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Flock and Cyble Inc. weaponize “cybercrime” takedowns to silence critics

haveibeenflocked.com

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Re: Flock and Cyble Inc. weaponize “cybercrime” takedowns to silence critics

#101

Post by duckmysick »

TimorousBestie wrote: post #49
avaer wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One long-standing code is that they moderate YC companies less on HN, allowing criticisms like yours to stand: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34320816 To HN's credit I haven't seen this rule violated. For example I wouldn't have known it was a YC company if not for your comment.

> One long-standing code is that they moderate YC companies less on HN, allowing criticisms like yours to stand: Well, that’s what dang says he does. There’s no transparency and no publicly available data that would demonstrate adherence to the rule. > To HN's credit I haven't seen this rule violated. I don’t think you’d observe anything different if it were violated.

> no publicly available data that would demonstrate adherence to the rule.

What kind of data would satisfy you? I imagine any data coming directly from YC would be untrustworthy and third-party data would be incomplete (say, it wouldn't catch content removed before it's published).

Is there a similar data set for other private platforms?

Re: Flock and Cyble Inc. weaponize “cybercrime” takedowns to silence critics

#102

Post by VladVladikoff »

mceachen wrote: post #89
VladVladikoff wrote: post #37

> The site’s only input fields accept license plate numbers (which are hashed client-side before transmission and cannot be harvested) License plates are trivially short, hashing them accomplishes no additional level of privacy if the hashes could be bruted in seconds on an antique GPU.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_(cryptography) (Or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepper_(cryptography) off you want to be fancy)

Well aware of these, however that would not benefit in this case. Their main protection is against pre computed lookup tables. But since the operator needs to be able to lookup the license plate within their own database, then they would not be using either of these. If the operator really wanted to do this in a safe way for the user then the whole database should exist client side.

Re: Flock and Cyble Inc. weaponize “cybercrime” takedowns to silence critics

#103

Post by ProllyInfamous »

kotaKat wrote: post #85
therobots927 wrote: post #3

Absolutely unacceptable behavior. Wild that Americans are so distracted by pointless social issues that they haven’t even realized the ruling elite are treating them like cattle. Absolutely pathetic.

Flock's CEO basically went to the public and said "you all have phones" like the Blizzard people. “If (people are) worried about privacy, a license plate reader is the dumbest way to do surveillance. You have a cell phone. A cell phone knows your exact location at all times,” he said. “If you don’t trust law enforcement to do their job, that’s actually what you’re concerned about, and I’m not going to help people get…

I'm an American blue collar that does NOT carry a cell phone.

Datapoint: one.

Re: Flock and Cyble Inc. weaponize “cybercrime” takedowns to silence critics

#104

Post by goku12 »

bongodongobob wrote: post #23
tamimio wrote: post #7

Remember when Zuck called his fellow students at harvard who used facebook “Dumb fucks”? The US is accelerating into techno-authoritarianism, and all of these tech companies adopted “companies over countries” motto since the start, it’s not a surprise now.

In the sense that the US has been anti-intellectualist for decades, I'm kind of ok with it. All the kids who fucked around in school and picked on the nerds for just existing are kind of getting their comeuppance. It's definitely cut off your nose to spite your face type shit, but does give me a little bit of joy. "You stuffed me in a locker and destroyed my social life because I read a book at lunch. I'm going to au…

Do you realize that many of those nerds who were bullied in high school are fighting on the other side, trying to take on even bigger bullies - the oligarchs, to save democracy? Meanwhile, many of those bullies have grown up too, realized how cruel and shameful their conduct was, and are now fighting on the same side!

I understand that childhood bullying can leave some scars. I have faced my fair share too. But life teaches you ever bigger lessons and shifts your priorities. There are much bigger problems now! But if you had the luxury of harboring your grudges against some kiddie bullies, then you have some serious insecurity problems and too much time in your hands. In fact, that's exactly the problem that convert some shy rich kids into destructive oligarchs who lack any empathy. They end up with the delusions that they're somehow special, extra-intelligent and the rightful heirs to the future of humanity. They see their former bullies as sub-human creatures who stand in the way of their and humanity's glory.

I'm not making this up. Go ahead and read the literature that guide these techno-authoritarians. You'll see this philosophy repeated time and again. If you don't want to put in that much effort, there are numerous articles and media that psychoanalyze them based on these literature. You can see that fingerprint in all of their destructive behavior, including their disdain for democracy. And then check your own comment. See how much it resembles them!

Re: Flock and Cyble Inc. weaponize “cybercrime” takedowns to silence critics

#105

Post by tptacek »

mapontosevenths wrote: post #63
voidfunc wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

America is huge and there's a lot of exceptionally stupid people especially in the South and Midwest. Not much I can do about that over here in the coastal Northeast.

I think you will find that fifty percent of people are of below average intelligence regardless of where you live. The average does tend to vary from state to state. It actually is a bit lower in the southern and midwestern states, but only by a few points. https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/average-iq-...

This is just an extrapolation of NAEP testing. It's more or less a chart of SES and how many students in each state need English language supports.

People tend to believe without questioning it that there are geographical/regional surveys of "IQ". But have you ever been compelled to take an IQ test as part of a survey like that? I've never heard of that happening. In fact: those kinds of surveys do not exist.

Re: Flock and Cyble Inc. weaponize “cybercrime” takedowns to silence critics

#106

Post by CamperBob2 »

tomjakubowski wrote: post #80
sergiotapia wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So these are the scumbags putting cameras in front of schools and sending tickets to people on Sundays. Thank you for making peoples lives materially WORSE.

Cameras at schools, I can see how that could be concerning. But what's wrong with ticketing drivers on Sundays?

Nothing, I guess, but don't try to tell us it's about "safety" when school-zone speed limits are enforced on Sundays when school is out.

That said, I don't think Flock has anything to do with speed cameras in school zones or anywhere else.

Re: Flock and Cyble Inc. weaponize “cybercrime” takedowns to silence critics

#107

Post by mapontosevenths »

tptacek wrote: post #105
mapontosevenths wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you will find that fifty percent of people are of below average intelligence regardless of where you live. The average does tend to vary from state to state. It actually is a bit lower in the southern and midwestern states, but only by a few points. https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/average-iq-...

This is just an extrapolation of NAEP testing. It's more or less a chart of SES and how many students in each state need English language supports. People tend to believe without questioning it that there are geographical/regional surveys of "IQ". But have you ever been compelled to take an IQ test as part of a survey like that? I've never heard of that happening. In fact: those kinds of surveys do not exist.

Yeah. The linked source is upfront about that, but its the closest thing we have to a real study sadly. As I said, the averages are close anyhow.

Scholars have from time to time thrown their careers away by trying to get better numbers, inevitably some group doesn't like the outcome and they become embroiled in endless debate while their career implodes. For example, the major sources cited in The Bell Curve have had their titles stripped and been hounded to the ends of the earth.

All these years later people are still specifically authoring papers to debunk their work.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S01602...

We will never see real numbers. This, or other things like it, are literally the best it will ever get unless someone sacrifices their career, and maybe their own safety, to gather better data.

Re: Flock and Cyble Inc. weaponize “cybercrime” takedowns to silence critics

#108

Post by tptacek »

mapontosevenths wrote: post #107
tptacek wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is just an extrapolation of NAEP testing. It's more or less a chart of SES and how many students in each state need English language supports. People tend to believe without questioning it that there are geographical/regional surveys of "IQ". But have you ever been compelled to take an IQ test as part of a survey like that? I've never heard of that happening. In fact: those kinds of surveys do not exist.

Yeah. The linked source is upfront about that, but its the closest thing we have to a real study sadly. As I said, the averages are close anyhow. Scholars have from time to time thrown their careers away by trying to get better numbers, inevitably some group doesn't like the outcome and they become embroiled in endless debate while their career implodes. For example, the major sources cited in The Bell Curve have had…

There's a persistent myth that it's impossible to do science in this field and that people who try are cancelled. That's obviously false. You can just look this up. It's a fertile field and people are coming at it from multiple angles --- just watch arguments between behavioral and molecular geneticists on Twitter some time.

The people who actually are (/were) hounded are people like Richard Lynn, the godfather of "average IQ by country" data sets. That's because their data sets are fraudulent; not in a subtle way, but very directly: for instance, data for Sub-Saharan African countries are taken in many cases exclusively from mental health facilities, the only places IQ tests are done in any significant numbers in those places.

Re: Flock and Cyble Inc. weaponize “cybercrime” takedowns to silence critics

#109

Post by mapontosevenths »

tptacek wrote: post #108
mapontosevenths wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah. The linked source is upfront about that, but its the closest thing we have to a real study sadly. As I said, the averages are close anyhow. Scholars have from time to time thrown their careers away by trying to get better numbers, inevitably some group doesn't like the outcome and they become embroiled in endless debate while their career implodes. For example, the major sources cited in The Bell Curve have had…

There's a persistent myth that it's impossible to do science in this field and that people who try are cancelled. That's obviously false. You can just look this up. It's a fertile field and people are coming at it from multiple angles --- just watch arguments between behavioral and molecular geneticists on Twitter some time. The people who actually are (/were) hounded are people like Richard Lynn, the godfather of "a…

> the only places IQ tests are done in any significant numbers in those places.

> It's a fertile field and people are coming at it from multiple angles

One of these things must not be 100% accurate. Do you know of any real dataset thats based on actual testing? I can't find one for the life of me. I've looked.

If someone just... tested people we would have numbers. They aren't. Its been 30 years since the bell curve and our data is no better now than it was then as far as I can find.

There must be some reason for that discrepency.

*EDIT* To clarify, I don't think Lynn was right, and even if he was he was an asshole. I'm just annoyed that nobody followed up and did it properly.

Re: Flock and Cyble Inc. weaponize “cybercrime” takedowns to silence critics

#110

Post by tptacek »

mapontosevenths wrote: post #109
tptacek wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a persistent myth that it's impossible to do science in this field and that people who try are cancelled. That's obviously false. You can just look this up. It's a fertile field and people are coming at it from multiple angles --- just watch arguments between behavioral and molecular geneticists on Twitter some time. The people who actually are (/were) hounded are people like Richard Lynn, the godfather of "a…

> the only places IQ tests are done in any significant numbers in those places. > It's a fertile field and people are coming at it from multiple angles One of these things must not be 100% accurate. Do you know of any real dataset thats based on actual testing? I can't find one for the life of me. I've looked. If someone just... tested people we would have numbers. They aren't. Its been 30 years since the bell curve…

No, those statements aren't in tension at all! The idea that there would be reliable data for country-by-country or even state-by-state IQ comparisons is an extraordinary claim. Think about the amount of work that would go into generating representative samples. Globally? Forget about it.

It does not follow from the intractability of that problem that nobody's doing intelligence or behavioral genetics research. Plenty are, which is why there are front page stories on HN about the "missing heritability" issue.

Again, I think it's interesting that the notion of these data sets don't flunk more people's sanity checks, because most of us have no recollection of ever being asked to take an IQ test. I sure haven't. A mass testing regime none of us have ever heard of, apparently run in secret, is generating global IQ rankings? That doesn't sound weird to you?

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