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Let’s take a closer look at nine Democratic cities where the fabric of urban life appears to be unraveling. Photo Credit: Unsplash. The Windy City, despite its rich cultural history and architectural grandeur, is plagued by some of the nation’s highest ...

Liberal Losers – 9 Democratic Cities That Are Falling Apart

Southern California

Wildfire

Natural disaster

Photo Credit: Unsplash. Nestled in the Pacific’s “Ring of Fire,” Tokyo’s ground is familiar with the earth’s trembles. Beyond the frequent earthquakes, Tokyo is at the mercy of tsunamis, whose massive waves have historically washed away both ...

Wildfire Haven: 8 Cities Facing More Natural Disasters Than Southern California

New Jersey

Restaurant

Combining The Classic Tastes Of Jersey With Japanese Flare, This NJ Fusion Restaurant Is A Can't Miss For Foodies Everywhere!

This New Jersey Fusion Restaurant Is Being Called One Of The Best In The State

WCHR-FM

Bangor

Guide

Photo by Adam Hornyak on Unsplash Photo by Adam Hornyak on Unsplash While driving, you may experience slightly rough stops, intermittent radio and accessory shutdowns, as well as dimming lights and accessories when pressing the accelerator. To jump-start ...

https://www.bing.com/th?id=OVFT.d5Z28P78eyBp7H0qwsDp_S&pid=News

A Quick Guide to Jump-Starting a Dead Battery as Bangor’s Chill Sets In

Q96.1

Kentucky

This definitely sounds like Bluegrass state blasphemy.

https://www.bing.com/th?id=OVFT.sCgWHtOuSJJdKdhSSpTU7i&pid=News

It Turns Out the Most Popular Alcoholic Beverage in Kentucky Isn’t Bourbon

https://www.bing.com/th?id=ODF.ENRQ37tkZpn3thI1Bmp5fA&pid=news

WKDQ

Fort Worth

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

A woman shot her boyfriend to death in north Fort Worth and telephoned authorities on Sunday evening to report the killing, according to a police record. The woman called 911 about 6:45 p.m. and said she had shot the 24-year-old man, whose name the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office has not released.

https://www.bing.com/th?id=OVFT.CKDUa1Oc89OCm13IQkBvnC&pid=News

Shot

Woman shot boyfriend to death in north Fort Worth apartment bedroom, authorities say

https://www.bing.com/th?id=ODF.cBml3QL1UOMs0Okoe5-FhQ&pid=news

Halloween

Meme

Fake Spirit Halloween Costumes: On this day four years ago, the Facebook meme page Guy Fieri's Post-Ironic Meme Vault uploaded an edited picture of a Guy Fieri costume being sold at a Spirit Halloween. pic.twitter.com/OceLHJMmq9 34. We enjoy a good two-for-one!

60 of the Best Halloween Memes for a Frightfully Fun Laugh

https://www.bing.com/th?id=ODF.UM0amhg3WAObCEGqc4w_Cw&pid=news

Yahoo

When you think about Halloween, you think about trick or treating and candy and costumes. But what you should really be thinking about is money.

New Jersey Halloween Lovers Won’t Believe These Incredible Holiday Numbers

https://www.bing.com/th?id=ODF.Zm1Wq5lG3blFocS84YtyBA&pid=news

92.7 WOBM

Michigan

A group of women spent hours hiding under bedsheets after a hidden bat infestation suddenly awakened, turning their Airbnb into a biting, screeching “house of horror,” according to their attorney. A lawsuit filed Monday, Oct. 30 in Alpena County, Michigan, claims Airbnb and others are responsible for the traumatic night the women suffered through.

https://www.bing.com/th?id=OVFT.QRgZW7mezx7tpzBT_xYSGC&pid=News

Swarming bats attack women, turning Airbnb into ‘house of horror’, Michigan lawsuit says

https://www.bing.com/th?id=ODF.DWovzqkhQ_XmNaaeBlySZA&pid=news

Kansas City Star

Get the most recent info and news about Unsplash on HackerNoon, where 10k+ technologists publish stories for 4M+ monthly readers.

In 2013, Unsplash launched as a modest Tumblr blog. Since then, Unsplash has evolved into one of the most impactful online communities. Today, over 10 billion Unsplash images are seen every month. A photo featured on Unsplash will now be viewed more than the front page of The New York Times. The Unsplash community is fueled by contributors who offer their images freely for anyone to use, inspiring hundreds of millions of creators from 13-year-old graphic designers to multi-platinum recording artists. Unsplash is a special community, where the powerful principles of sharing and openness have taken the place of strict copyright and legal red tape. The web was meant to connect, inform, and inspire us in unprecedented ways. The Unsplash community embodies this philosophy fully. Unsplash has become a place where the impact of our connected world is on full display. Instead of images being hoarded and shut down, images on Unsplash are fuel for creativity. At Unsplash, our mission is to enable everyone to create. You don’t need to know someone, or have an agent, or have a name to be great on Unsplash. We're a place where creators meet their audience. A place where individuals become a community. And a source of inspiration for millions of people from every country in the world. We’ve seen how the willingness to give a single image unlocks the creative potential that exists in us all.

Unsplash

1.4+ million freely usable photos now available in your Hacker Noon editor Unsplash started as a side project. Hacker Noon started as a side project. Unsplash was first funded by the revenue of the soon to be previous business (Crew). Hacker Noon was first funded by the revenue of the soon to be previous business (ArtMap Inc.).  Results - and not intentions - are what makes the world go round. Both companies saw early results, and identified them as an opportunity greater than their existing business. Both companies had the perseverance to run with it. I’m very excited to work with a game changer in the photo distribution space, Unsplash. With this API integration, we are giving our 10k+ contributing writers access to 1.4M+ quality freely usable images within the Hacker Noon editor. The Unsplash library is leveling up the blogging experience on Hacker Noon. To try it out, , start , click on the Unplash logo within the flyout menu and search whatever your curious heart desires. create an account writing a new story Unsplash is now the most visited site in the world. Hacker Noon is now the most visited site in the world. So yeah, they’re a good bit more well known, but we’re headed in the right direction. Since we , we’ve moved up 2,200+ spots, ahead of sites I read and respect tremendously, such as , , , and . 308th 3,048th removed our Medium content management system and replaced it with our own ProductHunt Futurism Dev.to Coindesk To date, thousands of Unsplash photos have already appeared on Hacker Noon stories. This integration builds on existing behaviors to better the workflow for contributing writers. Building a digital product is always a trade off between inventing the wheel, re-inventing the wheel and figuring out a way to plug in an existing solution — all while making the thing feel like just one quality thing. The reality is that the entire internet industry is built atop the keystrokes of nerds. Did the world need another content management system? Who’s to say. No software on the market could do what I wanted the software to do, and more importantly, if it’s not your own software your rate of digital iteration will never reach its potential. With how the internet has evolved, imagery often serves as the story’s second headline. However you slice curation, the accompaniment of quality images serves the distribution of quality words. This integration will save time for our contributing writers, improving the process of finding great imagery to embody their technology stories. P.S. Check out Hacker Noon photos on Unsplash!

📷 📸 Unsplash Integration 📷 📸 

TL;DR We ended the year with our highest quarterly revenue in company history while building some important product integrations (with Google Analytics , Algolia , Unsplash & GUN ), and dark mode . Our Alexa ranking is at 3.5k worldwide, up from a 5.2k ranking before removing Medium, proving the overall success of the move into our own infrastructure. We also had a company wide year end review where 100% of the team answered “yes” to the question “are you happy?” Traffic In 2019, Hacker Noon had 38M total site visitors, an increase of 35% from 2018 year over year. From Nov 2016 through early Dec 2019, Hacker Noon totaled ≈77M visitors. Redacted We closed the year as a top , which is up from worldwide Alexa ranking of 5.2k at the time of from our site. From mid July (launch of our software) through December 2019, we published 4,523 stories, which is an average of 27 stories per day, and our library created . 3.5k site in the world removing the Medium infrastructure 48+ years of time reading Internally, we have promoted from Technology Editor to Managing Editor, and expanded the editorial team with the part-time hiring of top community commenter as Software Editor. Natasha’s voice and data driven approach will be important to scaling our brand voice and rate of publishing. Natasha Nel Arthur Tkachenko Over the course of the year, Hacker Noon stories have been featured in , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and elsewhere around the internet. Forbes ReadWrite VICE Coin tele graph Coindesk The Next Web CSO Tech Startups MarTechSeries TheNews.Asia Real Vail Decrypt Entrepreneur.com Code Opinion NewsBTC Tokenist Network World Robotics Online Silicon Republic Salon ProductHunt Stories GiveBat Reddit Crypto Daily The Block Seeking Alpha JJ’s Javascript Blog Connecticut Post Inverse Sociable Metafilter Inside Blogging JB Supra Crypto Briefing Business.com PR Daily Daily Hodl, Yahoo Yahoo Finance Value Walk Security Boulevard Merca 2.0 Tech Republic CNN CCN Newsmax Windows Club Aithority Packt Wright State University KingsCrowd Wikipedia Everipedia Dice CBS University World News IAB Tech Lab News Click Common Dreams Detailed CryptoNewsZ Tech Story Bitcoinist Interesting Engineering Study International Tech Advocate Blockonomi Hackaday, Singapore Fintech News Torrent Freak SiteJabber Business2Community TechDirt KeenGamer, Popular Mechanics GitHub G2 Jaxenter MarTech Today Irish Times Digital Journal, StackOverflow Blog Thrive Global Thomas ZDnet @Jack @Naval Tech Domains a number of Books Revenue Our 2019 revenue (over ) increased by 73% a year from 2018 year over year. accounted for the majority of our revenue at 55%, even though we could only start serving sponsors mid July after launched. The rest of our yearly revenue was made up of podcast sponsorships at 14% (which ends up breaking-even after expenses), program at 12%, at 6%, at 5%, and events/ /interest/ accounting for 8%. redacted The Top Navigation Billboard sponsorship Hacker Noon 2.0 brand as author newsletter sponsorships The Noonies shirts other In the less than five months of running the brand as author program and newsletter sponsorships, we totaled over 100 paying customers. For 2019 Q4 (pictured below), the ordered revenue by program breakdown was top navigation (64%), brand as author (18%), newsletters (14%), followed by interest and schwag sales for the rest (4%). Redacted Our largest two customers for the year are and . We have a number of six digit sponsorship deals in our pipeline, and will be investing in scaling our sales programs in 2020. In 2019, some of our more notable customers also include , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and . Seen by Indeed Heroku by Salesforce Google Cloud Codacy Passbase Stream Kloudless Nodle Polyient Labs Vettery PubNub Mabl Radix LogDNA ByBit SurrveySparrow Snyk Digital Ocean Kin We’ve done a lot of optimization work with our top navigation ad and expect to increase the revenue per day from this. Additionally, we plan to explore sponsorship packages by (i.e. placement by content relevancy) in 2020. tags Product Q4 2019, we integrated with , , , and the . We also . The GUN integration is our first use of blockchain technology in the Hacker Noon publishing platform. Starting in Q1 2020, this open source decentralized database will power our annotations and inline commenting. For the first time, we will be putting some content on the blockchain. With this integration, users browsers can contribute storage and anyone can also run their own “miner” on their computer or a cloud, distributing some of our hosting costs to our readership. Unsplash Algolia Google Analytics GUN blockchain launched dark mode For the full view of our year in product development, please read our CPO Dane Lyons’ . In summary, we now have the initial experience live for our core users: writers, readers, editors, sponsors and admins; and integrated with many great technologies like: Google Cloud, SlateJS, Algolia, Filestack, Unsplash, Google Analytics, Discourse, GUN, Twitter, and more. Product Update 2019-2020 Building a digital product is always a trade-off between inventing the wheel, re-inventing the wheel and figuring out a way to plug in an existing solution — all while making the thing feel like just one quality thing. We're getting there. Very excited to build more this year. We will continue investing heavily in improving and iterating on the core product experience, reading and writing, while also launching more curation tools, such as annotations and collections, to drive account creation and micro contributions. Profit & Loss Redacted Business Development Redacted Outlook and how you can help Redacted

State Of The Noonion Q4 2019: On Dark Mode, Integration With Unsplash and GUN

At , we’re all about building apps faster on blended teams of developers and content editors. In the past, editors using third-party stock photography sites have been encouraged to utilize to save these third-party tools to their Dashboard. Now editors can use the new to find and add stock photography to their media library, all from the comfort of their Bucket Dashboard without having to interface with a third-party website like Unsplash. Cosmic JS Cosmic JS Quick Links Cosmic JS Unsplash Photos Extension TL;DR: Unsplash Photos Extension Unsplash Photos Extension Codebase Unsplash Photos Extension on Product Hunt You can now Search and Add Unsplash Photos to your Bucket, all from your Bucket Dashboard. Simply navigate to the and click to install the . Cosmic JS Cosmic JS Extensions Page Photos Extension Once installed, you will see the “Photos” tab on your left hand navigation bar within your Dashboard. Click the “Photos” tab and start typing in your query to find and add photos to your Media Library for immediate or later use. Cosmic JS I hope that you’ve found this tutorial helpful. If you have questions or comments about Content Editor Features in the system, I’d love to hear about them. You can refer to my for additional content on how to intuitively navigate the Cosmic JS Dashboard. Cosmic JS Cosmic JS Profile

How to Search and Add Unsplash Photos to your Cosmic JS Bucket

Hi All! Here is my weekly email discussing mental models, performance, business and entrepreneurship. What’s in today’s newsletter? We're bad at prioritization because we spread efforts uniformly rather than embracing non-uniformity. This leads to wasted time and missed opportunities. Using the 80/20 principle helps optimize productivity by quantifying contribution skews. Measuring to find your vital 20% inputs generating 80% outcomes guides strategic resource allocation. Ruthlessly focusing time and money on high-impact 20% activities accelerates business growth and life fulfillment. Say no to equality obsession. Embrace natural patterns guiding efficiency to transform your future. The Almighty Power of the Few This idea stemmed from a trip to a friend’s house on a cold January morning back when I was still living in Toronto. I came across a passage by Steve Jobs that got my mind buzzing: “People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully.” I sat staring at those words trying to really digest them, when my friend’s 6-year-old son came running into the room... “Scott, Scott! Wanna see me count to 100?” My initial gut reaction was irritation at having my deep contemplation interrupted and fear that I wouldn’t get another quiet moment all morning. But suddenly it hit me— I should focus on what really matters. I eagerly smiled, “I’d LOVE to see you count! Show me!” I could tell my enthusiasm made his day. He counted proudly all the way to 100. It was pure magic and reminded me that some of life’s most glorious moments require little effort. The seeds for today’s article were planted in that moment. I couldn’t shake the lingering question: How do you determine what to focus on and what to say no to? It’s funny how you can read as much as you want, but when you experience the insight first hand, in your own life - it imprints on your mind in a fascinating way. I went home later that afternoon with a burning drive to study the world’s greatest creative geniuses to uncover their secrets. What hidden laws of the universe did they tap into to achieve such monumental success? HOW do they know what really requires your focus vs. what is wasting your time (and your life). Over the following months, I discovered a fascinating pattern that traces back over 100 years. This pattern is a powerful tool you can apply to optimize EVERY area of life and work. The Almighty Power of the Few In the early 1900s, Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto stumbled upon a peculiar trend... He noticed that 80% of Italy’s land belonged to just 20% of the population. He found similar skewed patterns with wealth distribution—a wealthy few always rise to the top. This trend was quickly observed in other domains: 80% of pea plants came from 20% of pea pods 80% of sales came from 20% of clients 80% of errors came from 20% of bugs in software programs 80% of decisions are made in 20% of meeting times The implications were clear... Results don’t come evenly spread—they come in chunks—massive chunks. The majority of the effects come from a tiny slice of the causes. Pareto’s Principle: The 80/20 Rule The pattern Pareto spotted became known as the Pareto Principle, or more commonly, the 80/20 Rule: 80% of results come from 20% of causes. Of course, the ratio doesn’t have to be strict 80/20 across every case—it can be 70/30 or even 90/10—the core relationship remains the same... The majority of outcomes are produced by the vital few inputs. Let’s look at a classic example... If you make a ranked list of all your Instagram friends based on the number of likes and comments when you post, you’ll find a very skewed pattern. Your top 10 or 20 closest friends will generate 80%+ of all engagement on your posts, while the other few hundred hardly engage at all. A few hyper-engaged friends drive the majority of results. These types of insanely skewed, “long-tailed” distributions with power law properties are EVERYWHERE. The implications of this are profound... Effort is Grossly Unequal to Results If results stem from very few vital causes, two critical insights emerge: You should devote the bulk of your time/resources to the vital few high-impact items. Go where the “results rich” hang out. It takes tremendous patience and persistence because it can be a long journey to find that pocket of high-impact causes. Many novice content creators/bloggers/writers/podcasters/influencers get demotivated when they spend hundreds of hours producing content, but get little traction for months. Then suddenly, one post goes viral and brings in more traffic than all previous posts combined! Rather than see this as luck or randomness, it reflects the Pareto principle’s “long-tail” effect—results come in concentrated chunks. This pattern appears in all creative domains: 20% of customers drive 80%+ of Apple’s iPhone sales 20% of bugs cause 80%+ of software crashes 20% of marketing campaigns drive 80%+ of leads The choice is evident—go where the results rich hangout. But this isn’t always intuitive... For example, I recently helped my friend strategize how to grow his channel. YouTube He was creating 2 detailed videos per week and struggling to gain any traction after months of effort. I studied his data and noticed one shorter, simpler video was massively outperforming the others, generating 80% of his total channel views. We determined he should shift his focus to creating more of that specific, high-performing content. By doubling down on what worked, his views skyrocketed 10X in three months! This story isn’t unique. The most successful YouTubers, bloggers, and entrepreneurs all heavily leverage the Pareto principle... They aren’t continuously trying new things. They double, triple, and quadruple down on their few vital areas generating the best results. Impact Blockers It would make sense to wonder why we don’t naturally optimize for these high-output tasks. Well, we’re only human and we fall into traps. Two tendency traps, in particular, that hamper 80/20 progress - stubbornness and fear. Stubbornness convinces us that even after trying something 1000 times with little results, maybe attempt #1001 will prove the breakthrough. So we persist in wasting energy banging our heads against the same approach because it feels safe and familiar. Fear also sabotages doing the vital work accounting for 80% of our goals. We clearly see different strategies would create exponentially bigger results. But those superior paths intimidate feeling outside our comfort zones. So we settle for incremental gains from easier tactics, afraid to level up. Both stubbornness and fear blind us from honestly assessing what 20% of work truly moves the needles that matter most. We avoid staring down the fact that much of our busyness is simply rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, not fundamentally shifting outcomes. When Inputs Don’t Match Outputs Now you may be thinking... Does this mean all the effort I put in is pointless if it doesn’t produce a visible, immediate result? Not at all! This principle doesn’t imply wasted effort—it demonstrates that input effort doesn’t linearly map to output results. There are many invisible benefits gained from sustained effort that don’t immediately generate measurable gains like money or recognition. Here are a few examples: Knowledge and Skill Development Learning complex material heavily taxes your mental abilities at first even though you don’t have visible skills to show for it. Like muscle memory, knowledge, and skill grow slowly through sustained practice. Increasing Luck Surface Area Effort over many months lowers the activation energy needed to catalyze a breakthrough. You can’t get lucky if you don’t sustain the effort to place yourself in the opportunity’s way. Stoking Motivation and Momentum Small daily progress triggers vital neurochemicals to sustain motivation. Progress momentum snowballs over time until you cross an impact threshold. In short, it takes tremendous patience and grit to find and penetrate that 20% “impact zone”. Sustained effort doesn’t ensure an immediate breakthrough, but it prepares the soil for the seeds of opportunity. This brings us to an important question... When Do I Pivot vs Persevere? Let’s say you identified writing as a creative strength and have been writing consistently with no monetary results for a year. At what point do you determine writing isn't a high-impact activity for you and pivot to something else? Or perhaps the type of content you’re writing on isn’t a niche that’s really growing quickly. When do you throw in the towel? This is tricky. Premature pivoting can rob you of potential hidden long-term gains whereas persevering down an unfruitful path breeds frustration (and will at times, lead to a Sunk Cost Fallacy). Here is a litmus test I use with entrepreneurs I’m advising to assess if an area has high-impact for them: potential Am I energized by the ACTIVITY itself or just the expected RESULT it will bring? Writing brings me great joy regardless of external measures of success. The process energizes me. If monetary rewards never come, I’d still benefit from the challenge, flow, and sense of progress it provides. However, I despise manually inputting spreadsheet data. Even if it brought great rewards, I'd dread that activity. So, assess if your effort stems from intrinsic enjoyment or purely extrinsic motivations. Sustained effort requires deep engagement in the process. Sustained effort + feedback loops + execution of learnings are required to uncover these high-impact opportunities. Additionally, you should constantly be running small experiments to validate your direction. See if you can monetize your writing in simple ways like freelancing, paid guest posts, or affiliate commissions. Micro-wins sustain motivation even if you haven't had the big breakthrough yet. So in summary: Deeply examine if the ACTIVITY brings intrinsic rewards regardless of the external RESULT it produces. Run small experiments to get empirical validation that confirms you’re on a promising track. You’re going to need to stick it out to get to those big breaks. They rarely come early. Micro-wins stoke motivation while also gathering data to support perseverance. Now that we covered WHEN to persevere, let’s examine WHERE to devote focus... 80/20 Prioritization The Pareto principle isn’t just a descriptive model explaining cause and effect skews—it’s also a prescriptive tool to optimize how we spend time and resources. Track quantitative data to benchmark performance. Identify your 20% power inputs across categories: What % of sales come from top 20% customers? - Customers: What's the split of revenue per product? - Products: Which pages or posts generate most traffic? - Web Pages: Which app features drive engagement? - Features: Who are your top 20% email contacts or callers? - Emails/Calls: Get granular with metrics to surface concentration patterns. The 20% will vary per business - data reveals where yours hide. Here’s an example of how to apply a simple 3-step process to achieve 80/20 prioritization: The example will be re. website traffic sources, but also understand this framework and exercise can be applied to anything in your personal or professional life. Website Traffic Sources The 80/20 principle states 80% of traffic comes from 20% of sources. Let's optimize productivity for traffic: one site's Step 1: Measure To Find Vital 20% Breakdown traffic sources and tally % of total visits per source: Google and Email drive 70% of total traffic - the vital 20% sources. Step 2: Rank Sources By Traffic Prioritize sources by traffic %, highest at top: Google Search - 40% Email - 30% Social Media - 20% Direct - 10% Step 3: Proportion Traffic Building Effort Spend time improving sources aligned to traffic ranking: 40% on SEO to boost Google rankings 30% on optimizing Email captures 20% on Social strategy 10% on Direct channels This example optimizes website productivity. But the - substitute "Sales Revenue", "App Engagement" etc to focus your vital 20% inputs. framework can guide other business functions Obsess over site visitors, customers and activities generating the most impact.  Say no to 'equal attention fallacy'. 80/20 prioritization allows you to maximize outcome impact from your limited input effort. Make the vital few your obsessive focus. Apply 80/20 Analysis To Business & Life Now you've seen how 80/20 prioritization works - go run this analysis on your business and also your life. In business, dig into data and metrics to find: Your 20% power customers Your 20% high-sales products Your 20% most engaged users Your 20% traffic-driving marketing channels In life, tally and rank to uncover: Your 20% activities generating 80% of joy Your 20% friends/family providing 80% of support Your 20% habits driving 80% of health outcomes Find your vital 20% across ALL categories. Those are your priorities for ruthless focus. Whether growing a business or living a rewarding life, 80/20 analysis spots high-impact areas for optimization. Stop spreading yourself thin trying to make everything uniform. Embrace non-uniformity like nature does. Create your vital few game changers in business and life realms. When you match effort to impact, the magic happens. Work with natural efficiency patterns rather than against them. So go analyze now. Discover and create your vital 20% and transform your future. The leverage and fulfillment awaiting you are endless. Please subscribe to my or newsletter. Or, email me at scott@scottdclary.com or at me and I’ll do my best to get back to everyone! If you enjoyed this article, I’d love to hear from you. weekly daily tweet @ScottDClary Also published here. Lead image by Austin Distel on Unsplash

The Few Will Rule Over the Many: How the 80/20 Rule Can Transform Your Life

অল্প কয়েকজন অনেকের উপর শাসন করবে: কীভাবে 80/20 নিয়ম আপনার জীবনকে পরিবর্তন করতে পারে

Die Wenigen werden über die Vielen herrschen: Wie die 80/20-Regel Ihr Leben verändern kann

Unos pocos gobernarán a la mayoría: cómo la regla 80/20 puede transformar su vida

Quelques-uns régneront sur le plus grand nombre : comment la règle des 80/20 peut transformer votre vie

कुछ लोग बहुतों पर शासन करेंगे: 80/20 नियम आपके जीवन को कैसे बदल सकता है

少数が多数を支配する: 80/20 の法則があなたの人生をどのように変えるのか

소수가 다수를 지배할 것이다: 80/20 법칙이 당신의 삶을 어떻게 변화시킬 수 있는가

Os poucos dominarão muitos: como a regra 80/20 pode transformar sua vida

Немногие будут править многими: как правило 80/20 может изменить вашу жизнь

Az sayıda kişi çoğuna hükmedecek: 80/20 Kuralı Hayatınızı Nasıl Dönüştürebilir?

Số ít sẽ cai trị số nhiều: Quy tắc 80/20 có thể thay đổi cuộc sống của bạn như thế nào

少数人将统治多数人：80/20 规则如何改变你的生活

The United States v Meta Platforms Court Filing October 24, 2023 is part of . You can jump to any part in this filing . This is part 71 of 100. HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series here COUNT XXVI: DECEPTIVE TRADE PRACTICES MINN. STAT. § 325D.43 et seq. 1008. The State of Minnesota, by its Attorney General, Keith Ellison, re-alleges and incorporates herein by reference each of the allegations contained in paragraphs 1 through 850 above as though fully alleged in this cause of action. 1009. Minnesota Statutes section 325D.44, subdivision 1 provides in part: A person engages in a deceptive trade practice when, in the course of business, vocation, or occupation, the person: (5) represents that goods or services have sponsorship, approval, characteristics, ingredients, uses, benefits, or quantities that they do not have or that a person has a sponsorship, approval, status, affiliation, or connection that the person does not have; (7) represents that goods or services are of a particular standard, quality, or grade, or that goods are of a particular style or model, if they are of another; and (14) engages in any other conduct which similarly creates a likelihood of confusion or of misunderstanding.[40] 1010. Meta and each Defendant are “persons” within the meaning of Minnesota Statutes section 325D.44. 1011. Meta’s Social Media Platforms are a “good” or “service” within the meaning of Minnesota Statutes section 325D.44. 1012. In numerous instances in the course of business, vocation, or occupation, Meta violated Minnesota Statutes section 325D.44, subdivision 1(5), 1(7), and 1(14) by representing that goods or services have sponsorship, approval, characteristics, ingredients, uses, benefits, or quantities that they do not have, representing that goods or services are of a particular standard, quality, or grade, or that goods are of a particular style or model, if they are of another, and engaging in deceptive acts, practices, and omissions that caused a likelihood of confusion or of misunderstanding among Minnesota consumers in connection with its advertising, marketing, promotion, and other representations regarding its goods or services. Those acts, practices, and omissions include, but are not limited to: a. Misrepresenting, directly or indirectly, expressly or by implication, that Meta’s Social Media Platforms are not psychologically or physically harmful for young users and are not designed to induce young users’ compulsive and extended use, when they are in fact so designed; b. Misrepresenting, directly or indirectly, expressly or by implication, that Meta’s Social Media Platforms are less addictive and/or less likely to result in psychological and physical harm for young users than its Social Media Platforms are in reality; c. Misrepresenting, directly or indirectly, expressly or by implication, through the publication of CSER reports [Redacted], and through other communications, that the incidence or prevalence of negative or harmful user experiences on Meta’s Social Media Platforms was lower than it actually was; d. Misrepresenting, directly or indirectly, expressly or by implication, that Meta prioritized young users’ health and safety over maximizing profits, when in fact Meta subordinated young user health and safety to its goal of maximizing profits by prolonging young users’ time spent on its Social Media Platforms; e. Misrepresenting, directly or indirectly, expressly or by implication, that Meta prevents under-13 from using Instagram and/or Facebook when in fact Meta was aware that it does not prevent under-13 users from using Instagram and Facebook; f. Misrepresenting, directly or indirectly, expressly or by implication, that Meta’s collection of user data was not for the purpose of causing those users to become addicted to the Social Media Platforms, when in reality that was one of the purposes for which Meta collected user data; and g. Making other false and deceptive representations set forth in this Complaint. 1013. Due to Meta’s deceptive acts, practices, and omissions described in this Complaint, consumers are suffering, have suffered, and will continue to suffer substantial injury. 1014. Meta’s acts, practices, and omissions described in this Complaint constitute multiple separate violations of Minnesota Statutes section 325D.44, subdivision 1. [40] Pursuant to 2023 Minn. Laws ch. 57, art. 4, section 6, Minn. Stat. § 325D.44, subd. 1(13) is to be re-codified as Minn. Stat. § 325D.44, subd. 1(14). For simplicity, the State of Minnesota refers to this provision as Minn. Stat. § 325D.44, subd. 1(14), though this provision has been in effect for the full relevant time period and continues through the present. Continue Reading . Here About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings. This court case 4:23-cv-05448 retrieved on October 25, 2023, from is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. Washingtonpost.com Lead image by on Unsplash Muhammad Asyfaul

Trouble for Meta in Minnesota as Attorney General Sues for Deceptive Trade Practices

This article was originally published on by . ProPublica Cezary Podkul Mr. Big had a problem. He needed to move what he called “fraud funds” back to China, but a crackdown was making that difficult. So in August, Mr. Big, who, needless to say, did not list his real name, posted an ad on a Telegram channel. He sought a “group of smuggling teams” to, as he put it, “complete the final conversion” of the stolen money by smuggling gold and precious stones from Myanmar into southern China, in exchange for a 10% cut. It’s unclear whether Mr. Big ultimately succeeded; his ad has since been deleted, and ProPublica was unable to reach him. But the online forum where he posted his ad says a lot about why Americans and people around the world have found themselves targeted by an unprecedented wave of fraud originating out of Southeast Asia, whose vast scale is now becoming apparent. In a single recent criminal investigation, Singapore police in money laundered from a to organized crime, including “scams and online gambling.” seized more than $2 billion syndicate with alleged ties The Telegram channel that featured Mr. Big’s plea for assistance was a Chinese-language forum offering access to “white capital” — money that has been laundered — “guaranteed” by a casino operator in Myanmar, , that purports to ensure that deals struck on the forum go through. Fully Light Group Fully Light also operates its own Telegram channels that advertise similar services. One such channel, with 117,000 participants, featured offers to swap cryptocurrency for “pure white” Chinese renminbi or “white capital” Singaporean dollars. (Telegram took down that channel after ProPublica inquired about it. Fully Light did not respond to requests for comment.) The presence of a casino in facilitating such deals is no coincidence. A growing number of gambling operations across Southeast Asia have become key pillars in a vast underground banking system serving organized criminal groups, according to new research by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. The research has not been published, but the agency shared its findings with ProPublica. There are now over 340 physical casinos across Southeast Asia (as well as countless online ones), and many of them show accelerating levels of infiltration by organized crime, according to the UNODC. The casinos function as “a shadow banking system that allows people to move money quickly, seamlessly, jurisdiction-to-jurisdiction, with almost no restriction,” Jeremy Douglas, UNODC’s top official , told ProPublica in September. in Southeast Asia That has made money laundering “easier than ever before,” he said, and it’s been “fundamental to the expansion of the transnational criminal economy” in the region — especially cybercrime. , Southeast Asia has become a major hub for cryptocurrency investment scams that often start as innocent-sounding . As ProPublica reported in detail last year “wrong number”-type text messages The messages frequently originate from seedy casino towns in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, where criminal syndicates lure workers with the promise of lucrative jobs, only to force them to work as online scammers. UNODC’s map of known or suspected scam compounds shows a clear overlap with gambling hubs in Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia, where allegations of forced online scam labor have become so widespread that they recently prompted Interpol to issue a , which the international police agency said was occurring on “an industrial scale.” global warning about the problem Gambling has long attracted organized crime, but never more than in Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines, where loose regulations and endemic corruption allow casinos to operate with little oversight or responsibility to report suspicious transactions. Before the COVID-19 pandemic began, officials in those countries in an effort to attract foreign direct investment. wooed Chinese casino operators Criminal bosses, facing a crackdown in China , began investing in casinos and cutting deals to run their own special economic zones in Myanmar and elsewhere where they could operate unfettered. and sanctions imposed by the U.S. When the pandemic struck in 2020, travel restrictions emptied newly built casinos, hotels and offices of workers and visitors across the region. Criminal syndicates repurposed the facilities to house online fraud operations and turned to human smugglers to staff them up. (For example, when Philippine authorities raided several online gambling operators between May and August, they discovered more than 4,400 laborers, most of them .) human trafficking victims forced to perpetrate online fraud Online casinos can be easily used for money laundering: They often accept cryptocurrency deposits that can be converted to virtual chips and placed in bets or cashed out in currency, making them seem like proceeds of legitimate gambling. is becoming increasingly common in Southeast Asia. That method of money laundering Physical casinos have their own attractions for money laundering. They have become a draw for a parallel industry of junket operators, who organize gambling trips for high-rollers. Those junkets also attract organized criminal groups that need to move money across borders and do so using junkets’ gambling accounts, according to recent prosecutions by Chinese authorities. Last year, 36 individuals connected to Suncity Group, once one of the biggest junket operators in the world, were about $160 million in illegal cross-border payments and transactions. convicted in China of facilitating The company’s ex-CEO, Alvin Chau, is in jail for . running a criminal syndicate and other charges In northeast Myanmar, Fully Light Group has emerged as a “multi-billion-dollar business conglomerate and a key player” in casinos and illegal online gambling, according to , Myanmar country director for the United States Institute of Peace. research by Jason Tower “These are not normal casinos in any way,” Tower said, because they’re located in what he calls “criminal enclaves” that are more under the control of organized crime than any government authority. For instance, hundreds of criminal convictions by Chinese courts related to illegal casinos, fraud, kidnapping, drugs and weapons charges in the Kokang Special Administrative Zone, near Myanmar’s border with China, where Fully Light is based. Tower found In its review, UNODC found Kokang casinos — both those owned by Fully Light and by others — also played a major role in money laundering. They operate Telegram channels that openly advertise money laundering services, including some that link back to official Fully Light channels and offer the company’s guarantee to cross-border exchanges of cryptocurrencies. Some Fully Light-affiliated Telegram channels include solicitations to participate in what are known as money mule “motorcades” that move funds through multiple cryptocurrency wallets or bank accounts. Billions of dollars more are likely flowing into the region, thanks to online scams that show no signs of abating. Nick Smart of the cryptocurrency analytics firm Crystal Blockchain has been tracing the flows of crypto funds deposited into online platforms that are set up to look like investing sites in order to fleece victims. Following the money trail from just one such website, which he suspects to be linked to criminal organizations in Myanmar, led him to a wallet that also pooled funds from 14 other known crypto scams. The wallet received about $44 million in various cryptocurrencies between December and July, when it ceased activity. With thousands of such websites popping up every day, victims’ losses are easily “in the billions,” said Smart, the director of blockchain intelligence at Crystal. The global cybercrime spree has prompted countries across the region to take a bolder tack. In June, Thailand to two cyberfraud hot spots across its border with Myanmar (with ). More recently, six illegal cellular towers suspected of providing internet service to scam compounds in Myanmar. cut off electricity disappointing results Thai officials shut down Chinese authorities have also in dramatic operations that included a of hundreds of suspected cybercriminals across a border crossing from Myanmar to China’s southern Yunnan Province on Sept. 6. arrested thousands of their own citizens humiliating perp walk On Sept. 26, UNODC with China and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations to jointly and human trafficking linked with casinos and scams. An accompanying the agreement calls on the countries to “make anti-money laundering and wider anti-corruption efforts a higher priority.” unveiled an agreement combat organized crime action plan But the challenge is steep. Even as multiple countries crack down, Laos, one of the poorest nations in the region, is online gambling operators to set up shop within its borders and target foreigners. getting ready to allow And governments need to broaden their focus. Anti-money-laundering regulations often zero in on bank cash transfers of $10,000 or more. The UNODC’s Douglas said governments will need to turn their attention to casinos and other nontraditional financial players. “Everyone’s been focusing on transactions of $10,000 going through banks and flagging suspicious transactions,” Douglas said, “and these guys are moving millions around the corner through the casino, laughing at the system.” Photo by on Carl Raw Unsplash

Southeast Asian Casinos Are Helping Global Cybercrime

দক্ষিণ-পূর্ব এশীয় ক্যাসিনো গ্লোবাল সাইবার অপরাধে সহায়তা করছে

Südostasiatische Casinos unterstützen die globale Cyberkriminalität

Los casinos del Sudeste Asiático están ayudando al cibercrimen global

Les casinos d’Asie du Sud-Est contribuent à la cybercriminalité mondiale

दक्षिण पूर्व एशियाई कैसीनो वैश्विक साइबर अपराध में मदद कर रहे हैं

東南アジアのカジノが世界的なサイバー犯罪を助長している

동남아시아 카지노가 글로벌 사이버 범죄를 돕고 있습니다

Os cassinos do sudeste asiático estão ajudando o crime cibernético global

Казино Юго-Восточной Азии помогают глобальной киберпреступности

Güneydoğu Asya Kumarhaneleri Küresel Siber Suçlara Yardımcı Oluyor

Sòng bạc Đông Nam Á đang hỗ trợ tội phạm mạng toàn cầu

东南亚赌场正在助长全球网络犯罪

From accidental data loss, to viruses that can destabilize your systems, nonprofits are more susceptible than they might think to cybersecurity threats. Make sure you identify the weaknesses in your systems and invest in training and tools to reinforce them. All organizations need reliable data backups, antivirus software, and education for their staff on spotting and mitigating an attempted attack. You may also want to invest in a multi-factor identification tool or wireless security devices for your office. We've gathered some great tools you can get through TechSoup, offering protection and training to keep your nonprofit running smoothly. NortonLifeLock offers effective and easy-to-use security software, which you can use to protect up to 100 devices. This allows you to provide your whole organization with protection against malware, spyware, and other viruses and security risks. NortonLifeLock Norton 360 Deluxe also includes a secure VPN, dark web monitoring, and 50 GB of secure backup storage in the cloud. and are available as donations through TechSoup. , with reduced admin fees and increased eligibility making the software more accessible than ever before. Norton Small Business Norton 360 Deluxe The donation program has recently been updated Avast provide a range of protective measures to mitigate cyberthreats. The products include content filtering, enterprise-grade web protection, and antivirus. Avast's CloudCare tools This helps you to keep any malicious links, viruses, or prying eyes out of your network and ensure that things run smoothly. You can also make use of Avast's security patching service to prevent, identify and fix vulnerabilities in your network. You can protect your whole organization by requesting an unlimited number of Avast CloudCare product licenses. Okta is an identity management solution offering a range of capabilities to suit your team's needs. You can use its single sign-on (SSO) and multi-factor authentication (MFA) tools to provide a layer of protection to your systems and ensure that sensitive information stays away from prying eyes. Okta You can also use it to make accessing your tools simpler and easier, by integrating your apps with Okta and allowing employees to access them from one secure dashboard. Nonprofits are eligible for 50 free licenses for all Workplace Identity products from Okta and significant discounts for all further licenses and services. You can also get 50 percent off public training courses and apply for pro bono professional services. Microsoft Enterprise Mobility + Security is a cloud-based identity and security service, helping you to manage and protect your organization's users, devices, and data. Depending on the subscription option you choose, the service can help you to simplify and secure access to your apps and devices. Microsoft Enterprise Mobility + Security It leverages features such as Microsoft Intune and advanced security reports and alert services to identify potential threats and suspicious activity and protect your devices. The E3 and E5 licenses of Microsoft Enterprise Mobility + Security are available at a discount through Microsoft's partnership with TechSoup. Bitdefender enhances protection for networked and non-networked devices by preventing uninvited computer connections, viruses, Trojan horses, spam, and other cybersecurity threats. It provides highly customizable features, including the ability to whitelist websites and easily adjust web protection settings to suit your needs. Bitdefender Its solutions include a firewall, remote management capabilities, and specialized phishing defense, as well as rescue mode in the case of a threat that cannot be easily removed. Organizations looking to protect servers should consider Bitdefender's solution. GravityZone Business Security Bitdefender offers a range of licensing options allowing you to protect up to 50 devices. Cisco Meraki offers cloud-managed wireless security devices that provide connectivity, a firewall, VPN, and other services for small and medium-sized organizations. The security measures can apply to your organization's devices, as well as employees' own devices through a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy. Cisco Meraki This allows you to create or expand a wireless network, supporting both in-office and remote staff through a VPN. You can also set different security policies for each user, helping you to enforce internal information hierarchies and reduce the risk of accidental data loss. Cisco Meraki products are available for donation through the Cisco for Nonprofits program, and interested organizations must meet the eligibility requirements and restrictions of the . . Cisco donation program Check your eligibility here KnowBe4 is a cybersecurity and compliance training service, helping you to educate your team on spotting the signs of an attempted security breach. It includes simulated phishing attacks, training and analysis of your staff's ability to identify threats, and analysis. This training is offered as part of a partnership between TechSoup and Tech Impact, and includes implementation support for leadership and IT teams. KnowBe4 TechSoup Courses with a Focus on Security Don't miss these three comprehensive courses from TechSoup on security. All our courses are developed specifically for nonprofits and led by trusted experts in the sector. : Learn how to become a "human firewall." This course provides basic training for all nonprofit staff on security processes they can follow to protect themselves online. Cybersecurity 101 : This 200-level course teaches you how to make your organization safe. We provide training to nonprofit staff on procedures and processes that will help them keep their organization safe when they are online. Cybersecurity 201 : This is a basic course to help all nonprofit staff and volunteers learn basic processes when they start using cloud technologies. Many Microsoft 365 examples are used throughout. Basic Security on the Cloud for Nonprofit Staff 101 Making Security a Priority It's easy to overlook cybersecurity until something goes wrong. TechSoup offers tools and training that work in the background to drastically reduce the risk of data loss, cyberattacks, and other threats. By finding the right identity management solution, antivirus protection, and staff training, you can ensure that your operations won't be interrupted and that your clients' information is safe and secure. By Amy Hooper Co-published here Photo by on Towfiqu barbhuiya Unsplash

How to Protect Your Organization: The Tools You Need

Hello, readers! My name is Jon Keegan, and I’m an investigative data reporter here at The Markup. Recently I’ve been writing about how companies have been monetizing our data in many aspects of our daily lives— as we , and when we check in to see . at the supermarket, drive our cars where our kids are Over the years my reporting has often taken me deep into various government agency websites, and I have always been amazed to see the incredible variety of public data that our government collects. I have a background in art and design, so I’ve made a habit of keeping a spreadsheet of the more unusual data that is visually interesting. Last fall I started publishing a newsletter called that lets me share to a wider audience these quirky collections, alongside reporting on why and how they came to exist. Beautiful Public Data For Beautiful Public Data, I’ve written about the official federal for America’s highways, a showing how our radio frequencies are sliced up, and the National Library of Medicine’s database of . As a reader of The Markup, you’d probably like it! style guide crazy chart 8,693 pills Recently, this personal project and my day job collided when I sat down to write about one dataset I had added to my spreadsheet a few years ago. Special Database 18 Buried deep in The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) , among biometric measurement datasets such as fingerprints, iris scans, and handwriting samples, you will find a most unusual collection of federal data. is labeled as “NIST Mugshot Identification Database.” data catalog Special Database 18 This dataset contains black-and-white mugshot photographs of 1,573 people. The 3,248 undated photos appear to be many decades old and to come from a variety of locations. The photos feature front and profile views of people and are accompanied by a metadata file containing the subject’s gender and age at the time of the photo. Some of the subjects appear in multiple photos taken at different times. NIST’s website says the database is being distributed “for use in development and testing of automated mugshot identification systems.” Though names and any other obviously identifying information have been redacted in these images, I was still shocked to see this available. The dataset must be from NIST, which will provide a copy if you are a “qualified researcher” and it is “to be used for biometrics related research, development and education.” requested In the dataset , NIST does not offer any context other than the gender and age metadata. documentation The thought of my kid getting caught up in some trouble and having his face permanently added to a government mugshot collection made my stomach turn. In the dataset I reviewed, which I requested and downloaded from NIST’s website a few years ago, almost all of the subjects are labeled as male, with only 78 labeled as female. Perhaps the most notable number I found while looking through this dataset was that 175 of the subjects were minors at the time their mugshot was taken, with 10 of them under the age of 15. There are even two 12-year-old children in the collection. I’m a father of a 12-year-old, and the thought of my kid getting caught up in some trouble and having his face permanently added to a government mugshot collection made my stomach turn. I originally found this dataset because of Beautiful Public Data, but I have to admit that I paused at even considering this dataset for the newsletter, as it is obviously not a correct fit. But in my role as a curator of unusual visual data in government archives, this dataset is hard to ignore. One of the biggest lessons I have learned as a journalist in my time at The Markup is that when you find something that seems bad, sort by harm. (In this case, that meant loading the data into a Python notebook and quite literally sorting by age.) These photographs are depicting people at likely one of the worst moments in their lives, and it shows. Bandages, black eyes, and fresh wounds hint at grim, untold stories that led them to the moment of their photo. Among the people in the photographs are sailors and soldiers and bus drivers. One photo of a woman crying was particularly wrenching. Some of these photos are blurry, smudged snapshots while others are evocative portraits that are hard to pin down in time. Looking at this huge collection of pictures, it is hard not to empathize with these subjects, though it is sobering to remember that it is likely that at least some of these people may have done some bad things. I reached out to NIST to ask some questions about this dataset, including one about the presence of minors in it. Richard Press, a spokesperson for the institute, told me that NIST has “paused distribution of SD-18 [the mugshot database] and are reviewing the dataset to remove any that depict people who were minors at the time the photos were taken.” Press added, “We are also notifying anyone who has received the dataset for biometric related research that they must remove these images, as per the terms and conditions of the agreement they signed with NIST. Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention.” In response to my questions about the origin of the photos, Press said that they were shared with NIST in the 1990s by the FBI to “support research in mugshot identification.” Press said that when the FBI provided the collection of images to NIST, it confirmed that each of the individuals in the photographs were deceased and that they each had “criminal records.” It was not clear looking at these photographs if any of these people in this dataset were convicted of any crime or were simply arrested at some point, and when I asked NIST to clarify what having a criminal record meant exactly, Press told me that “NIST defers to the FBI on the meaning of ‘criminal records.’ ” It was not clear looking at these photographs if any of these people in this dataset were convicted of any crime or were simply arrested at some point…. The intended use of this data does not appear to be training facial recognition models (you can use NIST’s for that) but rather for image recognition systems to classify a photograph as a mugshot, as opposed to one used for a passport or a government issued ID. Special Database 32 One that cited the use of Special Database 18 for analysis was titled “Criminal tendency detection from facial images and the gender bias effect” and described the study as an effort to “explore a new level of image understanding, inferring criminal tendency from facial images via deep learning.” academic study The study has since been by the publisher as the authors failed to seek approval from their ethics committee before working with sensitive human biometric data. retracted I have submitted a public records request to both NIST and the FBI for more information on the dataset’s origins. Mugshots as Public Records State laws vary widely regarding the classification of mugshots as public records. generally consider them public to some degree, but some impose additional rules controlling their release. Thirty-one states Other states do not appear to have rules specifically governing mugshots, at least according to a assembled by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. review of laws Some states have limited the distribution of mugshots in recent years amid growing concern about privacy and the ability of such photos to spread online. California enacted a law in 2021 that prohibits police departments or sheriff’s offices from sharing certain booking photos of people on social media and mandates the photos be removed if the individual is not charged, found not guilty, or had their conviction overturned. In a controversial move, New York recently amended its to prevent the disclosure of mugshots in public records requests. But the state allows individual law enforcement agencies the discretion to release such photos if they have a “a specific law enforcement purpose.” The amendment was criticized both by and . freedom of information law news organizations civil liberties groups Louisiana and Florida are that have recently enacted new restrictions related to mugshots that limit their use on exploitative websites that post the photos and make their money by forcing people to pay to have them removed. among a group of states Ethical Questions While mugshots are considered public records in many cases, the use of these photos as a technical testing standard in a long-term government dataset raises significant ethical questions. I spoke with Sarah Lageson, an associate professor at Rutgers’ School of Criminal Justice who studies the ways in which online crime data and criminal records have lingering effects on people. Lageson said that the lack of context surrounding the subjects’ arrests raises serious ethical concerns. “I think it’s this decontextualization that is harmful for any circumstance where mugshots are involved because it’s just so personal,” she said.” It’s your face in this context in which you don’t have any rights.” Lageson added that a criminal case is a dynamic, evolving thing, and the mugshot reflects just one early moment in that process. “Mug shots are basically just a reflection of who a police officer has decided to arrest. It’s really not an indicator of criminality or proof that the person has been harmful or anything like that,” said Lageson. “Just because they were brought into the system for one minute, or for one instance, they’re forever now relegated to their biometric data to be used over and over.” It’s hard to imagine how anything is ethical about this…. Albert Fox Cahn, S.T.O.P. Albert Fox Cahn is the founder and executive director of the (S.T.O.P.), which advocates for ending discriminatory surveillance practices. Surveillance Technology Oversight Project “It’s hard to imagine how anything is ethical about this, if it’s being done with no informed, meaningful consent—[and] there is no consent when you’re arrested or when your booking photos [are] forcibly taken,” Cahn told me in an interview. When asked if such ethical problems are mitigated by the fact that the subjects of these photographs are apparently deceased, Cahn replied, “There is something harmful about this, even if someone is deceased, harmful to their family, harmful to their legacy. I know that after I’m gone, I don’t want to have my image being used by the government to train new forms of AI.” Cahn told me that the fact that such a collection has been out there on a government website for years is a result of a wider societal problem resulting from the unfettered use of surveillance technologies to ingest biometric data without consent—what he called “a mountain of stolen data.” Press said that, to the best of NIST’s knowledge, no subjects or their families had been notified that they were included in this dataset, and no subjects or their families have ever contacted NIST requesting to be removed from the dataset. On its website, NIST includes among its , “Integrity: We are ethical, honest, independent, and provide an objective perspective.” core values Press added that all of the image datasets used by the agency are subject to “ ” regulations. Human Subjects Protection When asked if NIST has had any recent discussion about the ethics of these involuntary subjects being made part of a permanent dataset, Press said, “Yes, this is an active area of consideration within NIST and among data experts.” A Look at NIST’s Collections The National Institute of Standards and Technology is set apart from most federal agencies by the wide array of standards and measurements that it works on for many industries. Founded in 1901, NIST is part of the Department of Commerce and to help boost American commercial competitiveness by defining and maintaining measurements and standards that would help the U.S. catch up to more established European industrial leaders. was created NIST’s mission: “To promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards, and technology in ways that enhance economic security and improve our quality of life.” Diving into NIST’s website yields all sorts of interesting collections of data. NIST is the official keeper of . NIST maintains a large amount of physics data, including tables of , properties, and isotopic compositions for all known elements. time for the U.S. government atomic weights There’s a collection of in the known universe, where you can find the precise values of the speed of light in a vacuum (299,792,458 meters per second) or the Rydberg frequency (3.289 841 960 2508(64) × 1015 Hz). fundamental physical constants NIST also has its own , where industrial labs can order “standard reference material” for a dizzying array of items, both mundane and exotic. For $1,107 you can buy 170 grams of peanut butter. Looking for a good source of industrial sludge? online store For $780, NIST can set you up with 70 grams, shipped to your door. You can also order “ ,” “ ,”  “ ,” and “ .” Lake Superior Fish Tissue Urban dust Organic Contaminants in Smokers’ Urine (Frozen) Slurried Spinach From a purely bureaucratic perspective, this mugshot database perhaps seemed to fit neatly beside these items as yet another “standard reference material” in NIST’s collections. But today, decades after the photos were taken, their presence reminds us that the recent leaps forward in machine learning are fueled by mountains of data, and that includes real human faces. The practice of involuntary personal data collection used to train algorithms is not only limited to those people in the criminal legal system but is also happening to all of us. Access to Special Database 18 may be on pause, but that broader problem remains. Sincerely, Jon Keegan Investigative Data Journalist The Markup By Jon Keegan Also published here Photo by on Campaign Creators Unsplash

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