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Throughout the pandemic, via three separate statutes, the 10 major US passenger airlines together received more than $54 billion in direct payments ($25 billion, $15 billion, and $14 billion). Congress also appropriated another $25 billion in subsidized loans from the US Department of the Treasury (only a fraction of which airlines have used) and suspended the 7.5 percent excise tax on domestic air travel as well as payments to airports and contractors.

From The 2020 Bailouts Left Airlines, the Economy, and the Federal Budget in Worse Shape Than Before | Mercatus Center:

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During a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) hearing on commercial surveillance this week, Karen Kornbluh, the former US OECD ambassador and FCC exec who now leads the Digital Innovation and Democracy Initiative at the German Marshall Fund, urged the watchdog agency to enact stricter data privacy rules to protect consumers.

Most of the comments during Thursday’s public forum covered the usual concerns over tracking software that collects millions of data points on individuals — including their location, search queries, race and gender — which is then sold to third parties or handed over to the police.

Kornbluh, however, made the case that businesses’ data collection and retention practices also aid foreign cyberspies.

“There’s a national security loophole from the proliferation of consumer data when we have so much information about Americans floating around the internet,” she said. “In fact, there’s a $12 billion surveillance-for-hire industry that allows foreign governments to buy data.”

This data, Kornbluh added, is then used for espionage, voter manipulation and ransomware attacks as well as doxxing, swatting and real-life harassment. “Data brokers market data on current or former military personnel including their web searches, family members, home addresses, and even GPS coordinates,” she said. “It’s difficult to trace where these data go or what they’re used for.”

From Data tracking poses a ‘national security risk’ FTC told • The Register:

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Finally, she was persuaded to hand over her Apple ID, password, and then the one time passcode that appeared on her phone. She was told this was to prove her identity.

From Fraudsters hijack Instagram accounts to scam others – BBC News:

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Moreover, bailouts are unfair. Why one industry gets bailouts while others do not is mostly determined by political connections and the perception of saliency rather than by real systemic risks to the economy or other economic factors. There are no systemic risks to the economy from airline failures. However, airlines have long benefited from a preferred status with the political class, which explains why they almost always get bailed out.

From The 2020 Bailouts Left Airlines, the Economy, and the Federal Budget in Worse Shape Than Before | Mercatus Center:

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Customers at six 7-Eleven convenience stores in Tokyo, Japan, can now make cashless payments for their purchases by interacting with a holographic screen projected from a contactless self-checkout kiosk.

From 7-Eleven Japan trials holographic contactless self-checkout • NFCW:

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On his daily newsletter a few days later, Naughton pointed towards an entertaining assessment of the DAO phenomenon by David Birch, who is something of an expert on digital identity and payments systems.

From 24 March 2022. Web3 | Heat (again) – Just Two Things:

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The Bank of Ghana (BOG) is to pilot a two-tier token-based retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) that can be used with either a digital wallet app managed by a financial institution or a physical hardware wallet such as a contactless smart card that can be used offline and by unbanked consumers.

From Bank of Ghana lays out core design principles for CBDC pilot • NFCW:

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Criminal use of privacy-enhancing technologies has not been lost on regulators. Regulators have generally been content to permit trading in transparent cryptoassets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum with few restrictions. But where privacy-enhancing technologies are involved, regulators expect firms to take account of the increased risk of illicit activity.

From Ensure Regulatory Compliance With Enhanced Privacy Tech:

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The “centralized anything is evil by default, use defi and self-custody” ethos did very well this week, but remember that it too has risks: bugs in smart contract code.

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Cryptocurrencies are dangerous “Ponzi schemes” that put billions of dollars at risk every year, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon declared in a scathing review of the volatile digital assets.

From JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon: Crypto is a ‘decentralized Ponzi scheme’ | Fortune:

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