#IntegrityInitiative

Do it CIA style: What you need to know about latest leak on UK-funded psyop

In one of the most revealing leaks yet, a French company called Lexfo allegedly offers a "strictly confidential" proposal to spread propaganda for II across “several hundred existing and credible” news sites in “multiple languages.” Lexfo even offers to create news sites to serve II's objectives — sites which it says will be "ostensibly independent to assure their credibility.”

Lexfo also suggests monitoring and editing Wikipedia pages, launching aggressive campaigns to "discredit and intimidate" websites or outlet deemed to be promoting "fake news" — including through legal action and encouraging advertisers to abandon those platforms, the documents show. Ultimately, Lexfo offered a "vast and ambitious infowar campaign” which would be “untraceable.”

https://www.rt.com/news/446809-integrity-initiative-third-leak-uk/

India's drug regulators to test J&J's baby powder after claims it contains cancer-causing asbestos

https://www.rt.com/business/446854-india-tests-johnson-powder/

Dollar-free business: German companies in Russia call for an alternative to US payment system

Two-thirds of German companies doing business in Russia back the idea of setting up a dollar-free alternative payment system, according to Michael Harms, the executive director of the German Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations.

“If we don’t want the US to control EU’s foreign trade, we need to think more actively in this direction,” he said.

Harms stressed that despite all the obstacles, “The potential of the Russian economy remains extremely large. If the conflict with the West finally resolves, and small and medium businesses begin to develop, Russia will quickly see a real economic upswing.”

https://www.rt.com/business/446867-german-companies-ditching-dollar/

150+ firms, incl Netflix & Spotify thrived on Facebook user data under secretive partnership

it turns out that Facebook had developed a special tool that enabled turning access to private data on and off – even if the user had already disabled sharing. As of 2017, more than 150 companies enjoyed this kind of no-questions-asked access under bilateral deals with Facebook which effectively allowed to firms to bypass the service’s updated privacy rules.

Some companies, including Sony, Microsoft and Amazon, were allowed to view users’ contacts through their friends. Others, like Spotify, Netflix and the Royal Bank of Canada, were able to read, write and delete users’ private messages and to see all participants on a thread. Even the Russian search giant Yandex has been listed. In 2017, it was apparently given access to Facebook users’ IDs, despite sharing of such data having been dropped for other “applications.”

According to the NYT, Bank of Canada brushed off the allegations, while Spotify and Netflix claimed they did not know of such broad powers in their hands.

The NYT report also sheds light on how Facebook shared data with over 60 manufacturers of mobile devices, with Apple being one of the most notable examples. In all, Apple mobile phones and tablets had access to contact numbers and calendar entries of people who had maximum privacy settings. Facebook also allowed Apple to hide all indications that its devices were retrieving data from users.

https://www.rt.com/usa/446833-facebook-data-sharing-violations/