Image: Cathryn Virginia/Motherboard
Hacking. Disinformation. Surveillance. CYBER is Motherboard's podcast and reporting on the dark underbelly of the internet.
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"Because of the reduced capability of the Live Time system, it appears much less likely personally‐identifiable information (PII) was accessed, transferred, and used than was previously feared," the report added.After Motherboard reported about the privacy issues inherent in such an expansive surveillance proposal and a OneZero investigation found that Banjo CEO Damien Patton once pleaded guilty to helping a KKK leader shoot up a synagogue, the state's five-year, $20.7 million contract was suspended and a privacy audit was commissioned. The company has since rebranded as "safeXai."Do you know anything else about Banjo’s work? Do you know about any other apps that abused data access? We’d love to hear from you. Using a non-work phone or computer, you can contact Jason Koebler securely on Signal on +1 202 505 1702 , or Joseph Cox on Signal on +44 20 8133 5190 , Wickr on josephcox, OTR chat on jfcox@jabber.ccc.de , or email joseph.cox@vice.com.
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Another Motherboard investigation found that Banjo used a secret company and a series of apps that were designed to appear innocuous to surreptitiously scrape social media.As a result of the audit, the Office of the State Auditor released new privacy and contracting guidelines for the state to use during the procurement process.Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes, who has repeatedly spoken highly of Patton, wrote a letter responding to the state auditor suggesting that its findings prove that the state was right all along."We are encouraged by your findings and feel validated that neither privacy intrusion nor racial or religious bias was inherent in the Banjo Live Time system," Reyes wrote. "Your findings align with our experience regarding this company, its founder, priorities, work product, and ethics. We observed, and you have confirmed, that sensitive PII was never shared with Banjo. That protection was always a high priority for this office."Reyes also said that his office went "above and beyond" in vetting Banjo and Patton, and that Patton's past with the KKK and Neo-Nazis did not impact his work with Banjo."Based on our first-hand experience and close observation, we are convinced the horrible mistakes of the founder's youth never carried over in any malevolent way to Banjo, his other initiatives, attitudes, or character," he wrote."Live Time lacked the advertised AI technology."