The Internet - The first Worldwide Tool of Unification ("The End of History")

" ... Now I give you something that few think about: What do you think the Internet is all about, historically? Citizens of all the countries on Earth can talk to one another without electronic borders. The young people of those nations can all see each other, talk to each other, and express opinions. No matter what the country does to suppress it, they're doing it anyway. They are putting together a network of consciousness, of oneness, a multicultural consciousness. It's here to stay. It's part of the new energy. The young people know it and are leading the way.... "

" ... I gave you a prophecy more than 10 years ago. I told you there would come a day when everyone could talk to everyone and, therefore, there could be no conspiracy. For conspiracy depends on separation and secrecy - something hiding in the dark that only a few know about. Seen the news lately? What is happening? Could it be that there is a new paradigm happening that seems to go against history?... " Read More …. "The End of History"- Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll)

"Recalibration of Free Choice"– Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth, 4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical) 8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“…5 - Integrity That May Surprise…

Have you seen innovation and invention in the past decade that required thinking out of the box of an old reality? Indeed, you have. I can't tell you what's coming, because you haven't thought of it yet! But the potentials of it are looming large. Let me give you an example, Let us say that 20 years ago, you predicted that there would be something called the Internet on a device you don't really have yet using technology that you can't imagine. You will have full libraries, buildings filled with books, in your hand - a worldwide encyclopedia of everything knowable, with the ability to look it up instantly! Not only that, but that look-up service isn't going to cost a penny! You can call friends and see them on a video screen, and it won't cost a penny! No matter how long you use this service and to what depth you use it, the service itself will be free.

Now, anyone listening to you back then would perhaps have said, "Even if we can believe the technological part, which we think is impossible, everything costs something. There has to be a charge for it! Otherwise, how would they stay in business?" The answer is this: With new invention comes new paradigms of business. You don't know what you don't know, so don't decide in advance what you think is coming based on an old energy world. ..."
(Subjects: Who/What is Kryon ?, Egypt Uprising, Iran/Persia Uprising, Peace in Middle East without Israel actively involved, Muhammad, "Conceptual" Youth Revolution, "Conceptual" Managed Business, Internet, Social Media, News Media, Google, Bankers, Global Unity,..... etc.)


German anti-hate speech group counters Facebook trolls

German anti-hate speech group counters Facebook trolls
Logo No Hate Speech Movement

Bundestag passes law to fine social media companies for not deleting hate speech

Honouring computing’s 1843 visionary, Lady Ada Lovelace. (Design of doodle by Kevin Laughlin)

Sunday, July 15, 2018

Fake news: algorithms in the dock

Yahoo – AFP, Taimaz SZIRNIKS, July 14, 2018

Algorithms run our Google searches, our Facebook newsfeed, recommend
articles or videos to us and sometimes censor questionable content (AFP
Photo/ALAIN JOCARD)

Paris (AFP) - At the heart of the spread of fake news are the algorithms used by search engines, websites and social media which are often accused of pushing false or manipulated information regardless of the consequences.

What are algorithms?

They are the invisible but essential computer programmes and formulas that increasingly run modern life, designed to repeatedly solve recurrent problems or to make decisions on their own.

Their ability to filter and seek out links in gigantic databases means it would be impossible to run global markets without them, but they can also be refined down to produce personalised quotes on everything from mortgages to plane tickets.

They also run our Google searches, our Facebook newsfeed, recommend articles or videos to us and sometimes censor questionable content because it may contain violence, pornography or racist language.

Other algorithms charged with the most complex and sensitive tasks can be opaque "black boxes" which develop their own artificial intelligence based on our data.

A skewed view of the world?

"Algorithms can help us find our way through the huge amount of information on the internet," said Margrethe Vestager, the European commissioner for competition.

"But the problem is that we only see what these algorithms -- and the companies that use them -- choose to show us," she added.

In organising your online content, algorithms also tend to create "filter bubbles", insulating us from opposing points of view.

During the US presidential election in 2016, Facebook was accused of helping Donald Trump by allowing often false information about his rival Hillary Clinton to circulate online, closing people into a news bubble.

Algorithms also tend to make extreme opinions "and fringe views more visible than ever", according to Berlin-based Lorena Jaume-Palasi, founder of the Algorithm Watch group.

However, their effects can be difficult to measure, she warned, saying that algorithms alone are not to blame for the rise in nationalism in Europe.

Spreading fake news?

Social media algorithms tend to push the most viewed content without checking if it is true or not, which is why they magnify the impact of fake news.

On YouTube in particular, conspiracy theory videos get a great deal more traffic than accurate and properly sourced ones, said Guillaume Chaslot, one of the Google-owned platform's former engineers.

These videos, which may claim that the moon landings or climate change are lies, get far more views and comments, keeping users on the platform longer and undermining credible, traditional media, Chaslot insisted.

More ethical algorithms?

Some observers believe that algorithms could be programmed "to serve human freedom", with many non-governmental groups demanding far more transparency.

"Coca-Cola doesn't reveal its formula but its products are tested for their effect on our health," Jaume-Palasi argued, insisting on the need for clear regulation.

The French privacy protection body, the CNIL, last year recommended state oversight of algorithms and that there should be a real push to educate people "so they understand the cogs of the (information technology) machine".

New European data protection rules also allow people to contest the decision of an algorithm and "demand a human intervention" in case of conflict.

Some internet giants have themselves begun to act to some degree: Facebook has started an effort to automatically label suspicious posts, while YouTube is reinforcing its "human controls" on videos aimed at children.

However, former Silicon Valley insiders who make up the Center for Humane Technology, which was set up to combat tech's excesses, have warned that "we can't expect attention-extraction companies like YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat, or Twitter to change, because it's against their business model."

Thursday, July 12, 2018

FAKE NEWS ! – (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

Kryon.com, March 25, 2018

This live channelling was given in Sacramento, California

To help the reader, this channelling has been revisited [by Lee and Kryon] to provide even clearer understanding. Sometime information is even added or condensed. Often what happens live has implied energy within it, which carries a kind of communication that the printed page does not. So enjoy this enhanced message given in Sacramento.

Greetings, dear ones, I am Kryon of Magnetic Service. The shift is occurring on this planet and is changing paradigms that you won't expect. All aspects of your culture will eventually be affected. The questions some of you have asked are, "What can I do next? What is it that would have the most results?" The answer is what we all have been telling you: Expect change. Expect benevolent change and develop the intuition to work with it.

So let's talk about an old paradigm that is prevalent and must change, and will change. I'm going to call it - are you ready? - fake news. [Laughter in the audience] This one is a bit different and it has many levels. Let's speak about one in 3D, and then let's go beyond that and talk about the esoteric ones. We speak about the news that you are given, that you believe and trust, that is completely and totally fake. Here you sit today, March 25. What is the big news? "You're going be hit with an amazing geomagnetic storm from the sun. It's an amazing coronal event and the hole produced is astonishing, and it will come slamming into this planet with all of its force, disrupting all communications and potentially knocking out satellites. It might even affect your health!" So, how do you like it so far? [Nothing had happened this day.] It was all over the news!

At the end of this channel, why don't you try to find out what happened? Why the fuss? It's so interesting that the news is so dramatic that it goes viral and, then, when the projected event doesn't happen. there is no news at all about why. What happened?

Another event will come along and be presented in all its drama in the same way, and it won't unfold in any dramatic way either. How many times have you been told the end of the earth is coming? When it does not, there is no one responsible for the fake news that got everyone fearful, is there?

Let me tell you what happened today, for it's an example of the rest of what I wish to discuss. What happened today is, indeed, a sun anomaly, but something that has been seen before. It's very large indeed, this coronal hole, with streams that go past the earth in spectacular ways that have been seen before. If you went to the office of the astronomer and you said to him or her, "What happened today?", they would say, "It's what's happened before. The magnetic grid of this planet absorbed it and it wasn't really that dangerous based on what we have seen before." But why, you might ask, was this reported as a fearful event? They will say, "We made a mistake. We told the news about the storm and they are not astronomers or physicists. They're reporters of drama." So that is what this planet received, dear ones - fake news. If you want to do the research about what happened this weekend, you'll find it was very normal and that it has happened before. It didn't even move the instruments much that astronomers use for measuring these events.

So this is the example we wish to look at right now of fake news. Many things have been completely and totally distorted or taken out of context or actually designed to be false in order to get a reaction - from you. Perhaps it is done to sell products or perhaps to make you cower in fear? But it's part of the current paradigm of your culture. So let's take a look at some of the others.

What are you facing right now on this planet? That little voice inside is going to tell you: "Things are not going to turn out well. Here it is again. Look what's happened in the past. We are overdue for a war." This is completely and totally false. The old energy triggers of your consciousness are still stuck with old tapes playing because of old situational energies, not the one you're in today. Your own mind plays the same tapes over and over because of things that might have happened in certain ways in the past. So this becomes fake news that you are giving to yourself! Profound, it is, if you think about. This propensity for self-deception is the very reason for the study of coherence in the Human, in order to settle those tapes. When you can eliminate the "doom chatter" you'll be able to grasp a truth that is pure and beautiful. The truth that is pure and beautiful is that nothing that happened in the past needs to happen in the future. Reality is not designed that way in this new energy. This future has a completely and totally different paradigm

More Fake News: Your Abilities and Your Health

Here's another one, a big one: This one doesn't come from your own consciousness, but from others who give you information that becomes inbred in you and controls how you think. I speak of those who told you you can't be something or you won't be something. Perhaps they have said you can't do this or you can't do that or this will never work with you or that will never work. Perhaps they were in some authority? It's "implanted fake news" - and you believed it.

A trusted medical doctor will tell you what's going to happen to your aging body, based upon research and the scientific measurement of the day. In an old energy, it might even have been a death sentence! So after a series of tests, they say, "Here's what's going on with you." They look at your brain, your heart, your systems and all the things important with your biology. Then your attitude sinks to a new low and you wonder how you're going to survive! What's going to happen next? Dear one, this is the oldest fake news in your culture. You see, there has been no test or credibility given to Human consciousness - the actual governor of the cells! This fake news wants you to believe that you have no control at all over your chemistry or your processes. You are a complete victim of life itself. Yet we have been telling you for years that your entire cellular structure gets its health from the "boss" - you!

Dear ones, the only thing that stops your cellular structure from taking the instructions you can give it is (ready?) fake news! If your body has already cognized the fake news of your culture, it's very difficult to give your body any instructions. Why? Because you believe the fake news.

This is controversial because people will say, "Well, is the diagnostic correct or not? Is the science correct or not?" The answer is it is correct for the doctor, but not for you. The measurement is correct, but what comes next is often fake news. You believe the cultural fake news and it sinks in and then takes you to a new low level - a place that will enhance your already dysfunctional chemistry. In other words, the fake news makes you worse.

The new consciousness of this planet is one that can look right into the face of this kind of thing and say, "This is only a part of the story." Imagine looking in the face of a disease and saying, "You haven't got a chance, because I love you." Some might say, "How can you say that to a disease?" The answer is because it's alive and has energy rules of its own existence. If you do this, you can disseminate it and it'll go away - actually dissolve. It's an inappropriate energy in the new light. What you're actually doing is to instruct your body: "I love myself too much to let this rule me or kill me or even make me sick." Dear ones, this is a stretch of the imagination for some. But the fake news of your culture says you can't do anything at all. Meanwhile, there is spontaneous remission and nobody seems to know why.

The only news that is true, dear ones, comes right from the creative source that some call God, Spirit, the center of all things. The news is that you are connected to this source in a way that you can sense and become one with. That's your real baseline. That is your main truth, and it's not new. The ancients knew it, and most of your ancestors practiced it. That's the basic truth, not what you hear on the medical news, nor the diagnosis you hear from the doctor, or what your parents have told you, or even your profound teachers - the people who you trusted the most.

The Big One: Your Soul is Doomed

So let's get to the highest level of fake news there is today. Are you ready for this one? The highest fake news there is today is that you were born dirty or that you don't deserve to be here. There is a story that somehow, through some convoluted spiritual mythology, that the greatest love source in the Universe had a war. Some angelic being tried to take over and was cast from "heaven". I will tell you again, dear ones, that God does not think like a Human, does not have a reality like a Human, doesn't have Human nature, and does not have any of the attributes that would even begin to allow for such a low-energy Human-like event. This is the worst form of "humanizing God", as we have discussed before. Like a children's story, humanity has assigned the worst attributes of itself to the creator, and in doing so makes the most loving source in all creation dysfunctional for you.

Because of this fake news, you are told that the Human soul itself has been spoiled even before birth! Again, the darkest energies on this planet through history have inserted themselves into the most divine and spectacular relationship you could ever have, and have given you a dysfunctional God who loves you enough to send you and your children to suffer forever unless you somehow discover a hidden truth that is isolated among a portion of believers on the planet. To make it worse, there are groups of other isolated believers who have other mythology, creating spiritual wars over who has the most dysfunctional God!

So the biggest fake news of all starts at birth and tells you that you can't get ahead. As you grow, your culture, your parents, your reality all tell you about that dysfunctional God and warn you to behave a certain way so you won't be tortured every day when you die by this loving entity who created the heavens and the earth. Unfortunately, the story continues and there's no way to do anything by yourself about this. You see, you were born dirty and you are doomed. Therefore, you are not worthy of that relationship that I teach you about. You are not even allowed to look. If you do, you are labeled as a "strange thinker" and cast out, like so many of you who are reading this.

Let me ask you this: When your child was old enough to understand your language and could look you in the eye and ask, "Mom, Dad, who am I really?", what would you tell them? Perhaps from the depth of the greatest love you have as a mother or a father, would you look at them and say, "I'm sorry to tell you this, but you don't have a chance. You are doomed."? [Laughter from the audience] You're laughing because it's absurd! Yet humanity has put that attribute upon the greatest love in the Universe. Even the most basic child's spiritual logic would tell you this is fake news. So again, I tell you that you are born magnificent with everything functioning in your perfect soul, and with free choice you can look for that piece of God inside.

Free choice is actually what developed fake news on this planet. The low consciousness of the planet is only working at about 35 percent of what is possible. In other words, although everything is there within you, the low energy of the past has dragged it down and beat it up so your amazing consciousness potential doesn't function well. This is the reason for the absurdity of a race that continues to war for thousands of years, over hundreds of cultures, even though this has never solved even one issue.

Now you are in the shift, and suddenly you are in a newer, lighter consciousness, a new area, where eventually you will create peace on Earth. You're functioning better than you ever have before. It's in your news now and can't be covered up.

Mother, father, psychologist: In today's culture, you look in the eyes of a child and tell them they are worthy of being here and that they can go to the top of anything they can conceive. They are beautiful, honored and what they can achieve is unlimited. This is what you tell a child because now you understand what fake news can do to a young mind.

Where are you in the scenario of fake news today? What have you been told you cannot do? What does "modern" medicine say is going to happen to you in your society and at your age? This news is fake. The instruments measure your biology, but they can't measure the magnificence of your consciousness or the healing power of it. How long are you supposed to live? Fake news will give you numbers based on a body without any divine, driving force. It will tell you that you're supposed to "drug up" because you're over a certain age. It's fake news. We have told you this. If your media gives you these things, turn off your media. Find media that is more selective instead of media that targets your group. Go to a place where you can get a more consistent proof that includes alternate healing methods and testimonies from those like you. Dear ones, there are places being developed in your media that will someday include far more integrity and truth about what you can do for yourself and your health, without outside chemistry, and they include "instructing your body with your own consciousness".

Some day there will come a generation that would never, ever tolerate what you see today as fake news. There'll come a generation where those in leadership are going to be measured for how much they get done in their government. Today this is not even on the radar. There will come a day when business executives will have their current compensation hooked entirely to how well their corporation does in their market and how well they treat their employees. In other words, a higher standard of consciousness will be asked for in all leadership. Today, this is only on the horizon. The public will eventually see it and demand it.

Today in the political arena there is a very low consciousness that expects you to slaughter your opponents in public with harsh and untrue information, bringing them to their knees. This fake news should then allow a win for someone at any cost. This system actually keeps those in integrity from running for any office. The result is that you get low-energy leaders, over and over.

There'll come a day when this is seen and immediately recognized as barbaric. Barbaric! The future will laugh at how ridiculous the behavior was of political campaigns in the past, just as today you look at how ridiculous some of your ads were 50 years ago with doctors recommending the bad habit of the day, for compensation. I want you to watch for the fake news and just laugh at it now. See it for what it is.

This is the message of Kryon and the one from many others in this new energy. You're going to hear this information from so many other sources soon. This will eventually turn around and give you the best news you've ever heard about the potential of Humans on this beautiful earth. Old soul, you're still doing the heavy lifting, but it won't last forever. This is why we love humanity the way we do. Amazing!

And so it is.

KRYON

Saturday, July 7, 2018

Summer bargains? Amazon Prime plans opening salvo at Dutch market

DutchNews, July 6, 2018

Photo: Depositphotos.com

US-based Amazon, the largest internet retailer, will fire a serious opening salvo at the Dutch market on 16 July with its first Amazon Prime Day, which is described as the biggest flash-sale in the world.

Customers in the Netherlands will be able to take advantage of the ‘bargains’ to be had on Amazon’s website for 36 hours. These include thousands of items in all categories, nu.nl said in an advertorial, widely picked up by other media, on Friday. 

This is the first year that Amazon Prime subscribers in the Netherlands will have access to Prime Day. Last year customers in 13 counties could participate. 

Amazon Prime is a paid subscription service that gives users access to free one-day delivery, streaming video and music, and other benefits. As of April 2018, it had more than 100 million members. 

Amazon is offering Prime subscriptions in the Netherlands for €3.99 for the first month rising to €5.99 in September. 

Amazon’s main Dutch competitors are Bol.com and Coolblue.

Thursday, June 28, 2018

Twitter to confirm new accounts in spam fight

Yahoo – AFP, June 27, 2018

Twitter is among online platforms under pressure to do more to safeguard against
being used to spread misinformation or promote division (AFP Photo/DIPTENDU DUTTA)

San Francisco (AFP) - Twitter on Tuesday said it will begin asking for email addresses or phone numbers to confirm new accounts as part of a battle against manipulation, particularly by automated bots.

Adding a way to check that a real person is behind new accounts was described by Twitter as being among measures to fight abuse, trolls, and hateful content.

"This is an important change to defend against people who try to take advantage of our openness," Twitter executives Del Harvey and Yoel Roth said in a blog post.

The requirement will be rolled out later this year, and Twitter promised to make sure the change does not harm aspiring users in "high-risk" places.

Twitter recently began taking more steps to clean up spam and automated activity, and "close the loopholes they'd exploited," according to Harvey and Roth.

"We're also now automating some processes where we see suspicious account activity, like exceptionally high-volume tweeting with the same hashtag, or using the same @handle without a reply from the account you're mentioning," they said.

Twitter systems identified and challenged more than 9.9 million "potentially spammy or automated accounts" weekly in May, according to Harvey and Roth.

Twitter last month said that it was stepping up its long-running battle against online trolls, trying to find offenders by looking at "behavioral signals."

The new approach looks at behavioral patterns of users in addition to the content of the tweets, allowing Twitter to find and mute online bullies and trolls.

Even if the offending tweets are not a violation of Twitter policy, they may be hidden from users if they are deemed to "distort" a conversation, Twitter said.

Twitter already uses artificial intelligence and machine learning in this effort but the latest initiative aims to do more by focusing on the actions of certain users in addition to the content.

Twitter is among online platforms under pressure to do more to safeguard against being used to spread misinformation or promote division, as proved the case during the US presidential election in 2016, in which US intelligence says Russia meddled to help Donald Trump win.

Sunday, June 24, 2018

US Supreme Court says warrant needed to get cell phone location data

Yahoo – AFP, Chris Lefkow, June 22, 2018

The US Supreme Court ruled that police need a warrant before obtaining cell phone tower
location data about a suspect from telecom companies (AFP Photo/JUSTIN SULLIVAN)

Washington (AFP) - In a landmark digital privacy case, the US Supreme Court ruled Friday that police need a warrant before obtaining cell phone location data about a suspect from telecom companies.

In a 5-4 decision, the nation's highest court said such data is protected under the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution, which guards against unreasonable search and seizure.

The case revolved about police acquisition of mobile phone location information about a robbery suspect, Timothy Carpenter, without a warrant.

Data from Carpenter's cell phone -- 12,898 location points over a period of 127 days -- was used to show the device was in the vicinity when several robberies took place, and the suspect was convicted.

Carpenter's attorneys and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) argued that the seizure of his cell phone location data records was unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court reversed a lower court's ruling which said police did not need a warrant to obtain such data.

Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the four liberal justices on the court in the decision.

"We decline to grant the state unrestricted access to a wireless carrier's data base of physical location information," the court said in its opinion.

"The government's position fails to contend with the seismic shifts in digital technology that made possible the tracking of not only Carpenter's location but also everyone else's, not for a short period but for years and years," it said.

"Prior to the digital age, law enforcement might have pursued a suspect for a brief stretch," the court said.

"(But) when the government tracks the location of a cell phone it achieves near perfect surveillance, as if it had attached an ankle monitor to the phone's user," it said.

"Whoever the suspect turns out to be, he has effectively been tailed every moment of every day," it said. "Only the few without cell phones could escape this tireless and absolute surveillance."

'Groundbreaking victory'

Nathan Freed Wessler, an attorney with the ACLU who argued the case before the court in November, called the ruling a "groundbreaking victory for Americans' privacy rights in the digital age."

"Today's decision rightly recognizes the need to protect the highly sensitive location data from our cell phones," Wessler said.

"But it also provides a path forward for safeguarding other sensitive digital information in future cases -- from our emails, smart home appliances, and technology that is yet to be invented."

Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon described the ruling as a "BIG win for privacy."

"I've argued for years that the sheer volume of information about every single American that's collected by our phones and computers requires a fundamental rethinking of the idea that giving your information to a company means the government can get it too," Wyden said.

In its opinion, the court left open the possibility of warrantless collection of data in what it described as "urgent" situations such as "bomb threats, active shootings and child abductions."

Friday, June 22, 2018

Consumers group hauls 1,000 fake websites from the net

DutchNews, June 21, 2018


Dutch consumers lobby group Consumentenbond has succeeded in forcing a further 1,000 fake websites targeting Dutch consumers offline since March, the organisation said on Thursday. 

SIDN which registers domain names in the Netherlands told Consumentenbond that two large foreign issuers of domain names had pulled the suspect websites. In March, 850 names were removed from the internet, following the publication of a list of 2,000 suspect companies. 

The websites were offering brand name clothing or luxury products at huge discounts. But in reality they were selling counterfeit items or failed to deliver completely. 

Nearly all the 2000 webshops identified by the Consumentenbond were registered at only four domain names companies.  The shops removed were all under the aegis of US-based GoDaddy or PDR of India, both domain name brokers.

Saturday, June 16, 2018

Google buy more land in the Netherlands, may build new data centre

DutchNews, June 15, 2018


Google’s parent company Alphabet has bought 70 hectares of land in Noord-Holland province, which it may use to develop a new data centre, business news agency Bloomberg said on Friday. 

The company told Bloomberg it is still considering what to do with the site, but that a decision will be made soon. The location of the land was not given but it is thought to be close to Amsterdam. 

Google already has a major data centre in Eemshaven in the north of Groningen and said earlier this year it would spend €500m to expand its operations there. 

In May, the Dutch Data Centre Association warned that the shortage of electricity in areas where data centres are concentrated is threatening the industry’s expansion in the Netherlands. 

The situation is particularly acute around Amsterdam ‘where expanding the electricity grid is no longer possible,’ the association said. 

The Netherlands needs to develop an emergency plan or the country’s position as a ‘digital leader’ will be under threat, DDA director Stijn Grove said.

Saturday, June 2, 2018

Visa outage blocks transactions across Europe

Yahoo – AFP, June 1, 2018

Visa users took to social media to complain of problems processing transactions
in Europe June 1, 2018 (AFP Photo/ALAIN JOCARD)

London (AFP) - Payment systems giant Visa was struggling to process transactions in Europe on Friday and said it was rapidly trying to fix the issue.

The blockage has left some customers stuck at the tills in stores across the continent and queueing at cash machines.

"We are currently experiencing a service disruption which is preventing some Visa transactions in Europe from being processed," a Visa spokesman told AFP.

"We are investigating the cause and working as quickly as possible to resolve the situation."

The spokesman could not say how many Visa users across Europe had been affected.

Visa users took to social media to complain and banks tried to explain the situation their customers.

HSBC bank's UK Twitter account said: "From what we understand there are still intermittent issues but services are slowly recovering."

Paymentsense, which provides card machines, online payment gateways and virtual terminals to some 60,000 independent businesses in Britain and Ireland, advised users to try paying via contactless transactions.

"We have been informed that Visa has corrected the outage and transactions are now starting to go through. There is still some intermittency however, we believe this is due to a backlog of transactions," it said.

"We now understand that contactless transactions have a better chance of going through."

It is understood the Bank of England is aware of the issue and is in touch with Visa.

The Royal Bank of Scotland's Twitter help account said cash machine withdrawals were unaffected.

"This is an industry wide issue which is being investigated as a matter of urgency and we apologise for any inconvenience. ATM and MasterCard transactions are not impacted," it said.

Queues in shops

In a Primark store on Berlin's Alexanderplatz, frustrated customers were queueing for 20 minutes to pay. Staff did not know why transactions were not going through.

However, in the neighbouring store, transactions were being processed without any problems.

Sandra Foy, who owns a bookshop in Manchester, northwest England, told Sky News television: "I run a small business and the loss of any business is a big deal for us.

"Not knowing when this is going to be sorted out is incredibly frustrating."

The BBC posted a picture of a London supermarket worker standing outside holding a sign reading: "cash only".

It cited Elle Gibbs-Murray, from Bridgend in south Wales, as saying she was stuck in traffic on the Severn Bridge between England and Wales for 45 minutes as drivers were unable to pay the toll by card.

Alex Neill, Which? consumer magazine's managing director of home products and services, said: "Clearly this issue will be a huge inconvenience to customers and it must be resolved urgently. Visa and the banks need to ensure no-one is left out of pocket due to this outage.

"We strongly advise people to keep any evidence of extra expenses they've incurred in order to claim them back."

Friday, June 1, 2018

Amazon blocks Australia from global sites over tax

Yahoo – AFP, 31 May 2018

Amazon said Australian shoppers wanting to use its global platforms will
instead be directed to its smaller Australian site

US internet giant Amazon will block Australian shoppers from its international websites to counter new tax laws on online purchases, it announced Thursday.

New rules require internet retailers like the American behemoth to collect a 10 percent goods and services tax on everything bought from overseas sites from July 1, including under the current tax-free threshold of Aus$1,000 (US$760).

As a result, Amazon said Australian shoppers wanting to use its global platforms will instead be directed to its smaller Australian site, which offers much less for sale.

Amazon reportedly baulked at the massive administrative burden of tracking GST from all overseas transactions.

"While we regret any inconvenience this may cause customers, we have had to assess the workability of the legislation as a global business with multiple international sites," it said in a statement.

The retailer said it would compensate by opening a "global store" for Australians, adding an extra four million items previously available only on its American website.

"This will allow us to provide our customers with continued access to (our) international selection and remain compliant with the law," it said.

But even with the changes, the number of products available will be a fraction of what's on sale globally.

The new tax rules were brought in after years of lobbying by struggling local retailers, which have to apply GST to all online and store sales,

Low consumer confidence and tepid wage growth have also hit traditional brick and mortar retail operations.

Amazon only launched a local Australian site last December, shipping from a warehouse in Melbourne with another planned in Sydney.

It had around Aus$1 billion in sales from Australia annually through shipping from overseas ahead of the launch, according to Morgan Stanley analysts.

Treasurer Scott Morrison said the new laws "level the playing field for Australian businesses".

"The government doesn't apologise for ensuring multinationals pay a fair amount of tax here in Australia," he said.

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Saturday, May 26, 2018

Heightened debate in US as EU privacy rules take effect

Yahoo – AFP, Rob Lever, May 25, 2018

New EU privacy rules require online services such as Facebook to get consent
for how personal data is accessed and shared (AFP Photo/Mladen ANTONOV)

Washington (AFP) - Amid a global scramble to comply with new EU data protections laws, the debate on privacy has intensified in the United States with some calling for similar measures for Americans, and others warning the rules could fracture the global internet.

US tech firms, and virtually all companies with online operations, will need to comply with the rules if their sites are used in the European Union, or face hefty financial penalties.

Some American firms, including news sites like the Los Angeles Times and New York Daily News, blocked access in the EU because they were unable to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation, which took effect Friday.

Other US websites have shut down entirely, and some have hired consultants to help shut off access for any users in Europe.

Large US tech firms have pledged compliance with the EU rules, and have in many cases promised to extend the same protections worldwide.

But legal challenges filed in Europe accused Google and Facebook of failing to abide by the new law.

Why not in US?

Some US activists argue that the implementation offers an opportunity to give more privacy and data protection benefits to Americans.

New EU data protection rules are likely to radically change how websites use
and share personal information and track users (AFP Photo/Pau Barrena)

"We see no reason why US companies, as they strive to comply with the new European policies, cannot extend the GDPR standard to American consumers," said Katharina Kopp of the Center for Digital Democracy, one of 28 activist groups endorsing a letter in that vein to major US and global companies.

Senator Ed Markey and three fellow lawmakers introduced a resolution this week that would call on firms to offer the same protections of the European law in the US.

"The American people are going to wonder why they are getting second-class privacy protections," said Markey.

The law establishes the key principle that individuals must explicitly grant permission for their data to be used, and give consumers a right to know who is accessing their information and what it will be used for.

Companies can be fined up to 20 million euros ($24 million) or four percent of annual global turnover for violations.

Cumbersome, confusing

GDPR critics argue the law is confusing and cumbersome, and could lead to unintended effects on both sides of the Atlantic.

Daniel Castro of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a Washington think tank, called GDPR "a confusing and impractical set of rules" that offers consumers little benefit.

Some analysts fear that news organizations unable to comply with EU data 
rules will cut off some users, resulting in a "splinternet" where different information 
is available depending on one's region (AFP Photo/Karen BLEIER)

"Instead of hiring engineers, companies are hiring privacy lawyers," Castro said in a blog post with researcher Alan McQuinn.

Ryan Radia of the Competitive Enterprise Institute said that although GDPR was aimed at Big Tech, it is likely to strengthen the grip of large internet firms.

"This will result in greater market concentration, as small firms and startups will find it difficult to comply with the increased regulatory cost burden," Radia said.

Amy Webb, a fellow at Harvard's Nieman Foundation and founder of the Future Today Institute, warned the new law could lead to a "splinternet" with different kinds of data available in various regions of the world, and could be particularly cumbersome for news organizations.

"It's plausible within a decade, we could find ourselves stuck in a new digital divide, where many disparate splinternets behave and function differently, depending on where in the world the net is being accessed," she said in a blog post this week.

Webb said news organizations could find it especially difficult to comply because of the need for consent in organizing feeds and promoting content.

"The business model for news, already tenuous, could be further weakened," she said.

Henry Farrell, a George Washington University professor who follows transatlantic relations, said the entire business model of the tech sector could be at risk from GDPR.

"This is a fundamental attack on the 'two sided market' profit model that e-commerce companies have pioneered of providing services to individuals, while watching their behavior and feeding up access or data to advertisers," Farrell said in a tweet Friday.