WebProNews

Tag: John Edwards

  • The UK Has Fined Clearview AI $9.4 Million

    The UK Has Fined Clearview AI $9.4 Million

    The hits keep on coming for Clearview AI, with the UK’s privacy watchdog fining the company $9.4 million and demanding it delete its data on UK residents.

    Clearview AI is the company that took privacy-invading facial recognition to depths previously unheard of, proudly promising to deliver a more comprehensive surveillance system than China. The company scraped images from social media and countless other sites, building a massive database it claimed was only for government and law enforcement use. Those claims proved untrue, with the company being about as irresponsible with its product as one would expect, based on its shady practices.

    After a string of legal setbacks, the UK has dealt the company another one, fining it millions and ordering it to stop collecting and using the images and data of UK residents, according to ZDNet. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) engaged in a two-year investigation of Clearview, in cooperation with the Office of Australian Information Commissioner.

    The investigation concluded that the company illegally obtained residents’ photos without proper disclosure, had no legal basis for collecting the photos, didn’t take the proper precautions with the data it collected, and was ultimately in violation of the GDPR.

    “Clearview AI Inc has collected multiple images of people all over the world, including in the UK, from a variety of websites and social media platforms, creating a database with more than 20 billion images,” said John Edwards, UK Information Commissioner.

    “The company not only enables identification of those people, but effectively monitors their behaviour and offers it as a commercial service. That is unacceptable. That is why we have acted to protect people in the UK by both fining the company and issuing an enforcement notice.

    “People expect that their personal information will be respected, regardless of where in the world their data is being used. That is why global companies need international enforcement.”

    Hopefully the company continues to face these kind of legal setbacks.

  • UK Looks to Revamp Privacy Policy Post-Brexit

    UK Looks to Revamp Privacy Policy Post-Brexit

    The United Kingdom is looking to revamp its privacy policy in the wake of Brexit, making a break from the EU’s GDPR.

    The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is one of the most comprehensive privacy legislation to ever be passed into law. As long as the UK was part of the EU, it was subject to the GDPR, the same as any other European country. With Brexit, however, UK regulators are looking to chart their own path.

    Oliver Dowden, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, spoke of the work John Edwards, New Zealand’s Privacy Commissioner and the likely next Information Commissioner, would undertake.

    “Now that we have left the EU I’m determined to seize the opportunity by developing a world-leading data policy that will deliver a Brexit dividend for individuals and businesses across the UK,” said Dowden, according to The Guardian.

    “It means reforming our own data laws so that they’re based on common sense, not box-ticking. And it means having the leadership in place at the Information Commissioner’s Office to pursue a new era of data-driven growth and innovation. John Edwards’ vast experience makes him the ideal candidate to ensure data is used responsibly to achieve those goals.”

    Edwards will have his work cut out for him, as any legislation will need to maintain the same level of protection as the GDPR. If it doesn’t, the EU would e forced to stop data-sharing with the UK, a move that would impact companies on both sides of the Channel.

  • John Edwards Returns To Court To Help 4-Year-Old

    Former vice presidential candidate, John Edwards, is back in court again, but this time he’ll be in the courtroom defending a 4-year old Virginia boy who suffered a slew of injuries while being treated at Pitt County Memorial Hospital in 2009.

    Along with three other attorneys, Edwards will be representing the boy’s parents as well as his legal guardians in a malpractice case, and this comes on the heels of the former senator opening up a new law firm in late 2013.

    According to the defendants’ lawyers, the hospital had no responsibility in causing the 4-year-old physical harm when he was moved from Onslow Memorial Hospital in Jacksonville, N.C. to Pitt Memorial in Greenville, N.C.

    Among other injuries sustained while being at the hospital, the 4-year-old still suffers from brain damage.

    In a recent statement, Edwards said Robert Zaytoun, the head lawyer on the case, did a wonderful job of pulling together a legal team, and he and the rest of the attorneys will do all they can until justice is reached for the family.

    “This is a case about a little boy that was hurt very badly,” said Edwards. “Robert Zaytoun has assembled an outstanding legal team that I am excited to b a part of, and we are going to do everything possible to see that this family gets justice.”

    If you remember, before there was Barack Obama there was John Edwards, in terms of being the rising golden child of the Democratic Party. Between his legal background, his successful senate run, and his everyday-down-to-earth-charm, there was no doubt Edwards was on his way to being a major force within his party for many years to come.

    Of course that all changed when his affair with Rielle Hunter surfaced, and Edwards got into even deeper water when he was accused of using political funds to hide the affair in 2012.

    It’ll be interesting to see if helping this Virginia boy will put the once political hopeful back on good terms with the public.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Rachel ‘Bunny’ Mellon, Secluded Heiress, Dies at 103

    Rachel ‘Bunny’ Mellon, a secluded heiress, patron of the arts, and a figure in John Edward’s presidential campaign scandal died today in Upperville, VA at 103. Her fortune came from her grandfather’s invention of Listerine, her father’s presidency in the Gillette Safety Razor Company, and her marriage to philanthropist Paul Mellon. She told the New York Times in 1969, she valued privacy above all else: “Nothing should be noticed.”

    Avoiding notice for Mellon could only be maintained for so long. She became entwined in the John Edwards presidential campaign scandal. According to Bloomberg News, Mellon wrote to Andrew Young “I was sitting alone in a grim mood — furious that the press attacked Senator Edwards on the price of a haircut.” She then contributed $725,000 to Edwards as a personal gift or “a way to help our friend without government restrictions.” Edwards was indicted in 2012 for violating campaign finance laws by using the money to hide his pregnant mistress Rielle Hunter.

    Her grandson, Lloyd told the the Associated Press that “she was trying to help (Edwards) for the right reasons, believed in him, and I think frankly he just took advantage of a lot of opportunities that she gave him.”

    Vanity Fair writer James Reginato took a visit to the 4,000-acre Oak Springs Estate back in 2010. He described driving “down a good mile of winding road, lined with stone and wood fences, a rolling landscape unfolds with meticulously pruned oaks, willows, and sycamores. After passing an imposing red-brick Georgian-style mansion, we continue past a monumental bronze statue of Sea Hero, Mellon’s 1993 Kentucky Derby winner, until we reach a low-lying group of connected whitewashed stone cottages—a house which resembles a charming 18th-century French hamlet.”

    Mellon and her husband had been long time collectors of artwork and paintings. Her husband wrote “we began going to public galleries and those of dealers in New York and abroad – out of interest, out of curiosity – for pleasure, relaxation, education.” The elaborate nature and privacy that the Upperville Oak Springs hopefully gave just the right amount of pleasure and relaxation before her death.

    Image via National Gallery of Art

  • Rielle Hunter, John Edwards’ Mistress, Apologizes

    Rielle Hunter, former mistress to Democratic hopeful John Edwards, and his campaign videographer, has issued a public a apology in the Huffington Post for her behavior during her affair with the shamed politician. Their shenanigans destroyed his career, as well as his family and marriage to his late wife, Elizabeth. Hunter had a daughter with Edwards, Frances, in 2008.

    John Edwards denied the affair for over a year, even after tabloids photographed him visiting Hunter and their baby. He was later tried on allegations of misusing funds from his campaign to hide his affair and their baby, but was aquitted when the trial ended in a split jury.

    Rielle admitted to “behaving badly” in the essay, stating, “That may seem obvious to you but it’s taken me a long time to admit that, even to myself,” she added, “For years I was so viciously attacked by the media and the world that I felt like a victim. I now realize that the attacks are actually beside the point. The point is: I behaved badly.”

    Hunter went on to say that she didn’t realize the incredible scope of the damage her actions could inflict, and was especially regretful of the pain her actions caused Elizabeth, John’s wife who died from breast cancer in 2010. The couple never divorced, but were separated after she found out about the baby, and for the remainder of her life.

    “I hurt Elizabeth and her kids. I hurt her family. I hurt John’s family. I hurt people that knew Elizabeth. I hurt people who didn’t know Elizabeth but loved her from afar. I hurt people who gave their hard earned dollars to a campaign — a cause they believed in,” she wrote. “I hurt people who are married and believe in marriage. Many of these people have let me know that I hurt them. Unfortunately, I was not thinking about anyone but myself. I was selfish. I fell in love with John Edwards and wanted to be with him and that desire trumped everything else. “

    In the piece, Hunter blames her actions partly on growing up with infidelity as a regular part of life, saying that she was a “product of infidelity”. Not that it’s an excuse. You either repeat history or learn from it, right?

    “I believe history often repeats itself if you do not take responsibility and change it. Infidelity is wrong. It hurts people. It hurt me and then I in turn also hurt people,” Hunter wrote. “It is a chain of pain. One I do not wish to pass on to my own daughter. I am sincerely sorry for my bad behavior, and for hurting anyone. If I hurt you, I am sorry. It was not my intention, I was thoughtless and selfish, and I am sorry.”

    Her essay comes on the heels of re-release of her memoir about this whole crazy mess called, “In Hindsight, What Really Happened: The Revised Edition: John Edwards, Our Daughter and Me”. The world now awaits John Edwards’ apology…

    Image via youtube

  • Rielle Hunter Spills Dirty Secrets In New Book

    Rielle Hunter, mistress to former presidential hopeful John Edwards, is about to unleash a book on the world that could very well spawn the best Lifetime movie ever made.

    Hunter says the book was written for her daughter, Frances Quinn, whom Edwards reluctantly admitted to fathering well after her birth and the scandal that ensued once news of his affair with Hunter broke. She says she wants her daughter to “have one entirely truthful public account of how she came into the world. After all, this is her story too.”

    But the premise of the book and the juicy details surrounding Hunter’s relationship with Edwards will certainly propel it into the limelight in coming weeks, especially given the passages that have been leaked from its pages; it seems Edwards–shockingly enough–has a long history of lying about women, especially to other women. Hunter claims that Edwards told her detailed fabrications about his other “mistresses” in an attempt to keep her from getting too attached to him, and that it had worked with his conquests in the past.

    …Johnny went on to tell me that the three women he had told me about the first night I had met him were, in fact, not real and that he had made them up… My mind was racing… He had told me detail upon detail. I remembered the ups and downs of emotion I had felt the night he went to Chicago to break off his relationship there, she writes. My reality in our relationship had been ripped out from under me.

    She then goes on to offer up a pseudo-defense for Edwards.

    …Johnny didn’t do anything out of character. He has a long history of lying about one thing only — women — and I mistakenly thought I was different.

    Hunter also makes no attempt to hide her disdain for Edwards’ wife Elizabeth, who died of cancer in 2010. Hunter says Elizabeth was a “venomous” woman and a “witch on wheels”, especially after she discovered his second cell phone and used it to call and harass Hunter daily.

    Since Edwards was recently involved in an explosive trial regarding whether or not he used campaign donations to fund Hunter’s lavish lifestyle and keep her hidden from the media while his wife was alive, the new book, “What Really Happened”, may just fly off the shelves when it’s released on the 26th.

  • John Edwards Trial: Still No Verdict

    John Edwards Trial: Still No Verdict

    The trial against John Edwards moves into its sixth day today without a decision from the jury, although they have asked for more exhibits to aid their process.

    The case charges that Edwards solicited almost a million dollars in funds during his presidential campaign in order to keep his mistress out of the public eye as his wife battled cancer. The jury will be reviewing documents today outlining payments that Fred Baron–Edwards’ former campaign finance chairman–made to keep Rielle Hunter safely hidden away during the race for office in 2008.

    The main argument for defense is that Edwards’ wife was growing increasingly suspicious that he was having an affair and was monitoring his phone calls and finances, and because Edwards didn’t want to upset her, he took cash gifts from Baron and from Rachel “Bunny” Mellon to keep Hunter a secret. The issue is whether or not the money was an illegal campaign contribution and whether Edwards spent it with knowledge of wrongdoing. If convicted, he faces up to 30 years in prison and over a million dollars in fines.

    Jurors are plowing through a mountain of documents today, including receipts and invoices from Baron, who is now deceased.

  • Cate Edwards Takes The Stand Today

    Cate Edwards Takes The Stand Today

    Cate Edwards takes the stand today to testify in her father’s trial, and news outlets are waiting with bated breath to hear what she has to say.

    Her father, John Edwards, is up against six counts related to campaign violations when he ran for president in 2008; he is pleading not guilty to the charges of taking $1 million in contributions to keep his mistress out of the public eye while his wife Elizabeth suffered with cancer. She succumbed to the disease in 2010.

    Cate is Edwards’ oldest daughter and has already made her feelings about the mistress–Rielle Hunter–very clear. Last October, Hunter was banned from her wedding, although she did invite her father and his daughter with Hunter, Frances Quinn. The 3-year old did not attend, however.

    Cate has attended the trial every day but left the courtroom in tears during testimony regarding her mother’s reaction to the news that John was having an affair. Whether or not she can help her father avoid his expected 30-year prison sentence remains to be seen.