Tag: corporations

UK Tribunal Blocks Government’s Attempt to Keep Apple Surveillance Case Secret

With a necessary reality check, a UK tribunal has told the government that, no, it cannot hold a secret legal battle against Apple over encryption. The Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), the body meant to oversee the country’s surveillance powers, has dismissed efforts by the Home Office to keep the entire case hidden from public view. And in doing so, it has delivered a quietly important win for press freedom and digital rights. Although, things are far from over.

The case revolves around Apple’s Advanced Data Protection system, or ADP. It’s a security feature that gives users the option to encrypt their iCloud data in a way that even Apple itself cannot access. Not through a backdoor, not with a master key, not at all. It’s the kind of robust end-to-end encryption that governments around the world have grown increasingly nervous about.

The UK, it turns out, is no exception.

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This DEI ‘Sensitivity Training’ Video Is Absolutely Hilarious…

A ‘Harassment and Sensitivity’ employee training video that is really used by top Fortune 500 companies has gone viral, because it’s unintentionally hilarious.

It features a guy called Ken (straight and white, obviously) being over the top insensitive toward disabled, transgender, and obese people.

No one in the real world actually behaves like this except for absolute c*nts, and if they did they would be instantly and rightly fired, which is what makes this fantastic comedy. It’s almost exactly like Ricky Gervais’ The Office.

Ken calls a small person, midget, dwarf, whatever you want to call them, in an electric wheelchair “speedy gonzales” and says “slow your role and come talk to me.”

The little guy tells Ken to stop, and Ken says it’s just a joke.

He then turns to the camera, rolls his eyes and says “remember before all this PC stuff, when we could just be ourselves?”

Ken then asks another “old dog” colleague, “did you get any this weekend?” presumably meaning sexual action.

Ken also calls a transgender dude a ‘man’ who is “creeping everyone out” and says he knows the guy is doing stinky shits in the guys stalls.

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Asda launches massive trial of live facial recognition technology that can pick up on thieves in SECONDS in an attempt to combat shoplifting ‘epidemic’

In a move branded ‘disproportionate’ and ‘chilling’ by anti-surveillance groups, the retailer is introducing the scheme in five shops across the Manchester area.

The technology has been integrated into Asda’s existing CCTV network and works by scanning images and comparing the results to a known list of individuals who have previously committed criminal activity in one of its stores.

If a match is found by the automated system, in a matter of seconds head office security will conduct a check and report it to the store in question immediately.

The trial is just one of a battery of measures being taken by major stores to combat an ‘epidemic’ of retail crime – just as plummeting conviction rates have led to accusations that shoplifters are able to ‘act with impunity’.

They include Co-op, which has installed ‘fortified’ kiosks featuring toughened screen and keycode-controlled entry in hundreds of stores.

It is also trialling AI that uses CCTV to track suspicious behaviour.

Meanwhile Tesco controversially introduced weighing scales at its Gateshead to check whether customers using ‘Scan as you shop’ aren’t taking home extra goods.

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WHOA: Tucker Carlson Reveals He “Immediately” Sold His Truck After Spotting a ‘Disturbing’ Message on Vehicle’s Infotainment Screen

Tucker Carlson caused a stir in a recent interview that may cause some Americans to do a double take on the vehicles they are driving.

During an interview with automotive designer and internet personality Casey Putsch last week, Tucker mentioned that he is a lifelong fan of Chevrolet trucks but felt he had to “immediately” sell his latest one after spotting a disturbing message on the car’s dashboard.

“I bought a truck last year…A Chevy truck, which I’ve always had, and I was at a gas station, he said. “And all of a sudden at a gas station, it says, ‘Stop, we’re downloading information from the internet.’”

“While you were driving?” Putsch asked.

“No, I was stopped,” Tucker replied. “I sold the car immediately. I brought it back and sold it.”

“They want all your data to provide to insurance companies to wreck your life, I’m sure,” Putsch responded.

“Insurance companies will be the downfall of cars and driving. I can guarantee it.”

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Jackson-Hewitt Tax Services Allegedly Caught Handing Out Tax Filing Instructions to Illegal Migrants

With Tax Day a little more than two weeks away, Jackson-Hewitt Tax Services has been caught handing out flyers in New York City allegedly advising illegal migrants on how to get up to $14,000 in tax refunds from the IRS.

According to independent journalist Savanah Hernandez, the company’s representatives are handing out information outside the Roosevelt Hotel migrant shelter with tax filing tips showing illegal aliens how they can get thousands of dollars from the IRS based on how many children they claim to have.

Hernandez presented a flyer that seems to inform the migrants that they can get a $7,650 refund if they claim one child, $12,635 if they have two, and $14,255 for three children.

After Hernandez posted this video to X, Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) chief Elon Musk noted that this sort of fraud is costing America billions and serving to attract illegals to this country.

“IRS refund fraud payments are one of several means used by the Democratic Party to attract and retain illegal immigrants in the USA. That’s why they are so opposed to @DOGE stopping this!” Musk wrote.

“The Democratic Party is aiding and abetting fraudulent government payments to illegals in order to establish a permanent one-party majority nationally, just like they did in California,” he said. “The more you look into it, the crazier it gets.”

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Authoritarian Clickbait: Trump’s Spectacle Distracts From His Corporate Power Grab

Traditionally, authoritarian regimes were defined by their capacity to control information. Critics were silenced, press outlets were shuttered, and opposition voices were imprisoned or worse. Power was exercised through fear, secrecy, and violence. But in President Donald Trump’s America, authoritarianism has evolved. It no longer hides behind walls of censorship—it thrives in plain sight.

Trump’s political style isn’t about suppressing attention. It’s about seizing it. Whether threatening to annex Greenland “one way or another,” mocking Canada as the “51st state,” or pressuring Columbia University to abandon free speech protections, the goal isn’t to avoid controversy. The aim is to create it.

This shift reflects a deeper transformation in how power is exercised in the 21st century. In a world governed by algorithms, virality, and information overload, authoritarianism no longer seeks silence—it seeks spectacle. Trump’s provocations are not mere outbursts. They are designed and timed to dominate headlines, crowd out serious scrutiny, and keep the public in a state of reactive agitation.

These performances are not without precedent. But in Trump’s case, the provocation is the point. His administration has leaned into fascist-style imagery, with symbolic salutes, rallies drenched in nationalism, and open threats against political dissidents—both foreign and domestic. But this isn’t authoritarianism for the sake of totalitarian control. It’s authoritarianism repurposed for an attention economy—where outrage drives clicks, and distraction enables deeper, quieter abuses of power.

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Alarm Bells Ring as Delaware ‘Radically’ Shifts More Power to Corporate Insiders

While Democratic Gov. Matt Meyer declared that “Delaware is the best place in the world to incorporate your business, and Senate Bill 21 will help keep it that way,” critics reiterated concerns about the corporate-friendly state legislation he signed this week.

The Delaware House of Representatives sent the Senate-approved S.B. 21 to Meyer’s desk on Tuesday in a 32-7 vote, with two members absent. The Delaware Business Timesreported that the governor “arrived in Dover to sign the measure into law less than two hours after it passed,” and “the bill signing was closed to the press.”

The bill sailed through the Delaware General Assembly despite anti-monopoly, economic, and legal experts blasting it as a “corporate insider power grab” and accusing state legislators of choosing “billionaire insiders—like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg—over pension funds, retirement savers, and other investors.”

Delaware Working Families Party (WFP) political director Karl Stomberg said in a Wednesday statement that “at a time when rank-and-file Democrats across the country are begging their leaders to stand up to” President Donald Trump and Musk, his billionaire adviser, Democratic lawmakers in the state “just gave Musk a $56 billion handout.”

That’s a reference to Musk’s 2018 compensation package for his electric vehicle maker, Tesla, which a Delaware judge ruled against, prompting the richest billionaire on Earth to ditch the state and encourage other business leaders to do the same. Fears of a potential “Dexit” led to lawmakers’ frantic effort to pass S.B. 21.

“The Working Families Party has been standing up against this proposed bill for weeks now, and we recognize the need to fight back against corporate overreach in our government,” said Stomberg. “WFP electeds proposed serious amendments to address our concerns with the bill that would protect the people of Delaware, but the Democrats chose to side with Musk and vote them down.”

“This bill is an indictment of the failed Delaware Way, which continues to allow big corporations and the ultrawealthy like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg to enrich themselves at the expense of working people,” added Stomberg.

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As Anger Over Wealth Inequality Deepens, Wall Street Bonuses Are 4 Times a US Worker’s Pay

Amid growing discontent over surging economic inequality in the U.S.—and the Trump administration’s elevation of unelected billionaire Elon Musk to the upper reaches of the federal government—the New York state comptroller’s report on rising Wall Street bonuses was met with condemnation on Wednesday.

“Something is very broken and this is why people are so disenchanted,” wrote one commenter on an article about the report at The Washington Post. “There is no American dream. Just fat cats getting fatter.”

Another added that “the inequity of taxation on wealth in this country is shameful.”

New York Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli lauded Wall Street’s “very strong performance” in 2024 as he announced the average bonus paid to employees in the securities industry reached $244,700 last year—up 31.5% from 2023—as Wall Street’s profits skyrocketed by 90%. The bonus pool reached a record $47.5 billion.

But as researcher Rob Galbraith pointed out on social media, the record-breaking take-home pay of Wall Street executives was 3.5 times the median household income for a family in Erie County, New York—leaving doubt that many workers in the state will immediately join in celebrating what DiNapoli said was “good news for New York’s economy and our fiscal position” due to the bonuses’ impacts on tax revenue.

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FBI Becomes Rent-A-Cops for CEOs

America’s top law enforcement agency is pimping itself out to corporate America to protect business executives from the American people, according to an FBI threat assessment marked “Law Enforcement Use Only” and reported here for the first time.

The FBI assessment, “Heightened Threat to Chief Executive Officers Following the Shooting of a Healthcare Senior Executive,” is dated February 19, and is a striking illustration of the new and growing Domestic War on Terrorism that I’ve been writing about.

The assessment, and statements from top Trump officials, seek to label growing outrage against corporations as terrorism. The Trump administration is particularly spun up about the spate of arson and vandalism attacks against Tesla automobiles and facilities since its CEO became plenipotentiary to the world’s most powerful man.

The FBI document was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by transparency nonprofit Property of the People. “If the government truly cares about preventing death and suffering, perhaps tax dollars should be spent on healthcare for the people instead of mass surveillance and security for wealthy executives,” executive director Ryan Shapiro told me.

Part of the FBI’s campaign involves monitoring social media posts supposedly threatening corporate executives. The assessment claims that there has been a spike of such threats across multiple industries since Luigi Mangione’s alleged murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December. That month, I reported on a separate NYPD threat report warning that “online reactions” to the Thompson murder suggest “extremists may view Mangione as … an example to follow.”

The new FBI assessment follows the same line of thought, saying, “This rhetoric has displayed an elevated threat of violence to executives and highlighted a need for increased situational awareness among private sector partners.” Social media threats have “risen” across all sectors and industries, it adds.

FBI Director Kash Patel said during his swearing in that the Bureau is going to carry out “the world’s largest manhunt” against “anyone that wishes to do harm to our way of life,” as I’ve previously reported. On Monday, Patel announced a “crack down” on vandalism directed at Tesla, calling the acts “domestic terrorism.” 

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23andMe Files For Bankruptcy, CEO Resigns – Fate Of Americans’ DNA Data Now In Court-Supervised Sale

Shares of 23andMe crashed in premarket trading on Monday after the genetic testing unicorn startup filed for bankruptcy in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, following a slide in demand for its ancestry kits and a data breach. The bankruptcy raises one alarming question about DNA security: What will happen to the genetic data of the company’s more than 15 million customers?

23andMe announced that its CEO, Anne Wojcicki, has resigned immediately and will remain on the company’s board of directors. She led the cash-burning startup that never turned a profit and once commanded a market capitalization of nearly $6 billion in late 2021. Shares plunged 44% in the premarket to $1.

“After a thorough evaluation of strategic alternatives, we have determined that a court-supervised sale process is the best path forward to maximize the value of the business,” Mark Jensen, Chair and member of the Special Committee of the Board of Directors wrote in a statement. 

Jensen said, “We expect the court-supervised process will advance our efforts to address the operational and financial challenges we face, including further cost reductions and the resolution of legal and leasehold liabilities. We believe in the value of our people and our assets and hope that this process allows our mission of helping people access, understand and benefit from the human genome to live on for the benefit of customers and patients.”

“We want to thank our employees for their dedication to 23andMe’s mission. We are committed to supporting them as we move through the process. In addition, we are committed to continuing to safeguard customer data and being transparent about the management of user data going forward, and data privacy will be an important consideration in any potential transaction,” he added.

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