first day occupancy rate. The movie outperformed Pathaan on Day 1 with ticket sales of 14 lakh.
A long weekend was also enjoyed by Jawan vs. Pathaan Pathaan, which debuted on January 25. To have a successful run at the box office, it had Republic Day, the national holiday, on Thursday, the following Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
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