by Eta Onrish, The Organic Prepper:
Big tech companies like Google and Apple have been under fire recently for violations of privacy laws and even been accused of outright supporting surveillance of private citizens. Amazon has been accused of keeping recordings that they shouldn’t have. It appears that the trend continues.
The most recent apparent violator this time is Facebook.
This isn’t the first time Facebook has made the news for privacy issues.
from RT:
Former Google employee Zachary Vorhies told Project Veritas that he spent a year collecting documents that prove Google uses a politically biased “fringe ranking” system and maintains a “blacklist” of undesirable websites.
Surprise, surprise! Our Silicon Valley overlords have “deboosted and deranked” websites that fall foul of its own agenda.
by Mac Slavo, SHTF Plan:
Facebook cannot seem to respect the privacy of anything. Although a certain level of privacy is a basic human right, Facebook has been paying contractors to secretly transcribe all of your conversations.
That’s according to third-party contractors who spoke to Bloomberg about the practice. The conversations were those recorded through the social media messaging app’s microphone. The contractors said that they were paid to listen in on countless, occasional vulgar conversations among Facebook Messenger users, though the company never explained to them why it needed the transcriptions. Facebook later told Bloomberg that the human transcriptions were being used to test the performance of its speech-recognizing artificial intelligence.
by Andrew West, Freedom OutPost:
While the Second Amendment is most often characterized as a right, there are characteristics of the guarantee that imbue separate, equally potent powers to the American people.
In many way, the right to bear arms is an insurance policy, more than a right. It exists not for hunting, sport, or self defense, but rather as a reminder that we must remain vigilant against those who rise into power. American politicians and government agencies cannot overstep their bounds, or impose even the slightest inkling of authoritarian rule, without first considering what the true power of an armed and freepopulace could be.
from True Pundit:
A former Google insider claiming the company created algorithms to hide its political bias within artificial intelligence platforms – in effect targeting particular words, phrases and contexts to promote, alter, reference or manipulate perceptions of Internet content – delivered roughly 950 pages of documents to the Department of Justice’s Antitrust division Friday.
The former Google insider has already spoken in to the nonprofit organization Project Veritas. He was interviewed in silhouette, to conceal his identity, in group’s latest film, which they say exposes bias inside the social media platform.
from ZeroHedge:
A former Google insider claiming the company created algorithms to hide its political bias within artificial intelligence platforms – in effect targeting particular words, phrases and contexts to promote, alter, reference or manipulate perceptions of Internet content – delivered roughly 950 pages of documents to the Department of Justice’s Antitrust division Friday.
by Nicholas West, Alt Market:
One aspect often lost in the immigration debate is the rollout of government solutions that are set to restrict the freedom of the perfectly innocent. A key component of this is the increased collection of passenger biometrics.
As I’ve discussed before, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has a mandate that’s been 15 years in the making to integrate government databases for ID verification. Private companies have been enlisted to ensure that there is a “quick and easy roll out across U.S. airports,” according to Jim Peters, chief technology officer for SITA, one of the information technology companies working with airlines.
by John W. Whitehead, Rutherford Institute:
“It is often the case that police shootings, incidents where law enforcement officers pull the trigger on civilians, are left out of the conversation on gun violence. But a police officer shooting a civilian counts as gun violence. Every time an officer uses a gun against an innocent or an unarmed person contributes to the culture of gun violence in this country.”—Journalist Celisa Calacal
Yes, gun violence is a problem in America, although violent crime generally remains at an all-time low.
Yes, mass shootings are a problem in America, although while they are getting deadlier, they are not getting more frequent.
Yes, mentally ill individuals embarking on mass shooting sprees are a problem in America.
by Simon Black, Sovereign Man:
Welcome to our Friday roll up, where we highlight the most absurd and concerning stories we are following this week.
Dad sued for slander because he criticized the education system
Careful what you say about your kid’s public school curriculum.
The company behind a controversial common core math program in North Carolina is suing a dad for libel and slander.
by Aaron Kesel, Activist Post:
Monsanto (Bayer) operated an intelligence-gathering “fusion center,” to discredit journalists and activists, including singer Neil Young, and paid Google to bury results in its search engine, The Guardian, reported.
Activist Post previously reported that Bayer/Monsanto — the formerly merged company of potentially two of the evilest businesses in history — had kept a file of 200 names, including journalists and lawmakers in hopes of influencing their positions on pesticides according to French prosecutors.
Now, The Guardian has an exposé on Monsanto going a step beyond by spying on journalists through use of a Fusion Center type operation and paying Google to hide negative results.
by Joe Lauria, Consortium News:
The gun lobby has hijacked the Second Amendment, which was intended for citizen militias to provide domestic “security” without a standing army. The amendment is a dangerous relic, never clearer than after El Paso and Dayton, writes Joe Lauria.
The Second Amendment was written after a war in which a new nation without a standing army defeated the biggest standing army on the planet. To defend itself, the new country relied on citizens arming themselves in civilian militias.
