Source: http://royceeddington.com/yfrog.com/gyv20phj/
Timestamp: 2018-04-22 21:48:15
Document Index: 172041416

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 203', '§ 41', '§ 201', '§ 20302', '§ 2', '§ 418']

RoyceEddington.com
Texas Governor Greg Abbott wants to “suspend relevant state election laws and order an emergency special election” due to rep. Farenthold’s resignation
Posted on April 20, 2018 by admin (Royce)
In a request for opinion to Texas Attorney General Paxton last night, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said that due to the resignation of representative Blake Farenthold of Texas’ 27th Congressional District, “it is imperative to restore representation for the people of that district as quickly as possible”, and in order to do so, state election laws must be suspended and an emergency special election needs to take place.
Representative Blake Farenthold resigned last Friday, before the House Ethics Committee could rule on its’ investigation on whether he had “sexually harassed members of his staff, used official money for campaign purposes and lied in previous testimony to the committee.”
Representative Farenthold had also “promised to repay an $84,000 sexual harassment settlement funded by taxpayers” but “will not complete the final eight months of his term.”
The two main questions Texas Attorney General Paxton have to answer are…
If the Texas emergency powers authorize Governor Greg Abbott to suspend state election laws and order an emergency special election.
If this specific situation (Representative Blake Farenthold’s resignation and the continuing representation of Texas’ 27th Congressional District) qualifies as an emergency.
The official Request for Opinion PDF is here.
The content of the PDF follows…
The Honorable Ken Paxton Attorney General of Texas
Attn: Opinion Committee P.O. Box 12548
Re: AG Opinion Request CD27
On April 8, 2018, Representative Blake Farenthold notified me of his resignation as the representative of Texas’ 27th Congressional District. It is imperative to restore representation for the people of that district as quickly as possible. I am acutely concerned about this issue because many of the district’s residents are still recovering from the ravages of Hurricane Harvey. Indeed, all 13 of the counties in District 27 are still covered by my most recent disaster declaration for the area devastated by the hurricane. Because so many of the hurricane relief efforts depend on action at the federal level, it is all the more important that the voters of District 27 have an effective voice in Washington, D.C., at the earliest possible opportunity. That will require me to call a special election as soon as is legally possible.
Generally, a special election must be held on the first uniform election date occurring on or after the 36th day after the date the election is ordered. See Tex. Elec. Code § 203.004. The only uniform election date left in 2018 that meets that statutory threshold is November 6, which is not soon enough. Id.§ 41.001 (a). In cases of emergency, the governor is authorized to order a special election to be held before the appropriate uniform election date; but in this instance, that authority is rendered ineffective by requirements found in other state and federal laws. See id. §§ 201.054(a) (filing deadlines), 203.004 (b) (emergency election time frame), 203.012 (canvassing deadlines); 52 U.S.C. § 20302 (a)(8)(A) (deadline to transmit absentee ballots to uniformed services or overseas voters). It is impossible to order an election, allow candidates to file, print ballots, mail them in accordance with federal law, and hold an emergency election within the statutorily prescribed 50-day window. Complicating the issue is that if an emergency election for District 27 results in a runoff election, the date for the runoff election cannot be sooner than the 70th day after the final canvas of the emergency election. See Tex. Elec. Code § 2.025(d). I am concerned that the combination of state and federal law makes it practically impossible to hold an emergency special election and to replace Representative Farenthold before the end of September.
As governor, I have been given “extremely broad powers to declare disaster emergencies and to deal with them.” Tex. Att’y Gen. Op. No. MW-140 (1980) (analyzing Disaster Act of 1975). Among the powers conferred on me is the authority to suspend certain statutory provisions if strict compliance with those provisions would in any way prevent, hinder or delay necessary action in coping with a disaster. Tex. Gov’t Code § 418.016. As noted above, I believe that a prolonged vacancy in this congressional seat will impede state and federal efforts in coping with the effects of Hurricane Harvey. Therefore, my question is:
May I utilize my authority under section 418.016 of the Government Code to suspend relevant state election laws and order an emergency special election?
Due to the time-sensitive nature of this request and the emergency disaster recovery efforts in District 27, I respectfully request your opinion as soon as possible. Thank you for your assistance with this important matter.
Amazon Echo devices keep 60 seconds of recordings. The big question – is this in perpetuity?
Posted on April 19, 2018 by admin (Royce)
For several years, Amazon had been telling the tech world their Echo home devices don’t “…actually do anything with your voice until you say their “wake word,” which is usually just … ‘Alexa’”
There was a big story that threatened to poke a hole in that narrative. Specifically, that an Amazon echo device’s recordings were needed to solve a murder case.
Amazon initially pushed back against releasing the recorded data, claiming “the First Amendment’s free speech protection applies to information gathered and sent by the device”, but eventually agreed to release the data after “after the user… consented to the disclosure”. The murder case was eventually dismissed, but there was never any explicit information on how much data Amazon handed over to the police regarding the investigation or what the data entailed.
The core issue remains. How exactly would an Echo device be useful in solving a murder case if it remains “off” until it is activated by the “wake word”? Why would the police want an Echo’s supposedly limited recordings?
A new finding in a very interesting tweet from Matteo ( @geminiimatt ) a few days ago might shed some light on that discrepancy.
On examining the extracted data from an Amazon Echo device…
We are walking through the extracted data on an Amazon Echo. The device keeps the last 60 seconds of recording (stored in the cloud), app & device. wifi username/password. sqlllite database contents. @B1N2H3X is giving us the tour. pic.twitter.com/FCyU6WyShG
— Matteo (@geminiimatt) April 14, 2018
Amazon Echo devices keep 60 seconds of recording and stores it “in the cloud”.
In their Alexa Terms of Use page, section 1.3 states very clearly that “Amazon processes and retains your Alexa Interactions, such as your voice inputs, music playlists, and your Alexa to-do and shopping lists, in the cloud to provide and improve our services.”
What is not stated at all is the length of retention or what happens to the data once it arrives “in the cloud”.
With this new finding that Echo devices keep 60 seconds of recording, and combined with Amazon’s admission they do “retain” Alexa interactions, I think it is time to ask a few questions.
Is this data stored in perpetuity?
Is there any way for any person to review the data sent from an Echo device?
Who has authority to review data sent from an Echo device?
Is there a backup of this data?
Is this data “mined”?
How is this data secured?
Is this data shared with any other party outside of Amazon?
Here’s my “worst case” thinking. Amazon pulls 60 seconds from an Echo device and uploads it to the cloud. Then “deletes” the previous 60 seconds on the local device and starts a new 60 second pull. The data uploaded from the local Echo device to the Amazon servers is never deleted on the Amazon servers. The data is stored forever, stamped by device name, location, wifi username and password, and sqlllite database contents. Every 60 seconds on every Echo device.
If this isn’t the case, if Echo devices really do just wait for the “wake word” and the findings by the community and the beliefs of the police are in error, a clear and detailed statement from Amazon on the Echo’s data retention would go a long way.
Personally, I’m still wondering why Amazon Dash buttons have embedded microphones.
Amazon is deleting uploads to their music storage service on April 30th
Posted on April 2, 2018 by admin (Royce)
Not an April fools post. Late last week, Amazon announced they are “retiring” their online music storage service.
Up until this email, Amazon allowed users to upload up to 250 songs to their “personal cloud library” for streaming or downloading. For some reason, Amazon has decided to kill this feature on April 30th of this month.
Customers who uploaded music to their Amazon services have until April 30th to login to their Amazon music page, navigate to their settings page, and select KEEP MY SONGS.
Here is a copy of the email I received from Amazon…
Amazon Music is retiring the Music Storage service, which allows customers to upload and store up to 250 songs in a personal cloud library. Our records indicate you have uploaded one or more songs through your Amazon account in the past.
To keep, download, and play your uploaded songs at no extra cost, simply open a web browser, go to your Music Settings and click the “Keep my songs” button to direct us to save your music to the cloud. Otherwise your uploaded songs will be removed from your library on April 30, 2018.
Your Amazon Music digital purchases will continue to remain securely stored for playback and download — no further action is required to retain those. These changes will not impact your ability to stream Prime Music or Amazon Music Unlimited.
The NBC Store may have just had their email server compromised
Posted on December 14, 2017 by admin (Royce)
One of the benefits to having my own domain is the ability to create as many custom email addresses as I want. When I sign up on a new website, I create a custom email just for that website and redirect it to my “main” email account.
Today, I received a junk email for the email address I set up only for the NBC Store. It is a “amazon delivery” notice with a “confirmation link” that redirects to a website in Spain.
Since I have never used the email address for the NBC Store anywhere else, and since it was sent directly to that alias account I created, I think it is safe to say the NBC Store’s customer email server has been compromised.
If you have an email account with the NBC Store, get ready for a flood of junk mail and malware.
You don’t have to own your own domain to set up a “ghost” email address. Google lets you create something similar with any gmail address!
On the next website that wants you to sign up with your email address, type a + sign after your gmail name and before the @ to make a “ghost” email address that will forward to your main gmail.com address.
For example, if bill.gates@gmail.com wanted to sign up at the NBCSTORE and wanted to use a “ghost” email address, he could just type in bill.gates+NBCSTORE@gmail.com at NBC Store’s website. NBC Store would send their emails to bill.gates+NBCSTORE@gmail.com and Bill would see it in his regular bill.gates@gmail.com inbox as coming from bill.gates+NBCSTORE@gmail.com.
While this takes longer than just putting in a standard email address, I find “ghost” email addresses are invaluable in finding out who sells email addresses (LinkedIn), who keeps them reserved (Apple, Microsoft), and on occasion, who has been hacked.
Kidde recalls over 37 million of their plastic-handle fire extinguishers made from January 1973 to August 2017
Posted on November 7, 2017 by admin (Royce)
In the “yeah, that’s bad” department, Kidde announced a massive recall of their plastic handle fire extinguishers that were manufactured between January 1, 1973 and August 15, 2017 due to failure “to activate during a fire emergency due to clogs”.
On the Occupational Health and Safety website, they say that anywhere from 37 to 40 million Kidde fire extinguishers “may not function properly in an emergency. The recall applies to 134 models of Kidde fire extinguishers manufactured between January 1, 1973, and August 15, 2017, including models that had been previously recalled in March 2009 and February 2015.”
“The recall involves both plastic handle and push-button Pindicator fire extinguishers. The extinguishers can fail to activate during a fire emergency due to clogs or requiring excessive force to discharge. The nozzle also can detach with enough force to pose an impact hazard. There have been approximately 391 reports of failed or limited activation or nozzle detachment, including a 2014 death in which emergency responders could not get the recalled Kidde fire extinguishers to work in a car fire following a crash.”
There’s a long list of all extinguishers affected by the recall on Kidde’s website and even a grim admission that “there have been approximately 391 reports of failed or limited activation or nozzle detachment, including [a] fatality, approximately 16 injuries, including smoke inhalation and minor burns, and approximately 91 reports of property damage” with those affected models.
Most people I know have a Kidde fire extinguisher since they’re sold nationwide at just about every store there is, but Kidde stated on their website these defective fire extinguishers were also bundled “with commercial trucks, recreational vehicles, personal watercraft and boats.”
If you find that you have one of their fire extinguishers, check out the recall list or call Kidde toll-free at 855-271-0773 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday and/or 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. ET Saturday and Sunday to get yours replaced ASAP.
QNAP NAS users: QFinder update now collects usage information
Posted on October 27, 2017 by admin (Royce)
If you use QFinder or QFinder Pro as part of your QNAP NAS management, the
most recent version of the app (QNAP Qfinder Pro 6.3.0) now collects information on your NAS usage.
You can click CANCEL and not OK at the legalese screen after the software installs, but it isn’t immediately apparent if this exempts you from the new TOS or is just a “close window” action.
Following is the “Consent to User Information Collection” that appears after the application updates. (The concerning parts I placed in bold.)
Consent to User Information Collection
Thank you for using QNAP Systems, Inc. (hereinafter referred to as the “Company”) products. To provide a better user experience, the Company will collect usage-related information when you use Qfinder Pro (hereinafter referred to as the “Product”), as detailed below:
User information and user behavior helps the Company to better understand user habits and preferences. The Company collects such information to improve the Product and services to meet the needs of users and to improve the overall service quality.
Operating system information, device identification codes, country and language settings, computer model, firmware version and other basic information.
App-related information including: version information, update and shutdown time, usage frequency, and usage time.
User preferences: device settings, product configuration, usage time of the application and hardware.
Other relevant but non-personal information.
With your agreement, the aforementioned information will be automatically collected and sent back to the Company. The Company will analyze the collected information to identify improvements that can be made to future products and services. The Company has effective mechanisms and procedures to protect the security of the information collected and shall only use the relevant information internally.
The Company hereby disclaims all warranties including express or implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose in connection with this consent or in any manner whatsoever. In addition to the foregoing, the Company shall not be held accountable for any direct, indirect, special, incidental or consequential damages, such as loss of profits, loss of data, equipment use or functional damage, interruption of business and events of a similar nature, regardless prior notice exists for such occurrence or not.
Posted in Tech!	| 1 Reply
Flickr is shutting down their photo books and wall art services
Posted on October 17, 2017 by admin (Royce)
Flickr announced earlier today they “are transitioning our photo book offering to Blurb and shutting down our wall art offering.”
“Beginning October 16, 2017 you will be able to connect your Flickr account to Blurb’s online photo book-making tool… you have until December 1, 2017 to complete any in-progress wall art or photo book orders. After December 1, 2017, you will not be able to access the Flickr wall art tool or the Flickr photo book tool and your progress will be lost.”
As for reprints, “you will need to go to your Flickr Wallet before December 1, 2017. After December 1, 2017, we will remove the wall art and photo book order history. You can manage your new orders on Blurb’s website.”
The Flickr forum for questions on this migration is here. This shutdown will NOT affect “regular” Flickr users or photos hosted on their service. Only the Photo Book and Wall Art sections will be discontinued.
CDMaST Phase 2 is going to change naval warfare
Posted on September 21, 2017 by admin (Royce)
I’m constantly amazed at the level of tech we are achieving in a relatively short period of time. The “future” is coming fast, and sometimes in ways that even the best of science fiction didn’t anticipate.
Case in point – the CDMaST Phase 2 project from DARPA. Long story short, the idea behind this project “revolves around real-time secure networks of manned and unmanned aircraft, surface ships, and submarines able to attack and defend vast areas of the world’s oceans to hold enemy ships and submarines at risk over wide contested areas.”
The CDMaST project wouldn’t be the only line of defense. The project “would augment aircraft carrier battle groups and manned submarines with networked manned and unmanned systems of systems (SoS) that work collaboratively to control the seas.”
Imagine hundreds or thousands of drone-based ships in the ocean, playing basic defense and surveillance “over ocean areas as large as a million square kilometers”. This 24/7 armada would “hold the line” so to speak, and keep the Navy’s “12 aircraft carriers, 52 attack submarines, and 18 ballistic- and cruise-missile submarines” on a more focused and as-needed basis.
Of course CDMaST is going to be target #A1 for hacking, and CDMaST is probably going to be the focus of some terrible movies when the mainstream media gets wind of this, but the idea that technology has reached the point of 24/7 global defense is astounding.
The article is on the Military and Aerospace website here.
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