162 lines
9.8 KiB
Markdown
162 lines
9.8 KiB
Markdown
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# Why ALEC members are blacklisted
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American Legislative Exchange Council ("ALEC") is a right-wing super PAC and bill mill that puts corporate interests above the interest of human beings. ALEC:
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* [fights environmental protections](https://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/Environment,_Energy,_and_Agriculture)
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* [fights gun control](https://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/Guns,_Prisons,_Crime,_and_Immigration)
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* [fights healthcare](https://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/Health,_Pharmaceuticals,_and_Safety_Net_Programs)
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* [fights immigration](https://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/Guns,_Prisons,_Crime,_and_Immigration)
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* [fights worker's rights](https://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/Worker_Rights_and_Consumer_Rights)
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* [fights consumer protections](https://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/Worker_Rights_and_Consumer_Rights)
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* [fights public education](https://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/Privatizing_Public_Education,_Higher_Ed_Policy,_and_Teachers)
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* fights women's rights
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* fights voter rights ([supports voter suppression policy](https://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/Democracy,_Voter_Rights,_and_Federal_Power))
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* [finances republicans](https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=ALEC_Civil_Justice_Task_Force#Politicians)
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* supports the NRA
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Countless companies were ALEC members historically, but most of them discontinued membership and renounced it likely to avoid boycott.
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Companies that continue to renew their ALEC membership are right-wing die-hards unlikely to join team humanity. So they are blacklisted.
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The OK hand sign (👌) indicates that the financial institution still today supports the above-mentioned right-wing agenda through ALEC membership.
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# Why Tor-hostile FIs are blacklisted
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Financial institutions that are aggressively Tor-hostile are automatically blacklisted.
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<details>
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<summary>Why access to banks, brokerages, and insurance companies over Tor matters</summary>
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If Tor were used exclusively for anonymity, it would be useless in the
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context of consumers accessing and controlling their financial
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accounts. But that's not the case. Tor prevents your ISP from
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snooping on where you bank. ISPs collect data on their own customers
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and exploit it for profit in the US. Under Obama it became illegal
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for an ISP to sell data collected on their customers without express
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consent. As if that's not already useless thanks to an abundant supply
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of consumers who will agree to anything without reading it, Trump
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<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-signs-measure-let-isps-sell-your-data-without-consent-n742316">reversed</a>
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Obama's policy in 2017 to render consumers completely powerless. Tor
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is a free tool to protect from excessive disclosure of where your
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assets are. Thus when a financial institution blocks Tor, it prevents you
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from taking basic self-defense measures. This trend undermines the
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supplier-client relationship whereby we expect the supplier to serve
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the customer's interest. It's not just anti-privacy, it's
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anti-consumer.
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Non-Tor users generally reveal their physical location to their bank or insurance company
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every time they login. If all banks and insurance companies didn't care where you reside,
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this wouldn't be a problem. But some financial institutions care more than others and
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beyond reason. Banks typically
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[collect your IP address](https://web.archive.org/web/20201024203113/www.decorahbank.com/legal-information/privacy-policy)
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and one bank even outright admits in their
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[privacy policy](https://web.archive.org/web/20210206141004/https://beneficialstatebank.com/uploads/files/BSB-Consumer-Privacy-Act-CCPA-Privacy-Notice-Current-6.4.2020.pdf#page=2)
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that they collect geolocation data from customers' IP addresses. For
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nomads/world travelers banks can make their lives hell if their
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profile doesn't seem to match up with their lifestyle. Some banks
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will close an account if a customer moves out of their service area.
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Insurance companies will question whether you're still eligible for
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the policy you have, as they may want to raise your premiums or cancel
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your policy if they suspect you're not where your policy is written.
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If you want to take a job away from home for a year or two, Tor gives
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you the necessary privacy to do that free of hassle and nannying.
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</details>
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<details>
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<summary>Why non-Tor users should also boycott Tor adversaries</summary>
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Suppose you never leave home, and you're not bothered if your ISP
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collects data on where you bank to then sell to data brokers who can
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then sell it to debt collectors. If you're ethical nonetheless, then
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you still boycott those who marginalize Tor users. These quotes
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elaborate on that moral duty:
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"*If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the
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side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a
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mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate
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your neutrality.*" --Desmond Tutu
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"*Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you
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have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about
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free speech because you have nothing to say.*" --Edward Snowden
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To expand on Snowden's philosophy, it's extremely selfish to refuse to
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defend a right that others need on the basis that you don't personally
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need it now or in the future. Moreover, indirect benefits should not
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be overlooked. Human rights activists need civil liberties more than
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others, but we all need activists to make the world better for
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everyone. Moral duties to you derive from that.
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Tor is becoming less usable because the growing majority non-Tor users
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are patronizing businesses that marginalize Tor users.
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"*Under observation, we act less free, which means we effectively are
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less free.*" --Edward Snowden
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To neglect to use Tor is to subject yourself to unnecessary
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observation. In the context of banking and finance, this in turn
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reduces your freedom of movement.
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</details>
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The eye (👁) indicates that account access is restricted and exclusive to non-Tor users,
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who must expose their IP address to the FI and who must expose their FI to their ISP.
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# Why FIs in CloudFlare's walled-garden are blacklisted
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Financial institutions that proxy their services through CloudFlare are
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blacklisted automatically for taking a profoundly stupid risk with
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consumer's sensitive financial data. CloudFlare holds the SSL keys
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for every connection and sees all the traffic including username and
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unhashed password. CloudFlare has proven to be untrustworthy with
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sensitive information (demonstrated by CloudFlare's doxxing of the
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identities of child porn whistle blowers). Apart from the
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unacceptably high security risk of having a CloudFlare MitM, there are
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countless [ethical problems](rap_sheets/cloudflare.md) with being an
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enabler of CloudFlare.
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The storm cloud (🌩) indicates that account access is restricted and exclusive per CloudFlare's will and customers who do get access are forced to share sensitive transaction data with CloudFlare, Inc. (a privacy abuser).
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# Why CISPA supporters are graylisted
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The [Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyber_Intelligence_Sharing_and_Protection_Act)
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was a bill to bypass the 4^(th) amendment to promote a system of unwarranted
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mass surveillance through information sharing between the government and private sector.
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Congress blocked the bill, but it was later reincarnated as CISA and it passed.
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Unlike ALEC lobbying, CISPA was a one-off event far in the past, and over 800 companies supported it.
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Since it does not necessarily reflect the company's recent stance or influence,
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supporters are graylisted instead of blacklisted. They should still be avoided in
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favor of a whitelisted competitor, but they are considerably less evil than those that are blacklisted.
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The spook (🕵) indicates that the financial institution lobbied for a police surveillance state in favor of CISPA.
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# Why FIs that force their staff to take a drug test are graylisted
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Drug testing employees is an assault on the privacy and lifestyle of employees and staff outside the workplace.
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In most cases involving medicinal marijuana states, the drug test also harms the healthcare of employees by
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intervening in doctors' prescriptions. Normally drug testing would justify blacklisting, but the problem is so
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widespread nationwide that the whitelist tends to be overly small. Drug testing also does not do significant
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harm to consumers, so companies that drug test are graylisted.
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The test tube (🧪) indicates that the financial institution abuses their staff through forced drug testing.
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# Why Amazon and Google-hosted FIs are graylisted
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Amazon is behind [countless evils](rap_sheets/amazon.md). It's paramount to boycott
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Amazon for anyone who cares about human rights, privacy, or the
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environment. Amazon also has had several data breaches-- Capital One,
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Juspay, Swiggy, etc., so it's a bad idea to trust custodians who use
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AWS with the security of your money. Google is also evil. Not the degree of evil
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that Amazon has achieved, but Google is in the fossil fuel business among
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other evils. Google is also a central tech giant which (like Amazon) serves
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as a central point of surveillance and also carries the risks of having
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a huge number of insiders who can abuse the data. The size of the Amazon and Google
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datacenters also makes them a likely target for outside hackers due to the high
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rewards of compromise.
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Akamai is not known to have a significant history of wrongdoing on the scale of Amazon or Google.
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There is cause for concern in terms of security though because it's large enough to serve as a
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central monitoring point where breaches and compromise is still considerable.
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Akamai-hosted financial institutions are not graylisted for that reason alone.
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In the end, you're the judge.
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Financial institutions hosted on GAFAM (Google Amazon Facebook Apple Microsoft) are graylisted.
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The wrongdoing is indirect and in the end taking a security risk doesn't necessarily lead to a breach.
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Of course it's still ethically favorable to choose a whitelisted financial institution if possible.
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