If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. A research paper, authored by Microsoft, OpenAI, and a host of influential universities, proposes developing “personhood credentials” (PHCs). It’s notable for the fact that the same companies that are developing and selling potentially “deceptive” AI models are now coming up with a fairly drastic “solution,” a form of digital ID. The goal would be to prevent deception by identifying people creating content on the internet as “real” – as opposed to that generated by AI. And, the paper freely admits that privacy is not included. Related: The 2024 Digital ID and Online Age Verification Agenda Instead, there’s talk of “cryptographic authentication” that is also described as “pseudonymous” as PHCs are not supposed to publicly identify a person – unless, that is, the demand comes from law enforcement. “Although PHCs prevent linking the credential across services, users should understand that their other online activities can still be tracked and potentially de-anonymized through existing methods,” said the paper’s authors. Here we arrive at what could be the gist of the story – come up with workable digital ID available to the government, while on the surface preserving anonymity. And wrap it all in a package supposedly righting the very wrongs Microsoft and co. are creating through their lucrative “AI” products. The paper treats online anonymity as the key “weapon” used by bad actors engaging in deceptive behavior. Microsoft product manager Shrey Jain suggested during an interview that while this was in the past acceptable for the sake of privacy and access to information – times have changed. The reason is AI – or rather, AI panic, thriving these days well before the world ever gets to experience and deal with, true AI (AGI). But it’s good enough for the likes of Microsoft, OpenAI, and over 30 others (including Harvard, Oxford, MIT…) to suggest PHCs. People are treated as not really different from websites in this scenario, where PHCs are likened to certificate authorities. But it remains unclear (although governments are mentioned as a possible “roots of trust”) which authority should “authenticate” and assign identifiers to humans, as proof that they are human. Since the paper doesn’t really represent a concrete blueprint on how to develop and implement PHCs, it could also be seen as a way for the industry to continue raking in revenues from “AI,” while pacifying restless governments, reassuring them that “something is being done.” If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Big Tech’s Latest “Fix” for AI Panic Is To Push a Digital ID Agenda appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. A number of US House Republicans earlier this week asked the Biden-Harris administration to get behind legislation that would put an end to the current exploitation of surveillance carried out by data brokers – that happens to be warrantless. The letter signed by nine members of Congress came after news of a security breach that reportedly ended up with personal data from 2.7 billion people getting exposed in a hacking operation. We obtained a copy of the letter for you here. Clearly, that’s a number greater than the total number of US citizens, so what’s going on here? Related: Privacy-invasive Data Brokers Are Funded by the Federal Government It’s because of data brokers, the signatories of the letter suggest – the “super-state actors,” as some might describe them. The group said to be behind the breach, “USDoD”, is supposed to have released records such as names, home addresses, date of birth, and social security numbers, where this applies – of nearly 3 billion people in the world – simply because this data was centralized and available to one entity – National Public Data, “a major data broker.” In the US, such breaches in the end amount to warrantless searches – i.e., violations of the Fourth Amendment. The letter from House Republicans seeks to shed light on the shadowy industry of data brokers, how they may or may not be funded by taxpayer money – and what to do about it. Related: Ad Tracking Data Is Fueling The Intelligence Community There was a legislative effort last spring in the House – the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act – which the Biden-Harris administration chose not to support at the time. Now, those behind the letter would like to bring the bill back, in light of the latest incident. Meanwhile, the very practice of government (law enforcement, and spy agencies), going to data brokers to satiate their need for personal data (of Americans) is suspected to be a workaround for the Fourth Amendment. Regarding the alleged massive and global “USDoD” group hack, the House Republicans are worried that “this data could enable malicious actors to build a sophisticated dossier on every American that can cross-reference and validate other sensitive personal data obtained from the largely unregulated data broker industry.” The letter also makes a point of the alleged hack happening way back in April – “which means the hackers had four months to mine, sell, and otherwise exploit the data in the shadows before the American public was broadly alerted to the theft. This is unacceptable.” If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Surveillance for Sale? House Republicans Challenge Biden on Data Broker Exploitation appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post California’s Pro-Censorship AI Bill Explained appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

Powerless In California

'He's Not Getting the Message': Justin Trudeau Is Turning Into Canada's Joe Biden

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is not shying away from the truth. As the legacy media try to rehabilitate Vice President Kamala Harris' far-left record, Sanders told NBC News on Sunday that any distance Harris tries to create between her policy proposals and her actual political views is nothing more than a ruse. 'I think she’s trying to be pragmatic and doing what she thinks is right in order to win the election.' "You have described Vice President Kamala Harris as a progressive. She has previously supported Medicare for all. Now, she does not. She's previously supported a ban on fracking. Now, she does not. These, Senator, are ideas that you have campaigned on. Do you think that she is abandoning her progressive ideals?" moderator Kristen Welker asked Sanders. "No, I don't think she's abandoning her ideals," Sanders revealed. In fact, Sanders believes that Harris is publicly downplaying her actual views to win the election, all in the name of pragmatics. "I think she’s trying to be pragmatic and doing what she thinks is right in order to win the election," he said. When Welker followed up, asking Sanders if he believes that Harris remains a progressive despite policy flip-flops that happened only after she became the Democratic Party's presidential nominee, Sanders confirmed that he doesn't believe Harris has actually changed. "Do you still consider Vice President Kamala Harris to be progressive, Senator?" Welker queried. "I do," he said. The problem with Harris' "pragmatic" shift to the center is that her record speaks for itself. Not only is Harris a San Francisco liberal, but her four-year tenure in the U.S. Senate earned her the distinction of being more liberal than Sanders, a self-described "democratic socialist." Americans, moreover, don't need Sanders to remind them that Harris has not changed. She herself admitted in an interview last month that her "values have not changed." "I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed," she told CNN. After nearly two months in the race, Harris' campaign finally has released a comprehensive set of policy proposals on her campaign website. Harris is running on a "New Way Forward" agenda, never mind the fact that she has been vice president for almost four years and Democrats have controlled the White House for 12 of the last 16 years. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Not surprisingly, the shooter behind the Apalachee High School shooting was on the FBI’s radar. A day after Colt Gray was charged with murder, the father of the 14-year-old shooter was charged with four counts of manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder, and eight counts of cruelty to children. “My first thought was crimes that the son commits, you don’t hold the father for. Crimes of the father, you don’t hold on the son. That was my first reaction, like what are we doing?” Glenn Beck asks. The charges came after it was revealed that the father purchased an AR-15 style rifle to give to his son as a Christmas gift last year. “I got my first gun from my grandfather when I was like, 12,” Glenn comments in disbelief, adding, “Now I’m thinking to myself, this is another way to get guns.” However, the case is more complicated than meets the eye, as authorities reportedly visited the pair before the father gifted his son the gun after receiving tips about online school shooting threats. “This is the information that the FBI had months before the shooting,” Glenn says, noting that the mother has a lengthy rap sheet, including abuse of her children. The shooter’s aunt, Annie Brown, also told the Washington Post that her nephew was struggling with mental health issues and had been “begging for help from everyone around him.” “So I want to ask. Why do we have an FBI? Why do we have one? You know they’re spying on us illegally for our own safety, but I don’t think it is for our safety, you know, cause they’re not protecting us,” he says, explaining that many of the shooters who carried out mass shootings were also already on the FBI’s radar. “FBI missed signals in four mass shootings. What the hell are they doing?” Glenn asks. Want more from Glenn Beck?To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

An illegal alien residing in Alabama assumed the identity of an American citizen and used that false identity to cast votes in "multiple" U.S. elections, the Department of Justice has alleged.On Thursday, the DOJ announced that Angelica Maria Francisco, a 42-year-old native of Guatemala, has been assessed nine charges involving false claims of citizenship in connection with voting, false statements in application for a United States passport, use of a United States passport obtained by false statements, and aggravated identity theft, according to the DOJ press release.Authorities believe that sometime around 2011, Francisco assumed the identity of an American citizen and used that false identity to obtain an American passport. She then allegedly used that passport to travel back and forth to Guatemala in 2012, 2015, and 2018 before renewing the passport and visiting Guatemala again in 2022.Francisco also allegedly used the false identity to register to vote in Alabama in 2016 and to vote in the 2016 and 2020 primary and general elections, the DOJ claimed.To reduce the number of noncitizens voting to as close to zero as possible ... Republicans in Congress have attempted to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility — or SAVE — Act, which would restrict voting in federal elections to US citizens only.Francisco most recently resided in Russellville, Alabama, a city of nearly 11,000 people about 75 miles west of Huntsville. When and where she entered the U.S. is unclear, though the DOJ described her as "undocumented."The DOJ also stated that a plea agreement has been filed in her case, indicating that Francisco "has agreed to plead guilty to all of the charges." A U.S. District Court will schedule a hearing for her case.The DOJ announcement undermines recent narratives from Democrats and members of the mainstream media that noncitizens voting in U.S. elections is too "rare" to have significant impact on election results. To reduce the number of noncitizens voting to as close to zero as possible and thereby shore up confidence in American elections, Republicans in Congress have attempted to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility — or SAVE — Act, which would restrict voting in federal elections to U.S. citizens only. The bill passed the House in July, after 216 Republicans and five Democrats voted in favor of it, and it now moves on for consideration in the Senate, currently under Democrat control. To increase the chances that it will become law, congressional Republicans have pushed to tie the SAVE Act to a continuing budget resolution."If Senate leadership truly believes our democracy is sacred, and that the SAVE Act is redundant because it's already illegal for undocumented immigrants to cast a ballot in federal elections, then passing a CR with the SAVE Act included shouldn't be an issue. If it is a problem for Democrats, they should explain to the American people what the hang-up is," wrote Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) in a recent Newsweek op-ed.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

A mother is accused of fighting students in a gymnasium prior to the start of the school day in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, late last month.The incident took place around 7 a.m. Aug. 22 at IDEA Bridge, WAFB-TV reported, while students were waiting for classes to start after their morning bus ride to campus.'I feel like when my child goes to school that her life is in their hands. So this makes me very, very, very worried to know that no one was there all that time that this was going on.'Jah’n’que Brown, a junior at the school, told the station she was defending herself from another student, that student's sister — and that student's mother.“She’s threatening her and saying, ‘Oh, let’s go outside and fight, come on, we’re gonna fight,’ stuff like that," Jah’n’que recalled to WAFB, adding that soon after "everything just starts popping off. And I get hit."Baton Rouge police responded to the incident, but the department has not yet completed its investigation, the station said, adding that charges are pending. Corp. Saundra Watts confirmed to WAFB that a mother was let into the school through a door near the gymnasium and that she participated in the altercation.Jah’n’que’s mother, Yakisha Brown, told the station she's worried about her children’s safety at school and isn't happy: “There was a whole lot of lives involved in that, and I feel it’s unjust, it’s just not right."WAFB said it reached out to IDEA Public Schools and asked what security measures are in place and whether any security guards or staff members are responsible in such cases. The station said Director of Communications Rebecca Suarez responded with this statement: “IDEA Bridge is aware of an incident that took place at our campus. We received reports that a physical altercation involving a parent took place. Appropriate staff were on site to respond to the incident. Duty personnel and administrators were able to diffuse [sic] the situation and remove the parent from the campus. All students and staff are safe. The campus partnered with local law enforcement in the investigation.”Jah’n’que added to WAFB that no one in authority was present at the time the fighting began: “Nobody was in there. No teachers, no administration. We’re in the gym at the time, and they’re supposed to be in the gym. They’re supposed to be watching us, everyone. They’re supposed to be coming in the gym, and they’re supposed to be there before we even get in there. We were there for, like, a good five minutes. I’m not even gonna lie, like, students were trying to stop it, yeah, but ... no administration or anything like that was there.”The station added that the IDEA Public Schools website indicates says all campuses are closed, meaning visitors can enter only through main doors. WAFB also said it asked if the mother or the students are facing consequences, but the station said it has not yet received a response.Brown noted to the station that she's hoping for drastic changes in IDEA Bridge's security and safety protocol: “I feel like when my child goes to school that her life is in their hands. So this makes me very, very, very worried to know that no one was there all that time that this was going on." - YouTube youtu.be Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

It’s not because she’s been hamstrung with overly cautious ex-Biden staffers; it’s because she is flatly incapable of effective extemporaneous speaking.