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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GOP campaign financing: Part 5

Photo credit: Politico.com

GOP campaign financing: Part 5 ~ Ted Cruz

Senator Ted Cruz is running as an outsider presidential candidate, and he appeals to conservatives. He missed the SOTU speech last night because he was in New Hampshire campaigning. He referred to the SOTU as the State of Denial Address, a view probably shared by most Tea Party Patriots. A number of Ohio conservative activists already support or have endorsed his candidacy. Where do Cruz's campaign funds come from?

The Federal Election Committee report (click on the candidate’s name on the linked page) shows that almost all of the $26 million that he has raised comes from individuals. But is that the end of the story?

The FEC page for Jeb! Bush shows that the lion’s share of his $24 million comes from individuals. Yet we already know that Jeb! has received over $100 million from funds contributed toSuperPACS. Those funds aren't showing up on the FEC page for Jeb!

So are any SuperPACs funding Cruz’s campaign? Yes. Club for Growth, as reported by CNN: 

Cruz is a natural fit for the group, which is unafraid to battle in Republican primaries. One of the main donors to the Club for Growth's super PAC, New York hedge funder Bob Mercer, gave $11 million to start his own super PAC backing Cruz, Keep the Promise I.    

Sundance at Conservative Treehousealso reported on the relationship between Mercer, the SuperPAC, and Breitbart Media Group: 

The Breitbart Media Group is financially backed and funded by Hedge-fund billionaire Robert Mercer. Mercer was/is the originating financial backer for the Ted Cruz “Keep the Promise” (KtP 1, KtP2 and KtP3) Super-PACs.  Mercer is also the financial backing behind Cambridge Analytica.

Cambridge Analytica is the receiver of the contact information provided to Breitbart when you participate in their on-line Presidential Poll.

In essence, when you participate [in] the Breitbart poll, you are sending your personal information into a data-base controlled by the proprietary interests of Robert Mercer, Cambridge Analytica. The Ted Cruz campaign then uses the data collected to fund-raise on behalf of the Campaign.

There are more links in that report; just scroll down. Breitbart is an excellent resource for news, opinion, and analysis. But like most media, including alternative media, it can be influenced by major financial backers.

For background on Chris Christie’s fund-raising, posted earlier on this blogsite, go here.

For background on Dr. Ben Carson’s fund-raising, posted earlier on this blogsite, go here.

For background on Jeb Bush’s fund-raising, posted earlier on this blogsite, go here.

For background on Marco Rubio’s fund-raising, posted earlier on this blogsite, go here.

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