Category: United States

Google Has Access To Detailed Health Records On Tens Of Millions Of Americans | Ars Technica

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Google quietly partnered last year with Ascension—the country’s second-largest health system—and has since gained access to detailed medical records on tens of millions of Americans, according to a November 11 report by The Wall Street Journal. The endeavor, code-named “Project Nightingale,” has enabled at least 150 Google employees to see patient health information, which includes diagnoses, laboratory test results, hospitalization records, and other data, according to internal documents and the newspaper’s sources. In all, the data amounts to complete medical records, WSJ notes, and contains patient names and birth dates.…

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Nearly A Million Canadian Bank Records Sent To IRS | CBC News

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The number of banking records the Canadian government is sharing with U.S. tax authorities under a controversial information-sharing deal has increased sharply, CBC News has learned. The Canada Revenue Agency sent 900,000 financial records belonging to Canadian residents to the Internal Revenue Service in September — nearly a third more than it sent the previous year. The records were for the 2018 tax year. It also has updated the number of records shared for the 2017 tax year to 700,000 from the 600,000 originally reported. Read full story here: Nearly A…

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Cable Companies Use Hidden Fees To Raise Prices 24% A Month | Ars Technica

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A Consumer Reports analysis of cable bills found that companies add $37.11 per month in fees to the average bill, raising consumers’ actual costs way above the advertised prices. The $37.11 “in fees created by the cable industry” add 24% to the average base price of $156.71 a month, Consumer Reports said. That doesn’t include another $13.28 in government-related taxes and fees, which raise prices even higher. Read full story here: Cable Companies Use Hidden Fees To Raise Prices 24% A Month | Ars Technica

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The Four Big US Carriers Want To Help You Get Rid Of Passwords | The Verge

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Last September, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon announced Project Verify, a way to log into apps without making a new account or password by instead relying on your smartphone to authenticate your identity. Think of it like the buttons you’ve likely seen that let you sign into apps and websites using your Facebook or Google account. Now, Project Verify has an official name — ZenKey — and it’s starting to roll out, albeit very slowly. Read full story here: The Four Big US Carriers Want To Help You Get Rid…

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Electric-car State Fees Often Cost More Than Gas Tax, Study Shows | Roadshow

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It’s perhaps an unthought-of benefit for electric-car owners: There’s no way to pay into a state’s gasoline tax at the pump since the cars won’t take a drop of fossil fuels. Numerous states have crafted workarounds, however, as they try recoup costs to keep road budgets afloat for repairs and maintenance. Read full story here: Electric-car State Fees Often Cost More Than Gas Tax, Study Shows | Roadshow

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Verizon Demands $880 From Rural Library For Just 0.44GB Of Roaming Data | Ars Technica

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A small library that lends out mobile hotspots is facing a tough budget decision because one of its borrowers accidentally ran up $880 in roaming fees, and Verizon refuses to waive or reduce the charges. The library has an “unlimited” data plan for the hotspots, but Verizon says it has to pay the $880 to cover less than half a gigabyte of data usage that happened across the border with Canada. Read full story here: Verizon Demands $880 From Rural Library For Just 0.44GB Of Roaming Data | Ars Technica

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The FBI Wants To Collect Social Media Data From Instagram, Facebook, And Twitter | Digital Trends

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The FBI is looking for a partner to collect data from your social media profiles, which could pit it against new privacy policies Facebook agreed to as part of its $5 billion settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). A request for proposal posted on Aug. 8 reveals that the FBI wants to hire a third party contractor to help it scrape to social media data “to proactively identify and reactively monitor threats to the United States and its interests.” The document was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.…

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US Issues Final Rules Halting Increase Of Fuel Efficiency Penalties | Engadget

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The Trump administration isn’t deterred by legal attempts to preserve a once-planned increase in fuel efficiency penalties. The NHTSA has issued final rules freezing the fine at $5.50 for every tenth of a mile per gallon a new vehicle consumes above required standards, halting an Obama-era plan that would have gradually raised the penalty to $14. The NHTSA said it was just following Congress’ desire to ensure the rate stayed at the statute’s requirement. Read full story here: US Issues Final Rules Halting Increase Of Fuel Efficiency Penalties | Engadget

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Border Officials To Start Sharing Data About U.S., Canadian Travellers | CBC News

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Border agents will be able to share information about U.S. and Canadian citizens more freely as the third phase of a 2011 border agreement meant to make it easier for trade and travel across the Canada-U.S. border comes into effect. It was announced on Thursday that U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Canada Border Services Agency will exchange biographic data, travel documents, and other information related to border crossings of U.S. and Canadian citizens. Read full story here: Border Officials To Start Sharing Data About U.S., Canadian Travellers | CBC News

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Citizenship Question Causing An Uproar In U.S. Has Been Part Of Canada’s Census Since 1901 | CBC News

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A politically divisive debate continues to rage over U.S. President Donald Trump’s push to add a citizenship question to the U.S. census. That same question has been part of Canada’s census form for over a century without a ripple. Trump has been waging a fierce fight to add the controversial query to the 2020 census, and said Friday he’s now considering an executive order to get it done after a Supreme Court ruling blocked his efforts. Read full story here: Citizenship Question Causing An Uproar In U.S. Has Been Part…

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