Big Data

There are eyes everywhere:

Images collected nationwide by DRN Data—a license-plate recognition (LPR) company owned by Motorola Solutions—go far beyond what you might expect from an LPR. A report in Wired this week details how DRN's vehicle-mounted cameras go everywhere and take pictures and videos of everything. You're probably already used to that sort of thing, sad to say, thanks to companies like Google and Apple sending out their camera cars to keep their GPS navigation mapping apps up-to-date. But Wired's investigation into DRN shows there's so much more going on under the hood.

Another image taken on a different day by a different vehicle shows a “Steelworkers for Harris-Walz” sign stuck in the lawn in front of someone’s home. A construction worker, with his face unblurred, is pictured near another Harris sign. Other photos show Trump and Biden (including “F*ck Biden”) bumper stickers on the back of trucks and cars across America. One photo, taken in November 2023, shows a partially torn bumper sticker supporting the Obama-Biden lineup. These images were generated by AI-powered cameras mounted on cars and trucks, initially designed to capture license plates, but which are now photographing political lawn signs outside private homes, individuals wearing T-shirts with text, and vehicles displaying pro-abortion bumper stickers—all while recording the precise locations of these observations. Newly obtained data reviewed by WIRED shows how a tool originally intended for traffic enforcement has evolved into a system capable of monitoring speech protected by the US Constitution.

But it isn't the images themselves that are concerning. The same AI tech that lets your smartphone copy text out of a photograph allows DRN's servers to "read" much more than just license plates. In a statement to Wired, DRN said the company complies with "all applicable laws and regulations," which is no comfort for any American with privacy concerns since the law provides little in the way of privacy protection. According to Privacy World, "The US does not have a holistic, comprehensive federal law generally regulating privacy and the collection, processing, disclosure and security of 'personal information' (typically defined as information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being linked to, a particular individual)."

Privacy was nice while we had it...

Freedom Block

The Left wants to rotect those in power:

The FOIA guarantees to every citizen the right to see all federal government documents that are not subject to reasonable exemptions such as national security, commercial trade secrets, and law enforcement. This law is also the lifeblood of American journalism. Journalists have filed millions of FOIA requests over the years, with a result that thousands of critically important news stories that would not otherwise have been known are reported. These include stories from media across the political spectrum about every President since LBJ, such as the fact the FBI was secretly surveilling radical left-wing groups opposed to President Ronald Reagan, details about the water torture methods used during the George W. Bush administration, the legal justification cited in defense of President Barack Obama's use of drones to kill U.S. citizens connected to radical terrorist groups, and the fact DOJ officials lied to the surveillance court in order to obtain search warrants against individuals associated with President Donald Trump. But earlier this week, ProPublica (PP), a non-profit left-wing advocacy group that uses journalism to advance its values and perspectives published a thinly veiled case for denying the conservative Heritage Foundation's access to the FOIA. Here's the PP lead:

Three investigators for the Heritage Foundation have deluged federal agencies with thousands of Freedom of Information Act requests over the past year, requesting a wide range of information on government employees, including communications that could be seen as a political liability by conservatives. Among the documents they’ve sought are lists of agency personnel and messages sent by individual government workers that mention, among other things, "climate equity," "voting," or "SOGIE," an acronym for sexual orientation, gender identity and expression.

Read on and PP tells readers that what these Heritage investigators are up to is probing for evidence of federal workers whose political views indicate they would oppose policies and programs favored by Trump if he is elected to a second four-year term.

No information for you...

Memes On

Let the memes begin:

Mendez determined that the law, also known as AB2839, gave legislators “unbridled license to bulldoze over the longstanding tradition of critique, parody, and satire protected by the First Amendment.” Mendez's ruling went on to say that while the state has a “valid interest in protecting the integrity and reliability” of elections, AB2839 went too far. He called it a “blunt tool that hinders humorous expression and unconstitutionally stifles the free and unfettered exchange of ideas.” The case came before Mendez's court thanks to California-based satirist Christopher Kohls, who filed the suit. He took to X almost immediately to declare, "VICTORY! Lawsuit against Newsom has been won." No less than Elon Musk replied, "Congratulations! Score one for the people’s right to free speech." This is just a preliminary injunction, however. The battle has been won but not the war.

Comedy isn't always easy...

Fire Brigade

Firefighters aren't with her:

“Today, the IAFF Executive Board, by a margin of 1.2 percent, voted to not endorse a candidate in the 2024 presidential election,” he announced, noting that IAFF took “unprecedented steps to hear out members’ views on the candidates and the policy issues that matter most to them” over the last year. “As we have over our 106-year history, the IAFF will continue its work to improve the lives of firefighters and their families,” Kelly continued, contending that the Executive Board determined that “we are better able to advocate for our members and make progress on the issues that matter to them if we, as a union, are standing shoulder-to-shoulder.” “This decision, which we took very seriously, is the best way to preserve and strengthen our unity,” he continued, encouraging members to get out and “make their voices heard in the upcoming election.”

Another union for none of the above...

Teacher's Payday

Pronouns lose:

In 2018, Peter Vlamingiled a lawsuit against the district after he was fired. The lawsuit argued that Vlaming’s termination violated his religious beliefs. “I was wrongfully fired from my teaching job because my religious beliefs put me on a collision course with school administrators who mandated that teachers ascribe to only one perspective on gender identity—their preferred view,” Vlaming said in a statement. “I loved teaching French and gracefully tried to accommodate every student in my class, but I couldn’t say something that directly violated my conscience.” Vlaming was teaching for ten years before being fired.

He's still the teacher...

Blue Fight

Joy Reid says the quiet part out loud:

Netflix Drop

Netflix discovers the downside of going blue:

According to a report from Bloomberg, the rate of cancellations nearly tripled in the United States after Hastings announced his endorsement in the 2024 presidential race (via Bloomberg): Customers in the US canceled Netflix at a higher rate in July — 2.8% — than any month since February. That is largely due to the company’s decision to phase out its basic tier. Basic was the cheapest advertising-free version of Netflix. But the five-day period after Hastings’ endorsement was unusual, even for July. Hastings made his endorsement clear on X (formerly Twitter), where he congratulated Harris and said, “now it is time to win.” Hastings, a longtime Democratic donor, told The Information that he donated $7 million to a pro-Kamala Harris super PAC. “Three days later after the donation became public, July 26, was the single worst day for Netflix cancellations this year,” Bloomberg noted. Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk wrote on X, “Donations by Netflix employees could not be more lopsided in favor of the Democratic Party.”