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Watch Diamond and Silk in Explosive Capitol Hill Meeting

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By WND. Social media stars Diamond and Silk, the hilarious duo that support the president, testified before the House Judiciary Committee Thursday on allegations of bias against conservatives by Facebook – and their impassioned statements frequently elicited smiles from spectators.

“Facebook censored our free speech!” Diamond charged.

The two, whose real names are Lynnette Hardaway and Rochelle Richardson, said if Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had been censoring the speech of anyone on the left, “Democrats would be in the streets right now, marching and calling him all types of racist.”

Some Democrats criticized the decision to hold the hearing, and Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., even called it “stupid and ridiculous.”

Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., suggested that the two women were making a great deal of money off the social media network. (Read more from “Watch Diamond and Silk in Explosive Capitol Hill Meeting” HERE)

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The Diamond and Silk Show Goes to Washington

By CNN. “Freedom,” said Bob Goodlatte, the House Judiciary Committee chairman, quoting President Ronald Reagan as he began a hearing Thursday morning, “is never more than one generation away from extinction.”

Goodlatte was suggesting that freedom was under dire threat because Lynnette Hardaway and Rochelle Richardson, two pro-Trump social media personalities most commonly known as “Diamond & Silk,” claimed they had been censored by Facebook. They had not been censored. Hardaway and Richardson’s claims had been thoroughly debunked. But Goodlatte and his committee nevertheless went on to spend several hours on the issue.

At times, watching the surreal spectacle unfold, it felt as if the doors to room 2141 of the Rayburn House Office building had transported those who walked through them to a place where facts came second to political narrative and outlets known for misinformation could be held up as gospel truth. The affair was a fitting end to weeks of right-wing media fueling a false narrative that Facebook is censoring conservatives. (Read more from “The Diamond and Silk Show Goes to Washington” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Congressman Reveals How Many Data Points Facebook Has on You

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By The Daily Wire. On Wednesday, during Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Rep. Ben Lujan (D-NM) revealed the number of data points that Facebook has on both users and non-users of the social media platform.

“On average, how many data points does Facebook have on each Facebook user?” Lujan asked Zuckerberg . . .

Lujan then revealed that Facebook has tens of thousands of data points on those who use the platform as well over a thousand data points on those who do not even use Facebook.

(Read more from “Congressman Reveals How Many Data Points Facebook Has on You” HERE)

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Facebook Has Been Worried About Data Leaks Like This Since It Went Public in 2012

By CNBC. Revelations of a massive data leak at Facebook have shocked users, investors, lawmakers and even some top executives in recent weeks — but the company warned of third-party breaches and government regulation more than six years ago when it first filed to go public.

In its 2012 IPO prospectus, Facebook called “improper access to or disclosure of our users’ information” a risk factor that could potentially harm the company’s reputation and financial outlook.

Here is the excerpt:

“Our efforts to protect the information that our users have chosen to share using Facebook may be unsuccessful due to the actions of third parties, software bugs or other technical malfunctions, employee error or malfeasance, or other factors. In addition, third parties may attempt to fraudulently induce employees or users to disclose information in order to gain access to our data or our users’ data. If any of these events occur, our users’ information could be accessed or disclosed improperly.”

None of that excuses Facebook’s data control and privacy problems that have been exposed to the world in recent weeks. But the cautionary disclosure suggests that the social media giant knew the general risks associated with its massive open platform. (Read more from “Facebook Has Been Worried About Data Leaks Like This Since It Went Public in 2012” HERE)

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Facebook Censorship: The Grotesque Mainstream Solution

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The problem with Facebook started a long time ago. They used their money to promote their social media operations, and tons of users jumped on board, believing that conventional rules of free speech applied.

That was a mistake.

The mistake was on the level of believing the military-industrial complex is only interested in legitimate defense of the nation; or believing the pharmaceutical industry is only interested in alleviating existing illness with safe drugs.

Some lawyers and scholars are trying to “correct” Facebook. But beware: most of them are arguing that, since the Internet is a new platform, far beyond the ability of the Founding Fathers to have anticipated, we now have to change the meaning of the 1st Amendment, in order to make social media “more responsible” about the content they permit. In other words, Facebook should eliminate “more fake news.” This is the road to disaster, as any sane person can see.

Who decides what is fake? Government appointed fact checkers? The CIA? Either of the two major political parties? A biased hate speech organization?

These scholars and attorneys want social media to be defined as “public square, town hall, news media”—but not so public that all political views are allowed through the door. No. They only want “reasonable” content, to protect “robust debate in a democracy.” This is pure baloney.

We’re also seeing increasing calls for government regulation of social media. This means more censorship. We’re witnessing that in California, where State Senator Richard Pan has introduced a bill (SB 1424), designed to force all Internet activity based in California to use designated fact checkers and issue warnings about fake news.

It may seem like a good move to redefine social media giants as “more than private companies,” but that direction is dangerous. In the main, it’s not being shaped by true free-speech advocates, it’s controlled by mainstream operatives who want their news to dominate the scene.

A 10/11/17 Wired article contains this stunning piece: “’You cannot run a democratic system unless you have a well-informed public, or a public prepared to defer to well-informed elites,’ says Larry Kramer, president of the Hewlett Foundation and an expert in constitutional law. ‘And we are now rapidly heading toward neither. Without one or the other, our constitutional system and our liberal democracy will end, perhaps not imminently, but over time’.”

Defer to well-informed elites? Really? This is the mainstream argument right out in the open: The vaunted traditional news outlets speak the truth and we must listen to them. We must censor all the extraneous “noise” on the Internet. The NY Times and the Washington Post and CNN and CBS would never lie. They vet their stories and fact check them. They are objective. They light the lamp of truth and point the way. They protect democracy.

To mainstream scholars, improving social media means destroying the 1st Amendment under the guise of “adjusting and updating it.”

Eliminating hate speech includes censoring material that contradicts the “progressive culture” on issues like immigration, open borders, gun control, vaccination, and gender identity.

“Free speech” is replaced by “better speech.”

“I don’t like what you say” is replaced by “you have no right to say it.”

The very popular pro-Trump Diamond and Silk duo recently reacted to Facebook censorship: “…giving us the run around, Facebook gave us another bogus reason why Millions of people who have liked and/or followed our page no longer receives notification and why our page, post and video reach was reduced by a very large percentage. Here is the reply from Facebook. Thu, Apr 5, 2018 at 3:40 PM: ‘The Policy team has come to the conclusion that your content and your brand has been determined unsafe to the community’.”

I guess Diamond and Silk are part of the dangerous noise that distracts the American people from “responsible journalism” so necessary to maintaining a robust democracy.

Yes, that must be it.

As far as I can tell, the following quote about the news was written before the Internet and Facebook existed, and therefore—heaven forbid—was actually aimed at mainstream sources:

“Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day. . . . I will add, that the man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them; inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods & errors.” (Thomas Jefferson, June 11, 1807)

Censor Jefferson! He’s contributing to doubt and disbelief in our most trusted streams of information. Ban him from Facebook! He’s unsafe to the community. He’s a corrosive influence. He’s obstructing democracy. He’s a conspiracy lunatic. The new and improved 1st Amendment doesn’t protect him. How can we conduct intelligent and proper debate on serious matters in the face of such blanket condemnations which he spews?

Yes, ban him, so we can be safe again. (For more from the author of “Facebook Censorship: The Grotesque Mainstream Solution” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

The Same Gov’t That Spies on Its Citizens Is Lecturing Facebook CEO for Same Thing

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Members of the same government that is responsible for violating privacy laws and illegally collecting data from its citizens, openly lectured the CEO of a company for violating privacy laws and illegally collecting data from its users—a case of irony that could only play out in a country that brags about the unprecedented freedom enjoyed by its citizens.

The special congressional hearing on Facebook’s use of user data lasted for five hours on Tuesday, and the word “privacy” was mentioned nearly 100 times. While there were a number of questions as to whether Senators Diane Feinstein and Chuck Grassley—who are both 84 years old—fully grasped the concept of Facebook and its business model, the concerns about how the social media giant is treating its users was overwhelming.

“Consumers ought to have clearer information, not opaque policies and complex click-through consent pages. The tech industry has an obligation to respond to widespread and growing concerns over data privacy and security and to restore the public’s trust,” Grassley said. “The status quo no longer works. Moreover, Congress must determine if and how we need to strengthen privacy standards to ensure transparency and understanding for the billions of consumers who utilize these products.”

Sen. Bill Nelson, 75, insisted that if Facebook does not ensure privacy for its users, then Americans’ personal privacy will be jeopardized, requiring the government to interfere.

“If you and other social media companies do not get your act in order, none of us are going to have any privacy anymore. That’s what we’re facing,” Nelson said. “We’re talking about personally identifiable information that, if not kept by the social media–media companies from theft, a value that we have in America, being our personal privacy—we won’t have it anymore.”

However, there was one significant fallacy that is either not understood or is simply being ignored by the members of Congress who addressed Zuckerberg. When individuals create Facebook accounts they know that the photos they share are not their own anymore; they know that every time they react to a status or share their thoughts on a product or service, it will be used to create targeted advertisements that will appear in their newsfeeds.

Americans have the ability to decide whether they give Facebook access to their data, or whether they have a Facebook account at all. But they do not have the ability to decide whether their data is stolen and used by the U.S. government.

While Facebook makes it clear that it is using your reactions to content to create targeted ads for your newsfeed and that it is using the photos you post of yourself to create a facial recognition profile that automatically tags your face in other photos, the government has attempted to be discreet about its data collection.

The National Security Agency initially claimed that it was only collecting data from foreign targets that it believed were suspected “terrorists.” That excuse lasted up until former NSA contractor Edward Snowden released a trove of classified documents in 2013 that showed the government was collecting data from and spying on innocent Americans.

Even after a court ruled that the NSA’s data collection and domestic spying practices were illegal in 2015, no one has been held accountable for violating the privacy of countless Americans, and the practices have only continued.

When Congress announced its first attempt to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in late 2017, it received massive scrutiny from privacy advocates who warned that the bill would provide additional loopholes for the government to continue conducting warrantless surveillance of innocent Americans, and it would ultimately be worse for civil liberties than the previous legislation.

Then when President Trump signed the FISA Reauthorization Act into law in January, he claimed that it was “NOT the same FISA law that was so wrongly abused during the election,” and that he would “always do the right thing for our country and put the safety of the American people first.”

However, reports noted that the government is actually following a pattern of legalizing practices that they have already been carrying out, which has been ongoing for years.

With the first new law in place, the FBI no longer has to apply for a warrant “when national security is involved, or when it determines that there is a ‘threat to life or serious bodily harm,” according to a report from the Intercept. The agency will also continue to have unlimited access to data collected by the NSA, even when it does not pertain to a criminal investigation.

While users are aware of the fact that Facebook has access to their data, it is also true that the social media platform has followed in the footsteps of the U.S. government by giving itself unlimited power, and then abusing that power for financial gain.

As Snowden noted, Facebook has turned into a “surveillance company” that has successfully branded itself as “social media,” even though it makes money by “exploiting and selling intimate details about the private lives of millions, far beyond the scant details you voluntarily post.”

At the end of the day, neither Facebook officials nor U.S. government officials have any business criticizing each other when it comes to willingly abusing the privacy of Americans’ data.

(For more from the author of “The Same Gov’t That Spies on Its Citizens Is Lecturing Facebook CEO for Same Thing” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Watch Ted Cruz Savage Mark Zuckerberg Over Facebook’s Liberal Bias

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By The Federalist. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz savaged Mark Zuckerberg over Facebook’s tendency to shut down and silence conservatives and conservative ideas in a hearing on Tuesday.

Cruz asked Zuckerberg if Facebook considered itself a “neutral public forum,” making the Silicon Valley billionaire squirm.

“Senator, we consider ourselves to be a platform for all ideas,” Zuckerberg replied. “Our goal is certainly not to engage in political speech.”

Cruz proceeded to list a number of conservative Facebook pages that had faced censorship from the social network. (Read more from “Watch Ted Cruz Savage Mark Zuckerberg Over Facebook’s Liberal Bias” HERE)

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Zuckerberg Apologizes, Promises Reform as Senators Grill Him Over Facebook’s Failings

By The Washington Post. Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg endured an hours-long grilling by dozens of U.S. senators Tuesday during which he repeatedly apologized and promised privacy reforms but also pointedly defended his company against the threat of new legislation.

Zuckerberg invoked Facebook’s unlikely journey — from a tiny start-up he co-founded in his Harvard dorm room 14 years ago to a social media behemoth — in explaining Facebook’s frequent privacy missteps and its failure to spot and defeat Russia’s aggressive campaign to manipulate American voters in 2016 and beyond.

Senators repeatedly challenged Zuckerberg’s explanations in the wide-ranging hearing, a rare joint session before two Senate panels — the Commerce and Judiciary committees — with 42 senators questioning the Facebook executive . . .

Zuckerberg took responsibility for the missteps. “We didn’t take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake. And it was my mistake, and I’m sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and I’m responsible for what happens here.” (Read more from “Zuckerberg Apologizes, Promises Reform as Senators Grill Him Over Facebook’s Failings” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

SCAM: Biggest Black Lives Matter Page on Facebook Is Fake

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By The Daily Wire. The biggest page on Facebook purporting to be part of the Black Lives Matter movement had alleged ties to a middle-aged white Australian man; some of the money it raised went to Australian bank accounts. According to CNN, even when Facebook was alerted to the issue, months went by before action was taken, and that was only after CNN spent a week sending emails and making phone calls to Facebook to tell them they were going to run the story.

The page was titled “Black Lives Matter,” and had roughly 700,000 followers on Facebook, more than double the official Black Lives Matter page. CNN reports, “It was tied to online fundraisers that brought in at least $100,000 that supposedly went to Black Lives Matter causes in the U.S. At least some of the money, however, was transferred to Australian bank accounts.” . . .

The creators of the page supervised a Facebook Group titled “Black Lives Matter” which had almost 40,000 members. The page frequently linked to websites tied to Ian Mackay, a National Union of Workers official . . .

Last week, CNN informed Facebook, but when CNN delineated how the page’s linked to fundraising accounts suspended on other platforms, Facebook responded that it had found the page “didn’t show anything that violated our Community Standards.” But by Monday morning, Facebook disabled the BP Parker profile for violating its community standards, which in turn disabled the page, according to a company spokesperson. (Read more from “SCAM: Biggest Black Lives Matter Page on Facebook Is Fake” HERE)

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Facebook Had Been Alerted Numerous Times About Fake Activist Page

By CNN. Fundraising campaigns associated with the Facebook page were suspended by PayPal and Patreon after CNN contacted each of the companies for comment. Donorbox and Classy had already removed the campaigns.

The discovery raises new questions about the integrity of Facebook’s platform and the content hosted there. In the run-up to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony before Congress this week, Facebook has announced plans to make the people running large pages verify their identity and location. But it’s not clear that the change would affect this page: Facebook has not said what information about page owners it will disclose to the public — and, presented with CNN’s findings, Facebook initially said the page didn’t violate its “Community Standards.”

Only after almost a week of emails and calls between CNN and Facebook about this story did Facebook suspend the page, and then only because it had suspended a user account that administrated the page. (Read more form “The Biggest Black Lives Matter Page on Facebook Is Fake” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Facebook Deems Pro-Trump Diamond and Silk ‘Unsafe to Community’

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Facebook has decided that Diamond and Silk, two powerful black women who also happen to be supporters of President Trump, “unsafe to the community.”

In a post to their 1.2 million followers on Facebook, the duo wrote:

Diamond And Silk have been corresponding since September 7, 2017, with Facebook (owned by Mark Zuckerberg), about their bias censorship and discrimination against D&S brand page. Finally after several emails, chats, phone calls, appeals, beating around the bush, lies, and giving us the run around, Facebook gave us another bogus reason why Millions of people who have liked and/or followed our page no longer receives notification and why our page, post and video reach was reduced by a very large percentage.

Here is the reply from Facebook. Thu, Apr 5, 2018 at 3:40 PM: “The Policy team has came to the conclusion that your content and your brand has been determined unsafe to the community.” Yep, this was FB conclusion after 6 Months, 29 days, 5 hrs, 40 minutes and 43 seconds. Oh and guess what else Facebook said: “This decision is final and it is not appeal-able in any way.” (Note: This is the exact wording that FB emailed to us.)

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“This is deliberate bias censorship and discrimination. These tactics are unacceptable and we want answers!” they said. (Read more from “Facebook Deems Pro-Trump Diamond and Silk ‘Unsafe to Community'” HERE)

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Facebook Pulls 180 After Banning Jesus From Site

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By WND. Facebook has confessed it was mistaken when it banned an ad featuring the image of Jesus on a cross on Good Friday and says the image now is acceptable for use.

Fox News reported a Facebook official told the news agency: “This image does not violate our ad policies. We apologize for the error and have already let the advertiser know we approved their ad.”

WND reported the image of the San Damiano Cross, showing Jesus in glory, “reigning from his cruciform throne,” was refused by Facebook because of its “shocking content.”

“This is what the monitors at Facebook consider excessively violent, sensational, and shocking,” said a statement from Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio.

The university said it had posted a series of ads to Facebook to promote an online degree program for theology, catechetics and evangelization. (Read more from “Facebook Pulls 180 After Banning Jesus From Site” HERE)

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Facebook Apologizes for Blocking Catholic University’s Ad of Jesus on the Cross

By Fox News. Facebook apologized after it rejected an ad by a Catholic university in Ohio on Good Friday that showed Jesus hanging on the cross.

The social media giant labeled the religious image “shocking and excessively violent,” according to a university spokesman.

Franciscan University of Steubenville published 10 Facebook advertisements for its master’s degree program in theology, catechetics, and evangelization. Tom Crowe, Steubenville’s web communications director, told Fox News he doesn’t know why only the one clearly depicting the San Damiano Cross was rejected.

“It may have been the algorithm or a low level staffer who has something against Christianity,” Crowe said. “For whatever reason, Facebook rejected the cross.”

Facebook apologized Wednesday for the mistake. (Read more from “Facebook Apologizes for Blocking Catholic University’s Ad of Jesus on the Cross” HERE)

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The Personal Data Google Has on You Is Shocking and Dwarfs That of Facebook, Here’s How to Stop It

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As TFTP reported last week, it was revealed that both the Obama campaign and the Trump campaign used third-party integrations to collect private information on millions of unsuspecting Facebook users. The resultant scandal has sent Facebook’s stock tumbling as well as created a firestorm for Mark Zuckerberg and his fellow data miners. Remaining conveniently out of the scrutiny, however, is Google, whose data mining of private information, according to a recent report, dwarfs that of Facebook.

Web developer Dylan Curran, based in Waterford, Ireland, is making headlines this week after he recently downloaded both his Facebook data file and his Google data file.

As TFTP has reported, the information Facebook keeps on its users is utterly mind-blowing, consisting of everything from text messages to liked posts, the social media giant is building profiles on billions. However, according to Curran, this is nothing compared to what Google has.

“Want to freak yourself out? I’m gonna show just how much of your information the likes of Facebook and Google store about you without you even realising it,” Curran wrote before giving a breakdown of all the information insidiously gleaned by these information giants.

Google knows where you’ve been

Google stores your location (if you have location tracking turned on) every time you turn on your phone. You can see a timeline of where you’ve been from the very first day you started using Google on your phone.

Click on this link to see your own data: google.com/maps/timeline?…

Here is every place I have been in the last 12 months in Ireland. You can see the time of day that I was in the location and how long it took me to get to that location from my previous one.

Google knows everything you’ve ever searched – and deleted

Google stores search history across all your devices. That can mean that, even if you delete your search history and phone history on one device, it may still have data saved from other devices.

Click on this link to see your own data: myactivity.google.com/myactivity

Google has an advertisement profile of you

Google creates an advertisement profile based on your information, including your location, gender, age, hobbies, career, interests, relationship status, possible weight (need to lose 10lb in one day?) and income.

Click on this link to see your own data: google.com/settings/ads/

Google knows all the apps you use
Google stores information on every app and extension you use. They know how often you use them, where you use them, and who you use them to interact with. That means they know who you talk to on Facebook, what countries are you speaking with, what time you go to sleep.

Click on this link to see your own data: security.google.com/settings/secur…

Google has all of your YouTube history

Google stores all of your YouTube history, so they probably know whether you’re going to be a parent soon, if you’re a conservative, if you’re a progressive, if you’re Jewish, Christian, or Muslim, if you’re feeling depressed or suicidal, if you’re anorexic …

Click on this link to see your own data: youtube.com/feed/history/s…

The data Google has on you can fill millions of Word documents

Google offers an option to download all of the data it stores about you. I’ve requested to download it and the file is 5.5GB big, which is roughly 3m Word documents.

This link includes your bookmarks, emails, contacts, your Google Drive files, all of the above information, your YouTube videos, the photos you’ve taken on your phone, the businesses you’ve bought from, the products you’ve bought through Google …

They also have data from your calendar, your Google hangout sessions, your location history, the music you listen to, the Google books you’ve purchased, the Google groups you’re in, the websites you’ve created, the phones you’ve owned, the pages you’ve shared, how many steps you walk in a day …

Click on this link to see your own data: google.com/takeout

Curran then goes on to list all the Facebook data before focusing back in on Google.

Here are some of the different ways Google gets your data

I got the Google Takeout document with all my information, and this is a breakdown of all the different ways they get your information.

According to the file, Google knows every image you’ve ever downloaded and where you accessed them. They also know what events you’ve attended and when—even when you don’t enter them in your own calendar.

What’s more, even if you’ve deleted all this information, Google still has it! “This is my Google Drive, which includes files I explicitly deleted including my résumé, my monthly budget, and all the code, files and websites I’ve ever made, and even my PGP private key, which I deleted, that I use to encrypt emails,” explains Curran.

Google even knows your workout routine as the fit app maintains records of all of it. They also maintain all of your photos, even deleted ones.

“This is all the photos ever taken with my phone, broken down by year, and includes metadata of when and where I took the photos,” said Curran.

But that’s not all. They also have every email you’ve ever sent and received, including deleted ones and spam. They have a record of every single website you’ve ever visited, every search you’ve ever done, every app you’ve ever used, and every news article you’ve ever read.

As Curran notes:

This information has millions of nefarious uses. You say you’re not a terrorist. Then how come you were googling Isis? Work at Google and you’re suspicious of your wife? Perfect, just look up her location and search history for the last 10 years. Manage to gain access to someone’s Google account? Perfect, you have a chronological diary of everything that person has done for the last 10 years.

This is one of the craziest things about the modern age. We would never let the government or a corporation put cameras/microphones in our homes or location trackers on us. But we just went ahead and did it ourselves because – to hell with it! – I want to watch cute dog videos.

If we continue to be okay with unknown corporate entities watching our every move, collecting every bit of our personal information, and using all of it against us, the words “freedom” and “privacy” will become but a fleeting memory. While you may think you have nothing to hide if you’ve done nothing wrong, it’s only a matter of time before someone deems your completely legal behavior a threat—and uses this massive spy tool to stop that threat.

Now for the solution. Stop giving Google all these permissions, go through your device’s permissions and disable everything that may let Google collect your information. Stop using letting Google record you by disabling the voice recognition. Use browsers like Firefox or TOR that don’t spy on you. Use search engines like DuckDuckgo.com. Use VPNs and quit paying for internet services that allow third-parties to collect your information.

Unless we reclaim our privacy now, we will be responsible for the insane information dystopia that we create. (For more from the author of “The Personal Data Google Has on You Is Shocking and Dwarfs That of Facebook, Here’s How to Stop It” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Disgusting: Facebook Rejects Ad Depicting Jesus for Being ‘Shocking, Sensational, and Excessively Violent’

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The Prince of Peace is officially too violent for Facebook. According to the Franciscan University of Steubenville, the tech giant rejected an advertisement for its online degree program in theology, catechetics, and evangelization. The campaign included an image of the San Damiano Cross, a twelfth century rood cross before which St. Francis of Assisi prayed when he had a mystical vision in which the Icon of Christ Crucified instructed him, “Francis, Francis, go and repair My house which, as you can see, is falling into ruins.” The university’s social media administrator received a rejection notice explaining that the image contained “shocking, sensational, or excessively violent content.” Perhaps Christians should count their blessings that Facebook is not yet flagging depictions of Christ reigning from his cruciform throne as “fake news.”

In Facebook’s defense, the Crucifixion was indeed shocking, sensational, and excessively violent: He was arrested, flogged, condemned, made to carry his own cross, brought to the “Place of the Skull,” nailed, raised, fed gall, and pierced through the side with a sword. In the university’s defense, our civilization once considered the Crucifixion and Resurrection to be the most important event in the history of the world. Now one of the most successful enterprises in the history of that civilization deems it too sensational for public consumption.

The stand-up comedian-turned-pop philosopher George Carlin observed in 2005, “When fascism comes to America, it will not be in brown and black shirts. It will not be with jack-boots. It will be Nike sneakers and Smiley shirts. Smiley-smiley.” Jonah Goldberg returned to this theme on the cover of his 2008 bestseller Liberal Fascism, which depicts a Smiley face sporting a Hitler mustache. (Read more from “Disgusting: Facebook Rejects Ad Depicting Jesus for Being ‘Shocking, Sensational, and Excessively Violent'” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.