We’ve written about this new technological data gathering Automated License Plate Readers (APLR’s) more than once. In Maryland the use of APLR’s was linked to a Florida man who was pulled over and asked about his firearm, presumably through CCW records data-mined by third parties and sold to the Maryland data and intelligence hub.
Maryland authorities refused to provide records from our Public Records requests, citing the ambiguous “Ongoing Investigation” reasoning. Now here’s some information from a reporter in Virginia who requests her own records and finds out how much she is tracked.
VIRGINIA – The police know exactly where my car has been — and when — during the past few months.
They could have the same information — or more — about you.
As a part of my series on the use of automatic license plate readers in Virginia, I wanted to find out what kind of information local police might have. By law, the only information I’m privileged to is my own. (more…)
The national security state is the main driver of censorship and election interference in the United States. “What I’m describing is military rule,” says Mike Benz. “It’s the inversion of democracy.”
CTH readers have discussed this issue for several years. What Benz describes in the video below is the reality of what systems and tech architecture are in place right now. The big picture of who wants control over the domestic internet apparatus and how. WATCH:
It is important to begin with the end in mind. Perhaps some people are unaware that internet services, meaning the actual experience of using the internet for communication and commerce, are not the same in every nation. In fact, it is quite a different experience depending on where on the globe you are located. The differences are driven by internal controls, the intranet of the regional internet per se.
The internet in China is not the same as the internet in Europe, which is not the same as the internet in Australia, which is not the same as the internet in North America, which is not the same -at all- as the internet that now exists within Russia. Even in some continents, the internet traffic flows are controlled at different levels within each nation. The “world wide web” is a format, but when you get down to the national level, things change.
This baseline helps to understand that internet freedom is defined by access to information and commerce.
To the extent the information or commerce is defined as against the interests of the authority structure, or potentially a threat to the national security interest of the government therein, the internet content is filtered, modified, censored, removed or just simply blocked from view. This is one layer in the information control system.
Another layer is the flow of commerce that floats atop the flow of information. This is where advertising, product sales, purchasing and general e-commerce takes place. This layer represents another option for control; therefore, this e-commerce layer should be considered running in parallel to the information, albeit perhaps indirectly attached.
The issues around the Twitter platform (X Corp) are important for several reasons, including the anticipated tech moves around the 2024 election.
Many people are holding up Elon Musk as a tech figurehead who might just be able to push back against the tide of totalitarianism. However, a more realistic look at Musk shows he is participating in the control space just as much as any other platform. Additionally, Musk has threat and influence vectors just like any other person or social media company. The most obvious influence vector is the cost of operating his X platform.
Earlier today Musk outlined the current status of Twitter revenue generation. The baseline here is the prior peak of revenue for the company, which was around $3.8 billion, prior to Musk acquisition. Musk shares today that revenue is down 60% from that point.
That would put current revenue around $1.52 billion/yr.
Service on debt is around $1.25 billion/yr. Amazon and Goggle services around $1 billion/yr. That’s an operational loss of around $1.6 billion/yr when you factor in subscription revenue. In essence, Twitter loses around $130 million every month.
With the latest revelations we shared about the financial position of Twitter {Go Deep on FINANCIALS}, all of the moves now underway make sense. Musk was on track to hit a date in/around October of this year where Twitter would be insolvent. If you had read those previous “Go Deep” links, you will easily see the problem. Musk needs another infusion of cash, and he is limited on his Tesla stock as an option.
The use of Enhanced Artificial Intelligence to control information and communication is a subject that too few people understand. This is why I have spent time trying to share information so that people can see into the future of their internet reality. Everything will change.
As you should know by now, the X platform (Twitter) is designed to produce a different user experience based on “definitions” of the user. The definitions are applied by the platform, to create unique identifying characteristics of the user. The result is that each user gets a completely different platform experience, based on their definitions.
“Twitter is a different platform for each user.” Repeat that phrase as often as needed to understand the evolution of what is coming to the American internet.
You might ask, how is applying all of these granular definitions even possible? The answer is through the use of AI. Humans will no longer be assigning the definitions of you; an autonomous system will take on the job of assigning the definitions. Now, keep referencing the word “definitions,” because that is your identity and gateway pass into the platform content. If you carry a particular definition, you will be blocked, throttled, shadow-banned or experience friction applied to your user id.
Remember when Elon Musk restricted users and claimed it was because the platform content was being “scraped” by organizations who were using the content to train their Enhanced AI systems? Remember, Musk saying that, and expressing his concern? Well, now the platform is telling users in a new X Corp privacy policy, that X corp itself is going to do exactly the thing Musk said he abhorred.
There really is no other phrase that seems to adequately describe the future for online life in the United States than to describe it through the prism of the previously discussed shadow banning that takes place on the X-platform for specifically wrong-thinking users.
It is important to begin with the end in mind. Perhaps some people are unaware that internet services, meaning the actual experience of using the internet for communication and commerce, are not the same in every nation. In fact, it is quite a different experience depending on where on the globe you are located. The differences are driven by internal controls, the intranet of the regional internet per se.
The internet in China is not the same as the internet in Europe, which is not the same as the internet in Australia, which is not the same as the internet in North America, which is not the same -at all- as the internet that now exists within Russia. Even in some continents, the internet traffic flows are controlled at different levels within each nation. The “world wide web” is a format, but when you get down to the national level, things change.
This baseline helps to understand that internet freedom is defined by access to information and commerce.
To the extent the information or commerce is defined as against the interests of the authority structure, or potentially a threat to the national security interest of the government therein, the internet content is filtered, modified, censored, removed or just simply blocked from view. This is one layer in the information control system.
Another layer is the flow of commerce that floats atop the flow of information. This is where advertising, product sales, purchasing and general e-commerce takes place. This layer represents another option for control; therefore, this e-commerce layer should be considered running in parallel to the information, albeit perhaps indirectly attached.
Kentucky going full totalitarian. Kentucky Democrat Governor, Andy Beshear, has ordered police to photograph (Automated License Plate Reader – ALPR) the license plates of Easter Sunday worshippers who will then be visited by the Ministry of Coronavirus Compliance and forced into a 14 day quarantine.
Kentucky – […] For those who decide to participate in a mass gathering of any type of which the state is notified of, the license plates of those individuals will be recorded and given to health department officials. They will then visit the individuals home bringing with them an order to quarantine for 14 days. (link)
The more important lead story of this article is buried within the outcome story of ICE agents using a private license plate database to capture illegal aliens. First the headline story:
WASHINGTON – Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been using over the past year a vast license plate database to identify the location of vehicles associated with immigrants who do not have legal status, according to documents released Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
More than 9,000 ICE agents have been given access to the controversial database, which contains hundreds of millions of license plate scans from across the U.S., according to the documents obtained by the ACLU through a Freedom of Information Act request. ICE employees are able to use the database to obtain information on where individuals have been and when they were there, with data going back as far as five years.
More on the ALPR, or LPR process. APLR is Automated License Plate Reader. LPR is not automated – they are triggered like radar guns. Our prior research has shown increasing use of APLR’s mounted to tow trucks and used by bond agents to drive through store parking lots while scanning for hits – this is the private industry use of the technology. The governmental use of the technology is more concerning because we have already found evidence of massive databases of cross referenced information, specifically CCW and gun registration, which are available to LEO. So it strikes as reasonable the same methods would be deployed around gun shows and other identified, governmentally defined “high risk” behaviors. WASHINGTON DC – According to emails obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union, federal authorities planned to monitor gun show parking lots with automatic license plate readers.
The insight comes from a damning report released by the ACLU this week on a secretive program by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to build a massive database of license plates images collected by automated license plate reader devices. (more…)
This is one of those stories when we really wish we had been wrong in our 2013, 2014 research. [Previously outlined HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE]
Over a year ago we brought you the story of Mr. Filippidis and his family, a Florida Driver who was pulled over by law enforcement in Maryland. The traffic stop would have been typical except for the fact the responding officer demanded, at random, Mr. Filippidis’s firearm.
Mr. Filippidis did not have his legally owned -CCW permitted- hand gun, it was home in Florida. Nor did Mr. Filippidis ever say he had a firearm – yet the officer was insistent Mr. Filippidis owned one, handcuffed Mr. Filippidis, and strip searched his vehicle on the side of the road.
Numerous Maryland state police arrived to assist in the search. They found nothing, because Mr. F was telling the truth. After two hours Mr. Filippidis and his family were allowed to continue their travels, but the entire process was unnerving.
Which prompted Mr. Filippidis to ask “how did a Maryland officer know I was a gun owner”? Which led to a severely awkward litany of obfuscations and explanations from Maryland that did not make sense. (more…)
REMEMBER THE BIGGER BROTHER? – If we had unlimited resources I would love to put a research team together to research all of the information data-mining that’s currently going on. After some research on my own I was astounded to read the “business models” of quasi-private businesses who are currently engaged in analysis for the legality of various information sharing concepts with governmental agencies. It looks like THIS APLR collections and various registration/information hubs are evolving rapidly and there is no currently proposed legislation to allow people to “opt out”. I’m not even sure if there ever will be a technological way to opt out. WASHINGTON DC – As if many Americans needed another reason to dislike the post office, word now comes that it wants to begin mining and selling private data gathered from the personal mail of Americans.
USPS chief marketing and sales officer Nagisa Manabe recently told the PostalVision 2020 conference that the post office is “actively looking for ways to build new business lines around what not long ago might have been considered science fiction.” (more…)
Maryland authorities refused to provide records from our Public Records requests, citing the ambiguous “Ongoing Investigation” reasoning. Now here’s some information from a reporter in Virginia who requests her own records and finds out how much she is tracked.
