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Regardless, Schofield said she also decided to weigh any hypothetical harm against the potential value of the information to the public. “In this case, the public interest in disclosure is great because the importance of the comment process to agency rulemaking is great,” she said, adding: “If genuine public comment is drowned out by a fraudulent facsimile, then the notice-and-comment process has failed.”

From Judge Orders FCC to Hand Over IP Addresses Linked to Fake Net Neutrality Comments:

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Trolls could sow chaos for the malicious pleasure of it. Protesters could trigger panic as a form of civil disobedience. A foreign intelligence operation could shut down an entire city by falsely reporting COVID-19 infections in every neighborhood.

From Contact-tracing apps are not a solution to the COVID-19 crisis:

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Contact tracing can be an important component of an epidemic response especially when the prevalence of infection is low. Such efforts are most effective where testing is rapid and widely available and when infections are relatively rare

From Contact-tracing apps are not a solution to the COVID-19 crisis:

So contact tracing doesn’t get you out of lockdown, but once you are out of lockdown, it can help the economy tick along so long as their is access to testing.

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Under the Federal Reserve Act, the Fed is only obliged to grant access to central bank money accounts to depository institutions, the definition of which does not currently include non-bank PSPs. As things stand, to gain access to domestic payments systems, non-banks must partner with a bank to settle transactions on behalf of their customers – a recent example is the partnership between Apple and Goldman Sachs, with the launch of the Apple Card.

From FedNow: the road to non-bank access to US instant payments – Central Banking:

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Their results show the share of cash retail transactions increases as concerns about privacy rise; an increase in concern by one standard deviation is associated with an increase in cash usage of 9.8%.

In this instance, one standard deviation is equivalent to an increase from the level of privacy concern in France to that of Korea.

In addition, the use of cash is shown to decrease as confidence in banks rises; an increase in trust by one standard deviation is associated with a reduction in cash usage of 12.3%.

From Cash usage decreases as confidence in banks rises – MAS paper – Central Banking:

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There are around 27,000 Post Office Card Account (POCA) customers to whom this could applyand they are being actively contacted to ensure they are able to regularly access their payments.

From Post Office launches cash delivery service for vulnerable customers:

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Between March 24 and April 23, post offices across India delivered Rs 412 crore in over 21 lakh such transactions, mostly in rural and unbanked areas, via a network of 1.36 lakh post offices which have been outfitted with 1.86 lakh handheld AePS devices.

From India Post delivers cash worth Rs 412 crore in doorstep banking revolution:

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Apple’s iPhone would under the proposed setup only work properly with decentralized protocols such as DP-3T

From Germany flips on smartphone contact tracing, backs Apple and Google – Reuters:

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On the way from the airport to the city, I was surprised by new illuminated signs that in my time were not or did not shine at night: Ubiipagos, Credicard, Carropago, Cryptia … Companies dedicated to electronic, mobile, interbank or cryptocurrency payments in a country in the value of the official currency, the bolivar, has faded in recent years due to hyperinflation .

From Coronavirus: 3 things that have changed in Venezuela in the last year (and that are now at risk from the epidemic) – BBC News World:

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For foreign visitors, unfamiliar with the Mother of Parliaments, I should explain that Caroline Nokes MP used to the the Minister for Immigration and before that was the Chief Executive of the National Pony Society.

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