Communications

https://themindunleashed.com/2019/04/google-tracks-your-location-police-phone-off.html

Even if you disable GPS, deactivate phone location tracking, and turn off your phone, it’s still possible for Google and the NSA to monitor your every move.

Over the last two decades, cell phone use has become an everyday part of life for the vast majority of people around the planet. Nearly without question, consumers have chosen to carry these increasingly smart devices with them everywhere they go. Despite surveillance revelations from whistleblowers like Edward Snowden, the average smart phone user continues to carry the devices with little to no security or protection from privacy invasions.

Americans make up one of the largest smartphone markets in the world today, yet they rarely question how intelligence agencies or private corporations might be using their smartphone data. A recent report from the New York Times adds to the growing list of reasons why Americans should be asking these questions. According to the Times, law enforcement have been using a secret technique to figure out the location of Android users. The technique involves gathering detailed location data collected by Google from Android phones, iPhones, and iPads that have Google Maps and other Google apps installed.

The location data is stored inside a Google database known as Sensorvault, which contains detailed location records of hundreds of millions of devices from around the world. The records reportedly contain location data going back to 2009. The data is collected whether or not users are making calls or using apps.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) says police are using a single warrant—sometimes known as a “geo-fence” warrant—to access location data from devices that are linked to individuals who have no connection to criminal activity and have not provided any reasonable suspicion of a crime. Jennifer Lynch, EFF’s Surveillance Litigation Director, says these searches are problematic for several reasons.

“First, unlike other methods of investigation used by the police, the police don’t start with an actual suspect or even a target device—they work backward from a location and time to identify a suspect,” Lynch wrote. “This makes it a fishing expedition—the very kind of search that the Fourth Amendment was intended to prevent. Searches like these—where the only information the police have is that a crime has occurred—are much more likely to implicate innocent people who just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Every device owner in the area during the time at issue becomes a suspect—for no other reason than that they own a device that shares location information with Google.”

The problems associated with Sensorvault have also concerned a bipartisan group of lawmakers who recently sent a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai. The letter from Democrats and Republicans on the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee gives Google until May 10 to provide information on how this data is used and shared. The letter was signed by Democratic Representatives Frank Pallone and Jan Schakowsky and Republicans Greg Walden and Cathy McMorris Rodgers.

Google has responded to the report from the Times by stating that users opt in to collection of the location data stored in Sensorvault. A Google representative also told the lawmakers that users “can delete their location history data, or turn off the product entirely, at any time.” Unfortunately, this explanation falls flat when one considers that Android devices log location data by default and that it is notoriously difficult to opt out of data collection.

No matter what promises Google makes, readers should remember that back in 2010, the Washington Post published a story focusing on the growth of surveillance by the National Security Agency. That report detailed an NSA technique that “enabled the agency to find cellphones even when they were turned off.” The technique was reportedly first used in Iraq in pursuit of terrorist targets. Additionally, it was reported in 2016 that a technique known as a “roving bug” allowed FBI agents to eavesdrop on conversations that took place near cellphones.

These tools are now undoubtedly being used on Americans. The reality is that these tools—and many, many others that have been revealed—are being used to spy on innocent Americans, not only violent criminals or suspects. The only way to push back against this invasive surveillance is to stop supporting the companies responsible for the techniques and data sharing. Those who value privacy should invest time in learning how to protect data and digital devices. Privacy is quickly becoming a relic of a past era and the only way to stop it is to raise awareness, opt-out of corporations that don’t respect privacy, and protect your data.

The post Google Tracks Your Location and Shares It With Police, Even When Your Phone is Off appeared first on The Mind Unleashed.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/positivelypositive/positive/~3/HA2t2LunOOo/

I’ve come to realize that this is a controversial statement for some people.

Two issues, it seems:

1. Better implies that what we have right now is imperfect. Better requires change, and change is scary. Better might be in the eye of the beholder. Better is an assertion, one that requires not just the confidence to say it, but the optimism to believe that it’s possible.
2. Make implies that it’s up to us. Someone needs to make it better, and it might just be you. In fact, if you don’t enlist to produce better, you’re part of the status quo, which is a problem.

I’ve seen that there are pockets of our culture where both of these ideas are difficult to embrace. That authority pushes us to fit in, not to seek improvement, and deniability encourages us to whine instead of doing something about it. Power enjoys passivity in others.

Power doesn’t want you to get uppity, doesn’t enjoy your dissatisfaction, doesn’t want to be on the hook to continually upgrade all of its systems. And so power has sold a cultural norm of acceptance, deniability and ennui.

And yet…

Everything in our built world–the water we drink, the food we eat, the place we live–if it’s good, it’s good because someone, a generation or two ago, decided to make it better. And if it’s not good, or not good enough, only our action is going to make it better.

We can see the world around us, and if we try, we can see it becoming better.

It might be a podcast or a political campaign, an engineering insight or a more inclusive policy. It probably involves finding and organizing others on a similar path. It definitely takes guts.

I’ll reiterate my belief that we each have a chance to assert. To announce our vision, to propose a change, to do the hard work to make things better.

It’s on us, right now.

Make things better by making better things. @ThisIsSethsBlog (Click to Tweet!)

*Originally published on sethsblog.

Seth Godin has written eighteen books that have been translated into more than thirty languages. Every one has been a bestseller. He writes about the post-industrial revolution, the way ideas spread, marketing, quitting, leadership, and, most of all, changing everything.

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The post Make Things Better appeared first on Positively Positive.

https://omtimes.com/2019/04/chicken-amy-fewell/

It may not seem like it, but the existence of chickens in your backyard can provide you with a healthier life, according to author Amy Fewell. An Interview with Amy Fewel, Author of Natural Chicken Keeping Handbook     Because they are omnivorous birds, they recycle food waste and organic waste from the yard, keeping them from dumps or landfills. Not to mention that the compound produced by birds results in fertilized soil rich in nitrogen. And problems with unwanted insects and pests will end with the arrival of chickens, which can also give you fresh, natural eggs- all with the certainty that you are not consuming preservatives and other common additives in industrialized products. The Homesteader’s Natural Chicken Keeping Handbook by Amy Fewell is the modern homesteader’s guide to raising, feeding, breeding, selling, and enjoying the noblest animal on the farm – the chicken. From the rooster’s crow in the morning to the warm egg in the nesting box, chickens are the gateway livestock for almost every homesteader and backyard farm enthusiast. In this book, you’ll learn everything you need to know about raising poultry naturally. In this book, Fewell guides readers in: ~ Understanding why chickens do what they do ~ Creating your very own poultry or egg business ~ Preventing and treating ailments with herbal remedies ~ Setting up your property, coop, and brooder ~ Hatching chicks ~ Purchasing chickens properly ~ Cooking delicious recipes with your farm fresh eggs and poultry. This is heritage chicken-keeping skills 101, with a modern twist. Not only will you gain knowledge about naturally keeping poultry through every stage of their lives, but you’ll fully embrace the joy and ease of raising all-natural chickens on your homestead. OMTimes: What motivated you to start this journey of discovery and to become such…

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https://themindsjournal.com/the-signs-as-their-superpower/

The Signs As Their Superpower

The post The Signs As Their Superpower appeared first on The Minds Journal.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/positivelypositive/positive/~3/CPBAlWBmTyM/

One time, long ago, I had a hard year while living in Memphis, Tennessee.

Ever since then, especially when I’ve been at events throughout the south, I’ve met a lot of people who also lived in Memphis for a time. When the subject comes up, once in a while I mention something about my hard year there, and I always add a disclaimer: “Probably it was just me.”

There are good people everywhere, and you never want to insult someone’s city. More than once, though, they’ve said “I had a hard year in Memphis too!”

As the song says, maybe it was Memphis, but maybe it was just me. Whatever it was, it wasn’t only a hard year: it was actually a terrible year where I felt very alone and afraid.

One day I found myself driving back from a short day trip. I’d been on the road for several hours and was coming home to my apartment near the university.

On the way back, half an hour from my apartment, I came upon a set of railroad tracks. The flagpole was down and the light was flashing—apparently a train was coming. Great, I thought. Just what I need when I’m tired and almost home.

But when a train’s arriving, there’s not much you can do besides wait. So I waited. Pretty soon the train would show up, I’d count the cars as I listened to Dave Matthews Band on my CD player (remember those?) and eventually I’d be able to get home.

I was really depressed around this time. I had to impose rules on myself: no beer or wine before 5pm, no beer or wine and driving in general, try to get outside at least once a day, force one social interaction at least once a day, exercise at least once in a while. It certainly wasn’t my “designed life.” I had plenty of acquaintances but few close friends.

Mostly I sat around feeling sorry for myself, which is hardly ever the brightest idea, but it can also be a hard habit to break.

Anyway, I was on my way home, sitting there in the stopped car, listening to Dave while waiting to get on my way, and a funny thing happened. Or actually, nothing happened. There was no train. I sat there and waited, but no locomotive appeared on the horizon in either direction.

I finally got out of my car and walked up to the tracks, looking all the way down either side. You guessed it: still no train.

What the hell? I thought. This is the slowest train in the history of Memphis.

With no other apparent option to consider, I got back into my car and kept waiting. Even then, former juvenile delinquent that I was, having graduated from college at the age of 19, well on my way to a life of questioning the rules and forging my own path, I was pretty damn conditioned.

See, if you grow up in America, and presumably some other places too, from an early age you learn to never cross the tracks when a train is approaching. You just can’t do it! When teenagers learn to drive, they’re shown videos of horrible car accidents that occurred when someone tried to beat the train. It’s a grotesque fear tactic, and also an effective one: as I sat idling just beyond the crossing, I remembered the videos. Depressed as I was, I didn’t want to die. And certainly not in a train accident!

If that happened, then I’d be the star of those videos for the next generation: “Look at this dumb-ass,” the voiceover would say. “He thought he could beat the train, but he was wrong, just like everyone else who ever tried. Don’t do it.”

Five more minutes passed. By then I had turned off the stereo and finally cut the engine. You know what else was strange? There were no other cars. It was just the flagpole and the flashing lights and me—all waiting for a train that didn’t seem to exist.

Not knowing the city well and driving back from far away, I didn’t have another way home. This was long ago, with no cell phone or GPS to check. So I just kept waiting, because what else could I do? Surely there was going to be a train at some point.

Five more minutes passed. I got out of my car again and walked around. I peered all the way down the tracks once more—no train.

I finally realized what I had to do. There was no other option: I’d have to drive around those flagpoles, ignoring those flashing lights. I’d have to jump the railroad tracks!

Even though it seemed so obvious, I was terrified. I just knew it wouldn’t end well.

I waited three more minutes just in case I’d gain a reprieve from the challenge, with a train suddenly arriving on the scene and an engineer waving an apology for activating the signal so early. But no luck, of course: there wasn’t a train, and it was now or never for me.

Finally, I took a deep breath. I turned on the engine and crept up to the first set of flagpoles. There was enough room for me to maneuver around. There was no reason not to.

So I did it. I gunned the engine, deployed my best video game skills, drove around the flagpoles on my side, crossed the tracks, and drove around the other set of poles on the other side. Yes! I had done it! And I was okay.

But guess what I thought every instant of that five-second drive across the tracks? I didn’t think: Yes! I’m doing this! I’ll be okay.

No, the whole time I thought: I’m such a screw-up. I’m so scared.

I honestly thought there was a train coming that I had somehow failed to see. Because I didn’t trust myself. I didn’t trust my own judgment, having convinced myself of a lack of self-worth.

I didn’t even trust what I saw with my own eyes. Instead, I trusted that story I was told about how you should never cross the train tracks unless you were stupid and had a death wish. While that story may be true 9,999,999 times out of a million, on that day it wasn’t. Flashing lights or not, if I wanted to get home that night, somehow I had to drive across those tracks.

Arriving on the other side of the street after that five-second journey, I immediately pulled over and stopped the car. I was shaking and out of breath.

But I also felt the initial surges of triumph, at long last. No one had seen it, but it didn’t matter. I’d faced the challenge and overcome. Sure, it might have taken a while, and I was still depressed, but I had done it.

I got out of the car again and walked back to the crossing one more time, looking over at where I had waited alone for more than twenty minutes. Even then, I think I still expected to see a train approaching in the distance. Surely it was just very late! If I had waited, it would have eventually shown up, rolled on past, and then the emergency signal would have ended.

But no—that’s not how it went. The flagpoles were down, the lights were flashing, and it was all just a weird malfunction.

There never was a train. The only way out was through; the only way forward was to go back on what I believed to be true.

Just as I eventually crossed the tracks, I eventually found my way out of that miserable year. I quit the last day job I ever had and started learning to be self-sufficient. I quit the graduate program I was in, too. I finished most of my course requirements but never wrote the thesis. No regrets, I told myself, and I didn’t have any.

It didn’t happen right away, but eventually I was happy again. I found my way through and learned to trust my judgment.

Remember, if you ever find yourself alone for the holidays, hang in there. Or if you’re reading this some other time during a hard year of your own, somewhere there’s an answer.

It might take a while, but there’s light somewhere on the other side. You just have to find your way across, even if it goes against everything you’ve been told. @chrisguillebeau (Click to Tweet!)

Chris Guillebeau is the New York Times bestselling author of The Happiness of Pursuit, The $100 Startup, and other books. During a lifetime of self-employment, he visited every country in the world (193 in total) before his 35th birthday. Every summer in Portland, Oregon he hosts the World Domination Summit, a gathering of creative, remarkable people. His new book, Born for This, will help you find the work you were meant to do. Connect with Chris on Twitter, on his blog, or at your choice of worldwide airline lounge.

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The post To Cross the Railroad Tracks, Go Against Everything You’ve Been Told appeared first on Positively Positive.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/gauravsharma/2019/04/19/u-s-will-import-less-latin-american-oil-no-matter-what-happens-to-venezuela/

Washington’s rising energy independence means less oil imports from the near neighborhood.

https://themindsjournal.com/you-should-sit-in-nature-for-20-minutes-a-day/

You should sit in nature for 20 minutes A day

The post You Should Sit In Nature for 20 minutes A day appeared first on The Minds Journal.

https://omtimes.com/2019/04/mindful-eating/

Mindful eating is one of the most powerful tools to get you to your goals. Mindful Eating: A Powerful Tool for the Successful Entrepreneur     Successful entrepreneurs are amazing individuals. They’re hard-working and dedicated to their endeavors. They’re striving to meet and even surpass their goals.  They’re always doing their best to maximize their performance. What they might not realize, but, is that one particularly bad habit could be sabotaging their success. We all have deadlines to meet and goals to achieve, and we can be so busy that we let our eating slide. Unfortunately, when we sacrifice our nutrition, we pay a higher price than we realize. This is especially true when we eat mindlessly for months on end. Ultimately, we suffer from a worsening mood, lower or frazzled energy, a negative attitude and, compromised relationships Entrepreneurs think that they’re clever cutting corners by skipping meals or subsisting on junk food, but in this way, they’re undermining their success. If you think that by not stopping for proper meals, you’re going to do more, you’re incorrect because, it’ll catch up with you. If you’re an entrepreneur who’s eating mindlessly while trying to build your business, your relationships might end up suffering. Poor nutrition has emotional consequences as much as physical ones; making you more irritable and impatient. You might snap at a colleague and undermine a potential new business association. You might lose your cool and look bad when you need to impress an investor. As an entrepreneur, your creativity, your stamina, and your concentration are all essential for your success. But all these things diminish if you don’t have enough high-quality fuel to feed your body and your brain. If you were a race car driver, you’d want to win every race, so you’d never dream of…

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https://omtimes.com/2019/04/learn-shift-mood/

What if we knew that the relationship with our moods and emotions is one of the most powerful things we can do to shape the changes we want in our world? Mood Shifting For The Courageous by Crystal Presence     In times of change, we find ourselves heading into the unknown. We know we have to let go of how it has been and wonder how to make to a shift out of the old continuity. We do our best to be courageous in changing our perspectives and coming up with new ideas for taking action. It also takes embracing the moods and emotions that get stirred up inside. Unfortunately, we are faced with the constrictive cultural standards of how we are expected to respond. What if we knew that the relationship with our emotions is one of the most powerful things we can do to shape what we want our world? What if we bring forth a new context of living where emotions are embraced and responded to as a path to wellness? Research has shown that the more we understand and embrace our emotions the more our lives will be filled with ease and wellbeing. Think about it. When someone says the word “feelings”, what comes to mind? What is your initial response? Do any of these sound familiar? Oh no, I can’t feel this right now! I better put these emotions on hold, or I will make a fool of myself. I have to get rid of this mood, or I will ruin my chance of getting what I want.   Emotions are e-motions, energy in motion that alerts and guide us with different vibrational frequencies. If our energy feels dissonant, our emotions alert us to make a change. If our energy feels harmonious, our emotions are letting us…

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https://omtimes.com/2019/04/invoke-loves-divine-magic/

Learn to surrender to love’s divine magic to take your relationship to new heights. Invoke Love’s Divine Magic     Imagine that we’re out to dinner, driving in a car somewhere, or maybe just lying in bed moments before it’s time to turn out the lights. All is well. Everything seems quiet. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, our partner tosses a “grenade” into our lap. Suddenly, but too late, it’s obvious: we didn’t see any of the familiar signs that usually indicate a conflict is about to erupt. Perhaps they say something overtly cruel or make some passive aggressive comment to remind us where we went wrong earlier that evening, or maybe even five years ago. Almost instantly, from out of our mouth comes pouring a host of tried and true things we tend to say in similar situations; words with edges to cut, some smooth enough to defuse the situation, others more forceful, and all designed to turn the tide of battle and push our partner back onto their heels. Then, a shift; something within us remembers that we’ve been where this fight is about to take us at least a hundred times and that there’s nothing new or good about getting there; just more of the same. In that same revelation, in fact as a part of its remembrance, we now see what we couldn’t before: we’re about to wade into a “war” with our partner that can’t be won no matter which of us seems to come out on top! So, given what this new level of higher awareness shows us as being true, there’s the only logical, and ultimately loving action left for us to do: we refuse the call to combat. Instead of going ballistic, we go inwardly quiet. But let us tread this new…

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