Steve Wozniak’s advice for Facebook users

image credit: wsj.com

David Solway at American Thinker asks the question:

Should First Amendment rights be extended to Big Tech corporations to publish and censor as they please?  This is a question that has agitated the discussion on whether antitrust legislation should be applied to infogiants such as Google, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Amazon, Pinterest and many others that have cornered the market on a public resource, information, and an essential human activity, the consumption of information. A solution to the problem of data sequestration and restricted access practiced by these companies is to rebadge them either as publishers or, alternatively, as public utilities.

Meanwhile, TMZ via Fox News reports:

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has some advice for most Facebook users: Delete your account.

The millionaire, who co-founded Apple with Steve Jobs, recently said that a lack of privacy is his main concern regarding the Menlo Park, Calif. company and Big Tech in general.

“There are many different kinds of people, and some [of] the benefits of Facebook are worth the loss of privacy,” Wozniak told TMZ, which spoke with the tech mogul at Reagan National Airport in D.C. “But to many like myself, my recommendation is – to most people – you should figure out a way to get off Facebook.”

Wozniak deleted his Facebook account back in March 2018, shortly after news broke about the Cambridge Analytica data scandal, which revealed that the private data of millions of Facebook users was being harnessed by the firm that worked for Donald Trump's presidential campaign. The United Kingdom's top data watchdog group concluded that Cambridge Analytica's use of Facebook's data was illegal under British law.

Full report is here. Some related info from Business Insider:

Deactivating your Facebook account does not delete your information from Facebook's servers. It's hidden from other users, unavailable to the public, but it continues to live on in Facebook's vast digital-storage vaults. If you're ever interested in revisiting the photos you posted to Facebook way back when, or getting back in touch with that long-lost friend, you may want to deactivate your Facebook page instead of outright deleting it.

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Free Men or Free Things

Image credit: farmboxford.com

Daniel Greenfield publishes at FrontPage and at his own website, Sultan Knish. His article “A Nation of Free Men or Free Things” ponders the meaning of Independence Day, and he starts off:

The 2020 Democrat primaries are underway with candidate after candidate promising a nation, not of free people, but of free things.

Free college, free health care and free everything else. Even for illegal aliens.

Of course there's a price to pay.

You get free health care by giving up the freedom to pick your own health care. You get free education, but the indoctrination is the price.

The Fourth to many is Fireworks Day. Every country has its fireworks days and this is the day that this one chooses to light up the night sky. The day means nothing to them because though they are surrounded by free things, they aren’t free. 

The difference between freedom and free things has been progressively erased so that many think that the American Revolution was fought because the British weren’t providing affordable health coverage to the colonies. If only they knew about the NHS, they would vote to go back.

All that the Crown really wanted was for the colonists to pay their “fair share”, a share that was determined thousands of miles away. All that the colonists wanted was the rights of Englishmen that they believed they were entitled to. After a great deal of bloodshed, the colonists won the right to be Americans instead—an odd series of consonants and vowels having to do with an Italian explorer but meaning free and limited government.

There is a big difference between a free country and a country of free things. You can have one or the other, but you can’t have both.  . . .

Mr. Greenfield’s full article is here. Recommended.

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Fake News misreports Salute to America

The headline: FAKE NEWS Caught AGAIN As They Attempt To Spin Yesterday’s D.C. Celebration As “Small”. DCWhispers reports -- and has photographic proof of Fake News (read: outright lies):

Despite a bit of damp and humid weather, tens of thousands cheered the President Trump-led Fourth of July celebration in Washington D.C. yesterday. It was a patriotic event enjoyed by young and old alike but clearly out of favor with the Trump-hating/America-hating, far-left media which is now once again spreading their own altered version of reality:

Many networks refused to cover the live event. Clearly, that makes lying about it to the American people even easier.

More here. Related: As Trump Salutes Air Force Flyover, CNN Cuts to Commercial.

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Salute to America : networks boycott

image credit: talkingpointsmemo.com

Sundance at Conservative Treehouse has posted the Livestream links to today's Salute to America parade and festivities in DC -- and guess what? No mainstream television coverage. And I just checked C-SPAN, which lists coverage of President Trump's speech at 6pm, re-broadcast at 9pm, but not showing all the other events. So, here's Sundance:

ABC, CBS, NBC and MSNBC have all announced their refusal -and broadcast boycott- of any July 4th celebrations.  Yes, the U.S. media have fallen so far, they are now openly proclaiming their alignment with the anti-American political resistance. 

However, RSBN [already broadcasting as of 2pm], Fox10 Phoenix and OANN will all broadcast the patriotic events from Washington DC to celebrate Independence Day, including President Trump’s participation in the 2019 Salute to America.  Schedule of Events Here  – for Livestream Links click here and scroll down to one of the livestream screens.

Happy Independence Day!

Salute To America

photo credit: breitbart.com

Leslie Eastman at Legal Insurrection reports on tomorrow's "Salute To America":

President Donald Trump is certainly shaking things up in Washington, DC, on all levels, including its annual Independence Day celebration.

Before Trump, the festivities consisted mainly of music and fireworks. After Trump, the “Salute to America” will include tanks, fighter jets…and an extravaganza of fireworks.

“Big 4th of July in D.C. ‘Salute to America.’ The Pentagon & our great Military Leaders are thrilled to be doing this & showing to the American people, among other things, the strongest and most advanced Military anywhere in the World. Incredible Flyovers & biggest ever Fireworks!” the president tweeted Tuesday morning.

Mr. Trump confirmed to reporters Monday there will be tanks “stationed outside,” too.

“You’ve got to be pretty careful with the tanks because the roads have a tendency not to like to carry heavy tanks,” he told reporters Monday.

. . .

The event will also feature marching bands, fife and drum corps, floats, military units, giant balloons, and equestrian drill teams. The Blue Angels will be doing the flyover, and the fireworks (donated by Phantom Fireworks” and “Fireworks by Grucci”) will be one of the most spectacular sets the nation’s capital has seen.

Full report is here. The Independence Day parade and celebrations in DC will be broadcast on C-Span, and I will update with live stream links as soon as they are available. (The Hill reports that “MSNBC will not air the entirety of President Trump's planned "Salute to America" on July Fourth, instead opting to carry on with regularly scheduled news programming that may include clips of the event.”)

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Big Tech: alternatives to Google

image credit: https://www.naijaloaded.com.ng

Techspot (h/t Instapundit) has a “Complete List of Alternatives to all Google products.” Here’s the principal search engine section

With growing concerns over online privacy and securing personal data, more people than ever are considering alternatives to Google products. After all, Google’s business model essentially revolves around data collection and advertisements, both of which infringe on your privacy. More data means better (targeted) ads and more revenue. The company pulled in over $116 billion in ad revenue last year alone – and that number continues to grow.

But the word is getting out. A growing number of people are seeking alternatives to Google products that respect their privacy and data. This guide aims to be the most exhaustive resource available for documenting alternatives to Google product. So let’s get started (in no particular order or preference)...

Google search alternatives

When it comes to privacy, using Google search is not a good idea. When you use their search engine, Google is recording your IP address, search terms, user agent, and often a unique identifier, which is stored in cookies.

Here are ten alternatives to Google search:

StartPage – StartPage gives you Google search results, but without the tracking (based in the Netherlands).

Searx – A privacy-friendly and versatile metasearch engine that’s also open source.

MetaGer – An open source metasearch engine with good features, based in Germany.

SwissCows – A zero-tracking private search engine based in Switzerland, hosted on secure Swiss infrastructure.

Qwant – A private search engine based in France.

DuckDuckGo – A private search engine based in the US.

Mojeek – The only true search engine (rather than metasearch engine) that has its own crawler and index (based in the UK).

YaCy – A decentralized, open source, peer-to-peer search engine.

Givero – Based in Denmark, Givero offers more privacy than Google and combines search with charitable donations.

Ecosia – Ecosia is based in Germany and donates a part of revenues to planting trees.

Note: With the exception of Mojeek, all of the private search engines above are technically metasearch engines, since they source their results from other search engines, such as Bing and Google.

Our household is trying out Mojeek; we’ve already started using StartPage and occasionally DuckDuckGo with good results. Techspot’s entire list of alternatives is here.

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Independence Day: on strike against Big Tech

image credit; economist.com

Larry Sanger, co-founder of Wikipedia, was on Tucker Carlson this evening to propose something all Big Tech users can do to start to chip away at the out-of-control companies.

On July 4 and 5, Sanger's designated days to make your statement, you can refrain from using your Facebook or Twitter or What’s App, etc. EXCEPT to share your displeasure with Big Tech on your social media.

You can also sign the Declaration of Digital Independence here (I had to try several times to access; traffic was heavy, so just wait a few minutes and try again). Since President Trump indicated to Tucker that his administration may be looking at potential action to rein in Big Tech, perhaps a strong showing on this Declaration will give President Trump additional leverage.

I’ll have more on this topic later this week.

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