Tag: corporations

Smart TVs a ‘Vast System of Digital Surveillance’ That Targets Everyone, Especially Kids

The streaming television industry has morphed into a vast data-driven viewer surveillance apparatus, transforming people’s TVs into tools for monitoring, tracking and targeting, according to a new report from the nonprofit Center for Digital Democracy.

The 48-page report, “How TV Watches Us: Commercial Surveillance in the Streaming Era,” charts the evolution from broadcast, cable and satellite television to connected TV (CTV), a term that encompasses the wide range of content delivered through the internet to smart TVs.

CTV includes popular apps like YouTube TV, Free Advertiser-Supported TV (FAST) channels, and streaming services like Disney +, Netflix and Amazon Prime. It also includes Roku, smart TVs and smart TV devices themselves.

The report documents how CTV, whose surge in viewership is largely driven by young audiences, harvests user data through a “sophisticated and expansive commercial surveillance system” that privacy advocates argue undermines existing consumer protections.

“CTV has become a privacy nightmare for viewers,” said Jeff Chester, report co-author and executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, in a press release. “It is now a core asset for the vast system of digital surveillance that shapes most of our online experiences … as it gathers and uses sensitive data about health, children, race and political interests.”

Over the past five years, CTV corporations have teamed up with data brokers like Experian and TransUnion to create new data-mining tools that capture and aggregate everything an individual user does on their smart TV. This information can be integrated with data captured from other devices and real-world activities.

Existing privacy policies don’t explain or protect people from these new forms of data capture, the Center for Digital Democracy said — so viewers should disregard any promises companies make about not collecting or sharing user information.

These new data-capture practices form the foundation for a system with “unprecedented capabilities for surveillance and manipulation,” the report warns. “As a consequence, buying a smart TV set in today’s connected television marketplace is akin to bringing a digital Trojan Horse into one’s home.”

The Center for Digital Democracy submitted the report, along with letters to the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, the California attorney general and the California Privacy Protection Agency, calling for an investigation into the industry.

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Gina Carano Scores Legal Victory as Judge Blocks Disney’s Appeal in Free Speech Battle

A California judge has ruled against Disney, denying its request to appeal a July decision that allows Gina Carano’s wrongful termination lawsuit to proceed. Additionally, the request to pause discovery during the appeal was also denied.

Gina Carano took to her social media platform, X, to announce the decision: “After the Judge DENIED Disney’s request to DISMISS my case, Disney requested permission to immediately appeal that decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and delay all discovery while that appeal takes place,” Carano posted. “Yesterday, October 16th, 2024, we learned that the Judge DENIED Disney’s unusual request.”

We obtained a copy of the order for you here.

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Heinz Pulls Two ‘Racist’ Ads After Backlash

In a world where everything is racist, you can’t have a black person in an ad for tomato ketchup without legions of snowflakes complaining it perpetuates negative stereotypes and demanding that it be cancelled.

Ketchup kings Heinz folded like a soggy burger bun when they became the target of the angry puritan mob, pulling not one but two adverts after some complaints, likely mostly from white people with deep set guilt complexes.

The first ad, for a ‘family size’ pasta sauce, appeared on the London Underground and depicted a black woman getting married to a white man, with family members also in the picture.

At the meal they are eating the pasta with the sauce.

Seems diverse, right? Wrong.

Because there is no ‘black father’ present it’s actually deeply racist… or something.

It’s “shocking” that there are only two black people(?) out of five in the ad.

The lighter skinned people are looking at the black girl stuffing her face with pasta in a disparaging way, so it’s even more racist… or something.

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‘An Act of War’: Big Food Intentionally Addicting Kids to Toxic Foods

Big Food targets young consumers in the U.S. to get them addicted to unhealthy products — which frequently contain ingredients banned by other countries — according to two food safety and nutrition advocates interviewed on SiriusXM’s “Megyn Kelly Show.”

Vani Hari, an author and blogger known as the “Food Babe,” and Grace Price, an investigative journalist and filmmaker who produced “Cancer: A Food-Borne Illness,” are calling on U.S. food manufacturers to change their practices and produce foods with the same healthier ingredients the companies use in identical products they sell in other countries.

Last month, Hari and Price participated in a Senate roundtable on nutrition and the chronic disease epidemic in the U.S.

“We have an opportunity right now to let the American public know” about unsafe ingredients in foods sold in the U.S., Hari said during the interview. “We are under a massive experiment. If any other country was doing this to us, it would be considered an act of war … We’ve got to do something about it.”

Price, who is 18 years old, said American food manufacturers are using tactics that Big Tobacco pioneered to market harmful products to youth. “My generation is so clearly being targeted by these Big Food companies,” she said.

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Children’s Diets Are Now “Over 70%” Ultra-Processed Foods; Dietitian Warns

It looks like the “Make America Healthy Again” movement could be showing up right on time…

At least according to one registered dietitian nutritionist in Los Angeles, who recently took to Fox News to lay out the risks from ultra-processed foods in the American diet. 

Ilana Muhlstein said on Fox news that America’s diet is 60% ultra-processed, but that kids consume even more than that. 

“With children, it’s actually over 70%. That is really wild when you think about it,” she said. “What we eat defines how our cells work, how our organs work, and we’re seeing a strong decline in mental health and well-being.”

And a recent BMJ study found that 60% of Americans’ daily calories come from ultra-processed foods (UPFs), which are linked to 32 poor health outcomes, including mental, respiratory, cardiovascular, and metabolic issues like cancer, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes, according to Fox.

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The Corporate Transparency Act — The Most Aggressive Domestic Spying Program Since the Patriot Act

At a press conference on August 12th, 1986, President Ronald Reagan said, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”

These words reflected the general and growing distrust of the government.

Today, this quote could be reinterpreted to say, “I’m from the federal government, give up your personal data, and as long as you don’t step out of line, we will keep you safe”. Not as snappy but truer today than ever before.

By the end of this year, every citizen in the United States will be required to hand over the personal data of their small business, S-corp, LLC, HoA, Board of Directors, Trustees, Real Estate Holdings, etc., to the Federal Government’s law enforcement database, operated by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen) under the Department of Treasury. Welcome to the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA).

President Trump saw this act for what it was, just another way for the Federal Government to target the middle class and their political enemies. President Trump vetoed this unconstitutional power grab in 2019, but it’s back.

In an unprecedented act of overreach, the Federal Government is moving to aggressively collect data on all small business owners, who make up the backbone of the U.S. economy, for reasons that seem “murky” at best.

The sole goal appears to be setting up yet another new database of citizens to monitor, observe, and punish. The Feds are moving to implement the CTA at warp speed, and in seeming total secrecy, as the majority of the millions of small business owners in the United States have no idea this law even exists.

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Is your “private” VPN service controlled by Israel?

The group Palestine Declassified has put together a video report explaining that many of the world’s top VPN (virtual private network) services are controlled by a Zionist-controlled company called Kape Technologies.

The report suggests that Israel exploits technology used by millions of people, i.e., VPNs, to target individuals and conduct mass surveillance. What you think is private may actually be getting tracked by the Israeli government, according to the accusations leveled in the report.

Concerning Kape, the following “top brands” are listed on the company website as falling under the same umbrella of control:

• ExpressVPN

• Private Internet Access

• CyberGhost VPN

• Intego Antivirus

• Webselenese

Israeli businessman Teddy Sagi owns Kape. And according to Palestine Declassified, Sagi has an extensive background in working covertly with Israel Defense Forces (IDF), also known as the Israeli military, on secret projects – check out the report below:

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Industrial-Size Staffing Firms Reportedly Support Biden-Harris’ Mysterious Nationwide Migrant Network

Large staffing companies that thrived during the Afghanistan and Iraq wars under the Bush-Obama years retooled their business models as the US involvement and war funding in the Middle East wound down. Now, these staffing firms seem to be profiting off the Biden-Harris administration’s open-border migrant invasion by providing essential services, such as private security, transportation, and many other services, to ensure the fed’s migrant network nationwide operates smoothly.

These companies are likely awarded handsome federal contracts, paid for by the US taxpayer. 

Bussing and housing millions of illegal and legal aliens is big business for staffing companies and non-profits. Americans have to realize their tax dollars are paying for all of this while the migrants displace and replace blue-collar workers in small-town factories nationwide. The folks in Springfield, Ohio, and Charleroi, Pennsylvania, know firsthand just how devastating globalist open border policies can be for them.

Real America’s Voice host Ben Bergquam posted on X, “More breaking footage of the Democrats harboring illegals in Chicago. Now using unmarked brand new hotels like this Holiday Inn at [XXXXXXX] to disguise Kamala and Biden’s illegal invasion operations.” 

Bergquam’s video of the Holiday Inn filled-migrant hotel in the Chicago metro area is very intriguing. First, the security guards appear to be sourced from staffing firm GardaWorld. 

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The Digital Puppeteers: Big Tech’s Influence On Society

Tech companies have revolutionized the modern age, allowing for transcontinental communication, instant access to information, and unprecedented connectivity between people worldwide. But this revolution has come at a cost; these companies have undue influence over our lives, possessing the capability to shape public discourse, consumer behavior, and even political outcomes.

The scale of Big Tech’s market dominance is staggering. Google controls 81% of all general searches and Meta’s Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp collectively boast 3.27 billion daily active users. Amazon commands almost 50% of all U.S. e-commerce. These figures demonstrate how a handful of companies can wield unprecedented power over our digital lives.

This concentration of power allows Big Tech firms to design markets in ways that benefit themselves and stifle competition. It can result in higher prices for consumers and reduced innovation as smaller competitors are squeezed out.

The impact of this monopolistic control extends beyond economic concerns to the sanctity of our democratic discourse. As these platforms have become the de facto public squares of the digital age, their content moderation policies and algorithmic decision-making wield enormous influence over what information reaches the public.

Big Tech’s selective censorship has become increasingly apparent, with conservative voices often bearing the brunt of content moderation. In 2020, a New York Post exposé on Hunter Biden’s laptop was suppressed on both Twitter and Facebook. After the first Trump assassination attempt, Google intentionally omitted search results which referenced the attack, despite providing suggestions for historical assassination attempts on other presidents. These incidents highlight the growing concern over Big Tech’s power to shape public discourse through selective content moderation

At the core of this issue lies Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which shields interactive computer services from liability for content posted by users. While originally intended to promote free speech online, this provision has become a double-edged sword. It allows platforms to avoid responsibility for harmful or false content while simultaneously giving them broad discretion to censor or promote content as they see fit.

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US and Its Corporate Interests Won’t Leave Iraq Anytime Soon – Analyst

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani indicated in January that he was committed to speeding up negotiations with the US-led international coalition on the final withdrawal of its forces from the country. He confirmed Baghdad’s “steadfast and principled” position that the coalition had already fulfilled its mission.

Don’t expect the US to suddenly leave Iraq “while corporate interests steer American foreign policy,” Isa Blumi, an associate professor at the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Stockholm University, told Sputnik.

“I don’t see this happening […] unless there is a serious revolution in Iraq itself or in the larger region that sees the US leave permanently from these strategic and very lucrative arenas for American corporations to make money,” Blumi said, commenting on the ambiguous announcement of a partial drawdown of US forces in Iraq.

The US footprint “remains omnipresent, hegemonic, willing to use enormous violence,” he noted.

The military presence “will be modified” due to the “vulnerability of explicit American presence” to aerial attacks, which might chip away at the dimming aura of US invincibility, the expert underscored.

Since the beginning of the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the bases of the US-led international coalition in Iraq, as well as US troops in Syria, have come under regular attacks, with armed Shiite groups claiming responsibility in Iraq.

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