Free Republic

Sam's Club stores is axing all self-checkouts from its 600 stores — in favor of controversial new technology. The Walmart-owned warehouse chain, often seen as Costco's biggest rival, is rolling out AI-powered 'Scan & Go' tech that lets shoppers skip the line and walk straight out the door once they're done shopping. The move is controversial because it uses a network of cameras and sensors to track shoppers and their carts. In addition, the checkout-free experience requires all customers to use a smartphone and download the store’s app. This could pose a challenge to older shoppers who may struggle with...

Small, everyday purchases like a meal from DoorDash are now able to be financed through eat now, pay later options — a practice that some experts deem "predatory." "You've got to have enough sense to not follow the urge to finance a taco, okay? You have got to be an adult," career coach Ken Coleman told "The Big Money Show," Wednesday. "This is predatory, and it's going to get a lot of people in deep trouble." Financial wellness experts are continuously sounding the alarm to cash-strapped consumers, warning them of the devastating impact this financial strategy could have on their...

In our modern age of camera-equipped cellphones and laptops, ubiquitous social media websites, and constant GPS tracking that everyone seems to use to go anywhere, you are not paranoid if you worry that Big Brother—the government—along with companies like Google and Facebook, are recording your every move. If the allegations made by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton are true, you can add automobile insurance companies and a host of third-party app developers to that list. That is according to a lawsuit filed by Paxton that brings up shades of George Orwell’s book “1984” and the constant surveillance of citizens he...

NEW YORK — Connor Tomasko grew up wary of credit cards. As she taught herself more about managing money, she realized that many people also have bad habits when it comes to payment apps. Tomasko, 31, a freelance software consultant in Chicago, understands why people appreciate the ease of the apps, which typically only require you to know someone's username in order to send money. But she realized that keeping money in the apps could be risky and means losing out on the interest from a high yield savings account. She now immediately transfers any payments out of the apps...

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Trial began Tuesday in Florida for four activists accused of illegally acting as Russian agents to help the Kremlin sow political discord and interfere in U.S. elections. All four are or were affiliated with the African People’s Socialist Party and Uhuru Movement, which has locations in St. Petersburg, Florida, and St. Louis... In his opening statement, Justice Department attorney Menno Goedman said the group’s members acted under Russian direction to stage protests in 2016 claiming Black people have been victims of genocide in the U.S. and took other actions for the following six years that would...

Can anyone suggest an app to block unknown callers on my android phone please?

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), along with two other international consumer protection networks, announced on Thursday the results of a study into the use of “dark patterns” — or manipulative design techniques ... In an analysis of 642 websites and apps offering subscription services, the study found that the majority (nearly 76%) used at least one dark pattern and nearly 67% used more than one. Dark patterns refer to a range of design techniques that can subtly encourage users to take some sort of action or put their privacy at risk. They’re particularly popular among subscription websites and apps...

For three weeks, 85,000 Yotta customers with a combined $112 million in savings have been locked out of their accounts, CEO and co-founder Adam Moelis ... The disruption, caused by a dispute between fintech middleman Synapse and Tennessee-based Evolve Bank & Trust, has upended lives... “We never imagined a scenario like this could play out and that no regulator would step in and help,” . ... his company has been a source of deep pain for thousands of customers who relied on Yotta accounts to receive paychecks, pay bills and save for emergencies. The crisis began May 11, when a...

Popular smartphone apps used to track people’s location and provide weather reports may hand over driving data to a firm that sells the information to insurance companies for the purposes of setting rates for unsuspecting motorists... apps Life360, MyRadar and Gas Buddy are providing user data to an Allstate-owned company, Arity, which computes the numbers to create a “driving score” that takes into account any risky behavior behind the wheel... That information is then sold to other insurance firms — with user consent — which set rates for their customers ... Life360, which is used by parents to keep track...

A group of moped-riding migrants terrorizing New Yorkers – including one Uber Eats driver – used a hacker to breach bank accounts and make purchases at stores like Home Depot, cops revealed as they shared new details on the “sophisticated” high-tech crime ring. The crew — and others like it — include people from several nations, including Venezuela, Ecuador, Honduras and Mexico, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told reporters. “There’s not a Venezuelan shelter, there’s not a Mexican shelter,” he said. “They’re all brought in together, along with other groups as well.” But the Venezuelan-led gangs — including the...

Update, 5 p.m.: The Grand County Sheriff’s Office stated that County Road 1/Trough Road is reopened. Please drive with caution. A massive amount of snow has fallen across Grand County over the weekend triggering an avalanche and multiple highway closures. As of noon on Jan. 15 U.S. Highway 40 is still closed in both directions near Berthoud Pass while snow removal continues, Rabbit Ears Pass is closed in both direction on U.S. 40 and Colorado 125 is closed in both directions from mile point 0 to Forest Road 730, which is south of Walden. While everyone is trying to navigate...

Text Guide: 1. Go to the Releases page 2. In the latest release, go to the Assets section and download the Windows Subsystem For Android™ version of your choosing (do not download "Source code") 3. Extract the .7z archive and rename the folder (that you extracted) to WSA 4. Delete the .7z archive 5. Move the newly extracted folder to a suitable location (Documents folder is a good choice), as you will need to keep the folder on your PC to use MagiskOnWSANoteIf you're updating WSA, merge the folders and replace the files for all items when asked 6. Open...

WASHINGTON, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Unidentified governments are surveilling smartphone users via their apps' push notifications, a U.S. senator warned on Wednesday. In a letter to the Department of Justice, Senator Ron Wyden said foreign officials were demanding the data from Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google and Apple (AAPL.O). Although details were sparse, the letter lays out yet another path by which governments can track smartphones. Apps of all kinds rely on push notifications to alert smartphone users to incoming messages, breaking news, and other updates. These are the audible "dings" or visual indicators users get when they receive an email or...

Hunter Biden downloaded sixteen private messaging apps prior to 2019, many of which utilized encryption, according to a new report. The apps included Signal, Chinese messaging app WeChat, and Wickr, an encrypted app once favored in the criminal underworld, according to a New York Post report on Saturday citing an analysis of Hunter's abandoned laptop by the activist group Marco Polo. The Wickr app did not appear on the iPhone backup included in the laptop, but had previously downloaded onto the phone from iCloud, suggesting it had been installed and then deleted, a person familiar with the analysis told the...

That anonymous internet persona with an anime cartoon avatar in your Discord chat might actually be a contractor sent to spy on you. Enter the world of “threat intelligence.” It’s the term of art for a growing set of surveillance and security firms that create fake online personas to infiltrate and scrape data from private corners of the internet. The industry provides corporate and government clients with insight into conversations on private, invite-only Discord chats, WhatsApp groups, Reddit forums, and dark web message boards to help those powerful customers keep tabs on a variety of potential threats, from political hacktivists...

4 ‘African Socialists’ charged with election meddling for Russia after FIB raided their homes Four American socialists have been charged with election meddling and spreading Putin’s propaganda after they were arrested in dramatic FBI raids. The four, are members of the African People’s Socialist Party. Omali Yeshitela, the group’s chairman was one of the 4 Americans indicted Tuesday for “sowing discord, spreading pro-Russia propaganda and interfering in elections within the United States.” The DOJ says that the 81-year-old veteran leader of the far-left group conspired along with three others to help Russian efforts to meddle in elections. Yeshitela has called...

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will tell lawmakers the Chinese-owned short video app with more than 150 million American users has never, and would never, share US user data with the Chinese government amid growing US national security concerns. "TikTok has never shared, or received a request to share, US user data with the Chinese government. Nor would TikTok honor such a request if one were ever made," Chew will testify on Thursday (Mar 23), according to written testimony posted on Tuesday by the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee. He added that TikTok's parent company ByteDance is not...

Spotify's (SPOT.N) CEO Daniel Ek renewed his attack on Apple (AAPL.O) on Wednesday in a series of tweets alleging the iPhone maker "gives itself every advantage while at the same time stifling innovation and hurting consumers". Ek tagged a number of sympathetic business leaders in his 21-tweet thread, including Musk, Microsoft president Brad Smith, and Proton founder Andy Yen. On Monday, the world's richest person Elon Musk criticized the fee Apple charges software developers - including his Twitter business - for in-app purchases, and posted a meme suggesting he was willing to "go to war" rather than pay it.

New Twitter CEO Elon Musk revealed that Apple threatened to suspend Twitter from its app store, ‘but won’t tell us why.’ Apple suspended most of its advertising on Twitter, according to the blue bird app’s new CEO Elon Musk on Monday. Now, Twitter’s chief is asking questions about Apple’s censorship practices to his more than 119 million followers. “Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter,” Must wrote. “Do they hate free speech in America?” LBRY, a publisher that describes itself as the “bitcoin” of publishing, outlined the company’s own experience with Apple censorship in a response to Musk’s post. “During...

On November 13th, Portland, Oregon was visited by representatives from the Uhuru Movement including: the African People’s Socialist Party, APSP, the Uhuru Solidarity Movement, USM, and the African People’s Solidarity Committee, APSC.