kepford
kepford@nostrplebs.com
npub1qqqq...hq0q
Jesus follower | Bitcoiner | Freedom Maximalist | Javascript | Drupal | Newsletter Publisher
How California sent residents’ personal health data to LinkedIn
> As visitors filled out forms on the website, trackers on the same pages told LinkedIn their answers to questions about whether they were blind, pregnant, or used a high number of prescription medications. The trackers also monitored whether the visitors said they were transgender or possible victims of domestic abuse.
> Covered California, the organization that operates the website, removed the trackers as The Markup and CalMatters reported this article. The organization said they were removed “due to a marketing agency transition” in early April.
> In a statement, Kelly Donohue, a spokesperson for the agency, confirmed that data was sent to LinkedIn as part of an advertising campaign. Since being informed of the tracking, “all active advertising-related tags across our website have been turned off out of an abundance of caution,” she added.
My question is if the people affected will be compensated. I mean, its the government and they work for us... lol. I can't even continue that thought.
How California sent residents’ personal health data to LinkedIn – The Markup
The state’s health insurance exchange transmitted pregnancy and domestic abuse data during a marketing campaign. It is reviewing its website prac...
Stacker News
How California sent residents’ personal health data to LinkedIn \ stacker news
As visitors filled out forms on the website, trackers on the same pages told LinkedIn their answers to questions about whether they were blind, pre...
Israeli company TeleMessage, used by Trump WH, can access plaintext chat logs
Most detailed look at the app I have seen.
> Each archive plan has a source messaging app (like TM SGNL) and a destination, which is controlled by the TeleMessage customer. Destinations can include Microsoft 365, email servers (SMTP), or file servers (SFTP). The admin assigns TeleMessage users – like Mike Waltz – to an archive plan, which determines where their chat logs will get archived.
> Once the TM SGNL app sends chat logs to the archive server, the archive server is supposed to do something like this: It looks up the user that sent the chat log, then looks up that user's archive plan, then forwards the messages to destination defined in the archive plan (via SMTP or SFTP), and presumably (but who really knows for sure) deletes the chat logs from the archive server.
## Why Is TM SGNL So Terrible?
> Signal is the gold standard of end-to-end encrypted messaging apps.
> Messages are encrypted between endpoints – whether that's a phone running Signal, a computer running Signal Desktop, or even a phone running TM SGNL. The Signal server, and any internet eavesdroppers, cannot access the chat logs.
> However, once they're at an endpoint, they are in plaintext (if they weren't, you wouldn't be able to read your texts). At this point, they're protected by various forms of disk encryption depending on the device. This is how Signal messages sometimes end up as evidence in court records: someone's phone or laptop with Signal installed was searched, after the messages were already decrypted.
> TM SGNL completely breaks this security. The communication between the TM SGNL app and the final archive destination is not end-to-end encrypted.
> TeleMessage lies about this in their marketing material, claiming that TM SGNL supports "End-to-End encryption from the mobile phone through to the corporate archive."
The interesting thing about all of this. Companies using this service and government officials using it is the why. Why are they using it? Well, I have heard that many companies that used this service did so because of government regulations requiring the archiving of digital communications. I assume this is also the thought with the WH using this.
But it should be noted that TM SGNL, unlike Signal has not been approved for use in the government. I mean, it would be absurd if it were. Just when you think this story is over more details emerge :)
I'm not even gonna get into the fact that this company is very closely tied to Israeli intelligence. Its just too much, its just so absurd.
originally posted at 
micahflee
Despite misleading marketing, Israeli company TeleMessage, used by Trump officials, can access plaintext chat logs
💡Update May 18, 2025: I described TeleMessage's trivial vulnerability in an article for WIRED: How the knock-off Signal app used by Trump offici...
Stacker News
Israeli company TeleMessage, used by Trump WH, can access plaintext chat logs \ stacker news
Most detailed look at the app I have seen. Each archive plan has a source messaging app (like TM SGNL) and a destination, which is controlled by th...
Signal Clone TeleMessage Deleted Video About How It Works—Here’s What It Said
http://archive.today/rxYqL
Its pretty wild that companies and government agency employees were using this incredibly insecure tool. Learned today that it literally emails chat logs in clear text...
So you use Signal just to email your conversations... wild.
originally posted at 
Stacker News
Signal Clone TeleMessage Deleted Video About How It Works—Here’s What It Said \ stacker news
Its pretty wild that companies and government agency employees were using this incredibly insecure tool. Learned today that it literally emails cha...
How Trump Can Lower Drug Prices Without Price Controls
https://mises.org/mises-wire/how-trump-can-lower-drug-prices-without-price-controls
This whole thing is yet another example of how lost the Republican/Trump camp is on economics, socialism, and the path to prosperity and peace.
> The Trump administration is trying to frame this as another example of the rest of the world freeloading off the American people who are forced to pay the cost of research, development, and production in order for the rest of the world to enjoy low drug prices. Economically, that is not how prices work. But it’s a believable story because of how absurdly high drug prices are in the US, especially when compared to the rest of the world.
originally posted at 
Stacker News
How Trump Can Lower Drug Prices Without Price Controls \ stacker news
This whole thing is yet another example of how lost the Republican/Trump camp is on economics, socialism, and the path to prosperity and peace. The...
Reproducible Builds: Verify our Android app builds bit-for-bit - Mullvad VPN
> Starting with version 2025.2, our Android app builds are reproducible. This means you can verify that the app you download and install is built from the open source code we publish.
originally posted at 
Mullvad VPN
Reproducible Builds: Verify our Android app builds bit-for-bit
Starting with version 2025.2, our Android app builds are reproducible. This means you can verify that the app you download and install is built fro...
Stacker News
Reproducible Builds: Verify our Android app builds bit-for-bit - Mullvad VPN \ stacker news
Starting with version 2025.2, our Android app builds are reproducible. This means you can verify that the app you download and install is built fro...
Sam Altman Wants Your Eyeball
originally posted at 
Privacy Guides
Sam Altman Wants Your Eyeball
Last week, OpenAI
Stacker News
Sam Altman Wants Your Eyeball \ stacker news
@kepford stacked 75 sats posting https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/05/10/sam-altman-wants-your-eyeball/#in-the-united-states-the-app-is-r...
KeePassium Review: A Flexible Password Manager for iOS and macOS
> KeePassium is a KeePass-compatible project. If you are already familiar with any software from the KeePass ecosystem, you will feel right at home with KeePassium.
> KeePassium is a commercial open-source application made by KeePassium Labs, based in Luxembourg.
originally posted at 
Privacy Guides
KeePassium Review: A Flexible Password Manager for iOS and macOS
If you need a password manager for iOS or macOS that gives you full control over your data, KeePassium is a fantastic option. With KeePassium, you ...
Stacker News
KeePassium Review: A Flexible Password Manager for iOS and macOS \ stacker news
KeePassium is a KeePass-compatible project. If you are already familiar with any software from the KeePass ecosystem, you will feel right at home w...
I'm not really interested in running Knots but it seems to me that there should be more effort in getting more devs working on it.
How to Make Censorship Impossible(Max Hillebrand intro to Nostr) Tom Woods Show
> We’re all concerned about having freedom of discussion on important issues shut down by politicians and Big Tech. Max Hillebrand joins us to discuss the technology that can make that impossible (yes, this is a good news episode).
Good to see Nostr getting some exposure to the Tom Woods audience.
Haven't listened to this yet. Its in my queue.
originally posted at 
Tom Woods - Tom Woods
Ep. 2641 How to Make Censorship Impossible - Tom Woods
We're all concerned about having freedom of discussion on important issues shut down by politicians and Big Tech. Max Hillebrand joins us to d...
Stacker News
How to Make Censorship Impossible(Max Hillebrand intro to Nostr) Tom Woods Show \ stacker news
We’re all concerned about having freedom of discussion on important issues shut down by politicians and Big Tech. Max Hillebrand joins us to disc...
A Critical Look at MCP - Raz Blog
What is MCP?
> "MCP is an open protocol that standardizes how applications provide context to LLMs. Think of MCP like a USB-C port for AI applications. Just as USB-C provides a standardized way to connect your devices to various peripherals and accessories, MCP provides a standardized way to connect AI models to different data sources and tools."
― Anthropic
Rasmus Holm writes:
> All the major players spend billions of dollars on training and tuning their models, only to turn around and, from what I can tell, have an interns write the documentation, providing subpar SDKs and very little in terms of implementation guidance.
> This trend seems to have continued with MCP, resulting in some very strange design decisions, poor documentation, and an even worse specification of the actual protocols.
This to me seems to be a classic case of the rush to get out before the competition. No one has time to do it "right". But Rasmus is right to point this out as a problem.
originally posted at 
Raz Blog
Stacker News
A Critical Look at MCP - Raz Blog \ stacker news
What is MCP? "MCP is an open protocol that standardizes how applications provide context to LLMs. Think of MCP like a USB-C port for AI application...
Google Fires Engineer Who Claims Its A.I. Is Conscious - 2022
https://archive.is/dJLDr
From 2022!
> The engineer, Blake Lemoine, contends that the company’s language model has a soul. The company denies that and says he violated its security policies.
Colleague of mine shared this old article with me while we were talking about the "magic" in AI and killing it with learning how it works.
This is a reminder that there are different kinds of intelligence. One can be great at math or software engineering and very naive in other areas. I'm sure we all know people that are very smart but also can be fooled or behave in very dumb ways.
originally posted at 
Stacker News
Google Fires Engineer Who Claims Its A.I. Is Conscious - 2022 \ stacker news
From 2022! The engineer, Blake Lemoine, contends that the company’s language model has a soul. The company denies that and says he violated its s...
Google Fires Engineer Who Claims Its A.I. Is Conscious
https://archive.is/dJLDr
From 2022!
> The engineer, Blake Lemoine, contends that the company’s language model has a soul. The company denies that and says he violated its security policies.
Colleague of mine shared this old article with me while we were talking about the "magic" in AI and killing it with learning how it works.
This is a reminder that there are different kinds of intelligence. One can be great at math or software engineering and very naive in other areas. I'm sure we all know people that are very smart but also can be fooled or behave in very dumb ways.
originally posted at
Stacker News
Google Fires Engineer Who Claims Its A.I. Is Conscious - 2022 \ stacker news
From 2022! The engineer, Blake Lemoine, contends that the company’s language model has a soul. The company denies that and says he violated its s...
Friedman on Greed in Capitalism and Socialism
> Socialism doesn't eliminate greed—it redirects it from market competition to political competition. The latter is far more destructive.
The common mistake people make when criticizing capitalism is the forget that you can't really eliminate greed with an economic system. You can at best minimize its damage and maximize its benefits.
originally posted at 
X (formerly Twitter)
Connor Boyack 📚 (@cboyack) on X
Friedman said it far better:
Stacker News
Friedman on Greed in Capitalism and Socialism \ stacker news
Socialism doesn't eliminate greed—it redirects it from market competition to political competition. The latter is far more destructive. The commo...
Trump Urges Buying Stock Now, Says Powell Is Always Late
https://finance.yahoo.com/video/trump-urges-buying-stock-now-161644524.html
originally posted at 
Stacker News
Trump Urges Buying Stock Now, Says Powell Is Always Late \ stacker news
@kepford stacked 7 sats posting https://finance.yahoo.com/video/trump-urges-buying-stock-now-161644524.html
"The Face of God" Michael & The Shroud of Turin with Dr. Jeremiah Johnston
Pretty fascinating stuff.
originally posted at 
Stacker News
"The Face of God" Michael & The Shroud of Turin with Dr. Jeremiah Johnston \ stacker news
Pretty fascinating stuff.
Real ID Is Not About Keeping You Safe
https://mises.org/mises-wire/real-id-not-about-keeping-you-safe
Remember with conservatives, republicans, and libertarians were opposed to Real ID? Yeah... good times.
Real ID is a prime example of why I'm a politically disenfranchised person. These movements are a joke with the consistency of sports team fans. They never call balls and strikes. Its all about power and who controls the ring of power that is political power. D.C. is Mordor and no man can wield the ring. It corrupts those pure in heart and attracts those with black hearts.
originally posted at 
Stacker News
Real ID Is Not About Keeping You Safe \ stacker news
Remember with conservatives, republicans, and libertarians were opposed to Real ID? Yeah... good times. Real ID is a prime example of why I'm a pol...
Kristi Noem’s Authoritarian Take on Travel
Its hard for me to take Fed Barbie seriously. She seems to love to do "I'm a Fed" dress up parties.
originally posted at 
The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity
Kristi Noem’s Authoritarian Take on Travel - The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity
Speaking Tuesday before the Homeland Security Subcommittee of the United States House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations regarding the ...
Stacker News
Kristi Noem’s Authoritarian Take on Travel \ stacker news
Its hard for me to take Fed Barbie seriously. She seems to love to do "I'm a Fed" dress up parties.
The California Bullet Train Is a Good Lesson in Political Deception
https://mises.org/mises-wire/california-bullet-train-good-lesson-political-deception
I was born and raised in this part of California and I drive by the construction sites for this rail line every week. I have watched them slowly progress for the last 15+ years. I know people that have worked on them and are working on them. It is wild how many people see the failure before their eyes. I'm not sure most are learning any valuable lessons from it though.
> Much has been written about the proposed (and proposed really is an understatement) project, which is supposed to run entirely by electricity created from renewable resources. In 2008, California voters approved a bond issue of $9.9 billion to determine the feasibility of the proposed high-speed railroad that would link San Francisco and Los Angeles with a then-$33 billion price tag.
> Understand that no private firm would build a railroad like this because it could never recoup its original costs. The current projected outlay of $135 billion almost surely will grow, as the project continues to miss its goals and run into more difficulties. It will be mathematically impossible for the rail line ever to turn a profit, even if it ever is completed—which is highly doubtful.
I fully agree with this statement.
> But, even given the flat terrain, much of the Bakersfield-Merced line will have to run on huge concrete viaducts that are extremely costly and will take years to complete. To put it another way, if the lowest-hanging fruit for a rail line has been extremely costly, think what will be the case if they ever try to carve a path around and through the mountains that surround Los Angeles.
I and most of the people I speak to in my area believe this project will never be completed.
But for all the criticism of the cost over-runs and timeline shifting and goal changing the most obvious thing is the lack of demand for this line in the first place.
> ... the Central Valley already has passenger rail courtesy of Amtrak and if what we saw on our trip with near-empty cars is an indication of the Amtrak ridership of that area, one seriously doubts that high-speed rail—while a curiosity—will make a difference for people in that valley. The local political rhetoric notwithstanding, even if this monstrosity is completed, it won’t be a “game changer” but rather a conversation piece at best.
If this section of the line is actually completed there is no way it will ever pay itself off let alone be sustaining. There just isn't the demand for it let alone the demand needed to make this economically feasible.
Meanwhile the highways and roads in our area have been poorly maintained and are not sufficient to support the population. A faction of the money wasted on this project could have been used to improve transportation.
> The longevity of this failed project is a testament both to political inertia and to the love affair that progressives have with both central government economic planning and especially the high-speed rail. It is a massive malinvestment that is saddling California with huge debts that its taxpayers—most of whom will gain no benefit from the bullet train—will have to shoulder in the future. Those politicians and politically-connected contractors most responsible for this boondoggle will gain the benefits (and get to ride for free), while the victims will have to pay.
I would add that this whole en-devour has demonstrated to me the folly of the population when it comes to democracy and voting on central planning projects. The masses are not qualified to do vote on doing things like this. The fact that the project continues is an indictment on the idea of democracy.
originally posted at 
Stacker News
The California Bullet Train Is a Good Lesson in Political Deception \ stacker news
I was born and raised in this part of California and I drive by the construction sites for this rail line every week. I have watched them slowly pr...