– MOBILE PROBLEMS AND CONSUMER INVESTIGATIONS –
Take Responsibility For Your Actions T-Mobile, Or The Public Will Take Your Company Away
T-MOBILE USERS: YOU ARE GOING TO RECEIVE A NUMBER OF BENEFITS FROM THE WINNING OF LAWSUITS AGAINST T-MOBILE. PLEASE USE YOUR WINNINGS AND RESOURCES TO KEEP THE INVESTIGATIONS AND GOVERNMENT ACTIONS, AGAINST T-MOBILE, GOING FAST AND HARD. POST ON YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA ABOUT T-MOBILE’S ILLICIT ACTIONS. TAKE T-MOBILE TO COURT IN SMALL CLAIMS ACTIONS. FILE CASES AT WWW.FAIRSHAKE.COM AND KEEP T-MOBILE FROM SLIPPING DEEPER INTO POLITICAL CORRUPTION!
One of the worst issues with T-Mobile: T-Mobile was created in Germany as the Bundespost, by the Nazi’s, in order to hunt down and kill Jews. Today, T-Mobile uses it’s old Jew-hunting spy network to hunt down and attack citizens, politicians and reporters who report on the dirty deeds of T-Mobile and T-Mobile’s political partners! Kanye West is promoted by T-Mobile on social media sites, in PR and in T-Mobile stadiums. Kanye West promotes the Nazi theory that “Jews are brainwashed, from birth, to tribally hate all outsiders; that the Mossad exists to attack non-Jews; that Jews control all banks, elections, Hollywood and Silicon Valley media; and that the Mossad have hacked every cell phone.”
Kanye West | T-Mobile Center
21-time GRAMMY Award®-winner (and 52-time GRAMMY® nominee) Kanye West returns to T–Mobile Center on Dec. 3 for THE YEEZUS TOUR in support of …
Jay-Z & Kanye West: Watch The Throne | T-Mobile Center
JAY-Z and KANYE WEST confirm a stop at T–Mobile Center in Kansas City, Mo. on Nov 29 as part of the 2011 North American WATCH THE THRONE TOUR.
Kanye West floats above an energetic crowd at T-Mobile Arena
Kanye West’s narcissism was on full display Saturday night at T–Mobile Arena, a tour stop that found the Chi-Town rapper performing on a moving, …
Kanye West Coming To T-Mobile Arena Saturday, October 29
LAS VEGAS – Hip-hop icon Kanye West brings The Saint Pablo Tour to T–Mobile Arena Saturday, Oct. 29. Tickets starting at $29.50 (not …
Questions T-Mobile must answer in world courts: A.) Have you ever been compensated by a spy agency?, B.) Have you ever supported a political candidate?, C.) Have you ever received a government contract because you took a political bribe?, D.) Do you have a database that can track your enemies?, E.) Do you have a database that can track and harm any politician’s enemies?, … and many more…
All of the Twitter, Google, Facebook and other social media internal emails and communications are being leaked and data-dumped, proving that insiders conspired to use the public’s communications systems for propaganda, spying on consumers and the targeting of attacks on competitors and whistle-blowers so that companies like T-Mobile could put undesirable citizens in their digital ovens!
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Issues Of Concern Under Investigation By Many Parties:
Hacking
User Privacy
The Scam Between T-Mobile And Elon Musk/Space-X
Insider Trading Bribes
Profiteering And Pushing Twitter, Google & Facebook Scams
Teen Suicides
Public Shootings Incitement By Linking Facebook, Instagram, Google Shooter PR
Tracking Of Women Seeking Abortions
Patent and Trade Secret Infringement
Tracking Of Assurance Phone-Using Poor People
Harassment Of Consumers Filing Complaints Against T-Mobile
Black-Listing Of Customers And Service Cut-Offs
RICO Law Violations
Stock Market Payola To Public Officials
Profits-Over-Privacy-Safety
Anti-Trust Law Violations
Using, Or Supporting Fusion GPS – Black Cube -Types Of Reprisal Attacks
T-MOBILE WAS CREATED BY THE NAZIS
It is a historical fact, easily verified in public history records, that T-Mobile was operated, administered and used by the Nazi’s to hunt and spy on Jews and database their communications in order to haul them off to death camps. One of T-Mobile’s CEO’s (John Legere) https://crosscut.com/2019/01/t-mobiles-tryst-trump-embarrasses-seattle was deeply involved in a political scandal for quid pro quo over the Assurance phone contract with the Republican party members who shared a love for Hitler’s beliefs. T-Mobile still uses a global citizen spying, monitoring and blacklisting system, similar to that used in Nazi and Stazi times. Reporters, whistle-blowers, activist citizens, low-income Assurance Phone (free “Obama Phone”) are monitored and have their services cut-off, throttled or otherwise harmed in reprisal/revenge/vendetta if they report anything that T-Mobile is shamed by. Such users are shipped off to T-Mobile’s digital ovens in reprisal blacklisting. The class action case: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_Litigation proved that such big tech companies actually have created blacklisting and boycotting systems to harm mass volumes of citizens. Single Mom’s, low-income teachers, disabled people and seniors using T-Mobile’s Assurance phones are spied on!
Read Are You Being Served? Online – Scribd
Aug 12, 2020 … T–Mobile spent $195,000 at the hotel as their deal was reviewed by federal regulators. Legere was seen chatting with former Trump campaign …
DID T-MOBILE KILL ANOTHER KID?
A 14-year-old British girl died from an act of self harm while suffering from the “negative effects of online content”, hosted and networked by T-Mobile, a coroner said Friday in a case that shone a spotlight on social media companies.
Molly Russell was “exposed to material that may have influenced her in a negative way and, in addition, what had started as a depression had become a more serious depressive illness,” Andrew Walker ruled at North London Coroner’s Court.
The teenager “died from an act of self-harm while suffering depression”, he said, but added it would not be “safe” to conclude it was suicide.
Some of the content she viewed was “particularly graphic” and “normalised her condition,” said Walker.
Russell, from Harrow in northwest London, died in November 2017, leading her family to set up a campaign highlighting the dangers of social media.
“There are too many others similarly affected right now,” her father Ian Russell said after the ruling.
“At this point, I just want to say however dark it seems, there is always hope.
“I hope that this will be an important step in bringing about much needed change,” he added.
The week-long hearing became heated when the family’s lawyer, Oliver Sanders, took an Instagram executive to task.
A visibly angry Sanders asked Elizabeth Lagone, the head of health and wellbeing at Meta, Instagram’s parent company, why the platform allowed children to use it when it was “allowing people to put potentially harmful content on it”.
“You are not a parent, you are just a business in America. You have no right to do that. The children who are opening these accounts don’t have the capacity to consent to this,” he said.
Lagone apologised after being shown footage, viewed by Russell, that “violated our policies”.
Of the 16,300 posts Russell saved, shared or liked on Instagram in the six-month period before her death, 2,100 related to depression, self-harm or suicide, the inquest heard.
Children’s charity NSPCC said the ruling “must be a turning point”.
“Tech companies must be held accountable when they don’t make children’s safety a priority,” tweeted the charity.
“This must be a turning point,” it added, stressing that any delay to a government bill dealing with online safety “would be inconceivable to parents”.
T-MOBILE IN MORE TROUBLE FOR BEING A POLITICAL MANIPULATION OPERATION:
GERMAN PHONE COMPANY: T-MOBILE, FOUNDED BY NAZI’S, REFUSES TO COME OUT AGAINST KANYE WEST ANTI-JEW MOVEMENT AS KANYE WEST HAS MADE MILLIONS PERFORMING AT T-MOBILE STADIUMS AND PUSHING CONTENT OVER T-MOBILE HOSTED SOCIAL MEDIA
JD POWER MASSIVE STUDY FINDS T-MOBILE TO HAVE THE WORST SERVICE IN AMERICA
JD Power conducted the study from January to June 2022 and ranks each mobile carrier based on the number of problems per 100 connections. The results consistently show Verizon as the carrier with the least number of issues, with AT&T only beating Verizon in the Southwest and tying with the company in the Northeast. Meanwhile, T-Mobile trailed behind the two carriers across every region in the US.
Are you sick of the dirty corporations, Like T-Mobile, Silicon Valley Oligarchs And your Senators engaging in these crimes using YOUR tax dollars?:
– Trillions Of Dollars Of Influence Peddling Between Famous Politicians And Secret Corporate And Family Accounts…
– Money Laundering…
– Sex Trafficking, Hookers And ‘Executive Sex Clubs’…
– Family Alcoholism…
– Political Bribery Using PACS and Dark Money Cash Relays…
– Stock Market Manipulations For Their Own Insider Trading…
– Infidelities And Spousal Abuse As Shown In Their Court Records…
– Organized Media Censorship By Silicon Valley…
– Misogyny And Sex Extortion Of Workers…
– Forcing “ISSUES” On Us That They Covertly Own The Companies Of…
– Dynastic Family Manipulations of Public Policy…
– Election Rigging Using Google, Facebook, YouTube And Their Media Cartel…
– Search Engine Bias And Shadow Banning Of Competitors And Reporters…
– Big Tech Monopolies Information Manipulation…
– Recession Causing Market Anti-Trust Law Violations…
– Corporate Hiring Racism…
– Brotopia Frat Boy Rape Culture In Their Companies And Offices…
– Secret Offshore Shell Corporations To Hide Money…
– Venture Capital Funding Black-Lists…
– Patent Thefts And Attacks On Small Inventors…
– Political Payola Using Stealth Real Estate, Fine Art And Jewelry Holdings…
– Graft Via Bribes With Event Tickets, Dinners, Tax Waivers, Vacations, Pretend Speaking Contracts, etc….
– Corrupt Lobbyists Who Hire Fusion GPS, Gawker, Black Cube, Google And Other ‘media kill services’…
– Their Use of Our Democracy As Their Play-Thing…
All of these assertions have been proven in court records, federal investigations, Congressional charges, 60 Minutes segments, news documentaries, document and email leaks, and thousands of other sources. The facts are undeniable and can be proven, AGAIN, in live televised Congressional hearings!
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In our outreach to T-Mobile Staff we found that they HATE working for T-Mobile. So now,T-Mobile social media support workers are trying to form a union. You are WELCOME!
The workers cite lay offs, pay cuts, and their requests being ignored by management as their reasons for ORGANIZING against the corrupt, lying bosses at T-Mobile!
Workers on T-Mobile’s social media customer service team, who respond to customer questions, comments, and complaints on sites like Twitter and Facebook, are trying to start a union. On Wednesday, they announced the creation of the “T-Force Social Care Alliance,” posting a letter tying their decision to pay cuts, layoffs, and management’s lack of response to employees raising concerns about those issues.
The letter says that T-Mobile has cut monthly bonuses for T-Force (the carrier’s name for its social media support team), instead replacing them with “micro-raises” and an annual bonus, which the alliance claims there are very few details about. According to the letter, workers may end up with thousands of dollars less per year — assuming they even get to keep their jobs. It also references the waves of layoffs the company has been carrying out over the past two years, some of which affected T-Force workers.
“We believe T-Mobile’s senior leadership stopped prioritizing the best interest of its front-line employees,” said Tyler Roquemore, a member of the Alliance, in an email to The Verge. “The primary purpose of forming this union is to protect ourselves from further pay cuts and layoffs during unprecedented economic hardships; which may include collective bargaining contracts.”
TSCA isn’t currently negotiating with management, or formally filing for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board, says Roquemore. “While we would like T-Mobile management to recognize TSCA as a legitimate worker’s union, we are prepared for retaliation. We’re confident with the support we have internally and externally that we will succeed very soon.”
The organization does realize that it won’t be easy; as a report from More Perfect Union notes, the company hasn’t historically been friendly to workers trying to organize, even earning a reprimand from the federal government for its illegal workplace rules that told employees they couldn’t document unsafe working conditions or discuss wages and terms of employment. The T-Force workers are also decentralized, which might make it harder to recruit new supporters — though Roquemore tells me that members of the team are “digital media experts and are creatively utilizing multiple methods of technology to communicate and organize.”
Despite the wave of workplace unionizations at tech companies, customer service jobs, and even other carrier shops, the TSCA is heading into mostly uncharted waters. There are few, if any, other high-profile examples of social media customer support teams unionizing, and the process of organizing, voting for a union, and bargaining with management can be long and tedious — which makes the process especially tricky in industries with a high turnover rate, like customer support.
Roquemore believes the alliance is up to the task, saying, “T-Force employees are no strangers to long, drawn-out processes via their day-to-day jobs.” Even getting to the point of making Wednesday’s announcement took “months of hard work planning and organizing,” according to Roquemore, so there’s already a bit of a case study.
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Here’s How to Sue T-Mobile – Start a T-Mobile Lawsuit
Were T-Mobile customers overcharged hundreds of dollars? We’ll start your claim—free! Customers are fighting back and getting cash. Start your claim in less than 10 minutes! $2Mil+ won by our users.
https://www.tipranks.com/stocks/tmus/insider-trading
T Mobile US Stock Insider Trading Activity And Political Bribes – TipRanks
TMUS insider trading. Discover why corporate insiders sold or buy shares in the last 3 months. Track T Mobile US insider transactions.
Insiders at T-Mobile US, Inc. (NASDAQ:TMUS) sold US$7.3m worth …
The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At T–Mobile US … The insider, Matthew Staneff, made the biggest insider sale in the last 12 months.
After deriding rivals, T-Mobile set to raise little-known fee – The Desk
It is the third time in two years that T–Mobile has increased its support-related fee: In 2021, the company said it would hike the charge …
T-Mobile increases support charge fees by $5 – TmoNews
It looks like T–Mobile is increasing its Assisted Support Charge (ASC) and Upgrade Support Charge (USC). These charges are similar to …
T-Mobile Is Raising Their Support Fees Again – The T-Mo Report
T–Mobile charges an “activation fee” in the form of an “Assisted Support Charge” when you sign up for a new account …
FCC ASKED TO FINE T-MOBILE AGAIN FOR SPYING ON LOW INCOME USERS
The FCC has slapped T-Mobile US with a $200 million fine for fraudulently collecting millions of dollars in government subsidies designed to help low-income phone customers. Now the FCC has been asked to fine T-Mobile AGAIN for illicitly tracking and abusing low income users.
Ouch. It’s the largest ever fixed fine the FCC has ever imposed to settle an investigation, the regulator said. But, given the nature of the infraction, T-Mobile can have no complaints. The fine actually refers to activities carried out by subsidiary Sprint prior to being taken over, but T-Mobile knew about the ongoing investigation when it brokered the merger deal and was doubtless expecting a hefty financial penalty.
In the context of the $26 billion T-Mobile/Sprint transaction, $200 million isn’t a huge amount of money. But it’s hardly small change either.
The sanction stems from Sprint’s failure to comply – to put it mildly – with the rules governing the Lifeline programme, through which it provides affordable phone and broadband services for low-income customers. The scheme permits a telco to collect a state subsidy of $9.25 per month for most customers, but only if they are actually using the service; that is, if have used the service at least once in a 30-day period. That level of subsidy makes the service free for most users. Customers not using the service regularly should be deregistered.
Sprint claimed monthly subsidies for as many as 885,000 subscribers who were not using the service. The FCC did not spell out how much it illicitly collected, but even if it only claimed subsidies for those customers for a couple of months, you’re looking at tens of millions of dollars.
Hence the massive fine.
“Lifeline is key to our commitment to bringing digital opportunity to low-income Americans, and it is especially critical that we make the best use of taxpayer dollars for this vital program,” said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, in a statement. “I’m pleased that we were able to resolve this investigation in a manner that sends a strong message about the importance of complying with rules designed to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse in the Lifeline program.”
For its part, Sprint essentially blamed a software glitch.
In its ruling, the FCC explained that Sprint voluntarily disclosed the non-usage issue in August last year. In that disclosure it noted that “due to a software programming issue, Sprint’s systems failed to detect that over a million Lifeline subscribers nationwide lacked usage over an extended period of time,” leading to it potentially erroneously claiming subsidies.
REVEALED: A quarter of Federal Trade Commission officials own or trade stocks in the same tech giants they regulate, including Amazon, T-Mobile, Facebook-Meta, Tesla and Google
FTC officials reported more stock trades than any other agency, WSJ says – The agency is tasked with regulating business and reviewing antitrust concerns – But a quarter of top officials own stock in major tech companies, review finds – FTC and the officials say their trades followed the law and ethics guidelines
By Keith Griffith
Many top officials at the Federal Trade Commission also invest in some of the biggest companies that the agency regulates, according to a new report.
From 2016 to 2021, roughly a third of 90 senior officials FTC owned or traded stock in companies that were undergoing an FTC merger review or investigation.
Additionally, a quarter of the top officials were invested in big tech companies such as Amazon, Alphabet and Meta, even as the sector came under heavy regulatory scrutiny over potential antitrust concerns.
One former FTC chairman, Joseph Simons, owned shares of Microsoft, Oracle and AT&T even while agency investigated the tech and telco sectors, the report said.
The FTC and the officials named in the report said all of their stock trades followed the law, as well as ethics rules for federal employees, and they have not been accused of wrongdoing.
However, the report raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest at the agency, which is charged with protecting American consumers from monopolies, economic cartels, and shady business practices.
Former FTC chairman Joseph Simons owned shares of Microsoft, Oracle and AT&T even while agency investigated the tech and telco sectors
Kent Cooper, a former government official and expert on ethics issues, told the Journal that although the officials’ stock trades are in legal compliance, even the appearance of a conflict ‘hurts the reputation of the agency and the government in general.’
‘Are these decisions being made for the benefit of the public or the officials who have a personal benefit in the outcome?’ he said of the questions the disclosures raise.
The newspaper’s analysis was based on financial disclosure forms of about 12,000 senior career employees, political staff and presidential appointees at 50 agencies.
It found that FTC officials, on average, were more active in trading individuals stocks than any other large agency included in the analysis.
An FTC spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from DailyMail.com, but the agency told the Journal that it has a ‘robust ethics program’ and follows the rules set by Congress and the Office of Government Ethics.
Simons, the FTC chairman from 2018 until January 2021, disclosed more than 1,300 trades during his tenure, though less than a dozen were in individual companies, rather than funds.
Simons sold shares of AT&T, Charter Communications, and Oracle during his time as chair, but held on to a stake in Microsoft, which increased 140 percent in value over his tenure.
Randolph Tritell, who recently retired as head of the FTC’s Office of International Affairs, reported more stock trades than any other FTC official in the review
FTC Chairman Joe Simons (left) and FTC Associate Director of Enforcement Division James Kohm appear during a 2019 news conference to announce that Facebook has agreed to settle allegations it mishandled user privacy
Randolph Tritell, who recently retired as head of the FTC’s Office of International Affairs, reported more stock trades than any other FTC official in the review.
Since 2016, he reported more than three dozen trades in shares of Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft and Oracle.
In one case, Tritell saw an 80 percent gain in his Amazon shares over nine months, due to well-timed trades, as the European Commission investigated whether the company violated antitrust rules.
Tritell said that his financial advisor handles his stock trades, and that he rarely provides any input.
Abbott Lipsky was named acting director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition in February 2017 and later that year reported owning nearly 90 individual stocks, some of which were in a family trust.
In May 2017, Lipsky reported buying between $1,001 and $15,000 in JPMorgan Chase, adding to holdings in the company that he already owned, disclosures showed.
Just seven weeks later, on June 29, FTC antitrust regulators cleared an acquisition involving JPMorgan.
Federal ethics rules contain exemptions that allow the trading of individual stocks, and the FTC officials say that all of their trades followed guidelines.
Abbott Lipsky was named acting director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition in February 2017 and later that year reported owning nearly 90 individual stocks
An investment of up to $15,000 in an individual stock, or $50,000 an industry-specific mutual fund or ETF, isn’t deemed a conflict of interest under federal regulations.
The report comes as stock trading by members of Congress and their immediate family members comes under renewed scrutiny by ethics experts.
In July, some stock trades executed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, drew attention when he sold his shares of chipmaker Nvidia days before the House was expected to consider a massive stimulus bill to boost the US semiconductor industry.
Paul Pelosi sold 25,000 shares of Nvidia for about $4.1 million, suffering a loss of $341,365, according to financial reports.
Democrats have proposed legislation to regulate stock trades by members of Congress, but Republicans and even some Democrats say the measures do not go far enough to prevent conflicts of interest.
Democrats on the House Administration Committee released a framework for stock-trading legislation last month, but it is unlikely to be brought to a vote before the midterm elections next month.
WIRED MAGAZINE SAYS GERMAN T-MOBILE BUILT IT’S NETWORK TO HARM AND SPY ON CITIZENS JUST LIKE THE GERMAN NAZI’S SOUGHT TO DO
T-Mobile shared details about the data breach it confirmed Monday afternoon. They’re not great. Assorted data from more than 48 million people was compromised, and while that’s less than the 100 million that the hacker had initially advertised, the vast majority of those affected turn out not to be current T-Mobile customers at all.
Instead, T-Mobile says that of the people whose data was compromised, more than 40 million are former or prospective customers who had applied for credit with the carrier. Another 7.8 million are current “postpaid” customers, which just means T-Mobile customers who get billed at the end of each month. Those roughly 48 million users had their full names, dates of birth, social security numbers, and driver’s license information stolen. An additional 850,000 prepaid customers—who fund their accounts in advance—had their names, phone numbers, and PINs exposed. The investigation is ongoing, which means that the tally may not stop there.
There’s no good news here, but the slightly less bad news is that the vast majority of customers appear not to have had their phone numbers, account numbers, PINs, passwords, or financial information taken in the breach. The bigger question, though, is whether T-Mobile really needed to hold on to such sensitive information from 40 million people with whom it doesn’t currently do businesses. Or if the company was going to stockpile that data, why it didn’t take better precautions to protect it.
“Generally speaking, it’s still the Wild West in the United States when it comes to the types of information companies can keep about us,” says Amy Keller, a partner at the law firm DiCello Levitt Gutzler who led the class action lawsuit against Equifax after the credit bureau’s 2017 breach. “I’m surprised and I’m also not surprised. I guess you could say I’m frustrated.”
Privacy advocates have long promoted the concept of data minimization, a fairly self-explanatory practice that encourages companies to hold on to as little information as necessary. Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation codifies the practice, requiring that personal data be “adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which they are processed.” The US currently has no equivalent on the books. “Privacy laws in the United States that do touch upon data minimization generally don’t require it,” Keller says, “and instead recommend it as a best practice.”
Until and unless the US adopts an omnibus privacy law similar to the GDPR—or state-level legislation like the California Consumer Privacy Act starts taking a harder line—data minimization will remain a foreign concept. “In general, collecting and retaining sensitive data of prospective and former customers is not an act of consumer fraud under US law, and is routine,” says David Opderbeck, codirector of Seton Hall University’s Institute of Law, Science and Technology. As inappropriate as it may seem for T-Mobile to keep detailed records on millions of people who may never have been their customers, there’s nothing stopping it from doing so, for as long as it likes.
Now those former and prospective customers, along with millions of current T-Mobile subscribers, find themselves victims of a data breach they had no control over. “The first risk is identity theft,” says John LaCour, founder and CTO of digital risk protection company PhishLabs. “The information includes names, social security numbers, driver’s license IDs: all the information that would be required to apply for credit as someone.”
The hack would also potentially make it easier to pull off so-called SIM swap attacks, LaCour says, particularly against the prepaid customers who had their PINs and phone numbers exposed. In a SIM swap, a hacker ports your number to their own device, typically so that they can intercept SMS-based two-factor authentication codes, making it easier to break into your online accounts. T-Mobile did not respond to an inquiry from WIRED as to whether International Mobile Equipment Identity numbers were also implicated in the breach; each mobile device has a unique IMEI that would also be of value to SIM-swappers.
T-Mobile has implemented a few precautions on behalf of victims. It’s offering two years of identity protection services from McAfee’s ID Theft Protection Service, and it has already reset the PINs of the 850,000 prepaid customers who had theirs exposed. It’s recommending but not mandating that all current postpaid customers change their PINs as well, and it is offering a service called Account Takeover Protection to help stymie SIM-swap attacks. It also plans to publish a site for “one-stop information” Wednesday, although the company didn’t say if it would offer any kind of lookup to see if you’re affected by the breach.
Instead, T-Mobile says it will rely on proactive outreach to victims. The carrier didn’t respond to an inquiry from WIRED as to what if any specific plans it had for that communication, and what specific information they’ll be sharing with people whose data was compromised. Even sharing something as simple as a timetable would help, LaCour says, so that people could know they’re in the clear if they haven’t been a T-Mobile customer for a certain number of years.
In the meantime, if you’re a current T-Mobile customer you should go ahead and change your PIN and password; you can do so from your T-Mobile account online. You should take the free two years of ID monitoring, although it’s not yet clear how that will work in practice. You should start using app-based two-factor authentication wherever possible, rather than receiving those codes by text. For a more extreme but still prudent precaution, you can contact the three major credit bureaus and request a freeze on your credit report, which would stop anyone from accessing it or opening new accounts in your name.
Because the US lacks a comprehensive cybersecurity law, agencies like the Federal Communications Commission and Federal Trade Commission have limited ways to apply pressure, says Seton Hall’s Opderbeck, although the incident has already attracted FCC scrutiny. “Telecommunications companies have a duty to protect their customers’ information,” an agency spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “The FCC is aware of reports of a data breach affecting T-Mobile customers and we are investigating.”
If T-Mobile does face repercussions for the breach—its sixth in four years—it would more likely come from a class action lawsuit. Opderbeck says that his research has shown more than 30 data breach settlements in the last few years that resulted in a small cash payout and free credit monitoring as restitution. And Keller notes that even the class action route may be difficult to travel, because of a clause in T-Mobile contracts that can force customers into arbitration.
…. Keeping detailed records of more than 40 million former or prospective customers—including their social security numbers and driver’s license information—seems needlessly reckless. After all, nobody can steal what isn’t there in the first place…”
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T-Mobile’s Law Firm: Polsinelli, sure is one jacked-up mess
Law firm Littler in talks to resolve claims against rival Polsinelli
Littler’s lawsuit claims that Kansas City, Missouri-based Polsinelli “solicited, recruited, and hired former Littler employees knowing that it …
Ex-Polsinelli partner who sued for anti-gay bias will arbitrate claims
A Dallas-based bankruptcy partner at Fox Rothschild is withdrawing a federal bias lawsuit against his ex-firm Polsinelli and will instead …
Polsinelli Must Face Legal Malpractice Suit Over Old Crypto Club
Polsinelli PC failed to convince a federal judge in Florida on Wednesday to throw out a legal malpractice suit alleging the firm didn’t do …
https://www.law360.com/articles/1453672/polsinelli-hit-with-malpractice-suit-over-35m-crypto-theft
Polsinelli Hit With Malpractice Suit Over $35M Crypto Theft – Law360
In a lawsuit originally filed in Hillsborough County and removed to federal court on Friday, a liquidating agent for the Florida-based club, …
Suit claims Polsinelli agreed to flat-fee deal, then shifted work to a co …
A federal lawsuit claims that Polsinelli agreed to represent an online pharmacy and its CEO under a $14 million flat-fee arrangement, …
Discrimination Lawsuit Filed Against Polsinelli Law Firm — Brewer
The lawsuit claims Polsinelli violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and committed Fraudulent …
Ex-Novak Druce Associate Sues Polsinelli in Standoff Over Fees
Oct 2, A former associate of Novak Druce Connolly Bove & Quigg, which was partially absorbed by Polsinelli in 2016, has sued both firms and four …
Houston Lawyer’s Discrimination Suit Against Polsinelli Heads to …
Former Polsinelli staff state that T-Mobile works for and funds Donald Trump and T-Mobile hired Polsinelli because Polsinelli hates the gays, just like Trump. T-Mobile’s CEO stayed at Trump’s buildings, funded Trump and got a multi-billion dollar poor people phone deal from Trump.
Former top Polsinelli bankruptcy partner Trey A. Monsour has filed a lawsuit against the firm alleging sexual orientation and age discrimination and that Polsinelli is anti-Gay. Monsour, now a partner at Fox Rothschild, says the firm failed to provide him associate and administrative support, lowered his compensation, and even de-equitized his partnership before replacing him with a heterosexual woman. All of which is alleged to be a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, a violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and fraudulent inducement.
The complaint alleges that Polsinelli, in order to appeal to progressive clients and it combat its “Midwestern, ‘good old boys’ reputation,” touted its diversity but the lawsuit alleges that commitment is “farcical” and “mere pretense.”
As reported by ABA Journal, the lawsuit points to Polsinelli’s diversity numbers in support of the allegations:
As evidence, the suit says Polsinelli has low numbers for hiring and promoting minorities to leadership positions when compared to other top law firms in the United States.
According to the suit, Polsinelli reported in 2019 that at least 72% of its partners were white heterosexual men; 22% of its partners were white heterosexual women; less than of its partners 2% were members of the LGBTQ community; and, at most, 7% of its partners were among all other minority groups combined, including veterans.
The complaint alleges Monsour was unable to receive much in the way of administrative or associate support, and when he complained about it, the situation worsened. The lawsuit goes on to describe incidents which Monsour says illustrate the poor treatment he received:
In one instance, no one at the firm told Monsour about the departure of a lawyer working in a substantial capacity on one of his matters, according to the suit. Instead, Monsour learned about it from outside co-counsel on the morning of an important hearing. When Monsour expressed concerns, a department chair “condescendingly asked” in an email whether Monsour “was able to stay ‘calm,’” the suit says.
In another “strange episode” in fall 2019, Monsour’s business and personal files were lost when the Houston office relocated to a new space in the same building, the suit says. The lost documents included client files, contracts and personal files containing his will and power of attorney. No other attorney files were lost.
Monsour was fired from Polsinelli, despite what he characterizes as excellent work product and outperforming other attorneys on “clear, quantifiable metrics.” The complaint says when Monsour asked for a reason why he was let go, he was told he’s “difficult to work with.” Taken together, the lawsuit alleges what Monsour experienced was discriminatory, “a fact starkly punctuated by derogatory comments by firm leaders regarding gay employees that Mr. Monsour overheard firsthand.”
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T-MOBILE PROMOTED, NETWORKED, RELAYED, EMBEDDED AND PROFITED OFF OF THE LIES, NEGLIGENCE, SECURITY RISKS AND ABUSES OF TWITTER, GOOGLE AND FACEBOOK!
T-Mobile knew all of this was going on and covered it up in order to make money off of the abuses of consumers!
Executive Whistle-Blowers Expose Twitter, Google And Facebook As Lying Sacks Of Shits
Executives blow the whistle, revealing reckless and negligent cybersecurity policies
Twitter has major security problems that pose a threat to its own users’ personal information, to company shareholders, to national security, and to democracy, according to an explosive whistleblower disclosure obtained exclusively by CNN and The Washington Post.
Document: Twitter whistleblower reveals alleged security lapses, violations, fraud
Peiter “Mudge” Zatko was the head of security at Twitter.
A well-known “ethical hacker,” Zatko also previously held senior roles at Google, Stripe and the US Department of Defense.
The Whistleblower
Foreign threats
Twitter is exceptionally vulnerable to foreign government exploitation in ways that undermine US national security, and the company may even have foreign spies currently on its payroll, the disclosure alleges.The whistleblower report says the US government provided specific evidence to Twitter shortly before Zatko’s firing that at least one of its employees, perhaps more, were working for another government’s intelligence service. The report does not say whether Twitter was already aware or if it subsequently acted on the tip.
The Musk element
Whistleblower claims Twitter execs are covering up its ‘deficient’ security that is risk to democracy, the country and users’ data: Former head of security backs Musk’s claim that firm doesn’t know how many bots are on platform
Peiter ‘Mudge’ Zatko, the social media firm’s former head of security, made a disclosure to Congress and federal agencies last month and came forward in interviews published on Tuesday morning.
What are Twitter’s ‘egregious’ security problems? Experts explain how flaws outlined in whistleblower’s report could be ‘extremely damaging’ to national security and personal data
NEW MailOnline has spoken to experts to see how exactly Twitter’s alleged deficiencies make the San Francisco social network a risk to personal privacy and national security.
Silicon Valley Reckons With Responsibility for Tech Addiction | PCMag
Tech and social media giants are grappling with how their products affect consumers and society, especially with the next generation of …
Nadine Dorries lambasts Silicon Valley ahead of new online abuse …
The legal but harmful clause has given rise to concerns that it might result in excessive censorship by social media platforms, which face hefty …
Watch: Tech Journalist Kara Swisher Calls Out Silicon Valley …
Out Silicon Valley Executives For Allowing Social Media Platforms … could potentially abuse the app—like committing crimes or suicide …
Tracy Chou’s life as a tech activist: abuse, and optimism
Soon enough, Chou became the face of the emergent diversity movement within Silicon Valley. The media was quick to embrace a telegenic, …
California parents could soon sue TikTok, Instagram and other tech …
SACRAMENTO — California could soon hold social media companies … The bill defines “addiction” as kids under 18 who are both harmed …
Investigation Reveals Silicon Valley Knows Instagram Hurts Kids …
“I blame Larry Nassar and I also blame an entire system that enabled and perpetrated his abuse,” said Simone Biles, who has been vocal about her …
Ex Facebook, Google Employees Launch Anti-Tech Campaign – TIME
The Silicon Valley insiders are now acting as outsiders in … worried about the effects of unchecked tech use and social media on children.
Silicon Valley scrambles to find a unified approach to the Taliban
Silicon Valley pledged to collaborate to stop terrorists from taking advantage of social media. Now, the Taliban present a challenge like no …
T-Mobile Supported Bots and Foreign Agents…
https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2022-128
SEC Charges Former Indiana Congressman with Insider Trading
Buyer attended a golf outing with a T–Mobile executive, from whom he learned about the company’s then nonpublic plan to …
https://nypost.com/2022/07/25/ex-congressman-stephen-buyer-fbi-trainee-indicted-for-insider-trading/
Ex-Congressman Stephen Buyer, FBI trainee indicted for insider …
on insider trading charges Monday for buying up stock in telecommunications giant Sprint ahead of the company’s merger with T–Mobile, …
https://www.insider-monitor.com/trading/cik1283699.html
Insider Trading Activities at T-mobile Us, Inc. (TMUS)
Insider trading activities (stock purchases, sales, and option exercises) reported by insiders of T–mobile Us, Inc. (TMUS) since 2007 are shown in Table 1 …
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/25/sec-charges-former-gop-rep-stephen-buyer-with-insider-trading-.html
SEC charges former GOP Rep. Stephen Buyer with insider trading
3 hours ago … Stephen Buyer was charged with trading on insider information he … the shares of Sprint in 2018 after its merger with T–Mobile leaked, …
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/former-us-congressman-charged-with-insider-trading-2022-07-25/
Former U.S. congressman Buyer charged with insider … – Reuters
4 hours ago … … has been charged with insider trading over purchases of shares in telecommunications company Sprint ahead of its merger with T–Mobile, …
https://money.cnn.com/quote/shareholders/shareholders.html?symb=TMUS&subView=institutional
TMUS – T-Mobile US Inc Shareholders – CNNMoney.com
Insider trading; |; Institutional ownership. Institutional investors purchased a net $19.4 million shares of TMUS during the quarter ended June 2019.
https://docoh.com/company/1283699/TMUS/insider-ownership-history
TMUS T-Mobile US Insider Trading and Ownership | Docoh
T–Mobile US (TMUS) insider trading activity. See current ownership, buyers and sellers.
Former U.S. congressman Buyer charged with insider trading ahead …
3 hours ago … Buyer, who served in Congress between 1993 and 2011, was working as a consultant to T–Mobile ahead of the 2018 merger, according to an …
https://wallmine.com/nasdaq/tmus/insider-trading
T-Mobile US Inc (TMUS) insiders trading – Wallmine
On average, T–Mobile US Inc executives and independent directors trade stock every 21 days with the average trade being worth of $6,569,263. The most recent …
T-Mobile: Being sued by AT&T, Verizon customers for increased prices
Jun 23, 2022 … In a surprise turn of events, it looks like a group of AT&T and Verizon customers have decided to sue T-Mobile. The group believes that the …
Former Sprint wireless dealers file suit against T-Mobile
Using terms like “predatory” and “anti-competitive,” four retail wireless dealers filed suit against T–Mobile in recent weeks, all saying they were …
T-Mobile Sued for Security Lapses Over Cryptocurrency Costing …
May 16, 2022 … T–Mobile caused one of its customers to lose 3/4 of a million bucks, and the guy who’s out the money is now suing the phone company, …
How to Sue T-Mobile – FairShake
The first option for suing T-Mobile is through consumer arbitration. Contracts with arbitration clauses give you the right take legal action through an …
T-Mobile Lawsuit – Bachuwa Law
After failing to find a resolution through T–Mobile’s customer service, many customers feel that there are no options to fight back. That is not the case. While …
T-Mobile Customer Sues T-Mobile After Losing $8.7 Million of …
This recent lawsuit was filed in New York’s Eastern District. The suit claims that T–Mobile was culpable of gross neglect by enabling hackers to gain access to …
T-Mobile Sued for Security Lapses Over Cryptocurrency Costing Customer …
tmz.com/2022/05/16/t-mobile-sued-cryptocurrency-security-lawsuit
Cryptocurrency Disaster T-Mobile Sued By Customer Who Lost $750,000 … Your Security Sucks!!! Exclusive. 309; 5/16/2022 2:04 PM PT
T-Mobile gets sued some more, this time by a Sprint customer furious …
phonearena.com/news/t-mobile-new-class-action-lawsuit-sprint-customer-5g…
one such sprint subscriber (as of the end of 2020, at least) has decided to seek justice for his troubles, filing a new lawsuit against t-mobile, which clearly makes a whole lot more sense than the class action recently launched by a group of verizon and at&t customers as an indirect (and somewhat silly) consequence of the same controversial …
T-Mobile Data Breach Lawsuit 2021 | What To Do | ClassAction.org
classaction.org/t-mobile-data-breach-lawsuit-2021
Hackers initially told the media in late August that they had obtained the personal information of over 100 million people from T-Mobile’s servers, but the
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How T-Mobile’s social media is literally making teens mentally ill and causing teen suicides!
By
Suzie* was a typical 22-year-old recent college grad from the Midwest who was admitted into my mental health clinic in Austin with a variety of increasingly common psychiatric disorders: depression, self-harm (cutting her arms) and a Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) diagnosis. BPD is a serious personality disorder that has 50 times the suicide rate of the general population and is typified by black and white thinking, self-harm behavior, emotional volatility, impulsive behavior, shifting self-image and feelings of “emptiness.”
While Susie did initially present with some of the classic BPD symptoms (feeling empty and suicidal), something didn’t add up. Unlike most BPD clients, she didn’t have any of the early red flags; she had good grades and many friends in high school with stable relationships and a stable home environment — and no history of mental illness in her family.
During Suzie’s treatment, we discovered the real culprit: she’d been spending 12-15 hours a day on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube after becoming depressed when her friends went away to university while she stayed home and attended community college. Initially trying to better understand her depression, she started to follow BPD influencers and joined online BPD groups, where she said that she felt a sense of belonging. Slowly and unwittingly, she started emulating what she was learning about BPD online — like cutting her arms after watching videos of influencers declare that cutting helped them feel in control — or at least “feel something.”
Suzie admitted that she never liked cutting herself but did it because she thought that it might eventually offer her relief. And starved for a true identity, she also stated that the cutting and irrational behaviors that the influencers engaged in “made them interesting and authentic,” which she found appealing. By the time she was ready to admit into treatment, she had lost all her friends and spent her days and nights alone and online being shaped by her newly found BPD community.
Shutterstock
But something quite amazing happened while she was in treatment; she got better very quickly once all her devices and social media were removed. Within two weeks, she was calmer and less reactive; she made friends in the program; she no longer cut her arms and all thoughts of suicide evaporated. But if she really had BPD, she shouldn’t have been “cured” that quickly; clients with real BPD typically require many months or even years of treatment before seeing improvement. So what was really happening?
We’re living in the Age of Digital Social Contagions. It’s a time where certain illnesses aren’t spread by biological transmission, but by a digital infection that attacks the psychological immune system. Using algorithms that find and exploit our psychological vulnerabilities, we get sicker as Big Tech gets stronger.
Twitter
And make no mistake: we are getting sicker as a society, with record rates of depression, suicide, loneliness, overdoses, anxiety, addiction, emptiness, gender dysphoria and mass shootings that are disproportionately impacting teens and young adults, all made worse by the isolation and fear during COVID.
Beyond just the depression of living sedentary, isolated lives, we have the congressional testimony of Frances Haugen, The Facebook Whistleblower, who shared internal emails that showed Instagram’s own research indicated that their product increased suicidality in teenage girls and worsened their eating disorders. It seems that being exposed to a constant torrent of toxic content and comparing ourselves to the curated faux-glamor of vapid and shallow influencers isn’t good for the psyche — but it’s even worse than this much-researched and toxic “social comparison effect.”
Palm Beach Gardens Police Department 
GoFundMe
Followers and views are the coin of the realm in the social-media hierarchy, and extreme content is what attracts that priceless human commodity: our attention. That’s why it’s the most over-the-top content and influencers that attract followers like moths to a lethal digital flame. And it’s also why we’re seeing dramatic spikes in once-rare disorders like Tourette Syndrome, Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID, formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder) and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). These disorders are now being injected into our collective consciousness via popular TikTok and Instagram “influencers” who’ve racked up hundreds of millions of views — and have left a wake of young followers like Suzie who, consciously or unconsciously, are indeed “influenced” as they emulate the psychiatric symptoms of their mentally unwell social media darlings.
This social-contagion group effect shouldn’t come as a shock; for thousands of years we’ve seen it shape human behavior; from donning tribal war paint, to smoking cigarettes, to following your favorite sports team or joining a political movement. We’re social animals hard-wired to mimic and emulate one another. The only difference now that social media has swallowed up our world is that the impact of toxic and digitally spread behaviors are greatly magnified as they go viral.
Although we now know that social media is harmful to our mental health, we can’t seem to stop. Like a cirrhotic alcoholic, the health consequences be damned when you compulsively need another drink — or tweet. And the more of the digital toxin that we consume, the weaker and more compromised our psychological immune system becomes, making us even more vulnerable for further consumption, manipulation and behavior modification.
The Big Tech social media playbook is a simple three step process. Step 1: Create habituation. Use the most sophisticated algorithm-fueled behavior mod techniques to create dependency.
Getty Images for Vox Media
Step 2: Once addicted, the person’s psychological immune system begins to erode. As in any addiction, this is the realm of depression, hopelessness and a sense of emptiness — an emptiness that can only be temporarily filled by more of the toxin.
Step 3: Once weakened and addicted, a person is now susceptible to any number of manipulations; these include further addiction, ideological brainwashing, identity shaping and, sadly, an encroachment into the once hallowed ground of our thoughts. Free no more.
The 1999 Columbine school shooting was the first in the digital age (such events had been almost unheard of before then). Since then, they have become a horrible part of daily life. However, even the FBI acknowledges that these are Internet-fueled copycat events; classic examples of a social contagion — spread and spawned on social media and hate-filled chat rooms that incite the unstable.
This digital social contagion can also lead to ideological extremism. I was an expert witness this year in the capital murder trial of Corey Johnson in Florida, the white suburban teen radicalized by a nonstop stream of ISIS recruitment videos on YouTube. This year, he was sentenced to life in prison for stabbing a 13-year-old boy to death at a 2018 sleepover.
And, of course, we have the logic-defying spike in gender dysphoria; a spike that trans psychologist Erica Anderson, who has helped hundreds of teens transition, says “has gone too far.” According to Anderson, teens — who have always gone through periods of identity confusion and experimentation — are now being exposed to and impacted by social media and trans influencers. Dr. Anderson’s insights were confirmed by Dr. Lisa Littman’s research at Brown, which showed the social media impact on what she termed “late onset gender dysphoria.”
Like BPD, gender dysphoria is a real psychological phenomenon that people genuinely struggle with. However, what we’re seeing now is something different. We’re seeing social media shaping people in ways that seem to mimic some of these disorders yet are not the genuine article. Several colleagues and I have begun to call them cases of pseudo-BPD, pseudo-DID or pseudo-Gender Dysphoria. These are cases where the presenting symptoms dissipate when the person is removed from social media for several weeks, thereby proving that the behaviors presented are not the genuine disorder.
Instead of genuine mental illness, many of our young people are simply attempting to find a tribe or community to belong to via their online explorations and demonstrating what psychologists call “sociogenic” effects; that is, effects caused by social forces — in this case, digital social forces.
What I believe we desperately need is to better understand these powerful shaping effects of social media and to help young people develop a strong psychological immune system and critical thinking skills in order to navigate the rough and turbulent seas of today’s social-media world.
*This patient’s name has been changed.
Dr. Nicholas Kardaras is the Founder and Chief Clinical Officer of Omega Recovery in Austin, Texas and Maui Recovery in Hawaii. A former clinical professor at Stony Brook Medicine, he’s the bestselling author of “Glow Kids” and his latest book “Digital Madness: How Social Media is Driving Our Mental Health Crisis — and How to Restore our Sanity” (St. Martin’s) is out now.
T-MOBILE AND IT’S SILICON VALLEY PARTNERS CAUGHT UP IN FEDERAL INVESTIGATIONS AND LAWSUITS
Elon Musk’s Twitter-Gate scandal has exposed the fact that, for over a decade, Twitter has sold lies to advertisers, consumers and the SEC!!! Twitter has been just fake eyeballs, bots, election manipulation, SEC filings that were lies, Congressional testimony that was lies and one of the biggest scams in history. Court Discovery in the coming year will reveal all. The SEC has been asked to charge Twitter AND TWITTER’S ENABLERS, INCLUDING T-MOBILE with EPIC FRAUD. Musk says the “numbers don’t lie” and those numbers about Twitter and it’s Telco partners are going to come out in shocking court disclosures. How could a multi billion dollar company like T-Mobile not have known about these lies? T-Mobile was one of the backbones that put Twitter into the hands of the rioters, the shooters, the suicide-ed kids and everyone else in the WORLD!
A. An element of the claims against T-Mobile asserts that “T-Mobile Encourages A Culture of Criminality And Corruption And That Proofs Of That Corporate Culture Of Criminality Add To The Veracity Of Plaintiff Assertions Of Intended Harm, By T-Mobile, Against Plaintiff, And His Peers, Who Were Investigating Said Corruption For News Media, Public Interest And Government Parties”.
B. Regarding Sex Trafficking news media assertions against T-Mobile Executives, Staff and Investors; The investigation databases of: A.) ICOJ.ORG’s Panama Papers, Swiss Leaks and CPA databases; B.) The Axciom database; C.) The PACER database; D.) The XKEYSCORE derivative database; E.) Kroll database; F.) Stratfor Database, ; G.) TransUnion’s TLOxp database, and Accurint (from LexisNexis), Clear (Thompson Reuters), Delvepoint. DataTrac, IntelliCorp, BeenVerfied, Intelius, Pipl and Spoke.. etc. are easily cross referenced to show which persons:
1. Invested over $200,000.00 in T-Mobile and/or
2. Are government political figures and/or
3. Have divorce records which state that they engaged in infidelity or hiring men, women, girls and boys for sex and/or
4. Are charged in prostitution cases and/or
5. Have Uber, Lyft, Plane tickets or taxi records transporting sex workers to or from them and/or
6. Have accounts under their credit cards, paypal or bitcoin on porn and sex trafficking sites like Seeking Arrangements, etc. and/or
7. Used or partnered with Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Google, Match.com, Tinder and their associates who are deeply charged with enabling sex trafficking.. etc..
Such a database pull only costs $300.00 and takes a private eye less than a day.
It is really quite easy to show who at T-Mobile sex trafficked, how, with whom and with great detail. T-Mobile spouses and divorcees are quite excited to share that information.
Sex Trafficking by T-Mobile people is one evidence element that goes to prove that: “T-Mobile Encourages A Culture of Criminality And Corruption And That Proofs Of That Corporate Culture Of Criminality Add To The Veracity Of Plaintiff Assertions Of Intended Harm, By T-Mobile, Against Plaintiff, And His Peers, Who Were Investigating Said Corruption For News Media, Public Interest And Government Parties”.
C. T-Mobile knew that it’s network and devices was killing teens. T-Mobile chose profits over children’s safety. There are a massive number of other lawsuits and Congressional Hearings proving this. Teen deaths caused by T-Mobile people is one evidence element that goes to prove that: “T-Mobile Encourages A Culture of Criminality And Corruption And That Proofs Of That Corporate Culture Of Criminality Add To The Veracity Of Plaintiff Assertions Of Intended Harm, By T-Mobile, Against Plaintiff, And His Peers, Who Were Investigating Said Corruption For News Media, Public Interest And Government Parties”.
D. All of the hundreds of criminal, corrupt and illicit activities that our alliance of citizens, reporters, investigators, reporters and forensic experts raise, and WILL RAISE FOREVER, happen to prove this one Plaintiff’s point that: ““T-Mobile Encourages A Culture of Criminality And Corruption And That Proofs Of That Corporate Culture Of Criminality Add To The Veracity Of Plaintiff Assertions Of Intended Harm, By T-Mobile, Against Plaintiff, And His Peers, Who Were Investigating Said Corruption For News Media, Public Interest And Government Parties”… But these hundreds of criminal, corrupt and illicit activities by T-Mobile will always be raised, by EVERY consumer, forever until they are solved whether or not this one particular AAA case moves forward.
We, by coincidence, happen to know that this one Plaintiff’s claims are true. 50 Million citizens just had their privacy abuse claims proved true in another case. If this Plaintiff’s AAA case is closed there will be 49,999,999 more for T-Mobile to deal with!
One Mr. Rubin, from Google, who helped put together the T-Mobile Android arrangement has an interesting situation. Wait till everyone sees how many other T-Mobile lawyers and executives are in the same boat:
Android Creator Andy Rubin Is Accused of Running a ‘Sex Ring’
… The Android creator Andy Rubin has been accused of running a “sex ring” with at least one woman and of cheating his ex-wife out of millions of …
This Former Google Executive Was Accused Of Running A “Sex Ring”
… A newly unsealed complaint shows how Google paid Android creator Andy Rubin $90 million in severance after he left the company amid …
The truth about Andy Rubin and Google’s existential crisis – British GQ
… The Rubin scandal has also drawn attention to the company’s long-standing opposition to new US sex trafficking laws – which it believes could …
Google Board Sued for Andy Rubin Sexual Harassment Coverup
… “While at Google, Rubin is also alleged to have engaged in human sex trafficking—paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to women to be, in …
Android Founder Andy Rubin Accused of Running ‘Sex Ring’
… Andy Rubin, the Android founder and former Google executive has been accused of running a “sex ring” by his ex-wife, according to court …
Andy Rubin, former Google executive, sexual misconduct allegations
… Andy Rubin is one of 262 celebrities and powerful people accused of sexual misconduct since 2017. See the full list:
How Google Protected Andy Rubin, the ‘Father of Android’
… What Google did not make public was that an employee had accused Mr. Rubin of sexual misconduct. The woman, with whom Mr. Rubin had been …
Android creator Andy Rubin allegedly concealed Google payments …
… Andy Rubin, a former Google executive and the inventor of the Android … Rubin is also alleged to have engaged in human sex trafficking …
Ex-Google Star Rubin Spars to Keep Divorce Fallout Secret
… Andy Rubin, the Android creator at the center of a sex harassment scandal … Rubin is also alleged to have engaged in human sex trafficking …
Alphabet Board Sued Over Claims It Covered Up Senior Execs …
… Alphabet’s Board Sued for Role in Allegedly Covering Up Sexual Misconduct by … How Google Protected Andy Rubin, the ‘Father of Android’.
T-Mobile Retail Store in Eagle Rock Found Guilty of Committing $25 Million Scheme to Illegally Unlock Cellphones
LOS ANGELES – A former owner of a T-Mobile retail store in Eagle Rock has been found guilty by a jury of 14 federal criminal charges for his $25 million scheme to enrich himself by stealing T-Mobile employee credentials and illegally accessing the company’s internal computer systems to illicitly “unlock” and “unblock” cellphones, the Justice Department announced today.
Argishti Khudaverdyan, 44, of Burbank, was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, three counts of wire fraud, two counts of accessing a computer to defraud and obtain value, one count of intentionally accessing a computer without authorization to obtain information, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, five counts of money laundering, and one count of aggravated identity theft.
The jury returned the guilty verdict Friday evening in United States District Court.
According to evidence presented at his four-day trial, Khudaverdyan ran a multi-year scheme that illegally unlocked and unblocked cellphones, which generated approximately $25 million in criminal proceeds. During this time, most cellphone companies – including T-Mobile – “locked” their customers’ phones so they could be used only on the company’s network until the customers’ phone and service contracts had been fulfilled. If customers wanted to switch to a different carrier, their phones had to be “unlocked.” Carriers also “blocked” cellphones to protect consumers in the case of lost or stolen cellphones.
From August 2014 to June 2019, Khudaverdyan fraudulently unlocked and unblocked cellphones on T-Mobile’s network, as well as the networks of Sprint, AT&T and other carriers. Removing the unlock allowed the phones to be sold on the black market and enabled T-Mobile customers to stop using T-Mobile’s services and thereby deprive T-Mobile of revenue generated from customers’ service contracts and equipment installment plans.
Khudaverdyan advertised his fraudulent unlocking services through brokers, email solicitations, and websites such as unlocks247.com. He falsely claimed the fraudulent unlocks that he provided were “official” T-Mobile unlocks.
From January 2017 through June 2017, Khudaverdyan and a former business partner were also co-owners of Top Tier Solutions Inc., a T-Mobile store in Eagle Rock Plaza. However, after T-Mobile terminated Khudaverdyan’s contract in June 2017 based on his suspicious computer behavior and association with unauthorized unlocking of cellphones, Khudaverdyan continued his fraud.
To gain unauthorized access to T-Mobile’s protected internal computers, Khudaverdyan obtained T-Mobile employees’ credentials through various dishonest means, including sending phishing emails that appeared to be legitimate T-Mobile correspondence, and socially engineering the T-Mobile IT Help Desk. Khudaverdyan used the fraudulent emails to trick T-Mobile employees to log in with their employee credentials so he could harvest the employees’ information and fraudulently unlock the phones.
Working with others in overseas call centers, Khudaverdyan also received T‑Mobile employee credentials which he then used to access T-Mobile systems to target higher-level employees by harvesting those employees’ personal identifying information and calling the T-Mobile IT Help Desk to reset the employees’ company passwords, giving him unauthorized access to the T-Mobile systems which allowed him to unlock and unblock cellphones.
All told, Khudaverdyan and others compromised and stole more than 50 different T-Mobile employees’ credentials from employees across the United States, and they unlocked and unblocked hundreds of thousands of cellphones during the years of the scheme.
Khudaverdyan obtained more than $25 million for these criminal activities. He used these illegal proceeds to pay for, among other things, real estate in Burbank and Northridge.
United States District Judge Stephen V. Wilson scheduled an October 17 sentencing hearing, at which time Khudaverdyan will face statutory maximum sentences of 20 years in federal prison for each wire fraud count, 20 years in federal prison for conspiracy to commit money laundering, 10 years in federal prison for each money laundering count, five years in federal prison for each count of intentionally accessing a computer without authorization to obtain information, five years in federal prison for the count of accessing a computer to defraud and obtain value, and a mandatory two years in federal prison for aggravated identity theft.
Alen Gharehbagloo, 43, of La Cañada Flintridge, a co-defendant and a former co-owner of Top Tier Solutions Inc., pleaded guilty on July 5 to three felonies: conspiracy to commit wire fraud, accessing a protected computer with intent to defraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for December 5.
The United States Secret Service Cyber Fraud Task Force (CFTF) in Los Angeles and IRS Criminal Investigation’s Western Area Cyber Crime Unit investigated this matter. The CFTF includes representatives of the United States Secret Service, the FBI, the Los Angeles Police Department, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, and the California Highway Patrol.
Assistant United States Attorneys Lisa E. Feldman and Andrew M. Roach of the Cyber and Intellectual Property Crimes Section are prosecuting this case. Assistant United States Attorney Jonathan S. Galatzan, Chief of the Asset Forfeiture Section, is handling the asset forfeiture portion of this case.
T-mobile, an American wireless network partly owned by German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom, sent out an intimidating email to its employees on stating that those who do not become fully vaccinated by April 2 will be terminated from their job.
According to the email obtained by TGP, employees who failed to show proof of first vaccination will be placed on unpaid leave. Employees who do not become fully vaccinated and obtain a Magenta Pass will be terminated..
“Employees who have not yet taken action to receive their first dose and upload proof will be placed on unpaid leave. Affected employees who do not become fully vaccinated and obtain a Magenta Pass by April 2 will be separated from T-Mobile. Those employees who have a pending or approved medical or religious accommodation or state-specific exemption through the HR process are excluded from this action for the duration of their pending or approved accommodation or exemption.”
However, mobile experts at T-Mobile stores who are more at risk of getting Covid are not required to get vaccinated.
“In Retail, where we don’t have control of who enters, our Mobile Experts have served customers incredibly well throughout the pandemic. We’ll continue to take precautions like masking and encourage Mobile Experts to be vaccinated, but not require it. We will also be encouraging regular testing.”
Here’s a copy of the email:
The company posted the email in an article on the internal website and they are getting completely roasted by employees. Here are some images of those comments sent to TGP.
“We shouldn’t have to submit for any exemptions.. Medical or Religious reasons. Freedom of choice!!!”
“What happened to follow the science? The science shows the vax does NOT work. You are just as likely to get and spread covid weather vaxd or un vaxd, Hence why the UK, Ireland, and Scotland have all done away with any and all mandates. This is socialism and I can NOT be a part of this for my own sanity, even tho I love my job.”
“From a personal perspective, I am disappointed in a company that prides itself on Diversity & Inclusion, but tells you either get something injected into your body or disclose medical or religious info to them, or be fired. From a legal perspective, it’s a little fuzzy.”
“This is very disappointing news. Even though I got vaxed for personal reasons, I believe in our right to choose what we do to OUR bodies. I stand united with our right to choose.”
Earlier this month, T-Mobile was also under fire after censoring Gateway Pundit’s links on its text service. A TGP reader Randall contacted T-mobile and one of the supervisors claimed that Gateway Pundit is a very restricted site and they’re protecting the users’ information by providing a safe service.
T-Mobile gets hacked after dismissing security concerns – NordVPN
Aug 28, 2018 … Nothing funny about the hack attack at T–Mobile that let roughly 2 million users with their names, … T–mobile passwords hacked on Twitter.
T-Mobile CEO John Legere Is Resigning And Won’t Be Promoting …
Nov 18, 2019 … In doing so, he will end one of the most annoying ad campaigns on Twitter — promoting his own tweets. David Becker / Getty Images. A cool CEO.
Ex-T-Mobile CEO Goes After Ex-Sprint CEO on Twitter (Again)
Mar 2, 2022 … In a bit of a throwback, John Legere and Marcelo Claure—former CEOs of T–Mobile and Sprint, respectively—are once again battling it out on …
Mass layoffs hit TWITTER as company exposed as ad scam and fake user nest distributed over T-Mobile networks (LINK)...
Employees say it is 'Worst case scenario'as world realizes Twitter harvests human thoughts pushes kids to suicide and shootings and manipulates ideologies using T-Mobile devices and networks (LINK)...
The legal shield for T-Mobile is showing cracks
The nation’s largest federal appeals court last year ruled that the legal shield — known as Section 230 of the U.S. Communications Decency Act — didn’t apply to a Snapchat filter blamed for the car crash deaths of two teenagers. | Richard Drew/AP Photo
An 11-year-old dies by suicide after she is sexually exploited on Instagram and Snapchat. Two teenagers are killed in a crash following a race using a Snapchat speed filter. A sexual predator uses Facebook to lure a 15-year-old girl into trafficking.
Social media companies for decades have been shielded from legal consequences for what happens on their platforms. But a sharp shift in public opinion and a bend in recent court rulings have the industry nervous that this could change — especially when damage is done to children online.
And for the first time in nearly 30 years, lawyers for grieving families see an opening.
Lawsuits blaming social media platforms for teen suicides, eating disorders and mental collapses have picked up in the months since Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen told Congress that her company knew its products were addictive to kids and that their mental stability was suffering as a result. And a bill moving through the California statehouse would make companies liable for addicting children, drawing comparisons to a strategy used against the tobacco industry.
The Facebook whistleblower’s testimony before Congress, in 180 seconds
The nation’s largest federal appeals court last year ruled that the legal shield — known as Section 230 of the U.S. Communications Decency Act — didn’t apply to a Snapchat filter blamed for the car crash deaths of two teenagers. Texas’ Supreme Court let a sex trafficking case against Facebook proceed, citing Congress’ 2018 changes to federal law. And an appellate court recently refused Facebook’s attempt to circumvent that lawsuit. Georgia’s Supreme Court in March likewise ruled that a separate complaint over Snapchat’s speed filter can move forward because the plaintiffs have a good case the app made a risky product.
“I am pretty optimistic that tides are turning and we are going to see a backlash on Section 230 from the courts,” said Carrie Goldman, a New York-based trial attorney who used product liability law to challenge Grindr’s federal shield. Powerful social media companies, she added, “were never supposed to be immune from liability.”
Tech companies and their lawyers are watching with trepidation. Cathy Gellis, an internet attorney, says the industry is increasingly turning to the First Amendment — rather than Section 230 — as the first line of defense in content moderation lawsuits.
“It’s all on fire,” she said.
The tech industry’s legal protections, enshrined in 1996, came from the thinking that companies trying to create a free marketplace of ideas online shouldn’t have to worry about getting shut down based on someone saying or doing something the website can’t control. But that was when Netscape reigned supreme, email arrived via dial-up modem and “apps” weren’t yet gleams in a techy’s eye.
Rep. Ken Buck: ‘If you repeal section 230 there will be a slew of lawsuits’
Nearly three decades later, trial attorneys are testing that shield with a battery of cases brought by parents of kids and teens whose deaths or mental crises they blame on social media. The roster includes a claim by the mother of 11-year-old Selena Rodriguez who alleges her daughter was addicted to Snapchat and Instagram for two years and pulled into sending sexually exploitative messages. The lawsuit details a downward spiral of depression, eating disorders and self-harm that ended in suicide.
Carrie Goldman’s case against Grindr alleged that the hookup app eased the way for her client Matthew Herrick’s abusive ex-boyfriend to set up a false profile that disclosed Herrick’s location — and said, falsely, that he was HIV-positive and liked violent, unprotected sex. Stalkers began shadowing Herrick, who filed cease-and-desist orders and police reports even as Grindr said it couldn’t block the profile, the lawsuit alleged.
Herrick’s claim ultimately failed in 2019, with the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals citing the Section 230 shield. But Carrie Goldman’s argument — that it was a question of product safety and liability, rather than one of content — was later used in a key case against Snapchat.
Gellis and others in the tech industry argue that any dent in the federal shield can have far-reaching consequences on the internet, and that unfavorable rulings could come to haunt internet companies trying to fight state laws. State legislatures in Texas and Florida are debating a slate of proposals to bar platforms from censoring content, while a pair of bills aimed at making the internet safer for kids is advancing in California.
“It’s a problem to have any language on the books that Section 230 is supposed to block,” she said. “As a litigator, I’ll look to using prior precedents upholding Section 230 to protect people from these sorts of bad laws being enforced, but it’s playing with fire if that’s the only thing protecting them.”
One case in particular has been widely cited by California lawmakers who want to make social media companies liable for addicting children. A lawsuit known as Lemmon v. Snap alleged that the high-speed car crash death of two teenagers while they were using Snapchat’s “speed filter” function for a virtual race was the app’s fault, since the filter was a function Snapchat designed itself.
The San Francisco-based U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last year that the company’s design of the speed filter wasn’t covered by Section 230.
Hedge Funds and private Equity funds that covertly fund T-Mobile and T-Mobile partners are buying up Congress people right and left. The line from T-Mobile to public policy decisions is hard to see, like a spider web, but modern AI technology can track it all down nonetheless.
The donations, which make Sinema one of the industry’s top beneficiaries in Congress, serve a reminder of the way that high-power lobbying campaigns can have dramatic implications for the way legislation is crafted, particularly in the evenly divided Senate where there are no Democratic votes to spare. They also highlight a degree of political risk for Sinema, whose unapologetic defense of the industry’s favorable tax treatment is viewed by many in her party as indefensible.
“From their vantage point, it’s a million dollars very well spent,” said Dean Baker, a senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a liberal-leaning think tank. “It’s pretty rare you see this direct of a return on your investment. So I guess I would congratulate them.”
Sinema’s office declined to make her available for an interview. Hannah Hurley, a Sinema spokesperson, acknowledged the senator shares some of the industry’s views on taxation, but rebuffed any suggestion that the donations influenced her thinking.
“Senator Sinema makes every decision based on one criteria: what’s best for Arizona,” Hurley said in a statement. “She has been clear and consistent for over a year that she will only support tax reforms and revenue options that support Arizona’s economic growth and competitiveness.”
The American Investment Council, a trade group that lobbies on behalf of private equity, also defended their push to defeat the tax provisions.
“Our team worked to ensure that members of Congress from both sides of the aisle understand how private equity directly employs workers and supports small businesses throughout their communities,” Drew Maloney, the organization’s CEO and president, said in a statement.
Sinema’s defense of the tax provisions offer a jarring contrast to her background as a Green Party activist and self-styled “Prada socialist” who once likened accepting campaign cash to “bribery” and later called for “big corporations & the rich to pay their fair share” shortly before launching her first campaign for Congress in 2012.
She’s been far more magnanimous since, praising private equity in 2016 from the House floor for providing “billions of dollars each year to Main Street businesses” and later interning at a private equity mogul’s boutique winery in northern California during the 2020 congressional recess.
The soaring contributions from the industry to Sinema trace back to last summer. That’s when she first made clear that she wouldn’t support a carried interest tax increase, as well as other corporate and business tax hikes, included in an earlier iteration of Biden’s agenda.
During a two-week period in September alone, Sinema collected $47,100 in contributions from 16 high-ranking officials from the private equity firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, records show. Employees and executives of KKR, another private equity behemoth, contributed $44,100 to Sinema during a two-month span in late 2021.
In some cases, the families of private equity managers joined in. David Belluck, a partner at the firm Riverside Partners, gave a $5,800 max-out contribution to Sinema one day in late June. So did three of his college-age kids, with the family collectively donating $23,200, records show.
“I generally support centrist Democrats and her seat is important to keep a Democratic Senate majority,” Belluck said, adding that his family has known Sinema since her election to Congress. “She and I have never discussed private equity taxation.”
The donations from the industry coincide with a $26 million lobbying effort spearheaded by the investment firm Blackstone that culminated on the Senate floor last weekend.
By the time the bill was up for debate during a marathon series of votes, Sinema had already forced Democrats to abandon their carried interest tax increase.
“Senator Sinema said she would not vote for the bill .. unless we took it out,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters last week. “We had no choice.”
But after private equity lobbyists discovered a provision in the bill that would have subjected many of them to a separate 15% corporate minimum tax, they urgently pressed Sinema and other centrist Democrats for changes, according to emails as well as four people with direct knowledge of the matter who requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
“Given the breaking nature of this development we need as many offices as possible weighing in with concerns to Leader Schumer’s office,” Blackstone lobbyist Ryan McConaghy wrote in a Saturday afternoon email obtained by the AP, which included proposed language for modifying the bill. “Would you and your boss be willing to raise the alarm on this and express concerns with Schumer and team?”
McConaghy did not respond to a request for comment.
Sinema worked with Republicans on an amendment that stripped the corporate tax increase provisions from the bill, which a handful of vulnerable Democrats also voted for.
“Since she has been in Congress, Kyrsten has consistently supported pro-growth policies that encourage job creation across Arizona. Her tax policy positions and focus on growing Arizona’s economy and competitiveness are longstanding and well known,” Hurley, the Sinema spokesperson, said.
But many in her party disagree. They say the favorable treatment does little to boost the overall economy and argue there’s little compelling evidence to suggest the tax benefits are enjoyed beyond some of the wealthiest investors.
Some of Sinema’s donors make their case.
Blackstone, a significant source of campaign contributions, owns large tracts of real estate in Sinema’s home state, Arizona. The firm was condemned by United Nations experts in 2019 who said Blackstone’s financial model was responsible for a “financialization of housing” that has driven up rents and home costs, “pushing low-income, and increasingly middle-income people from their homes.”
Blackstone employees executives and their family members have given Sinema $44,000 since 2018, records show.
In a statement, Blackstone called the allegations by the U.N. experts “false and misleading” and said all employee contributions are “strictly personal.” The firm added that it was “incredibly proud of its investments in housing.”
Another major financial services donor is Centerbridge Partners, a New York-based firm that buys up the debt of distressed governments and companies and often uses hardball tactics to extract value. Since 2017, Sinema has collected at least $29,000 from donors associated with the firm, including co-founder Mark Gallogly and his wife, Elizabeth Strickler, records show.
In 2012, Centerbridge Partners purchased Arizona-based restaurant chain P.F. Chang’s for roughly $1 billion. After loading the struggling company up with $675 million of debt, they sold it to another private equity group in 2019, according to Bloomberg News. The company received a $10 million coronavirus aid loan to cover payroll, but shed jobs and closed locations as it struggled with the pandemic.
Centerbridge Partners was also part of a consortium of hedge funds that helped usher in an era of austerity in Puerto Rico after buying up billions of dollars of the island government’s $72 billion debt — and filing legal proceedings to collect. A subsidiary of Centerbridge Partners was among a group of creditors who repeatedly sued one of the U.S. territory’s pension funds. In one 2016 lawsuit, the group of creditors asked a judge to divert money from a Puerto Rican pension fund in order to collect.
A Centerbridge representative could not immediately provide comment Friday.
Liberal activists in Arizona say they plan to make Sinema’s reliance on donations from wealthy investors a campaign issue when she is up for reelection in 2024.
“There are many takes on how to win, but there is no universe in which it is politically smart to fight for favorable tax treatment of the wealthiest people in the country,” said Emily Kirkland, a political consultant who works for progressive candidates. “It’s absolutely going to be a potent issue.”
We call that felony bribery and a total violation of the American STOCK ACT!
Push to rein in social media sweeps the states
By Rebecca Kern
California lawmakers and advocates see the Snapchat ruling as a green light for a state bill that would explicitly authorize lawsuits against social media companies if they’re shown to hook kids with their products. Assemblymember Jordan Cunningham, the bill’s Republican lead co-author, says the decision shows that his proposal won’t violate federal law.
Trial attorneys also see it this way. Matthew Bergman, who six months ago founded the Social Media Victims Law Center to bring major cases involving kids’ and teens’ addiction using product liability law, compares the push to his years of suing companies for asbestos poisoning. He launched his new crusade after Haugen’s testimony and warnings from the U.S. surgeon general about the mental health harms of teen social media use. One of the most recent cases he filed invokes Haugen’s leaks to allege that Instagram purposefully targets youngsters.
He sees signs everywhere that the tide is turning. He pointed to recent court decisions — and even the Supreme Court’s surprisingly close vote to block Texas’ social media bill on censorship, at 5-4.
By Rebecca Kern
“The era of goodwill toward social media platforms is waning,” Bergman said.
Some lawyers in tech’s corner say they don’t see judges making a big swing away from longtime orthodoxy on the law.
“Courts are certainly scrutinizing 230, but courts are bound by precedent,” said Adam Sieff, a lawyer who represents tech companies in Section 230 and First Amendment claims. “Virtually without exception,” he said, the courts are finding that the precedents hold up the Section 230 defense.
Eric Goldman, co-director of Santa Clara University’s High Tech Law Institute, argues the 9th Circuit decision in the Snapchat case is fairly narrow. Still, he is alarmed at the state policymaking that he sees as meddling in private companies’ operations and know-how.
“Legislatures are enacting laws that they know are garbage,” he said. “They don’t care about actually implementing policy — it’s all about the press releases and tweets. When states pass laws that are garbage we hope that the courts will fix the obvious problems that the legislatures have created.”
In California, the tech industry and internet freedom groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation are working feverishly to kill Cunningham’s bill that would explicitly create a cause for liability lawsuits against social media companies — a red line for the industry. But the proposal has advanced with significant momentum and could get a final vote in August.
The proposal was narrowed last month to allow only public prosecutors, rather than all Californians, to bring cases. But supporters still see it as a huge step in making social media liable for features with documented risks — and opponents see a major threat to tech companies’ autonomy.
That said, Sieff and Eric Goldman suggest that lawyers in the business of suing tech companies may be exaggerating the significance of the recent decisions.
“The prevailing and uniform interpretation of Section 230 is squarely on the side of the platforms,” Sieff said, “and the plaintiffs’ bar is definitely stretching, or willfully misreading, decisions like Lemmon well beyond their application.”
White House defends president’s support for philanthropy headed by former Google CEO, who has cultivated close ties to the administration.
Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, had been making efforts to cultivate a close relationship with the Biden administration. | Paul Sakuma/AP Photo
This past spring, Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, received the ultimate gift: a straight-to-camera endorsement from the president of the United States.
In the video, the most powerful man in the world touted Schmidt’s “Quad Fellowship”— a new scholarship for American, Indian, Japanese and Australian graduate school students that is operated and administered by Schmidt Futures, the charity arm that Schmidt uses for a variety of initiatives in science and technology.
“If you want to take the biggest challenges facing our world and help make sure democracies deliver for the people everywhere, I encourage you to apply and join the Quad fellowship class of 2023,” Biden said in the video touting the philanthropic initiative which administration officials have compared to the Rhodes scholarship and which plans to fund 100 students every year from India, Australia, Japan and the United States, also known as “The Quad.”
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, U.S. President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Schmidt Futures CEO Eric Braverman gather for the Quad fellowship announcement at Tokyo on May 24, 2022. | Evan Vucci/AP Photo
Schmidt promptly shared the video on the Schmidt Futures YouTube page with the title “The Quad Fellowship: A Message from President Joe Biden.”
Behind the scenes, however, there were concerns within Biden’s administration about the president endorsing an initiative of an outside entity founded by Schmidt, one of the richest men in the world, according to two people familiar with the matter who were granted anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak about the internal dynamics.
The red flags prompted the State Department to draft talking points in case questions of impropriety came up, according to a copy of the drafted talking points obtained by POLITICO.
“If the [U.S. Government] is not involved in Schmidt Futures Quad Fellowship, why was it announced in a Government organized forum?” read an example of a potential question about the arrangement.
In response, the State Department’s talking points recommend responding that the “United States–through Department of Homeland Security and Department of State helps facilitate international STEM education and student mobility” and that international “student mobility is central to diplomacy, innovation, economic prosperity, and national security. As Secretary [Antony] Blinken has said, it is a ‘foreign policy imperative.’”
It is one of many instances of Schmidt’s efforts to cultivate a close relationship with the Biden administration. In March, POLITICO reported that Schmidt had developed close personal and financial ties with the White House’s science office. During the presidential transition, Schmidt also recommended appointments to the Pentagon, Reuters reported at the time.
The White House declined to comment. A State Department spokesperson told POLITICO: “It’s not uncommon for us to highlight a private sector initiative that advances U.S. national interests. It is, likewise, not uncommon for us to draft contingency talking points on a range of issues. We’re proud of private sector partnerships, which advance our interests around the world.”
Meghan Miele, a spokesperson for Schmidt, said in a statement that Schmidt Futures had been invited by the Biden administration and the other Quad countries to operate and administrate the fellowship.
“Leaders of all of the Quad countries have demonstrated enthusiastic support for the program by recording videos, calling for applications on social media, and attending a global launch event in Tokyo which has resulted in thousands of applications,” she said. Asked for further documentation of the timeline of the invitation, Miele declined to comment further.
Blinken and Schmidt have collaborated in the past. Schmidt Futures was a client of WestExec Advisors, a consulting firm co-founded by Blinken. Last July, Blinken referred to Schmidt as “my friend” at the “Global Emerging Technology Summit” hosted by the National Security Council on Artificial Intelligence, which Schmidt chaired.
When Biden visited Asia in May, the CEO of Schmidt Futures, Eric Braverman, met with the leaders of all four Quad countries, who had recorded their own endorsement videos as well. At a launch event with the four leaders, they watched a video featuring Schmidt as they all stood in front of a blue-and-white checkered backdrop reading: “Quad Fellowship by Schmidt Futures.”
The fellowship will fund students from Quad countries to attend graduate school in the U.S. in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The scholarship is part of the Biden team’s larger goal of reinvigorating the Quad partnership as part of their attempts to counter China.
Schmidt also often echoes the administration’s view on China as a key competitor and has taken a particular interest in the overlap in science and defense policy. He has advocated for the U.S. investing in and protecting the technology sector to ensure China does not take the lead on artificial intelligence, internet platforms, and hardware, which he sees as essential to maintaining American economic and military strength.
Schmidt also often echoes the administration’s view on China as a key competitor and has taken a particular interest in the overlap in science and defense policy. | Susan Walsh/AP Photo
As a result, he has leveraged his relationships and connections to shape the Biden administration’s science and military technology policies. In addition to his connections with the science office, the Pentagon, and the Quad Fellowship, Schmidt has also become a key public advocate for the Biden-supported U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA), a sprawling $250 billion-plus package with massive investments in American technology including $50 billion to semiconductor funding.
The Senate and the House have passed different versions of the bill and are trying to reconcile the package now. Some progressive House Democrats and the AFL-CIO have argued that certain trade provisions in the bill would help large American tech companies like Google and Facebook.
The trade provisions would “overwhelmingly benefit large digital corporations (Google, Facebook/Meta, Uber) at the expense of countries’ right to reasonably regulate global digital platforms,” William Samuel, the AFL-CIO’s director of government affairs, wrote in a May letter.
In op-eds and TV appearances, Schmidt has been a high-profile advocate for the bill, in particular the government subsidization of semiconductors.
“America is on the verge of losing the chip competition,” Schmidt wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed this month co-written with Harvard professor Graham Allison. “Unless the U.S. government mobilizes a national effort similar to the one that created the technologies that won World War II, China could soon dominate semiconductors and the frontier technologies they will power.”
Eric Schmidt should never be allowed near America’s policies or telecommunications. He is the Hitler of the Internet. Schmidt thinks that those who kill themselves over social abuse shouldn’t be doing those things in the first place. Schmidt has no compassion and lives by greed.
Famous Hollywood actress Constance Wu has revealed that she attempted to take her own life after facing a social media abuse over T-Mobile network and devices.
Known for her roles in “Crazy Rich Asians” and “Hustlers,” Wu abruptly left social media in 2019 after making what she called “careless” comments about her displeasure over the renewal of “Fresh off the Boat,” a TV series she was starring in, which she said “ignited outrage and internet shaming that got pretty severe.”
On learning of the renewal of the show, where she played a no-nonsense mother of an immigrant family, Wu fired off tweets featuring expletives, stating that she was “so upset.” Her comments sparked criticism online, and she later explained to her fans that appearing in the show would take her away from an unspecified passion project, before quitting social media.
After a three-year hiatus, Wu said in a statement Thursday that the episode had pushed her to attempt suicide. She said she was “a little scared” to return to social media.
“This next part is hard to talk about . . . but I was afraid of coming back on social media because I almost lost my life from it,” she said.
She added that the social media backlash to her 2019 comments, especially from fellow Asian Americans, made her feel like a “blight” on her community. “I started feeling like I didn’t even deserve to live anymore. That I was a disgrace to AsAms, and they’d be better off without me,” she said using an abbreviation.
“Looking back, it’s surreal that a few DMs convinced me to end my own life, but that’s what happened. Luckily, a friend found me and rushed me to the ER.”
Wu, who grew up in Richmond, Va., and is the child of Taiwanese immigrants, said the “scary moment” forced her to reassess her life and career and prioritize her mental health.
Wu’s leading role in “Crazy Rich Asians” in 2018 catapulted her to international fame and led to a Golden Globe nomination for her portrayal of a professor who travels to Singapore to meet her partner’s family and encounters extreme wealth. More broadly, the movie, based on a novel by Kevin Kwan, was celebrated for breaking stereotypes and for its Asian American representation.
“AsAms don’t talk about mental health enough,” Wu said in her statement. “While we’re quick to celebrate representation wins, there’s a lot of avoidance around the more uncomfortable issues within our community.”
Adding, “If we want to be seen, really seen . . . we need to let all of ourselves be seen, including the parts we’re scared of or ashamed of – parts that, however imperfect, require care and attention.”
A national study in 2007 reported that while nearly 18% of the general U.S. population sought mental health services in a 12-month period, only 8.6% of Asian Americans did so.
Fear of stigma as well as pressure to be a “model minority,” to academically succeed and to care for parents and community were among the issues that led to mental health stresses, according to psychiatrists at McLean Hospital, a mental health hospital in Belmont, Mass.
Almost 20% of American adults – some 50 million people – experienced a mental health illness in 2019, according to national nonprofit Mental Health America, with over half of adults not receiving treatment. Suicidal ideation and thoughts have continued to rise every year since 2011, it added. Echoing other reports, it found that young White Americans were the most likely to receive mental health treatment, while “Asian youth were least likely to receive mental health care.”
This week, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline launched a new three-digit number allowing people to call or text 988 to route them to a hotline of trained counselors starting Saturday. It will be available across the United States.
Wu also shared details for suicide prevention and support alongside her statement and added that she had written a memoir “Making a Scene” detailing more about her life and experiences. She said she hoped her book would “help people talk about the uncomfortable stuff in order to understand it, reckon with it, and open pathways to healing.”
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If you or someone you know who uses T-Mobile needs help, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) or visit suicidepreventionlifeline.org. You can also text a crisis counselor by messaging the Crisis Text Line at 741741.
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KEY LAWYERS INVOLVED IN LITIGATION AGAINST T-MOBILE:
| Barrett J. Vahle Stueve Siegel Hanson, LLP – KCMO 460 Nichols Road Suite 200 Kansas City, MO 64112 (816) 714-7100 Fax: (816) 714-7101 Email: vahle@stuevesiegel.com |
Daniel J Mogin MOGINRUBIN LLP 600 W BROADWAY STE 3300 SAN DIEGO, CA 92101 619-798-5333 Email: dmogin@moginrubin.com |
| James Pizzirusso Hausfeld LLP 888 16th Street Ste 300 Washington, DC 20006 202-540-7200 Fax: 202-540-7201 Email: jpizzirusso@hausfeld.com |
Jason T Dennett TOUSLEY BRAIN STEPHENS 1200 FIFTH AVE STE 1700 SEATTLE, WA 98101 206-682-5600 Fax: 206-682-2992 Email: jdennett@tousley.com |
| Jennifer M Oliver MOGINRUBIN LLP 600 W BROADWAY STE 3300 SAN DIEGO, CA 92101 619-798-5361 Email: joliver@moginrubin.com |
John Austin Moore Stueve Siegel Hanson, LLP – KCMO 460 Nichols Road Suite 200 Kansas City, MO 64112 816-714-7100 Fax: 816-714-7101 Email: moore@stuevesiegel.com |
| Jonathan L Rubin MOGINRUBIN LLP (DC) 1615 M ST NW STE THIRD FL WASHINGTON, DC 20037 202-630-0616 Email: jrubin@moginrubin.com |
Kaleigh N.B. Powell TOUSLEY BRAIN STEPHENS 1200 FIFTH AVE STE 1700 SEATTLE, WA 98101 206-682-5600 Fax: 206-682-2992 Email: kpowell@tousley.com |
| Kim D Stephens TOUSLEY BRAIN STEPHENS 1200 FIFTH AVE STE 1700 SEATTLE, WA 98101 206-682-5600 Email: kstephens@tousley.com |
Norman Eli Siegel Stueve Siegel Hanson, LLP – KCMO 460 Nichols Road Suite 200 Kansas City, MO 64112 (816) 714-7112 Fax: (816) 714-7101 Email: siegel@stuevesiegel.com |
| Steven M Nathan Hausfeld 33 Whitehall Street Ste 14th Floor New York, NY 10004 646-357-1100 Fax: 212-202-4322 Email: snathan@hausfeld.com |
Timothy Z LaComb MOGINRUBIN LLP 600 W BROADWAY STE 3300 SAN DIEGO, CA 92101 619-798-5362 Email: tlacomb@moginrubin.com |
| Beth E Terrell TERRELL MARSHALL LAW GROUP PLLC 936 N 34TH ST STE 300 SEATTLE, WA 98103-8869 206-816-6603 Fax: 206-319-5450 Email: bterrell@terrellmarshall.com |
John A Yanchunis MORGAN & MORGAN COMPLEX LITIGATION GROUP (FL) 201 N FRANKLIN ST 7TH FL TAMPA, FL 33602 813-223-5505 Email: jyanchunis@ForThePeople.com |
| Kaitlyn T Holzer MURPHY & FALCON PA 1 SOUTH ST STE 30TH FLOOR BALTIMORE, MD 21202 410-539-6500 Fax: 410-539-6599 Email: kaitlyn.holzer@murphyfalcon.com |
Michael Anderson Berry ARNOLD LAW FIRM 865 HOWE AVE SACRAMENTO, CA 95825 916-777-7777 Email: aberry@justice4you.com |
| Nikoletta Sara Mendrinos 1 SOUTH ST 30TH FLOOR BALTIMORE, MD 21202 410-951-8824 Fax: 410-539-6599 Email: nikoletta.mendrinos@murphyfalcon.com |
Ryan Maxey MORGAN & MORGAN PA (FL) 201 N FRANKLIN ST STE 700 TAMPA, FL 33602 813-577-4722 Fax: 813-257-0572 Email: rmaxey@forthepeople.com |
| William Hughes Murphy , III MURPHY & FALCON PA 1 SOUTH ST STE 30TH FLOOR BALTIMORE, MD 21202 410-539-6500 Fax: 410-539-6599 Email: hassan.murphy@murphyfalcon.com |
Carlton R. Jones Herman Jones LLP 3424 Peachtree Road NE Suite 1650 Atlanta, GA 30326 404-504-6500 Email: cjones@hermanjones.com |
| John C. Herman Duane Morris 1180 W Peachtree Street NW Suite 700 Atlanta, GA 30309-3448 404-253-6900 Fax: 404-253-6901 Email: JCHerman@duanemorris.com |
Peter M. Jones Herman Jones LLP 3424 Peachtree Road NE Suite 1650 Atlanta, GA 30326 404-504-6500 Email: pjones@hermanjones.com |
| Marc J. Held Lazarowitz & Manganillo LLP 2004 Ralph Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11234 718-531-9700 Fax: 718-444-5768 Email: marcheldesq@gmail.com |
Philip M. Hines Held & Hines, LLP 2004 Ralph Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11234 718-531-9700 Fax: 718-444-5768 Email: phines@heldhines.com |
| Alexis M Wood Law Offices of Ronald A Marron APLC 651 Arroyo Drive San Diego, CA 92103 619-696-9006 Fax: 619-564-6665 Email: alexis@consumersadvocates.com |
Amanda Grace Fiorilla Lowey Dannenberg, P.C. 44 South Broadway, Suite 1100 White Plains, NY 10601 914-733-7266 Email: afiorilla@lowey.com |
| Christian Levis Lowey Dannenberg, P.C. 44 South Broadway, Suite 1100 White Plains, NY 10601 (914) 997-0500 Fax: (914) 997-0035 Email: clevis@lowey.com |
Kas Larene Gallucci Law Offices of Ronald A. Marron 651 Arroyo Drive San Diego, CA 92103 619-696-9006 Email: kas@consumersadvocates.com |
| Margaret C. MacLean Lowey Dannenberg, P.C. 44 South Broadway, Suite 1100 White Plains, NY 10601 914-997-0500 Email: mmaclean@lowey.com |
Ronald A. Marron Law Offices of Ronald A. Marron 651 Arroyo Drive San Diego, CA 92103 619-696-9006 Email: ron@consumersadvocates.com |
| Jonathan Shub Seeger Weiss, LLP 1515 Market Street Suite 1380 Philadelphia, PA 19102 (215) 564-2300 Fax: (215) 851-8029 Email: jshub@seegerweiss.com |
Anne-Marie E Sargent CONNOR & SARGENT PLLC 921 HILDEBRAND LANE NE STE 240 BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, WA 98110 206-654-4011 Email: aes@cslawfirm.net |
| Brian C Gudmundson Zimmerman Reed PLLP 80 South Eighth Street 1100 IDS Center Minneapolis, MN 55402 612-341-0400 Fax: 612-341-0844 Email: brian.gudmundson@zimmreed.com |
Carey Alexander SCOTT + SCOTT LLP (NY) THE HELMSLEY BUILDING 230 PARK AVE STE 17TH FLOOR NEW YORK, NY 10169 212-223-6444 Email: calexander@scott-scott.com |
| Erin Green Comite Scott&Scott, Attorneys at Law, LLP 156 South Main Street P.O. Box 192 Colchester, CT 06415 860-537-5537 Fax: 860-537-4432 Email: ecomite@scott-scott.com |
Gary F Lynch Lynch Carpenter, LLP 1133 Penn Avenue, 5th Floor Pittsburgh, PA 15222 412-322-9243 Email: Gary@lcllp.com |
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| Rachel Kristine Tack ZIMMERMAN REED LLP (MN) 1100 IDS CENTER 80 SOUTH 8TH STREET MINNEAPOLIS, MN 55402 612-341-0400 Email: rachel.tack@zimmreed.com |
David B Owens LOEVY & LOEVY 100 S KING STREET STE 100 SEATTLE, WA 98014 312-243-5900 Email: David@loevy.com |
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| Samuel M. Ward Barrack Rodos & Bacine 600 West Broadway Suite 900 San Diego, CA 92101 619-230-0800 Fax: 619-230-1874 Email: sward@barrack.com |
Stephen R Basser BARRACK RODOS & BACINE 600 W BROADWAY STE 900 SAN DIEGO, CA 92101 619-230-0800 Email: sbasser@barrack.com |
| Wright A Noel CARSON & NOEL PLLC 20 SIXTH AVENUE NORTHEAST ISSAQUAH, WA 98027 425-395-7786 Email: wright@carsonnoel.com |
Gavin P Kassel Sanford A Kassel Law Offices APLC Wells Fargo Bank Building 334 West Third Street San Bernardino, CA 92401-1823 909-884-6451 Fax: 909-884-8032 Email: gkassel@gmail.com |
| Sanford Alan Kassel Sanford A Kassel Law Offices APLC Wells Fargo Bank Building 334 West 3rd Street Suite 207 San Bernardino, CA 92401-1823 909-884-6451 Fax: 909-884-8032 Email: office@skassellaw.com |
Shawn C Westrick Westrick Law Firm 2219 Main Street Suite 463 Santa Monica, CA 90405 310-746-5303 Email: swestrick@westricklawfirm.com |
| Jason Hartley HARTLEY LLP 101 W BROADWAY STE 820 SAN DIEGO, CA 92101 619-400-5822 Email: hartley@hartleyllp.com |
Laurence D King Kaplan Fox & Kilsheimer LLP 350 Sansome Ste. 400 San Franciso, CA 94104 (415) 772-4700 Fax: (415) 772-4707 Email: lking@kaplanfox.com |
| Matthew George KAPLAN FOX & KILSHEIMER LLP 1999 HARRISON ST STE 1560 OAKLAND, CA 94104 415-772-4700 Email: mgeorge@kaplanfox.com |
Cari Campen Laufenberg KELLER ROHRBACK LLP (WA) 1201 3RD AVE STE 3200 SEATTLE, WA 98101-3052 206-623-1900 Email: claufenberg@kellerrohrback.com |
| Christopher L Springer KELLER ROHRBACK LLP 801 GARDEN ST STE 301 SANTA BARBARA, CA 93101 805-456-1496 Email: cspringer@kellerrohrback.com |
Derek W. Loeser Keller Rohrback L.L.P. 1201 Third Ave., #3200 Seattle, WA 98101-3052 206-623-1900 Email: dloeser@kellerrohrback.com |
| Emma Marguerite Wright KELLER ROHRBACK LLP (WA) 1201 3RD AVE STE 3200 SEATTLE, WA 98101-3052 206-257-9229 Email: ewright@kellerrohrback.com |
Gretchen Freeman Cappio Keller Rohrback L.L.P. 1201 Third Ave., #3200 Seattle, WA 98101-3052 206-623-1900 Email: gcappio@KellerRohrback.com |
| Juli E. Farris KELLER ROHRBACK 1201 3RD AVE STE 3200 SEATTLE, WA 98101-3052 206-623-1900 Fax: 206-623-3384 Email: jfarris@KellerRohrback.com |
Thomas E Loeser HAGENS BERMAN SOBOL SHAPIRO LLP (WA) 1301 2ND AVENUE STE 2000 SEATTLE, WA 98101 206-623-7292 Fax: 206-623-0594 Email: TomL@hbsslaw.com |
| Manish Borde BORDE LAW PLLC 600 STEWART ST, SUITE 400 SEATTLE, WA 98101 206-905-6129 Email: mborde@bordelaw.com |
Courtney Maccarone LEVI & KORSINSKY LLP (NY) 55 BROADWAY 10TH FLOOR NEW YORK, NY 10006 212-363-7500 Email: cmaccarone@zlk.com |
| Mark Reich LEVI & KORSINSKY LLP (NY) 55 BROADWAY 10TH FLOOR STE 10006 NEW YORK, NY 10006 212-363-7500 Email: mreich@zlk.com |
Matthew James Ide 7900 SE 28TH STREET, STE 500 MERCER ISLAND, WA 98040 206-625-1326 Fax: 206-622-0909 Email: mjide@yahoo.com |
| Adam J Zapala COTCHETT PITRE & MCCARTHY LLP 840 MALCOM RD STE 200 BURLINGAME, CA 94010 650-697-6000 Fax: 650-697-0577 Email: azapala@cpmlegal.com |
Elizabeth Tran Castillo COTCHETT PITRE & MCCARTHY LLP 840 MALCOM RD STE 200 BURLINGAME, CA 94010 650-697-6000 Email: ecastillo@cpmlegal.com |
| Kaiyi A Xie COTCHETT PITRE & MCCARTHY LLP 840 MALCOM RD STE 200 BURLINGAME, CA 94010 650-697-6000 Email: kxie@cpmlegal.com |
Karin Bornstein Swope COTCHETT PITRE & MCCARTHY LLP (SEATTLE) 7511 GREENWOOD AVE N STE 4057 SEATTLE, WA 98103 206-778-2123 Email: kswope@cpmlegal.com |
| Reid Wilson Wayman Gaa COTCHETT PITRE & MCCARTHY LLP 840 MALCOM RD STE 200 BURLINGAME, CA 94010 650-697-6000 Fax: 650-697-0577 Email: rgaa@cpmlegal.com |
Amy Elisabeth Keller DICELLO LEVITT GUTZLER LLC TEN N DEARBORN ST STE 6TH FL CHICAGO, IL 60602 312-214-7900 Email: akeller@dicellolevitt.com |
| James Arthur Ulwick DICELLO LEVITT GUTZLER LLC 10 N DEARBOR ST 6TH FL CHICAGO, IL 60602 301-467-6038 Email: julwick@dicellolevitt.com |
William B. Federman Federman & Sherwood 10205 N. Pennsylvania Avenue Oklahoma City, OK 73120 (405) 235-1560 Fax: (405) 239-2112 Email: wbf@federmanlaw.com |
| Brian James Dunne Bathaee Dunne LLP 633 West Fifth Street 26th Floor Los Angeles, CA 90071 213-462-2772 Email: bdunne@bathaeedunne.com |
Edward Maxwell Grauman Bathaee Dunne LLP 7000 North MoPac Expressway, Suite 200 Austin, TX 78731 512-575-8848 Email: egrauman@bathaeedunne.com |
| Yavar Bathaee Bathaee Dunne LLP 445 Park Avenue 9th Floor New York, NY 10022 332-205-7668 Email: yavar@bathaeedunne.com |
Laurence M. Rosen The Rosen Law Firm, P.A. One Gateway Center, Suite 2600 Newark, NJ 07102 (973) 313-1887 Email: lrosen@rosenlegal.com |
| Christopher L. Ayers Seeger Weiss LLP 55 Challenger Road 6th Floor Ridgefield Park, NJ 07660 973-639-9100 Email: cayers@seegerweiss.com |
Joseph H. Meltzer Barroway Topaz Kessler Meltzer & Check LLP 280 King of Prussia Road Radnor, PA 19087 (610) 667-7706 Fax: (610) 667-7056 Email: jmeltzer@btkmc.com |
| Kevin G. Cooper Carella Byrne Cecchi Olstein Brody & Agnello 5 Becker Farm Road Roseland, NJ 07068 973-994-1700 Email: kcooper@carellabyrne.com |
CHRISTOPHER L. AYERS SEEGER WEISS LLP 55 Challenger Road 6th Floor Ridgefield Park, NJ 07660 973-639-9100 Email: cayers@seegerweiss.com |
| Christopher A. Seeger Seeger Weiss LLP 55 Challenger Road 6th Floor Ridgefield Park, NJ 07660 973-639-9100 Fax: 973-639-9393 Email: cseeger@seegerweiss.com |
James E. Cecchi Carella Byrne Bain Gilfillan Cecchi Stewart & Olstein PC 5 Becker Farm Road Roseland, NJ 07068 973 994-1700 Fax: 973 994-1744 Email: jcecchi@carellabyrne.com |
| Catherine B. Derenze Lite DePalma Greenberg & Afanador, LLC 570 Broad Street Ste 1201 Newark, NJ 07102 973-623-3000 Fax: 973-623-0858 Email: cderenze@litedepalma.com |
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Jennifer Marie Oliver Moginrubin LLP 600 West Broadway, Suite 3300 San Diego, CA 92101 (619) 687-6611 Fax: (619) 687-6610 Email: joliver@moginrubin.com |
| Molly Brantley Federman & Sherwood 10205 N. Pennsylvania Ave. Oklahoma City, OK 73120 405-235-1560 Fax: 405-239-2112 Email: meb@federmanlaw.com |
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Roger M Townsend BRESKIN JOHNSON & TOWNSEND PLLC 1000 SECOND AVENUE, SUITE 3670 SEATTLE, WA 98104 206-652-8660 Fax: 206-652-8290 Email: rtownsend@bjtlegal.com |
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| Jessica Lynne Lukasiewicz Thomas & Solomon LLP 693 East Avenue Rochester, NY 14607 585-272-0540 Fax: 585-272-0574 Email: jlukasiewicz@theemploymentattorneys.com |
T-Mobile data breach 2021: Here’s what it means for securing your …
data-privacy-security-hackers-hacking-unlock-iphone-0991 … The alleged hacker behind T–Mobile’s latest cyberattack has spoken out about …
The T-Mobile Data Breach Is One You Can’t Ignore | WIRED
And given how regularly they happen, it’s understandable that you may have become inured to the news. Still, a T–Mobile breach that hackers …
The T-Mobile Breach Is Much Worse Than It Had to Be | WIRED
The vast majority of victims weren’t even T–Mobile customers. … Privacy advocates have long promoted the concept of data minimization, …
T-Mobile data breach exposed the personal info of more … – The Verge
T–Mobile admitted that a recent data breach exposed info for over 40 million “former or prospective customers,” 7.8 million subscribers, …
https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/16/t-mobile-confirms-it-was-hacked-after-customer-data-posted-online/
T-Mobile confirms it was hacked after customer data posted online
T–Mobile has confirmed “unauthorized access” to its systems, days after a portion of customer data was listed for sale on a known …
The United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation issued a Transfer Order on December 3, 2021, assigning MDL No. 3019 to this Court for coordinated or consolidated pretrial proceedings, and describing this multidistrict litigation as follows. These putative class actions present common factual questions concerning an alleged data security breach of T-Mobile’s systems that was discovered in August 2021 and allegedly compromised the personal information of approximately 54 million current, former, and prospective customers of T-Mobile. Common factual questions will include: T-Mobile’s data security practices and whether those practices met industry standards; how the malfeasance obtained access to T-Mobile’s system; the extent of the personal information affected by the breach; when T-Mobile knew or should have known of the breach; and T-Mobile’s investigation into the breach.
If THE CHINESE SECRET POLICE CAN GET ONE BILLION CITIZENS RECORDS HACKED:
Chinese police database hack leaks data of 1 billion people.. ONE BILLION!!! …Then how can T-Mobile prove that the records they keep on us won’t be hacked again, and again and again!!!
DELETE YOUR RECORDS T-MOBILE!!!!
DISCONNECT ALL YOUR NETWORK AND FEEDBACK LOOPS FROM GOOGLE, FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, NETFLIX, YOUTUBE, ETC T-MOBILE!!!!
STOP SELLING DEATH T-MOBILE — STOP KILLING TEENS AND POWERING MASS SHOOTERS
“GUNS DON’T KILL PEOPLE: ALEC BALDWIN AND T-MOBILE’S CRAZY TECH KILLS PEOPLE” – Say Experts
“LET’S TAKE A LOOK AT HOW MANY SCHOOL SHOOTERS AND MASS PUBLIC SHOOTERS HAD T-MOBILE ACCOUNTS. DID T-MOBILE ENABLE THE RADICALIZATION OF THOSE KIDS?”, ask researchers…
HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM T-MOBILE TECHNICAL ABUSE:
https://www.privacytools.io/
ATTACKS AND CENSORSHIP BY THE T-MOBILE-GOOGLE-ALPHABET-YOUTUBE-FACEBOOK CARTEL: We have placed more software sensors on more server networks globally than anyone else has ever announced. When the T-Mobile-Google-Alphabet-YouTube, etc. Cartel Shadow Bans, DNS re-routes, Hides, Demonetizes, Search Manipulates, Server Table Edits, Censors, Election Rigs, SEO limits, etc; our links, we record it, document it technically and report it to every regulatory and publishing group in the world. We also compile the data into evidence for lawsuits against the Tech Cartel and each Tec Cartel executive. Our insiders work at the deepest levels of their operation. It isn’t nice to mess with Mother Nature or Freedom Of Speech. It’s worse to run tax evasion, sex trafficking, dark money funds, real estate fraud and other crimes from inside Google! —- Our autonomous monitoring applications are on a vast number of co-location servers, shared hosting ISP’s, stand-alone servers and sites around the world and have been operating for over ten years. We log: 1.) Their search results compared to other search engines, 2.) Their DNS and spoofing activities, 3.) Their results on 100 key search terms including search terms of assets, candidates and business associates connected to the Cartel (ie: “Obama”, “Elon Musk”, “Election Results”, etc.), 4.) Where the Cartel sends data from users clicking on their supplied supplied links, 5.) Where fabricated “mole” data that was injected as user data ultimately ended up later, 6.)The Cartel’s election manipulation attempts, and other metrics. The results prove that the Cartel abuses the market, the public, privacy rights, politics and human rights. —-
So you tech bad guys, every time you do it, you are just digging your own grave and giving us all the proof we need to wipe you out, process anti-trust filings and expose your monopolist, sex trafficking, sociopath owners!
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Some of the experts on our Team told T-Mobile, for decades, that their network was not secure. What did T-Mobile do? Ignored them and copied their patents and STILL T-Mobile could not get security technology right? Why? Many think that T-Mobile sacrificed security for buddy-buddy deals with Google, Facebook, Instagram, Netflix, YouTube and the other scumbag Silicon Valley Big Tech consumer data harvesting operations. If that theory is correct, then T-Mobile CHOSE to harm consumers in a PROFITS-OVER-PUBLIC SAFETY decision! Let’s investigate that!
Facebook, Google and Instagram Facing Lawsuits for Teen Mental Health Crisis After Causing 5500 Teens PER DAY To Attempt Suicide
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Neumann Law Group is now investigating claims against Meta Platforms, Inc., the parent company of Facebook and Instagram for their intentional manipulation of the mental health of young and at-risk users of their products. In October 2021, a Facebook whistleblower testified to the U.S. Senate how Facebook, Instagram, and Meta used tactics to manipulate young people into using their products for extended periods of time and intentionally created a toxic environment leading to significant psychological harm to America’s youth. Learn More at Neumann Law Group SEE THIS LINK, THIS HAPPENS EVERY FEW HOURS THANKS TO MARK AND SHERYL: Every few hours another teen is MURDERED by Facebook/Instagram executives. Nobody does anything about it because California politicians OWN the stock in Facebook/Instagram and also get their political campaign cash from Facebook/Instagram/Google !!! Should Mark Zuckerberg be charged with Homicide? He knew, for over a decade, that he was killing these kids, but buying a part of Hawaii is expensive, and he needed the cash! THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS CAN MAKE INSTAGRAM AND FACEBOOK DISAPPEAR OFF THE INTERNET, IN ANY 60 SECOND PERIOD, SIMPLY BY ORDERING DOJ TO DELETE THEIR DNS RECORDS. BOOM! GONE! DEMAND THAT YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS ORDER THE DNS RECORDS FOR INSTAGRAM AND FACEBOOK DELETED, AND NOT TURNED BACK ON, UNTIL FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM PROVE TO CONGRESS THAT NO TEENS WILL BE AFFECTED BY THEIR SITES AGAIN! DO YOU REALLY WANT YOUR KIDS ANYWHERE NEAR FACEBOOK AND THEIR VR SEX PERVERTS?:
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- Were you a minor when you signed up for Facebook and/or Instagram;
- Were you using Facebook and/or Instagram for more than three (3) hours per day at that time; and
- Have you received documented mental health treatment (with no prior history of mental health issues)?
Facebook grilled in Senate hearing over teen mental health – Sheryl Sandberg knew…
techcrunch.com/…/30/facebook-grilled-in-senate-hearing-over-teen-mental-health
Facebook grilled in Senate hearing over teen mental health. Last night, Facebook published two annotated slide decks in an attempt to contextualize the documents that The Wall Street Journal …
Facebook’s whistleblower report confirms what researchers …
theverge.com/2021/10/6/22712927/facebook-instagram-teen-mental-health-research
Internal research at Facebook showing that Instagram might be harmful to the mental health of teen girls is in line with other research in the field. That complicates efforts to minimize the findings.
This is Facebook’s internal research on the mental health effects of …
theverge.com/2021/9/29/22701445/facebook-instagram-mental-health-research…
The release of the research arrives the evening before a Congressional hearing on the effect of Facebook and Instagram on kids’ mental health. That hearing is scheduled for Thursday at 10:30AM ET .
bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-09-22/instagram-youth-adds-risk-to…
So perhaps it isn’t surprising that an internal research effort at the company, revealed last week, found that teens associate the service with a host of men
Facebook Very Aware That Instagram Harms Teen Mental Health But Profits On Its Crimes
thecut.com/2021/09/facebook-very-aware-that-instagram-harms-teen-mental…
For several months now, Facebook execs have been kicking around an eerie product idea few people seem to want: Instagram for Kids.
Facebook knows Instagram is bad for teenagers’ mental healthbut wants the profits anyway
businessinsider.com/facebook-internal-report-shows-instagram-bad-for-teens…
Facebook’s internal research shows that teen users’ mental health is negatively impacted by using the company’s photo- and video-sharing app, Instagram.
Want to help end the tech oligarch’s rape of society? Never, EVER: use, read, quote, link to, paste from, or refer to; anything on corrupt and contrived: Twitter – Google – Alphabet – Facebook – Meta – Instagram – Netflix or YouTube! Don’t expand their reach! Don’t be their digital bitch! Stop being an addict to Silicon Valley’s social media scam! Keep the battery out of your phone so Big Tech can’t continue to spy on you. Did you know you CAN’T turn an iPhone off. Apple iPhone’s pretend to be “off” but still monitor you with reserve power. The government should shut these companies down but they don’t because these companies pay the largest bribes on Earth to politicians! Demand that Congress shut down these big tech abusers that cause child suicides, bullying, sex trafficking, money laundering, tax evasion, political bribery, election manipulation and other social crimes.
Have you, or your teen, suffered from?
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Eating disorders
- Body Dysmorphia
- Self-harm
- ADD/ADHD
- ODD
- Selling their bodies (Instagram is now the #1 source IN THE WORLD, for teenage prostitutes. Rappers spend 1/2 the day talking young girls on Instagram into ‘free plane tickets’)
- Suicidal ideation
- Suicidal attempts
- Any and all other mental health illnesses
Facebook acknowledges Instagram’s damage to teen mental health, but …
mashable.com/article/facebook-instagram-teen-body-image
The Wall Street Journal viewed several internal Facebook documents discussing the issue of teen mental health, the company having performed various focus groups and surveys between 2019 and 2021 …
Harmed by Social Media: Facebook, Instagram Linked to Teen Mental …
omalleylangan.com/posts/facebook-linked-to-teen-mental-health-issues
Hold social media platforms accountable for their actions. Contact our law firm to explore your options. Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram have been linked to a recent increase in depression and other mental health issues among teenagers, according to researchers and journalists studying this issue, including an in-depth investigation conducted by The Wall Street Journal and …
Facebook Knew Instagram Was Harmful to Mental Health of Teen Girls … Profits over Child Safety
verywellmind.com/facebook-knew-instagram-was-harmful-to-mental-health-of…
One internal Facebook presentation stated that among teens who reported suicidal thoughts, 13% of British users and 6% of American users believed Instagram was to blame.Facebook also found that 14% of boys in the U.S. said Instagram made them feel worse about themselves, reported the Journal.Researchers highlighted Instagram’s Explore page, which provides users with curated posts from a wide …
Facebook publishes slides on how Instagram affects teen mental health
yahoo.com/entertainment/facebook-research-instagram-teen-mental-health…
Facebook has published two slide decks detailing its research into how Instagram affects teens’ mental health. The slides were heavily cited by The Wall Street Journal earlier this month in a …
Do you believe that you or a loved one may have experienced psychological harm due to the negligence of Google, Instagram, Facebook? Call Neumann Law Group today to discuss your claim and share this notice with those you care about below:
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END FACEBOOK’S, GOOGLE’S, YOUTUBE’S, INSTAGRAM’S AND NETFLIX DARK MONEY PAYOLA TO OUR POLITICIANS
YOU CAN’T PROTECT YOUR KIDS IF FACEBOOK, GOOGLE, INSTAGRAM, YOUTUBE AND NETFLIX GET TO BRIBE YOUR SENATORS TO AVOID REGULATION
GOOGLE IS RUN BY CHILD SEX PERVERTS
Google whistleblower claims tech giant’s Developer Studio division has been infiltrated by ‘pedophilic religious doomsday cult’ Fellowship of Friends that was featured in a Spotify podcast series called ‘Revelations’ last year
- Kevin Lloyd, 34, was a video producer for Google Developer Studio from 2017 until he was fired in February 2021
- Lloyd in August 2021 filed a lawsuit at California Superior Court alleging that he lost his job because he questioned a ‘cult’ that many of his colleagues joined
- Earlier this month Lloyd wrote a Medium post about his time at Google, and his concerns about Fellowship of Friends
- Google insist that they are unaware of a person’s religious beliefs during hiring; Lloyd says they know about the influence of the cult, but turn a blind eye
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An apocalyptic ‘cult’ led by an eccentric misogynist accused of sexual abuse of young men has taken over a division of Google, a whistleblower has claimed.
Kevin Lloyd, 34, claims that he was fired from his job as a video developer at Google last year because he began questioning the influence of the cult.
In August, Lloyd filed a discrimination case in California Superior Court, alleging he was fired for digging into Fellowship of Friends – a group based in the small Californian town of Oregon House, and whose members made up a large percentage of employees in his division.
‘Plaintiff’s preliminary research into Oregon House and the Fellowship of Friends described the Fellowship as a destructive cult, with a pedophilic leader who makes false prophecies about the end of the world,’ the lawsuit claims.
‘Plaintiff became alarmed that Google was involved with and/or financially supporting such an organization.’
Earlier this month, Lloyd wrote a lengthy description of his case on Medium, and spoke to The New York Times – who corroborated many of the lawsuit’s claims through interviews with eight current and former employees of the Google business unit.
Kevin Lloyd, 34, claims he lost his job at Google because he raised concerns about how many people within the Google Developer Studio were affiliated with Fellowship of Friends
Google’s campus in Mountain View is 180 miles from the small town of Oregon House, population 1,250 – yet half of the people Lloyd met were from Oregon House, he said
Lloyd said he began work at Google in 2017, as part of Google Developer Studio (GDS) – the tech giant’s internal production company, making adverts and video content.
He said it slowly dawned on him that many of the people he met at GDS were from the same small Californian town, 180 miles north of Google’s Silicon Valley home, in Mountain View.
Polygamous cult leader Warren Jeffs, 66, is pictured in new… 
EXCLUSIVE: ‘It’s a cult that brainwashes kids into believing… Share this article
The town of Oregon House is home to 1,250 people, and yet Lloyd said he realized that half of the 25 people he met at GDS were from the same town.
Lloyd said he noticed that many of the outside vendors, such as caterers and entertainers at corporate events, were also from Oregon House.
In 2018, Lloyd said, he was speaking to a freelancer who was working with them that day, and was from a town near Oregon House.
Lloyd recalls the freelancer telling him: ‘Oregon House isn’t a town. It’s a cult.’
He began investigating the freelancer’s claim, and said he was shocked by what he found.
‘There are online support groups for former Fellowship of Friends members to help them process the trauma endured during their membership, as well as problems that arise after leaving,’ Lloyd’s lawsuit states.
Fellowship of Friends, which is based in Oregon House, was founded in 1970 by Robert Earl Burton, a former school teacher in the San Francisco Bay area.
‘From its inception the vision of the Fellowship was, and remains, to establish a practical spiritual organization and to make it available to anyone interested in pursuing the spiritual work of awakening,’ they state on their website.
Robert Earl Burton, now believed to be around 83, founded Fellowship of Friends in 1970. He has been accused in multiple lawsuits of sexual abuse
Burton is seen with a European artwork purchased with the organization’s cash. Members must give 10 percent of their earnings to the group
Burton, believed to be now aged in his early 80s, sought to create a center celebrating the fine arts – with opera, ballet, works of art and literature the focus.
He based his organization in Oregon House, and created a winery where his devotees worked, when not studying the arts.
Google even purchased wine, the lawsuit claims, from the Grant Marie Winery, an allegedly cult-affiliated vineyard run by a Fellowship member in Oregon House.
But critics claimed that he had sexually abused new members of his group – in particular young boys.
In 1984 a former member filed a $2.75 million lawsuit claiming that young men who joined the organization ‘had been forcefully and unlawfully sexually seduced by Burton,’ according to documents obtained by The New York Times.
In 1996, another former member accused Burton in a law suit of sexual misconduct with him while he was minor. Both suits were settled out of court.
Some accusers, Lloyd alleged, had been flown to the country under false pretenses and then abused.
Members of Fellowship of Friends are seen with Burton (left, in pale blue suit) holding a meeting
In September, investigative journalist Jennings Brown published a six-part podcast produced for Spotify, entitled Revelations.
Brown had spent three years from 2018 digging into the group, and documented allegations of sexual abuse in what he termed a ‘doomsday cult’.
Lloyd said he was aghast that GDS was so strongly linked to the Fellowship, with GDS’s director, Peter Lubbers, described as a longtime member of the group, who joined shortly after he moved to the U.S. from the Netherlands.
Lubbers introduced a video producer named Gabe Pannell to the Fellowship: Pannell was pictured with Burton in 2015, and described as a ‘new student’, The New York Times report.
Lloyd’s lawsuit states: ‘Mr Lubbers gained status and praise relative to the increase of money flowing to the Fellowship through his efforts at Google that put (and kept) other Fellowship members — directly or indirectly — on Google’s payroll.’
Lubbers insisted faith had nothing to do with his hiring.
‘My personal religious beliefs are a deeply held private matter,’ Lubbers told The New York Times.
‘In all my years in tech, they have never played a role in hiring. I have always performed my role by bringing in the right talent for the situation — bringing in the right vendors for the jobs.’
Pannell told the paper that those hired were brought in from ‘a circle of trusted friends and families with extremely qualified backgrounds’.
Lloyd, in his Medium post – which does not name Lubbers or Pannell – said that anxiety about the Fellowship, and its reputation, sparked a panic attack, for which he was admitted to ER.
He said in his court documents that he worried events he produced ‘could somehow be used to funnel money back into the Fellowship of Friends.’
Burton is seen in a 1981 photo at Oregon House. In 1984, a former member filed a $2.75 million lawsuit claiming that young men who joined the organization ‘had been forcefully and unlawfully sexually seduced by Burton,’ according to documents obtained by The New York Times. The suit was settled out of court
Fired in February 2021, he has retained a lawyer who previously represented a woman at Lubbers’ previous company, Kelly Services, and sued in 2008 in a similar case.
Lynn Noyes claimed that Kelly Services had failed to promote her because she was not a member of the Fellowship.
A California court awarded her $6.5 million in damages.
‘Anyone outside of the Fellowship is seen as somehow inferior and at times adversarial,’ Lloyd’s lawsuit says.
‘Those that express serious concerns, criticism or question the group may be eventually perceived as enemies.’
Google told The New York Times that they were barred by law from inquiring about someone’s religious practices during the hiring process.
‘We have longstanding employee and supplier policies in place to prevent discrimination and conflicts of interest, and we take those seriously,’ a Google spokeswoman, Courtenay Mencini, said in a statement.
‘It’s against the law to ask for the religious affiliations of those who work for us or for our suppliers, but we’ll of course thoroughly look into these allegations for any irregularities or improper contracting practices.
‘If we find evidence of policy violations, we will take action.’
Fellowship of Friends was approached for comment.
3 ways your phone is spying on you | 12news.com
… “Your phone’s spying on you,” Golbeck said in a recent TikTok video. “Yes, it totally is. But it’s much more complicated than you think it …
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… Experts say the best way to check if your phone is spying on you is to set up a trap. Select a topic that wouldn’t normally be associated with …
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Edward Snowden: How Your Cell Phone Spies on You – YouTube
Taken from JRE #1368 w/Edward Snowden: https://youtu.be/efs3QRr8LWw.
Is my smartphone spying on me? – State of Michigan
App developers collect data on us, from names to credit card information. Many also track location by using your phone’s GPS capability and nearby cell towers.
Your Cell Phone Is Spying on You – Reason Magazine
… Your Cell Phone Is Spying on You · An FBI document reminds us: Your cell phone provider knows where you‘ve been—and will tell the feds.
Your smartphone is probably spying on you – The Mail & Guardian
… Your smartphone may appear to mysteriously know your latest interests and suggest them even before you hit the search button — because it …
How to Tell If Your Apps Are Spying on You – Popular Mechanics
… Apps could be secretly accessing your smartphone’s microphone and camera to spy on you, or collect data to serve you targeted ads.
Your Cell Phone Is a Spy! – American Bar Association
… Three years ago, I asked the question, “Is Your Internet Device Spying on You?” Now, instead of asking a question, I am telling you, “Your cell …
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… Overheating of the cell phone – The spying app is also capable of tracking the real-time location of your device.
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… Private information is very valuable, and people out there are trying to keep tabs on it by spying on you. Get it taken care of before you …
Is My Phone Listening to Me? How to Stop It – NordVPN
… We can definitely say that your phone is listening to you via your device’s onboard microphone. It always has to listen to you so it can hear …
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DISNEY AND T-MOBILE HOOK-UP COULD BE GOOD FOR MICKEY BUT BAD FOR KIDS AND FAMILIES:
Leaked Videos Show Disney And T-Mobile Is the Biggest Ad Tech Privacy Abuse Spy Scandal You’ve Never Heard Of
Watch beloved Disney and Star Wars characters explain how the company offers clients the ability to use Disney data and target particular audiences including little kids.
by Joseph Cox
Disney Luminate
Hacking. Disinformation. Surveillance. CYBER is Motherboard’s podcast and reporting on the dark underbelly of the internet.
The Muppets’ Bunsen and Beaker are best known for science experiments gone wrong while they’re explaining the nature of the universe; in videos obtained by Motherboard, however, they’re explaining something else altogether: Targeted online advertising.
“I’m tickled pink to announce a solution to all of your digital ad buying needs,” Bunsen says in the video. “Imagine a data powered solution that unlocks Disney’s portfolio of premium content and diverse audiences at scale, with automated flexible buying through a single storefront.”
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“The answer is Disney Advertising Sales Programmatic,” Bunsen adds.
In another video, Baymax from Disney’s Big Hero 6 explains how the company is focused on providing “ad experiences that are non-disruptive, relevant, and highly personalized.”
“Hulu mined the data on how viewers watch, and then pioneered non-disruptive ad formats, with pause and binge ads that respond to viewer behaviors and create a relevant ad experience,” they continue. They add that ESPN introduced new shorter and skippable ad formats that “meet the needs of today’s viewers” which encourage “increased audience consumption.”
The videos show that Disney and its ever-expanding portfolio of properties, which includes ABC, Hulu, ESPN, National Geographic, and FX, sees itself as a serious player in the world of ad tech. It’s an industry that has been traditionally dominated by Facebook and Google, but Amazon recently showed it’s become an ad giant as well. Some of the videos, created for an internal audience of sales employees at Disney, explain all of this through the words of some of the company’s most popular franchises, including The Incredibles, Star Wars, and more.
“Luminate is Disney’s powerful suite of advanced advertising products, all fuelled by a proprietary data library that leads the market in scope and quality,” Edna Mode, a character from The Incredibles, says in another video.
Although Disney’s move into ad tech is not brand new—a Disney spokesperson pointed to a few Disney blog posts dating over the last several years when asked for comment—the videos provide descriptions of Disney’s ad business that the public doesn’t ordinarily get to see. That, and their release come at a time when other companies which are traditionally known for creating their own content or for acquiring intellectual property are also exploring how to get into the world of ads.
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After long saying it would never do so, Netflix is now exploring a cheaper ad-supported version. Disney, for its part, has already figured out parts of this, boasting in the videos about the success rate of its ads on Hulu, which Disney has majority ownership of.
Do you have any more documents from an ad tech company? We’d love to hear from you. Using a non-work phone or computer, you can contact Joseph Cox securely on Signal on +44 20 8133 5190, Wickr on josephcox, OTR chat on jfcox@jabber.ccc.de, or email joseph.cox@vice.com.
And beyond entertainment companies, more tech giants have shifted into ad tech as well. Amazon, which is of course most well known for its online store and web infrastructure, is now also in the ad business. Everyone just wants to be an ad tech company, it seems.
Another Disney video, which is publicly accessible and from over two years ago, hints at the sort of data Disney has explored using. The video uses a Star Wars theme and says that Disney had plans to use credit card data and “survey-based pharma data.” The video starts with the iconic Star Wars scrolling text, and calls itself “Star Wars Episode X: The Rise of Audience Segments.”
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In that video, Dana McGraw, senior vice president, audience modeling and data science at Disney, says that Disney can append third-party data to its own Disney data. “For example, we license data to provide retail purchase information and psychographics about Disney visitors.”
She then adds that “we also work with geolocation data vendors.”
Another video mentions “Hulu Attribution Tool” under a section called “Disney Advanced Measurement.” It also describes the automated store where advertisers can purchase advertising space inside Disney properties. This video includes breakdowns from Disney executives such as Rita Ferro, president of Disney Ad Sales.
“I know so many of you recognise Disney as an entertainment leader of award winning franchises and stories that capture the hearts and minds of consumers around the world. But in the next hour, you will see why we are also leading the way in enabling advertising experiences that drive innovation, precision, and impact,” Ferro says in the clip.
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am I wrong or did tmobile offer disney plus free … – T-Mobile Community
How T-Mobile Causes School Shootings According To Psychologists And Experts
The highest murder rate in decades. The highest rates of robbery and rape. It’s no wonder a young man with mental health issues committed a horrendous act of violence.
2018?
No. 1980. T-Mobile has been doing this since 1980!
In 1980, the murder rate (murders per 100,000 population) was 10.2. If we could only go back to a more peaceful time. Say … 1960. Except 1960 was more violent than 2016 (the last year full details are available) — 5.1 murders per 100,000 compared to 5.0.
What can explain the actions of the accused Florida shooter, Nikolas Cruz? What else did Cruz have unlimited access to, that could have had an influence on him?
Social media. Especially access to violent and harmful social media.
Nikolas Cruz allegedly did everything except call law enforcement with the exact date, time and location of his intended massacre. Criminals don’t make appointments, but they do leave clues. Nikolas Cruz did — a ton of them, online:
- Instagram pictures of mutilated frogs, weapons and knives.
- “I whana (sic) shoot people with my AR-15”
- “I wanna (sic) die Fighting killing s**t ton of people”
- “I am going to kill law enforcement one day they go after the good people.”
- “Im (sic) going to be a professional school shooter.” Signed with his real name.
- “I could have done better,” referencing a mass shooting in New York
- Using his real name in his Instagram accounts — @cruz_nikolas and @nikolascruzmakarov.
- Snapchat (now Snap) video showing Cruz cutting his arms.
The real reason the FBI and local law enforcement didn’t connect the dots is because they don’t fully understand the new dots of social media. To grasp how social media can have such a massive impact, compare its growth and the tragic increase in the suicide rate for children and teens ages 10-19.
Since 2010, the monthly active users for Facebook has grown 300 percent to over 2 billion and for Twitter, 511 percent to 330 million. Since 2013, Whatsapp has grown 225 percent to over 1.4 billion and Instagram, 433 percent to 800 million. Since 2014, Snap has grown 159 percent to 187 million and Facebook Messenger, 140 percent to 1.2 billion.
YouTube is a little different. Watching video doesn’t need an account. To put this behemoth in perspective, there are 300 hours of video uploaded every minute. There are over 30 million visitors per day watching 5 billion videos.
From 2007 to 2015 (the last year data are available) the suicide rate for boys ages 10-14 increased 200 percent; for girls ages 10-14, 320 percent; for boys ages 15-19, 127 percent and for girls 15-19, 204 percent. Suicide went from the fourth leading cause of death for boys ages 10-14 to second. For girls ages 10-14, it went from sixth to third. Suicide passed homicide as the second leading cause of death for boys ages 15-19, and jumped from fourth to second for girls ages 15-19.
Consider further the lessening risks our children and teens face from homicide, compared to their risk for suicide, according to data from the FBI and CDC:
Fact 1: The homicide rate for 10-14 year olds in 2015 was half of what it was in 1979 (.05 vs .10).
Fact 2: The suicide rate for 10-14 year olds in 2015 is almost double what it was in 1979 (.13 vs .07). It’s the highest rate in over 36 years.
Fact 3: The homicide rate for 15-19 year olds in 2015 is almost half of what is was in 1979 (.45 vs .95).
Fact 4: The suicide rate for 15-19 year olds in 2015 was 21 percent lower than in 1979 (.63 vs .79). Starting in 2007, the suicide rate began increasing after 18 years of dropping. The homicide rate also peaked that same year. In 2011, suicide overtook homicide as a cause of death for both boys and girls age 15-19. Suicide has become the second leading cause of death for boys since 2008, and since 2013 for girls.
Children ages 10-19 are statistically twice as safe from homicide as they were 36 years ago, even though the population has increased 45 percent (225 million in 1979 to 325 million in 2015).
The deluge of negative social media can’t be ignored when the suicide rates for our children have increased on average 212 percent since 2007. Which begins to explain how Nikolas Cruz may have ended up with his warped view of reality.
Garbage in — garbage out.
Take Instagram as an example, where Cruz is alleged to have made many of his posts. Searching by hashtags reveals much of the violence, negative influence and harmful aspects. Want to see pictures of teens committing self-harm by cutting themselves with razors? Check #selfharmmm. Over 2 million posts. Cruz is thought to have also posted to Snap a video of cutting himself.
Another hashtag of #suicidal has over 4.7 million posts. And #suicide has over 7 million posts. On the morning of the shootings, I was conducting research of several posts on Instagram. The following, unrelated to the shooting, was posted on Feb. 14, shortly before 9 a.m. EST; the shootings at Douglas High School didn’t begin until about 2 p.m. EST:
I had been heads-down working on some large projects on Feb. 14: No news, no social media, no web surfing. I recorded this Facebook Live around 6 p.m., still unaware of the shootings. I showed this picture of the Instagram post and asked what parents would do if they saw their children had posted this. In fact, I had completed a guide on Instagram called Talking in Code: Instagram Hashtags-What You Don’t Know and Why It’s Dangerous.
In her book “iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids are Growing up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy — and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood — and What This Means for the Rest of Us,” Jean Twenge, PhD and professor of psychology at San Diego State University, conducted fascinating research into the generation Nikolas Cruz is smack in the middle of.
Her research showed that today’s connected 18-years-olds are more like 14-year-olds and 8th graders who spend 10 or more hours a week on social media are 56 percent more likely to be unhappy than those who don’t.
Teens are physically safer than ever, yet they are more mentally vulnerable.
Violence in — violence out.
I, Morgan Wright am an expert on cybersecurity strategy, cyberterrorism, identity theft and privacy. He’s currently a Senior Fellow at the Center for Digital Government. Previously Morgan was a senior advisor in the U.S. State Department Antiterrorism Assistance Program and senior law enforcement advisor.
The recent suicides of Ritu Sachdeva and Hillary “Kate” Kuizon, both 17-year-old seniors at Plano East Senior High School, in Plano, Texas, as well as those of two students at a prestigious all-boy preparatory high school in Bronx, N.Y. underscore the disturbing increase in suicide amongst young people— up at least 13 percent from 2010.
The reasons for this increase will be the subject of research studies for years, but I have a theory, which comes from my work with patients in this age group.
For some time now, I have noted that young people— including adolescents, teenagers and those in their 20s— are disconnected from the reality of their own existences. Facebook, Twitter, Tinder and the like have made them think of themselves as mini-reality-TV versions of themselves. Too many of them see their lives as a series of flickering photos or quick videos. They need constant doses of admiration and constant confirmation of their tenuous existence, which come in the form of Facebook “likes” and Twitter “retweets.”
This substitution of media for real meaning has not only been shown to weaken their self-esteem and their ability to sustain themselves through adversity, but it can cheapen the value they assign to life in general— including their own lives. If all the world is a stage of pixels, and young people see themselves as their tweets and Snapchat photos, then taking a fist-full of pills could seem like no more than the equivalent of shutting down a Facebook account or turning off an iPhone.
Call it, “Suicide by Social Media.”
See, to the extent that one is never truly alive, one can entertain the notion of killing oneself, without the normal psychological hurdles. People do not long grieve the death of fictional characters in film or TV. And our young people are at risk of seeing themselves as no more solid or substantive.
This is one reason, by the way, that drugs like heroin are rampant. Heroin kills real feelings. And young people are, increasingly, strangers to dealing with real feelings. Heroin is just the powdered equivalent of text messaging, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and the rest of the technology drugs Americans— especially American teen— are mainlining every single day.
This is one reason why young people are increasingly fascinated with dramas about vampires and zombies. They know something about the walking dead.
- The science of suicide clustering: How silence can increase stigma
- Suicide risk factors for US Army soldiers identified
- 3rd-generation Marine on a mission to bring awareness to veteran suicide
Yes, they try to insulate themselves by having more and more and more sex, with more and more partners, but, ultimately, that doesn’t convince them they are more than their bodies. To fully want to live, to fully resist death, even amidst adversity, one must be convinced that one has a soul and a true destiny.
The recent suicides of Ritu Sachdeva and Hillary “Kate” Kuizon, both 17-year-old seniors at Plano East Senior High School, in Plano, Texas, as well as those of two students at a prestigious all-boy preparatory high school in Bronx, N.Y. underscore the disturbing increase in suicide amongst young people— up at least 13 percent from 2010.
The reasons for this increase will be the subject of research studies for years, but I have a theory, which comes from my work with patients in this age group.
For some time now, I have noted that young people— including adolescents, teenagers and those in their 20s— are disconnected from the reality of their own existences. Facebook, Twitter, Tinder and the like have made them think of themselves as mini-reality-TV versions of themselves. Too many of them see their lives as a series of flickering photos or quick videos. They need constant doses of admiration and constant confirmation of their tenuous existence, which come in the form of Facebook “likes” and Twitter “retweets.”
This substitution of media for real meaning has not only been shown to weaken their self-esteem and their ability to sustain themselves through adversity, but it can cheapen the value they assign to life in general— including their own lives. If all the world is a stage of pixels, and young people see themselves as their tweets and Snapchat photos, then taking a fist-full of pills could seem like no more than the equivalent of shutting down a Facebook account or turning off an iPhone.
Call it, “Suicide by Social Media.”
See, to the extent that one is never truly alive, one can entertain the notion of killing oneself, without the normal psychological hurdles. People do not long grieve the death of fictional characters in film or TV. And our young people are at risk of seeing themselves as no more solid or substantive.
This is one reason, by the way, that drugs like heroin are rampant. Heroin kills real feelings. And young people are, increasingly, strangers to dealing with real feelings. Heroin is just the powdered equivalent of text messaging, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and the rest of the technology drugs Americans— especially American teen— are mainlining every single day.
This is one reason why young people are increasingly fascinated with dramas about vampires and zombies. They know something about the walking dead.
- The science of suicide clustering: How silence can increase stigma
- Suicide risk factors for US Army soldiers identified
- 3rd-generation Marine on a mission to bring awareness to veteran suicide
Yes, they try to insulate themselves by having more and more and more sex, with more and more partners, but, ultimately, that doesn’t convince them they are more than their bodies. To fully want to live, to fully resist death, even amidst adversity, one must be convinced that one has a soul and a true destiny.
Facebook will never achieve that. Neither will Twitter. Or Snapchat. Or YouTube. Or any other sorry excuse for communication, connection, admiration, respect or love.
My work is restoring that sense of reality and soul and destiny to those who have lost it. And too many young people— who are disciples of nothing more than technology— have lost it. For them, horrifically, precipitating their own deaths feels like little more than scripting the suicides of actors. And the expressions of grief from “friends” who then inscribe their posthumous Facebook pages are just a bunch of nonsense that perpetuates the epidemic.
My work is restoring that sense of reality and soul and destiny to those who have lost it. And too many young people— who are disciples of nothing more than technology— have lost it. For them, horrifically, precipitating their own deaths feels like little more than scripting the suicides of actors. And the expressions of grief from “friends” who then inscribe their posthumous Facebook pages are just a bunch of nonsense that perpetuates the epidemic.
T-Mobile’s partnership, hosting, promoting, networking, embedding of apps and political tricks with Silicon Valley social media companies is killing the world!
HOW ADOLPH HITLER CREATED T-MOBILE TO SPY ON JEWS AND PUSH PROPAGANDA
After Adolf Hitler came to power in January 1933, the Bundespost became an instrument of the Nazi totalitarian state and, as such, its propaganda machine. Letters and telephone calls were routinely intercepted and used to identify Jews and dissidents. During World War II telephone services of theBundespost continued to function right up until Allied occupation in all areas of Germany. However, the service was in chaos by the time of Germany’s surrender on May 7, 1945. Of the 3,420 buildings the Bundespost had owned before the war, 1,483 had been completely destroyed or damaged by bombing between 1940 and 1945, as well as during the fighting within Germany before its surrender. Many of its former personnel were dead or missing, and many telephone lines were cut.
As U.S., British, and Soviet forces assumed control of government, they also took over postal and telephone services. Between 1945 and 1947, political rifts and eventually the Cold War broke out between the Western allies and the Soviet Union. In 1947 the British and American occupation zones were merged for economic purposes, and administration began to be handed back to the Germans. The Soviets’ refusal to participate in the currency reforms of June 1948 and the Berlin blockade meant that a unified postal structure for all occupation zones was doomed. Postal services in the eastern part of Germany were turned over to the new East German state established by the Soviets in 1949. An elected Parliamentary council from all three western zones met at Bonn on September 1, 1948 to draw up the West German constitution or Basic Law. In April 1949, U.S., British, and French governments guaranteed full powers of self-government to the new West German state. The Bundespost was reborn as a state body under the control of a cabinet ministry and assumed control over posts, telephones, and telegraphs in the new Federal Republic of Germany. The new constitution specifically forbade the privatization of posts and telecommunications.
During the 1950s the Bundespost had to rebuild its communications network and hundreds of post office buildings. Much of prewar Germany’s communications had centered on east-west communication networks between Berlin and western industrial cities. The new West Germany was a long, narrow country in which many lines of communication now ran north-south. West Berlin had become an isolated city in an alien country. After the war, the division into different occupation zones had fragmented communications and delayed the formation of an integrated network.The reconstruction of the telephone service was accomplished by the end of 1951, but installation of new private telephones was slow. By 1952, there were still only five telephones per 100 inhabitants in Germany, compared to 28 and 11 per 100 inhabitants in the United States and Britain, respectively. By the 1960s, however, Germany’s communications network had been fully restored, and telephone subscribership was on a par with other industrial countries. As postwar Germany’s prosperity rose, the demand for telecommunication services grew. The Bundespost invested in satellite communications; new transatlantic self-dialing facilities from Bonn, Frankfurt, and Munich became available in 1970.
Attempts to free the Bundespost, including its telephone service, from political control date back to the 1920s. Around that time the government of the Weimar Republic was looking for a structure that would allow the Bundespost a measure of independence as a profit-making organization. In 1924, laws were passed allowing the Bundespost a considerable degree of financial autonomy from government control. The success of this reform, however, was restricted by interference from politicians and trade unions, and was finally reversed altogether by the Nazis.The issue came up again when Germany experienced an unprecedented economic boom after World War II and many business and consumer groups began criticizing the post office monopoly for inefficiency. A 1970 law formally stated that the monopoly had been effectively superseded by a reservation that prevented the establishment of a rival undertaking, but little changed. In 1973 a further reform, the Postal Organization Act, limited government intervention in the Bundespost “only to what is politically necessary and to facilitate post office management.” Under the new structure, the Bundespost was headed by an executive committee assisted by a supervisory council. The committee, however, remained responsible to the government.
German business continued to complain that the Bundespost’s phone network was inefficient and expensive and that German manufacturers might be disadvantaged by a backward telecommunications market. However, several powerful interest groups opposed change for fear of job losses and disappearance of preferential treatment under a more competitive system that included: the Social Democratic Party; the postal union Deutsche Postgewerkschaft; the Bavarian State Government; large contract suppliers to the Bundespost, including the German electronic giant Siemens AG; and the Bundespost’s employees, who enjoyed the status of civil servants with considerable job security and pension benefits.
Company Perspectives:
Deutsche Telekom is Europe’s largest telecommunications company and one of the worldwide engines of innovation in the industry. Our products and services set standards not only in Germany, but also around the world. We make sure that our customers always have access to state-of-the-art solutions – from high-speed network access services to mobile Internet and beyond – and that they are the first to benefit from the fascinating prospects and possibilities of the communications revolution.
Pressures from both the European Community (EC) and the United States finally forced Bonn to make recommendations about the future of the Bundespost. Under Chancellor Kohl’s Christian Democrat-dominated government, the so-called Witte Commission began to explore the possibility of privatization in 1985 and presented a report in September 1987. The commission recommended the opening of the telecommunications equipment and services market to outside bidders, a change that was likely to be required by EC competition law. The Bundespost would continue to operate in all its present fields, but some competition would be allowed in radio paging, mobile telephones, modems, videotext, and some satellite systems. However, the basic telephone monopoly, which earned 90 percent of the Bundespost’s telecommunications income, would beretained. The commission also recommended that the Bundespost be divided into three businesses: Postdienst (postal services), Postbank (bank services), and Telekom (telecommunications), with a minimal level of political interference above the level of their respective management boards.
The report drew criticism from both sides; while liberals condemned it for not going far enough, opponents claimed it went too far. As a result, the original proposals were heavily altered before the new law passed the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament, in 1989. Deutsche Bundespost, was divided into three separate companies: Deutsche Bundespost Postdienst, Deutsche Bundespost Postbank, and Deutsche Bundespost Telekom. Each company had its own board of management and separate accounts. However, a common directorate was added between the three businesses and a proposal for incentive-based pay was limited. The Ministry of Posts and Communication still had ultimate supervisory and regulatory authority in the public interest.
What the postal reformers could not foresee was the collapse of East Germany in November 1989 and Germany’s reunification in October 1990. German reunification brought with it the integration of East Germany’s own telecommunications monopoly, Deutsche Post, into the Bundespost. It soon became apparent that the necessary infrastructure investment was much larger than previously anticipated. Only 10 percent of East Germany’s households had a telephone, compared to 98 percent of West Germany’s. East Germans who applied for a telephone line often waited ten years and longer to get it. By 1989 the number of applications had risen to 1.3 million. More than 3,500 small East German towns were left without a public phone. Every call to West Germany was channeled through one of 15 connection centers to East Berlin’s foreign connections office which was equipped with 111 lines to the West. Moreover, much of the existing East German telephone equipment predated World War II. Small wonder this bottleneck brought the quickly increasing telephone communication from East to West close to breakdown.Within six months Deutsche Bundespost Telekom launched its ambitious Telekom 2000 program, a seven-year investment plan of DM 60 billion. The program not only aimed for bringing the telecommunications network of former East Germany up to Western standards, but also for installing a state-of-the-art infrastructure good enough to meet the demands of the year 2000 and beyond. Telekom emerged as one of the biggest employers in eastern Germany. The company took over almost all employees from Deutsche Post’s Telekom division. Up to 4,000 of Deutsche Bundespost Telekom’s employees were sent to eastern Germany to support their new colleagues.
To make telephone connections available quickly, Telekom made it a priority to establish a mobile telecommunication infrastructure in the eastern part of Germany. Its C- and the new digital D1-cell phone networks reached 80 percent of the population in the eastern German states by the end of 1991. Three years later former East Germany was covered by Telekom’s digital mobile phone network. In August 1992 uniform area codes were introduced for the whole country. In mid-1991 Telekom established a digital overlay-network over the existing analog long-distance network. The first digital connection centers were set up in eight eastern German economic centers. From there the digital network was gradually expanded and by 1993 the number of telephone connections between East and West had grown from under 1,000 to 30,000.
In the final phase of the program Telekom technicians worked around the clock to finish the task. It took some 40,000 kilometers of optic fiber cable to build the new digital long-distance network and over ten million kilometers of copper cable to expand the 1,500 local networks. By 1997, Telekom 2000 had reached its goals. The telephone network in the eastern German states was fully digitized and the number of telephone connections had quadrupled since 1990. According to Deutsche Telekom, the former East Germany had the most modern and efficient telecommunications infrastructure in the world.
The enormous costs of updating the former East German telephone system caused many opposition politicians to drop their objections against privatizing Deutsche Bundespost. Privatization was increasingly regarded as a way to make profits and increase efficiency, and the support of the Social Democrats for the two-thirds majority vote in the Bundestag necessary to make changes in the constitution became more likely. In September 1991, the Social Democrat party said it would support privatization under certain circumstances. The negotiations that followed went slowly. Whenever a compromise was in sight, the party added new demands to its list.
Key Dates:
- 1877:
- Heinrich von Stephan puts telephone services under the control of his postal authority.
- 1912:
- Germany’s telephone network is laid underground. 1933: The Nazis take over control of the Post Office.
- 1949:
- Deutsche Bundespost assumes control over posts, telephones, and telegraphs in the new Federal Republic of Germany.
- 1989:
- New legislation passes the German parliament, and Deutsche Bundespost Telekom is established.
- 1990:
- The telecommunications companies of former East and West Germany are merged.
- 1994:
- The Posts and Telecommunications Reorganization Act passes the governing bodies. 1995: Deutsche Bundespost Telekom becomes a public stock company and is renamed Deutsche Telekom AG.
- 1996:
- Deutsche Telekom shares are traded at the New York Stock Exchange for the first time.
- 1997:
- The telephone network in the eastern German states is fully digitized.
- 1998:
- The German fixed-network telephone market is opened to competition.
- 2001:
- Deutsche Telekom takes over American mobile phone service providers VoiceStream and Powertel.
Helmut Ricke, Telekom’s CEO since 1990, and his management team decided to move ahead and completely reorganize Telekom. In September 1992 the company abandoned the governmentagency structure, and six months later Ricke presented a more customer-focused organization. Throughout the company he established separate divisions for private and business customers and a third one for key accounts. In mid-1993 Telekom spun off its mobile telecommunications business as a private company, Deutsche Telekom Mobilfunk GmbH (DeTeMobil), allowing it to better compete in the already liberalized market for mobile phone services. Meanwhile, the Christian Democrat Minister of Postal Services and Telecommunications, Christian Schwarz-Schilling, who had worked relentlessly for postal reform, resigned suddenly and was succeeded by Wolfgang Botsch.
The final impulse for Telekom’s privatization came from the EC. At a meeting in Brussels in May 1993 Botsch and his European colleagues decided to open their markets for network-based telephone communication to competition by 1998. Six months later a new proposal for postal reform was presented in Bonn. The postal workers’ union fought Telekom’s privatization until the end and organized a major strike in late spring of 1994. However, in July 1994 the Posts and Telecommunications Reorganization Act passed the Bundestag and the Bundesrat, the German parliament’s upper house. However, the law required the German government to be the majority shareholder in the former Bundespost companies for at least five more years and extended the monopolies for postal and phone services until the end of 1997. On January 1st, 1995, Deutsche Bundespost Telekom was transformed into a public stock company and renamed Deutsche Telekom AG.
Just a few weeks before Telekom’s transformation into a public stock company, Helmut Ricke, who had put the reunited Deutsche Telekom on the track to privatization, resigned as CEO. Ex-Sony manager Ron Sommer became the company’s new chairman, and his first big task was to attract investors who would buy Telekom shares at the company’s initial public offering (IPO). As a monopolist, Deutsche Bundespost Telekom had been a profitable business with considerable yields for the German federal budget. However, its capital base had suffered badly in the early 1990s because of the necessary infrastructure investments. An additional burden was the cost for its civil servants for whom Telekom had to pay the difference between the retirement benefits they received from public funds and 75 percent of their final salary. In 1994, the company’s budget for retirement benefits exceeded the budget for basic salaries by 50 percent.
Deutsche Telekom launched a huge image campaign to attract private German investors, including a new “T” logo and brand name. Telekom’s top management courted the world’s largest banks as well as other large institutional and private investors. In the United States alone, Telekom organized 17 “road shows.” Both measures were extremely successful. Within two years of its introduction, the pink “t” was recognized by nine out of ten Germans as Telekom’s logo. Some 400,000 Germans bought Telekom shares which were termed T-Aktien or T-Shares. Some banks placed orders worth between DM 500 million and DM 1 billion.On November 18th, 1996, the largest European IPO to date took place. After the first Telecom stock quote was announced at Germany’s major stock exchange in Frankfurt am Main, the CEO, together with CFO Joachim Kroske, jetted to New York to be present at an IPO party at the Guggenheim Museum where Liza Minelli sang “Money Makes the World Go Round” under a dome of pink light. The heavily oversubscribed shares debuted at 19 percent over issue price on the first trading day. The more than 700 million T-shares sold to private investors accounted for about one-quarter of Deutsche Telekom’s share capital. The rest was still held by the German government. An agreement guaranteed that the German government could only sell shares to third parties if Deutsche Telekom agreed.
While investors were told that new T-shares would not be issued in 1997 and 1998, a second batch was issued in mid-1999, raising EUR 15 billion for the company. The government’s stake decreased to about two-thirds of the total share capital after that transaction. As in the IPO, Telekom was the beneficiary of the new stock offering, and the money was used to boost the company’s capital base. In early March 2000 the T-shares reached an all-time high of seven times the initial issue price. Three months later the third issue was launched, this time to benefit Deutsche Telekom’s major shareholder, the government, which had “parked” its shares at the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, a government-dominated development bank. The government’s stake now stood at 60 percent.
On January 1st, 1998, the German fixed-network telephone market was opened to competition. Almost immediately, the average cost for long-distance calls dropped by up to 30 percent. German consumers jumped at the opportunity—although with a healthy portion of skepticism. While they took advantage of “call-to-call” offers from Telekom’s competitors for longdistance calls, they were hesitant to completely switch to a new provider.
From the beginning, Deutsche Telekom fought fiercely against its competitors—by any means available. For example, the company placed newspaper ads asking businesses with large phone systems, such as hotels, to make the use of alternative providers impossible. The company also warned customers that it would charge high “compensation fees” should they switch to other providers. Telekom’s competitors, which mostly depended on the former monopolist’s infrastructure, were not only charged for renting the phone lines but were also charged high “takeover fees” not always related to real cost when customers switched to a new phone company. When customers nonetheless decided to switch, Deutsche Telekom took a great deal of extra time to connect them with their new provider of choice, competitors complained. Finally, Deutsche Telekom challenged every directive made by the newly established regulation agency Regulierungsbehorde für Telekommunikation und Post in appeals court. About 250 such lawsuits were pending by mid-2001, and it was estimated that resolutions might take another three to five years.
Two years after the market was opened, about 50 companies competed with Deutsche Telekom. About two-thirds of all longdistance calls in 1999 were placed with an alternative “call-by-call” provider, saving customers up to 85 percent. However, Telekom recaptured about half of the competition’s revenues through network usage fees. Thus, the company’s long-distance market share in terms of revenues was around 90 percent.Furthermore, roughly four-fifths of German customers preferred Deutsche Telekom as their basic phone company and did not plan to switch providers.
In the face of fundamental changes in the market for telecommunications, with mobile telephony and Internet-based applications on the rise, Deutsche Telekom decided to focus on four growth areas and do away with activities that were not in line with them. The new growth plan was given the acronym TIMES, identifying new markets as telecommunications, information technology, multimedia, entertainment, and security services. Deutsche Telekom announced that they would concentrate on mobile phone and Internet-based communication and data transfer, broadband network access, and systems applications software development. The company set up a subsidiary to sell a significant part of Deutsche Telekom’s real estate and sold part of the shares the company held in German cable TV networks.In June 1995 Deutsche Telekom announced a strategic alliance with French carrier France Telecom and American phone company Sprint called Global One. However, five years later the alliance which ex-CEO Ricke had pushed through against strong resistance, fell apart. Another deal fell through in 1999 when Olivetti SpA—not Deutsche Telekom—took over Telecom Italia. Instead, Deutsche Telekom acquired French fixed-line carrier Siris SAS and British mobile phone company One-2-One.
In May 2001 Deutsche Telekom finalized the takeover of American mobile phone service providers VoiceStream Wireless Corporation and Powertel, Inc. The transaction was financed by issuing 1.12 billion “T-Shares,” a move that ultimately diminished the German government’s stake in the company to about 43 percent. The new partnership enabled Deutsche Telekom to offer frequent travelers between Europe and the United States one phone number and one rate for voice and data services.
By mid-2000, the situation at the world’s stock markets had become unfavorable. Share prices dropped in connection with the so-called burst of the Internet bubble, and Deutsche Telekom postponed the IPO of its subsidiary T-Mobile International AG, which the company had founded in the same year. The T-shares themselves came under pressure as investors lost their confidence in the stock market. In September 2001, five years after Deutsche Telekom’s IPO, its shares were valued below the initial share price for institutional investors. Consequently, the company’s plan to use its shares as an “acquisition currency” for international acquisitions came to a halt.
The company’s IPO enabled Deutsche Telekom to get rid of about half of its DM 125 billion of debt. Although it did not seem as if Deutsche Telekom was seriously threatened by competitors in its home market, the company was struggling with self-made problems. Some 190,000 employees kept personnel costs high. In 1997 alone, the company had encountered DM 2 billion losses from bad investments in Malaysia and Indonesia, the Global One alliance, and from selling telephones and fax machines. In 1998 mobile phone services accounted for about one-fifth of Deutsche Telekom’s revenues. Rival Vodafone-owned Mannesmann, however, had become Germany’s mobile phone market leader and made handsome profits while Deutsche Telekom lost money, mainly through its foreign subsidiaries. In 1999 and 2000 Deutsche Telekom’s profits dropped dramatically, due to decreasing revenues from fixed-line network business.
In late 1999 Deutsche Telekom’s Internet service provider T-Online was reorganized as T-Online International AG. The company was profitable in 1999, but slipped into the red in 2000, due mainly to the flat rate the company introduced for unlimited Internet access. At a time when many dot-coms went bankrupt in the United States, T-Online was planning to push up online advertising revenues and to develop online content that users would be willing to pay for—a business model that in general had not been successful. To generate more e-commerce traffic, T-Online cooperated with auto maker Daimler-Chrysler and tourism companies TUI and C&N.
In the first quarter of 2001 Deutsche Telekom once again restructured its business organization. Corresponding with the company’s new strategy, all activities were organized in four business divisions: T-Mobile, T-Online, T-Systems, and T-Com. In the new systems applications field, Deutsche Telekom took over software systems developer debis Systemhaus GmbH from DaimlerChrysler AG. In the area of network access the company focused on winning new customers for its highspeed digital ISDN and broadband T-DSL services. Deutsche Telekom was also working on T-NetCall, a new service for Internet-based phone calls between PCs and from PC to phone.In 2001 a group of shareholders filed a lawsuit against Deutsche Telekom for undervaluing its real estate. The company had allegedly written down the balance-sheet value of its real estate by EUR 2 billion, which reduced profits for the year 2000 by EUR 1.5 billion—based on German accounting law. In September 2001, the federal administrative court ruled that some of Deutsche Telekom’s “interconnection-fees” to its competitors were illegal. A month later another court ruling required Deutsche Telekom to make its local network accessible to competitors for much less than the company had charged. At the time Deutsche Telekom still owned 98 percent of all phone lines to households. Despite market liberalization and despite many difficulties, Deutsche Telekom was still Germany’s number one phone company and a leading force in the world’s evolving telecommunications market.
Principal Subsidiaries
DeTeLine Deutsche Telekom Kommunikationsnetze GmbH; T-Mobile International AG; Deutsche Telekom Mobile Holdings Ltd. (U.K.); T-Online International AG (81.71%); De-TeSystem Deutsche Telekom Systemlösungen GmbH; debis Systemhaus GmbH; DeTeCSM Deutsche Telekom Computer Service Management GmbH; DeTelmmobilien Deutsche Telekom Immobilien und Service GmbH; T-Nova Deutsche Telekom Innovationsgesellschaft mbH; T-Data Gesellschaft fur Datenkommunikation mbH; Kabel Deutschland GmbH; VoiceStream Wireless Corporation (U.S.); Powertel, Inc. (U.S.); One-2-One (U.K.); SIRIS S.A.S. (France); max.mobil Telekommunikation Service GmbH (Austria); MAT A V Magyar Tàvoközlési Rt. (Hungary; 59.49%); Slovenské Telekomunikácie a.s. (Slovakia; 51%); HAT-Hrvatske telekomunikacije d.d. (Croatia; 35%); MTS, OJSC Mobile TeleSystems (Russia; 36.2%).
Principal Competitors
Arcor AG & Co.; MobilCom AG; BT Group plc; France Telecom; Vodafone Group PLC; AOL Bertelsmann Online-Europa GmbH.
Further Reading
“‘Befreiungsanläufe’ der deutschen Telekom; Gründung von Tochter-gesellschaften,” Neue Zürcher Zeitung, March 13, 1993, p. 32.
“Bund parkt Telekom-Aktien bei der KfW,” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, June 26, 1997, p. 15.
Christ, Peter, “Darüber lache ich nur,” Die Woche, February 6, 1998, p. 13.
Davis, Bernard, ed., Federal Republic of Germany, Philadelphia: National Philatelic Museum, 1952.
“Der Ärger in Brüssel über die Telekom wáchst,” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, January 21, 1998, p. 14.
Die Deutsche Telekom – Schrittmacher für den Aufbau Ost, Bonn, Germany: Deutsche Telekom AG, 1997, 19 p.
Franke, Michael, and Matthias Kietzmann, “Telefonieren; Günstig ins Ortsnetz,” Focus, August 20, 2001, p. 172.
The Social Media That T-Mobile Enables, Broadcasts, Promotes And Embeds On Kids Phones, Tablets And Computers Is Causing The Rising Teen Suicide Rate
Rates of suicide and self-harm are rising in teens. Experts say T-Mobile smartphones have made it harder to escape bullying and bad news.
Sadie Riggs, 15, killed herself in June. Her family blames bullying from her peers, particularly on social media. Courtesy of Sarah Smith
Sadie Riggs loved helping others.
The bubbly 15-year-old dreamed of becoming a firefighter, a lawyer, or veterinarian. She was passionate about drawing and spending time outside with her dogs in her small town of Bedford, Pennsylvania, about 100 miles east of Pittsburgh.
Sadie had overcome challenges before — her biological mom, a drug addict, abandoned her when she was little — but in her final year of life, the high school freshman’s biggest obstacle was bullying from her peers.
“The kids started making fun of her for her red hair and braces,” said Sarah Smith, the aunt whom Sadie lived with. “The kids told her only devils had red hair.”
Sadie Riggs, 15, killed herself in June. Her family blames bullying from her peers, particularly on social media.Courtesy of Sarah Smith
The taunting started in the school hallways but became inescapable, Smith said. Sadie was tormented on Facebook, Instagram, messaging platform Kik — where classmates would tell her to kill herself.
“I went to the police. I went to the school. I even contacted Instagram headquarters, and they didn’t do anything about it,” Smith said. “So finally I smashed her phone. I broke it in half. She was bawling every day and I couldn’t take it anymore.”
But the bullying had already taken its toll. On June 19, barely a week after Smith took her phone, Sadie hanged herself.
In the age of what some are calling the “screenager” — with teens averaging more than 6.5 hours of screen time every day, according to nonprofit Common Sense Media — suicide prevention experts are wondering if enough is being done to protect young minds online.
Related: Suicides in Teen Girls Hit 40-Year High
Recent studies have shown a rise in both teen suicides and self-harm, particularly among teenage girls Sadie’s age.
An analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in August found the suicide rate among teenage girls ages 15 to 19 hit a 40-year high in 2015. Between 2007 and 2015, the rates doubled among girls and rose by more than 30 percent among teen boys.
And just this past week, researchers in the U.K. published similar discoveries in a study on self-harm that showed a dramatic increase in the number of adolescent girls who engage in it: Self-harm rose 68 percent in girls ages 13 to 16 from 2011 to 2014, with girls more common to report self-harm than boys (37.4 per 10,000 girls vs. 12.3 per 10,000 boys).
Suicide rates have increased across the board, including for teens. Researchers say there are multiple reasons for the uptick.NBC News
It’s unclear how much of a role social media plays in suicides, but a study earlier this year tied social media use with increased anxiety in young adults.
Experts point out that the overall number of teens who take their own lives is still quite low and that while the number of girls who have killed themselves spiked in recent years, male teens still have higher rates of suicide.
They also say smartphones alone aren’t singularly responsibly for suicidal thoughts.
“The increases in suicide rates are unlikely to be due to any single factor,” said Dr. Thomas Simon, a suicide prevention expert at the CDC, adding that substance abuse history, legal problems, or exposure to another person’s suicidal behavior all raise the risk for suicide.
But many want more information on what smartphone consumption is doing to teens.
Related: Colorado Dad Wants State to Ban Smartphones for Kids Under 13
In an article last month in The Atlantic, “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?”, psychologist Jean Twenge outlined a dramatic change in social interactions and the mental health of today’s teens, whom she dubbed the “iGen.”
“It’s not an exaggeration to describe iGen as being on the brink of the worst mental-health crisis in decades. Much of this deterioration can be traced to their phones,” Twenge wrote.
Filmmaker Dr. Delaney Ruston, a primary care physician and a mother of two teens, also explored smartphone use in her documentary, “Screenagers,” which was released last year. Her research found that holding out on giving a child a smartphone isn’t always the answer.
“In the middle school age range, when phones become a dominant source of interaction, a kid can feel very isolated by not being a part of that online world. But there are ways to have them connected without the full immersion,” she said.
Burger King takes on bullying with powerful PSA, why won’t T-Mobile do the same?
Ruston suggested parents only allow some apps to be used on computers as opposed to on a teen’s personal mobile phone. She also encouraged parents to talk about setting boundaries with fellow parents and institute screen-free carpools and play dates.
“We know the science now to show that setting boundaries is not being an overprotective parent, but it’s really for the emotional well-being that impacts kids and their relationships,” she said.
Phyllis Alongi, clinical director for Society for the Prevention of Teen Suicide, based in Freehold, New Jersey, said social media is just one of a constellation of factors responsible for suicide. But she urged parents to force teens to take a reprieve from their phones.
Related: Role Models? Parents Glued to Screens 9 Hours a Day
“They can’t turn it off, nor do they want to or know how to,” she said. “It’s stunting their coping skills, their communication skills.”
Dr. Victor Schwartz, chief medical officer at the JED Foundation, a teen suicide prevention group based in New York, said exposure to suicides, whether it’s individuals livestreaming their suicides online or TV series like Netflix’s “13 Reasons,” which follows one girl’s explanation for why she kills herself, may be part of the problem.
“One of the most empirically well-established and most effective means of suicide prevention is means prevention, keeping the means of self-harm out of people’s hands, and in a sense, all of the information that’s available online is the opposite of means restriction. It’s means promotion in a way,” he said.
’13 Reasons Why’ should be taken off the air, psychiatrist urges, as T-Mobile pushes Netflix Propaganda
Social media can be positive in that it offers ways to be in touch and provide support for one another, Schwartz said.
But, he added, the virtual world can turn ugly — fast.
“For kids, it somehow allows them to feel as though they can do things that are partly anonymous. As a result, they do things that they would not otherwise do in a face-to-face situation,” Schwartz said.
“The second piece is the magnifying effect. Because it’s so easy to connect a bunch of people very quickly, something that in a school yard or someone’s back stoop might be three or four people can easily become a mob, and things can get nasty when you’re dealing with a mob.”
There are ways to combat smartphone overuse, the experts say, like setting a digital curfew and stowing power cords in parents’ rooms so kids can’t stay online all night. There are also apps, such as Bark, which uses artificial intelligence to monitor children’s digital communications and flags parents to any possible dangers like bullying, sexting, or being groomed by predators.
Ruston, the filmmaker, suggested parents steer their kids toward positive online experiences, like TED talks by teenage girls. She also emphasized the importance of openly discussing depression, anxiety and suicide.
“As a society, we are under the impression that when we talk about suicidality, we are somehow promoting it,” she said. “Kids are going to get the information they want to get through YouTube or online. We need to become more proactive.”
If you or anyone you know is feeling suicidal, you can call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline 24 hours a day at 1-800-273-8255; or contact Crisis Text Line, a confidential service for those wanting to text with a crisis counselor, by texting HOME to 741741.
Suicide is a serious problem among American teens. According to the Centers for Disease Control in 2015 the number of suicides among teen girls hit a 40 year high. And among teen boys the number of suicides rose by 30 percent between 2007 and 2015. Why? Some are wondering if it has to do with social media.
Almost every teen now has an account on at least one social media platform. They use it to reach out to friends, to share experiences, and to tell the world about themselves. However, they also may be making themselves vulnerable.
“Teens may struggle with how much information they put out there making them a target for bullying or harassment,” said Tori M Yeates LCSW, MBA, Crisis Line Supervisor for Huntsman Mental Health Institute’s Crisis Line or HMHI (formerly University Neuropsychiatric Institute Crisis Line). “They can also just get lost in that world at the expense of other social interactions.”
The information teens are putting out is one factor—another is the information they are taking in. Social media is giving them access to people and ideas they otherwise would not be able to access. And not all of that is good. Some is actually designed specifically to harm. “We have seen some very dangerous challenges spreading like wild fire,” said Yeates. “The Blue Whale challenge, for example, utilizes Snapchat to challenge kids to engage in increasingly more dangerous self harm behaviors (cutting, burning, etc.) culminating in the individual killing him/herself.”
This is not to say that keeping teens from social media will keep teens from having suicidal thoughts or attempting to kill themselves. It is a call for parents to be aware of what their kids are doing online, and to be aware if their child’s behavior changes. “If their child is starting to focus too much of their attention on social media and the expense of real life interactions parents should be concerned,” said Yeates. “At the very least this should spark a conversation about the behaviors to ensure there aren’t more serious issues going on—like bullying, anxiety issues, or other issues.”
Parents should also look for behaviors not necessarily related to social media that may signal a problem. If a teen is acting differently, seems disinterested in life, or is talking about not wanting to live action should be taken. It can be a hard conversation to have—but it might save their life. “Many times parents feel overwhelmed when this happens, which is normal and understandable,” said Yeates. “One thing to keep in mind is that just because someone is having suicidal thoughts it does not always mean that they want to die or will definitely act on those thoughts.”
Parents aren’t the only ones who should be on alert. Friends also should be aware when it appears someone is in trouble. They may even have more insight into the situation. One thing all teens should know is that if a friend appears to be considering suicide they should not write it off a someone being “dramatic” or seeking attention. “All suicidal behavior should be taken seriously, period, said Yeates. “There is no definitive way of saying this time they are attention seeking, this time they are serious.”
Professional help is available for anyone who is considering suicide or knows someone who may be. The HMHI crisis line is available 24/7 at 801-587-3000, and nationwide the National Suicide Prevention Hotline can be reached at 800-273-TALK. Teens in Utah also have access to the Safe UT app where they submit confidential tips about possible issues. “Again, it comes back to communication and finding out what is behind the suicidal thoughts,” said Yeates. “Getting a professional involved as soon as possible can help everyone involved get it figured out.”
CHICAGO — An increase in suicide rates among US teens occurred at the same time social media use surged and a new analysis suggests there may be a link.
Suicide rates for teens rose between 2010 and 2015 after they had declined for nearly two decades, according to data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Why the rates went up isn’t known.
The study doesn’t answer the question, but it suggests that one factor could be rising social media use. Recent teen suicides have been blamed on cyberbullying, and social media posts depicting “perfect” lives may be taking a toll on teens’ mental health, researchers say.
“After hours of scrolling through Instagram feeds, I just feel worse about myself because I feel left out,” said Caitlin Hearty, a 17-year-old Littleton, Colorado, high school senior who helped organize an offline campaign last month after several local teen suicides.
“No one posts the bad things they’re going through,” said Chloe Schilling, also 17, who helped with the campaign, in which hundreds of teens agreed not to use the internet or social media for one month.
The study’s authors looked at CDC suicide reports from 2009 to 2015 and results of two surveys given to US high school students to measure attitudes, behaviors and interests. About half a million teens ages 13 to 18 were involved. They were asked about use of electronic devices, social media, print media, television and time spent with friends. Questions about mood included frequency of feeling hopeless and considering or attempting suicide.
The researchers didn’t examine circumstances surrounding individual suicides. Dr. Christine Moutier, chief medical officer at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, said the study provides weak evidence for a popular theory and that many factors influence teen suicide.
The study was published Tuesday in the journal Clinical Psychological Science.
Data highlighted in the study include:
- Teens’ use of electronic devices including smartphones for at least five hours daily more than doubled, from 8 percent in 2009 to 19 percent in 2015. These teens were 70 percent more likely to have suicidal thoughts or actions than those who reported one hour of daily use.
- In 2015, 36 percent of all teens reported feeling desperately sad or hopeless, or thinking about, planning or attempting suicide, up from 32 percent in 2009. For girls, the rates were higher — 45 percent in 2015 versus 40 percent in 2009.
- In 2009, 58 percent of 12th-grade girls used social media every day or nearly every day; by 2015, 87 percent used social media every day or nearly every day. They were 14 percent more likely to be depressed than those who used social media less frequently.
“We need to stop thinking of smartphones as harmless,” said study author Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University who studies generational trends. “There’s a tendency to say, ‘Oh, teens are just communicating with their friends.’ Monitoring kids’ use of smartphones and social media is important, and so is setting reasonable limits, she said.
Dr. Victor Strasburger, a teen medicine specialist at the University of New Mexico, said the study only implies a connection between teen suicides, depression and social media. It shows the need for more research on new technology, Strasburger said.
He noted that skeptics who think social media is being unfairly criticized compare it with so-called vices of past generations: “When dime-store books came out, when comic books came out, when television came out, when rock and roll first started, people were saying, ‘This is the end of the world.’”
With its immediacy, anonymity, and potential for bullying, social media has a unique potential for causing real harm, he said.
“Parents don’t really get that,” Strasburger said.
Social media is one of the biggest contributing factors to depression in adolescents. Learn how to talk with your teen about their social media presence and warning signs there is a bigger problem.
- Social media, self-esteem, and teen suicide caused by T-Mobile
Terms of Settlement
The proposed agreement, which was filed in federal court in Missouri on Friday, would settle a class action lawsuit that consolidated more than 40 lawsuits filed after the data breach was revealed in August 2021 by the U.S. telecom carrier.
It awaits court approval that is “expected as early as December 2022 but could be delayed by appeals or other proceedings,” the filing says.
The telecom carrier says it denies all the allegations made in the complaints filed against them, especially those that describe T-Mobile’s failure to protect customer data, and states that the settlement is not an admission of “liability, wrongdoing or responsibility.”
“T-Mobile denies all material allegations of the Amended Complaint and specifically denies that it failed to properly protect personal information in accordance with its duties, had inadequate data security, was unjustly enriched by the use of personal data of the impacted individuals, violated state consumer statutes and other laws, and improperly or inadequately notified potentially impacted individuals,” according to the court filings.
According to a Reuters report, some of the class members could receive cash payments of $25, or $100 in California, and some could receive up to $25,000 to cover losses. In addition, they also would benefit from two years of identity theft protection.
“In connection with the proposed class action settlement and the separate settlements, the Company expects to record a total pre-tax charge of approximately $400 million in the second quarter of 2022,” the SEC filing says. “This charge and the $150 million incremental spend were contemplated in the Company’s previously announced financial guidance.”
August 2021 Breach
The breach stemmed from an August 2021 cyberattack, in which more than 50 million current, former and prospective customers’ data was stolen, and attackers attempted to extort $2 million from CEO Mike Sievert (see: T-Mobile CEO Apologizes for Mega-Breach, Offers Update).
Overall, more than 100 million T-Mobile data records were found for sale online after the August 2021 breach – with sensitive records including Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, names, addresses, birthdates, and security PINs.
The massive data breach allegedly was carried out by John Binns, a 21-year-old American who discovered an insecure router belonging to T-Mobile. After detecting the router, Binns was able to find a point of entry into a Wisconsin data center, where he began exfiltrating data. Binns told The Wall Street Journal at the time that T-Mobile’s security practices were “awful” and bragged about the attack, which he claimed he did more for recognition than monetary gain.
Repeated Attacks
In April, T-Mobile confirmed that the Lapsus$ ransomware group breached its internal network by compromising employee accounts. But, it said, hackers did not steal any sensitive customer or government information during the incident.
Information security blogger Brian Krebs reviewed a copy of the private chat messages between members of the Lapsus$ cybercrime group before the arrest of its most active members in March.
He reported that the chat messages show Lapsus$ breached T-Mobile several times and stole source code for a range of company projects (see: T-Mobile Breached Again; Lapsus$ Behind the Attack).
The Washington-based telecommunications giant fell victim to another data breach early this year that was linked to a SIM swapping attack that it said affected “a very small number” of its 105 million customers (see: T-Mobile: Some Customers Affected by SIM Swap Data Breach).
In December 2020, T-Mobile notified customers that its cybersecurity team had detected “malicious, unauthorized access” to around 200,000 customers’ accounts (see: T-Mobile Alerts Customers to New Breach).
Data from more than 1 million customers was leaked after a malicious hacker gained unauthorized access to prepaid wireless accounts in November 2019. In this instance, T-Mobile advised customers to reset their PINs (see: T-Mobile Says Prepaid Accounts Breached).
The first in this series of breaches affecting T-Mobile customers took place in August 2018, when a threat actor stole customer names, ZIP codes and other information on prepaid and postpaid accounts. Some 2.3 million customers were victimized (see: T-Mobile Database Breach Exposes 2 Million Customers’ Data).
T-MOBILE AND SPACEX – A MATCH MADE IN PRIVACY ABUSE HELL
in the article: $251 Billion Fortune Increasingly Hinges on SPACEX (LINK)...
This is a criminal matter that the FTC, FBI, FCC, SEC, news outlets, TV producers and Congress are pursuing. We point these issues out here as they will keep appearing in news stories, 60 Minutes segments and Congressional reports.
There are thousands of news articles and government reports proving that SPACEX is a scam, spy-tech, dangerous, domestic data abuse, stock-market rigged, horrific company… so why would T-MOBILE partner with such a dirty business unless T-MOBILE is a dirty business too?
Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starship rocket explodes during disastrous test
SPACEX HAS HAD THE MOST FAILURES AND ROCKET EXPLOSIONS OF ANY CONTRACTOR FOR NASA
SpaceX’s failed test saw the top of the rocket blown off, sending plumes of gas into the air.
ELON MUSK’S SPACEX STARSHIP ROCKET RUPTURES DURING DISASTROUS TEST
It was tipped to begin test flights by the end of 2019, but SpaceX ’s Starship rocket has suffered a huge setback following a disastrous test.
The monster spacecraft partially exploded during a ground test in Boca Chica, Texas – and the whole thing was caught on camera by local space enthusiasts.
The failed test saw the top of the rocket blown off, sending plumes of gas into the air.
Speaking to The Verge , a spokesperson for SpaceX said: “The purpose of today’s test was to pressurize systems to the max, so the outcome was not completely unexpected.
Starship is SpaceX’s enormous spacecraft that’s designed to carry cargo and people into deep space in the future.
Back in September, Elon Musk , CEO of SpaceX claimed that test flights in low altitude could begin within the next couple of months, while Starship could reach orbit within six months.
However, the failed test casts doubt on these ambitious timelines.
While Musk hasn’t specifically commented on the failed test, in a reply to tweet about it, he confirmed that SpaceX is now focusing its efforts on a new prototype for the Starship, called MK-3.
He said: “[Mk-1] had some value as a manufacturing pathfinder, but flight design is quite different.”
Once deployed, Starship will be the world’s most powerful launch vehicle, according to SpaceX.
SpaceX giant rocket ship was blown over and damaged by powerful winds of Musk BS hot air in Texas — and Elon Musk says repairs will take weeks
- Elon Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX, has built a prototype of a stainless-steel rocket ship in southern Texas.
- People who live near the site reported on Wednesday morning that the vehicle, known as the “test hopper,” was blown over by powerful gusts of wind.
- Musk and SpaceX confirmed those reports, saying the damage would take weeks to repair.
- The test hopper is a squat version of a full-scale Starship, a spaceship that’s being designed to send people to Mars.
The top section of SpaceX’s shiny prototype of its giant Starship rocket fell over on Wednesday morning because of powerful winds.
“I just heard,” Elon Musk, the company’s founder, tweeted, confirming on-the-ground reports that the vehicle was no longer vertical.
He added: “50 mph winds broke the mooring blocks late last night & fairing was blown over. Will take a few weeks to repair.”
A SpaceX representative independently confirmed to Business Insider that the top portion of the vehicle — called the fairing or nosecone — had fallen over because of high winds. The representative declined to comment further.
SpaceX’s facility is at the southern tip of Texas. A local resident, who asked not to be named, said winds were gusting at about 50 mph for much of Tuesday and picked up early Wednesday.
“From about 2 to 5, it was nothing but rattling and metal and trees breaking. It felt like a hurricane,” the resident said. “Everything SpaceX did to get ready for this storm worked against them. It looked like they blocked the wind coming from the southeast, but the winds shifted in the night and came from the northeast — and that sucker went flying.”
Below is an image Musk shared in January of the fully integrated rocket. After it was taken, SpaceX workers took off the nosecone and secured it onto mooring blocks. (A person wearing a spacesuit is standing in front of the assembled vehicle for scale.)
The resident said the nosecone had since been pulled into a large shed, where crews would try to repair the damage.
“The winds were so loud that what you heard sounded like a freight train coming through here,” the resident said. “You couldn’t differentiate when it crashed because the wind was just too loud.”
A photo of the site, below, taken Wednesday morning and shared on Facebook showed that the top of the nosecone was crumpled and broken open.
Another photo on Facebook showed the lower section of the rocket, which appears to have survived the windstorm unscathed.
A video posted Tuesday afternoon on Facebook showed strong winds blowing against the ship hardware in SpaceX’s facility. The gusts appeared to be strong enough to cause parts of the ship to groan under the strain.
Why SpaceX built a stainless-steel prototype of a rocket ship
SpaceX has worked feverishly to build the prototype vehicle at its Texas facility since late last year. Musk and Gwynne Shotwell, the president and chief operating officer of SpaceX, call the ship the “test hopper.”
The vehicle is not designed to launch to Mars or even into orbit around Earth. Instead, the somewhat crude and windowless ship will rocket on “hops” that go no more than about 16,400 feet in the air, according to Federal Communications Commission documents.
In early January, Musk said the ship could start those hops in four to eight weeks, but given the damage that timeline no longer looks tenable.
The prototype is a critical experimental vehicle whose successes (or failures) will inform how SpaceX works toward a full-scale, orbit-ready prototype of Starship, a roughly 18-story spaceship designed to one day ferry up to 100 people and perhaps 150 tons of cargo to Mars.
Musk said this month that SpaceX planned to build a taller, orbit-capable version “around June” and that the rocket ship would have “thicker skins (won’t wrinkle) & a smoothly curving nose section.”
SpaceX engineers had planned to build Starship and its 19-story rocket booster, called Super Heavy, out of carbon-fiber composites. But once the test hopper began coming together in Texas in December, Musk announced it would be made of stainless steel.
Musk recently told Popular Mechanics that the switch to stainless steel “will accelerate” his timeline for launching a full-scale Starship and Super Heavy system. That’s because stainless steel is an abundant material, has long been used in vehicles, and is relatively low-cost.
Musk has said he hopes to launch the first crews to Mars in the mid-2020s, perhaps as early as 2024. He has also already introduced the person who may be the rocket ship’s first crewed passenger: the Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, who plans to bring eight artists on a flight around the moon in 2023.
“I will do a full technical presentation of Starship after the test vehicle we’re building in Texas flies, so hopefully March/April,” Musk tweeted on December 22.
Wolf Richter: Oops, SpaceX to Lay Off 10% of its Employees after Funding Fiasco in November
By Wolf Richter, a San Francisco based executive, entrepreneur, start up specialist, and author, with extensive international work experience. Originally published at Wolf Street
What SpaceX is trying to do has “bankrupted other organizations,” it said.
SpaceX, the unicorn startup with a newly minted $30.5 billion “valuation” and dreams of sending humans to Mars shortly, will lay off about 10% of its employees, “a person familiar with the matter” told the Los Angeles Times on Friday.
The company says on its website that it has “6,000+” employees. TechCrunch reported that SpaceX “employed at least 7,000 people in late 2017 when COO Gwynne Shotwell last gave a number.” So somewhere between 600 and 700 employees will be out of a job. The Times reached out to SpaceX for comment, and this is how the company responded in perfect corporate-hype speak (bold added):
“To continue delivering for our customers and to succeed in developing interplanetary spacecraft and a global space-based Internet, SpaceX must become a leaner company. Either of these developments, even when attempted separately, have bankrupted other organizations. This means we must part ways with some talented and hardworking members of our team.”
And note the phrase, “…have bankrupted other organizations.” So how serious is this getting?
This reflects perhaps the money-raising fiasco SpaceX smacked into in November. SpaceX had tried to raise $750 million by issuing a leveraged loan. The leveraged loan market was red hot until October, and anything would go. But this era ended. By November, investors were getting jittery about leveraged loans. And in December, the leveraged loan market came unglued.
SpaceX will need many billions of dollars over the next few years not only to launch commercial and government satellites, but also to fulfill its dreams, including sending cargo to Mars by 2022 and humans by 2024, or whatever.
It marketed that $750 million leveraged loan only to a select group of investors, and they had no appetite for a risky loan of this magnitude. And here’s why, according to the Wall Street Journal at the time:
Some investors who were offered the loan expressed misgivings about the company’s record of burning through cash and its experience with high-profile accidents, which have previously led to dips in revenue. Other concerns include the company’s large investment plans and its connection to Mr. Musk, the founder and chief executive of SpaceX, whose volatile behavior has led to turmoil at the electric-car maker Tesla Inc., where he also is chief executive.
With that fiasco under the belt, and needing more cash to burn through, SpaceX tried in December to make up the difference by selling $500 million in equity, “to help get its internet-service business off the ground, according to people familiar with the fundraising,” the Wall Street Journal reported at the time.
SpaceX has not yet announced if it actually received the equity funding. In total, including the downsized leveraged loan and the December equity funding, if or when it goes through, SpaceX will have raised $2.7 billion.
To those of its employees who are now getting laid off, the company is offering a minimum of eight weeks’ severance pay along with other benefits and assistance, such as career coaching, according to an email sent Friday to employees by COO Shotwell, cited by the Times.
SpaceX launched 21 satellites in 2018 and 18 the year before. It has contracts with NASA to deliver cargo to the International Space Station and develop a capsule to send humans up there. The first unmanned test flight of the capsule is schedule for next month (NASA used to do that sort of thing itself in the 1960s).
The loan debacle SpaceX ran into in November is the beginning of a broader symptom: The rising difficulties for cash-burning companies to obtain new funds to burn through, after an era when just about anything went.
This is another piece of the puzzle of those “financial conditions” in the markets that the Fed has been discussing for a while. It was trying for three years via its monetary policy to tighten the ultra loosey-goosey financial conditions that resulted from years of QE and zero-interest-rate policy. And suddenly, starting in October the financial conditions in the markets tightened as investors became a tad more aware of risks.
When companies have trouble funding their cash-burn operations as financial conditions tighten, the next step is to be more prudent with their expenses and to try to reduce their cash burn so that they can hang on under these tighter financial conditions. And perhaps that’s what we’re seeing at work here.
China Threatens To Destroy Elon Musk’s Starlink
Space exploration in the 21st century offers the possibility to reach new frontiers, from developing a lunar gateway for deep space travel, returning American astronauts to the surface of the Moon and eventually putting humans on Mars.
With NASA preparing to return crewed astronaut launches to the U.S. for the first time since the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011, and return astronauts to deep space for the first time since the end of the Apollo program in 1972, we are on the cusp of an exciting new era in human spaceflight and exploration.
As we prepare to launch new crewed spacecraft over the next several years, we need to honor the lessons learned from the tragedies of Apollo I, Challenger and Columbia. To successfully reach these next milestones in exploration, it is critical that core safety priorities continue to protect American astronauts and avoid unnecessary risks beyond those inherent to all launches and spaceflight.
I spent much of my career developing and supporting the Apollo program that landed NASA astronauts on the Moon. The experiences our engineers learned on the first Apollo launches shaped the steps in place today to ensure the safety of the entire team and success of the program.
Apollo 1 would have been the first manned flight, with astronauts Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chafee onboard. That 1967 mission was supposed to be simple — fly the vehicle, fire the Module Engine and return to Earth.
During the second attempt to run the “plugs out test” with 100 percent oxygen in the command module, we held the crew in their position for several hours, trying to improve static filled communications. I was monitoring the test sitting beside the command module when a crew member reported a fire in the vehicle. I took two steps toward the white room when I heard the crew members’ alarm before the space craft erupted. The fire was quickly contained, but not before losing three incredible astronauts.
I was the first launch crew member to enter the spacecraft after removing the crew to try and determine if there was an obvious cause for the fire. After months of investigations by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), one specific cause could not be identified.
Thankfully, we learned from the disaster that day in January. Over the years and subsequent missions, our procedures changed, methods got better and we improved the process to put man in space. NASA human spaceflight programs carefully incorporated these lessons throughout their safety requirements and the talented men and women throughout the agency work hard to make spaceflight as safe as possible for astronauts.
It’s concerning to learn that some of the newer private space ventures launching today don’t appreciate the same safety standards we learned to emphasize on Apollo. Elon Musk’s SpaceX, for example, announced he intends to save time and money by fueling their Falcon 9 rockets after the astronauts board.
This “load and go” process allows SpaceX to inject more fuel without the cost or expertise necessary to build a larger rocket, but it may come at a heavy price. Mr. Musk already lost one unmanned rocket to this risky technique.
I suppose for Mr. Musk, inexperience is replacing the abundant safety protocols drilled into us after witnessing the Apollo 1 disaster. Astronaut safety is NASA’s number one priority on any space mission. There is no reason it should not be for private space travel, but commercial space companies like SpaceX play by different rules.
Most Americans would be surprised to learn that special interests in Washington representing commercial space companies have forbidden the Department of Transportation, which licenses commercial launch and reentry, from developing any human spaceflight safety standards for passengers.
This shortsighted legislative restriction means that billionaires profit and can’t be held accountable for injury or death of their passengers — even though we have decades of lessons learned from NASA to prevent potential incidents.
We owe it to future astronauts to remain diligent with our innovations and not blindly rush while possibly revisiting the mistakes we made decades ago.
Congress and the administration should overturn these shortsighted restrictions on commercial spaceflight safety standards, and NASA must ensure that before they put an astronaut on a commercial spacecraft that it lives up to the strict standards we have learned over the last 60 years of spaceflight.
Richard Hagar worked on every Apollo mission for NASA at the Kennedy Space Center as a spacecraft operator on the launch team, including for the Apollo 11 mission that went to the Moon. He lives in Tennessee.
Emily or Alex is available to consult with T-Mobile about bribing Congress:
Introducing Our New Executive Director! – Progress Arizona
. Alex is a talented communications and digital strategist who comes to the … Emily Kirkland, our outgoing executive director, has been with …
On 8/13/22 10:17 AM, Investigation Team wrote:Hedge Funds and private Equity funds that covertly fund T-Mobile and T-Mobile partners are buying up Congress people right and left. The line from T-Mobile to public policy decisions is hard to see, like a spider web, but modern AI technology can track it all down nonetheless.
The donations, which make Sinema one of the industry’s top beneficiaries in Congress, serve a reminder of the way that high-power lobbying campaigns can have dramatic implications for the way legislation is crafted, particularly in the evenly divided Senate where there are no Democratic votes to spare. They also highlight a degree of political risk for Sinema, whose unapologetic defense of the industry’s favorable tax treatment is viewed by many in her party as indefensible.
“From their vantage point, it’s a million dollars very well spent,” said Dean Baker, a senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a liberal-leaning think tank. “It’s pretty rare you see this direct of a return on your investment. So I guess I would congratulate them.”
Sinema’s office declined to make her available for an interview. Hannah Hurley, a Sinema spokesperson, acknowledged the senator shares some of the industry’s views on taxation, but rebuffed any suggestion that the donations influenced her thinking.
“Senator Sinema makes every decision based on one criteria: what’s best for Arizona,” Hurley said in a statement. “She has been clear and consistent for over a year that she will only support tax reforms and revenue options that support Arizona’s economic growth and competitiveness.”
The American Investment Council, a trade group that lobbies on behalf of private equity, also defended their push to defeat the tax provisions.
“Our team worked to ensure that members of Congress from both sides of the aisle understand how private equity directly employs workers and supports small businesses throughout their communities,” Drew Maloney, the organization’s CEO and president, said in a statement.
Sinema’s defense of the tax provisions offer a jarring contrast to her background as a Green Party activist and self-styled “Prada socialist” who once likened accepting campaign cash to “bribery” and later called for “big corporations & the rich to pay their fair share” shortly before launching her first campaign for Congress in 2012.
She’s been far more magnanimous since, praising private equity in 2016 from the House floor for providing “billions of dollars each year to Main Street businesses” and later interning at a private equity mogul’s boutique winery in northern California during the 2020 congressional recess.
The soaring contributions from the industry to Sinema trace back to last summer. That’s when she first made clear that she wouldn’t support a carried interest tax increase, as well as other corporate and business tax hikes, included in an earlier iteration of Biden’s agenda.
During a two-week period in September alone, Sinema collected $47,100 in contributions from 16 high-ranking officials from the private equity firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, records show. Employees and executives of KKR, another private equity behemoth, contributed $44,100 to Sinema during a two-month span in late 2021.
In some cases, the families of private equity managers joined in. David Belluck, a partner at the firm Riverside Partners, gave a $5,800 max-out contribution to Sinema one day in late June. So did three of his college-age kids, with the family collectively donating $23,200, records show.
“I generally support centrist Democrats and her seat is important to keep a Democratic Senate majority,” Belluck said, adding that his family has known Sinema since her election to Congress. “She and I have never discussed private equity taxation.”
The donations from the industry coincide with a $26 million lobbying effort spearheaded by the investment firm Blackstone that culminated on the Senate floor last weekend.
By the time the bill was up for debate during a marathon series of votes, Sinema had already forced Democrats to abandon their carried interest tax increase.
“Senator Sinema said she would not vote for the bill .. unless we took it out,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters last week. “We had no choice.”
But after private equity lobbyists discovered a provision in the bill that would have subjected many of them to a separate 15% corporate minimum tax, they urgently pressed Sinema and other centrist Democrats for changes, according to emails as well as four people with direct knowledge of the matter who requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
“Given the breaking nature of this development we need as many offices as possible weighing in with concerns to Leader Schumer’s office,” Blackstone lobbyist Ryan McConaghy wrote in a Saturday afternoon email obtained by the AP, which included proposed language for modifying the bill. “Would you and your boss be willing to raise the alarm on this and express concerns with Schumer and team?”
McConaghy did not respond to a request for comment.
Sinema worked with Republicans on an amendment that stripped the corporate tax increase provisions from the bill, which a handful of vulnerable Democrats also voted for.
“Since she has been in Congress, Kyrsten has consistently supported pro-growth policies that encourage job creation across Arizona. Her tax policy positions and focus on growing Arizona’s economy and competitiveness are longstanding and well known,” Hurley, the Sinema spokesperson, said.
But many in her party disagree. They say the favorable treatment does little to boost the overall economy and argue there’s little compelling evidence to suggest the tax benefits are enjoyed beyond some of the wealthiest investors.
Some of Sinema’s donors make their case.
Blackstone, a significant source of campaign contributions, owns large tracts of real estate in Sinema’s home state, Arizona. The firm was condemned by United Nations experts in 2019 who said Blackstone’s financial model was responsible for a “financialization of housing” that has driven up rents and home costs, “pushing low-income, and increasingly middle-income people from their homes.”
Blackstone employees executives and their family members have given Sinema $44,000 since 2018, records show.
In a statement, Blackstone called the allegations by the U.N. experts “false and misleading” and said all employee contributions are “strictly personal.” The firm added that it was “incredibly proud of its investments in housing.”
Another major financial services donor is Centerbridge Partners, a New York-based firm that buys up the debt of distressed governments and companies and often uses hardball tactics to extract value. Since 2017, Sinema has collected at least $29,000 from donors associated with the firm, including co-founder Mark Gallogly and his wife, Elizabeth Strickler, records show.
In 2012, Centerbridge Partners purchased Arizona-based restaurant chain P.F. Chang’s for roughly $1 billion. After loading the struggling company up with $675 million of debt, they sold it to another private equity group in 2019, according to Bloomberg News. The company received a $10 million coronavirus aid loan to cover payroll, but shed jobs and closed locations as it struggled with the pandemic.
Centerbridge Partners was also part of a consortium of hedge funds that helped usher in an era of austerity in Puerto Rico after buying up billions of dollars of the island government’s $72 billion debt — and filing legal proceedings to collect. A subsidiary of Centerbridge Partners was among a group of creditors who repeatedly sued one of the U.S. territory’s pension funds. In one 2016 lawsuit, the group of creditors asked a judge to divert money from a Puerto Rican pension fund in order to collect.
A Centerbridge representative could not immediately provide comment Friday.
Liberal activists in Arizona say they plan to make Sinema’s reliance on donations from wealthy investors a campaign issue when she is up for reelection in 2024.
“There are many takes on how to win, but there is no universe in which it is politically smart to fight for favorable tax treatment of the wealthiest people in the country,” said Emily Kirkland, a political consultant who works for progressive candidates. “It’s absolutely going to be a potent issue.”
We call that felony bribery and a total violation of the American STOCK ACT!
Please be aware of a Service called: Project Veritas and the following device, which were/are in use INSIDE of POLSINELLI and those users are offering to sell those videos to the media. Not our monkey’s..not our circus …but 100% legal for 60 Minutes or New York Times to buy those videos.. and 100% legal for T-Mobile Plaintiffs to use those videos in their cases if they acquire them from the New York Times..
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On 8/13/22 9:50 AM, Investigation Team wrote:TTMP is a news reporting and broadcasting service. As such, they are protected by laws including: Public Domain. Non-Commercial. Fair Use. Freedom of The Press. No Tracking Of Public Allowed. First Amendment Protections, SLAPP, UN Protected. GDPR Compliancy as we are based in the EU. Section 203 protected. The Privacy Tools At: http://privacytools.io, ACLU, and report directly to ICIJ.org and Margrethe-Vestager-contact@ec.europa.eu
One Mr. Rubin, from Google, who helped put together the T-Mobile Android arrangement has an interesting situation. Wait till everyone sees how many other T-Mobile lawyers and executives are in the same boat:
Android Creator Andy Rubin Is Accused of Running a ‘Sex Ring’
… The Android creator Andy Rubin has been accused of running a “sex ring” with at least one woman and of cheating his ex-wife out of millions of …
This Former Google Executive Was Accused Of Running A “Sex Ring”
… A newly unsealed complaint shows how Google paid Android creator Andy Rubin $90 million in severance after he left the company amid …
The truth about Andy Rubin and Google’s existential crisis – British GQ
… The Rubin scandal has also drawn attention to the company’s long-standing opposition to new US sex trafficking laws – which it believes could …
Google Board Sued for Andy Rubin Sexual Harassment Coverup
… “While at Google, Rubin is also alleged to have engaged in human sex trafficking—paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to women to be, in …
Android Founder Andy Rubin Accused of Running ‘Sex Ring’
… Andy Rubin, the Android founder and former Google executive has been accused of running a “sex ring” by his ex-wife, according to court …
Andy Rubin, former Google executive, sexual misconduct allegations
… Andy Rubin is one of 262 celebrities and powerful people accused of sexual misconduct since 2017. See the full list:
How Google Protected Andy Rubin, the ‘Father of Android’
… What Google did not make public was that an employee had accused Mr. Rubin of sexual misconduct. The woman, with whom Mr. Rubin had been …
Android creator Andy Rubin allegedly concealed Google payments …
… Andy Rubin, a former Google executive and the inventor of the Android … Rubin is also alleged to have engaged in human sex trafficking …
Ex-Google Star Rubin Spars to Keep Divorce Fallout Secret
… Andy Rubin, the Android creator at the center of a sex harassment scandal … Rubin is also alleged to have engaged in human sex trafficking …
Alphabet Board Sued Over Claims It Covered Up Senior Execs …
… Alphabet’s Board Sued for Role in Allegedly Covering Up Sexual Misconduct by … How Google Protected Andy Rubin, the ‘Father of Android’.
NEVER GIVE IN TO T-MOBILE’S BIG TECH CORRUPTION. FIGHT IT WITH THE TRUTH AND MASS MEDIA DISTRIBUTION
The Silicon Valley Cartel Of Big Tech And White House Bribes, Trafficking, Media Hit-Jobs, Insider Trading And Cronyism
We guarantee that these deeds done in the dark will come to light and that these perpetrators will be fully exposed, shamed and prosecuted.
In the TV series: “Surviving R. Kelly” you can clearly see how a certain low I.Q. percentage of the population will defend an R. Kelly, an Elon Musk and a Harvey Weinstein even though they obviously and overtly engage in heinous crimes.
The Jeffrey Epstein’s, the John Doerr’s, the Andy Rubin’s, the Steve Jurvetson’s, the Eric Schmidt’s, the Larry Page’s, etc. think they are untouchable because they buy politicians and pay bribes.
That will always be their downfall!
In other words, a perfect Musk proposal!
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Direct
First, Mars gravity well is ‘lighter’ than Earth’s. Returning from the Martian surface to orbit won’t be as hard as from here to Low Earth Orbit. (LEO, the base for all else in our vicinity.)
Second, Mars has lots of water! Water can be ‘cracked’ quite easily and cheaply to supply both oxygen, (your reactive part of a breathable atmosphere,) and hydrogen, (one half of the most basic fuel needed, and already technically feasible.)
Third, if you have to build political support by utilizing some of the Battlestar Mars methodology, the Moon also has water, though much more difficult to gain access to. Your basic fuel and atmosphere materials can be got there at much cheaper rates.
Fourth, all the radiation problems have work arounds. Cost is the biggest draw back. Radiation shielding adds weight and complexity to your spacecraft.
Fifth, on Mars, the ‘pioneers’ will have to spend much of their time in underground facilities anyway. A foot or more of good old Martian red dirt does wonders for stopping those pesky energetic particles.
Sixth, the return craft will not land on Mars. It will be left in orbit, say tethered to one of the two “moons” of Mars. In the second generation deep space craft, the engineering enters a different field. Light weight construction methods.
Seventh, humans need some frontier to aspire to, even if the individual doesn’t have a realistic chance of going there. The psychological value of aspiration, even though presently misused for socio-political ends, is positive.
Some of us have spent more than five minutes thinking about this and have come away with the conviction that it is necessary for the species continued health and well being.
See above for a Mars Direct link.
It is all technically feasible. What are needed are the necessary resources allocated. (Cost.)
Once a usable source of water is found, the rest falls into place.
There is no reason why the ‘pioneers’ won’t become literal pioneers and stay on Mars. (The Commentariat’s preferred outcome for Musk et. al.)
https://www.iflscience.com/space/mars-one-torn-shreds-mit-debate/
This retrenchment at Space-X is a sign that that entity has realized that it, suffering from the limitations imposed on it by the “private” sector, cannot be run as a Project, but must content itself with existing within the constraints of being a Business.
The false equivalency inherent in the Neo-liberal myth of the “rugged individualist” is plain. All those ‘big business’ “successes” are built upon Government funded and run ‘pure science’ programs. The Internet itself, fecund source of fortunes large and small was the direct outgrowth of a network established among government and university departments to facilitate the communications of scientists. Who here remembers the Arpanet? All Bezos and his ilk did was to carry out a modern enclosure movement upon what had been a public trust. Behind every great fortune lies a great crime.
In the proverbial “Just Society” criminals like the billionaire class would pay for their transgressions. We have the dishonour to be living in a corrupt and degenerate age. Thus, criminals are lauded. The rest of us, well…..
2) A defense contractor (spaceX) He uses these two entities to fund gifts of shitty cars to giant, insufferable assholes.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX Spy Satellites Watch You Everywhere On Earth! Can privacy survive?
In 2013, police in Grants Pass, Oregon, got a tip that a man named Curtis W. Croft had been illegally growing marijuana in his backyard. So they checked Google Earth. Indeed, the four-month-old satellite image showed neat rows of plants growing on Croft’s property. The cops raided his place and seized 94 plants.
HOW MUSK RUINED SPACEX WITH HIS LIES AND EGOMANIA
– SpaceX engineers call Musk a “liar’ in published reports
– NASA senior staff call Musk’s Mars Scheme: “PR Hype designed to cover up the fact that SpaceX makes it’s money from domestic spy satellites and pushing Google’s ideology and privacy tracking in space…”
– SpaceX is a spy contractor and nothing more. Those who believe otherwise are shills and “fools”, say experts
– SpaceX has blown up more spacecraft from shoddy engineering than any other space company in history
– SpaceX STARLINK system is just a Google/Silicon Valley scheme to push left-wing politics to the public and give Google another way to spy on users
– China, a solar storm or a COMCAST hunter/killer satellite can wipe out the entire Starlink network in 60 minutes
If This Is Your Inspiration From Space, You’re Doing It Wrong
Jenny List
So after a false start due to bad weather, the first crewed launch of a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule with two astronauts on board has gone ahead. After playing catch-up with the ISS for around 27 hours they’re now safely aboard. At times it seems that space launches have become everyday occurrences, but they are still heroes who have risked their lives in the furtherment of mankind’s exploration of space. Their achievement, and that of all the scientists, engineers, and other staff who stand behind them, is immense.
I watched the drama unfold via the live video feed. Having heaved a huge sigh of relief once they were safely in orbit, the feed cut to the studio, and then moved on to interview the NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine. He was naturally elated at a successful launch, and enthused about the agency’s achievement. You can watch the full interview embedded below, but what caught my attention was his parting sentence:
I was slightly shocked and saddened to hear this from the NASA administrator, because to my mind the careers of Musk, Bezos, or Branson should not be the ones first brought to mind by a space launch. This isn’t a comment on those three in themselves; although they have many critics it is undeniable that they have each through their respective space companies brought much to the world of space flight. Instead it’s a comment on what a NASA administrator should be trying to inspire in kids.
Ask yourself how many billionaire masters-of-the-universe it takes for a successful space race compared to the number of scientists, engineers, mathematicians, technicians, physicists, et al. From the anecdote of the NASA administrator it takes about three, but if he is to make good on his goal of returning to the Moon in 2024 and then eventually taking humanity to Mars it will take a generation packed full of those other roles. To understand that we’ll have to take a trip back to the Apollo era, and how that generation of kids were inspired by the spacecraft on their screens.
Inspiration from probably the coolest room in the world at the time, the Apollo mission control in Houston. NASA on The Commons / No restrictionsFifty years ago, we were very much on the brink of becoming a spacefaring planet. American astronauts were taking their first steps on the Moon, and Soviet cosmonauts were occupying real space stations that would soon be capable of housing them for months at a time. Planetary probes were returning colour TV pictures from other worlds, and it was certain that in the immediate aftermath of the Apollo programme we’d be sending astronauts and probably cosmonauts too further afield. A Mars base in the 1980s perhaps, and following our fictional Star Trek heroes further afield thereafter.
We now know it didn’t quite work out that way, but a whole generation of tech-inclined kids grew up wanting nothing more than to be involved in space flight. The vast majority of us never made it, but with that inspiration we took our soldering irons and 8-bit home computers and ran with them. Those NASA folks were the coolest of role-models, and no doubt their Soviet equivalents were too for kids on the other side of the Iron Curtain.
With the best will in the world, the chances of any kid becoming the next Jeff Bezos is about as high as that of their becoming the next Neil Armstrong. Compared to the number of kids in the world, the number of billionaires and the number of astronauts both pale into statistical insignificance. But the chances of a kid becoming an engineer or a scientist is much higher, and in those careers their chances of having some of their work be involved with the space effort becomes not entirely unlikely.
I understand what the NASA administrator was trying to say, but can’t shake the feeling that if those are the people he rolls out to inspire kids watching a space launch, he’s missed an opportunity. Those are the names we all recognize, but shouldn’t we also elevate the people making the scientific breakthroughs so their names are equally recognized? Like Margaret Hamilton, Gene Kranz, and Sergei Korolev and many others before them, we should be making names like Tom Mueller and Margarita Marinova prominent examples of where a career in the sciences can take you. But to be honest, the real problem is we just don’t hear much about all the people doing this fascinating engineering and that’s a sad state of affairs.
Looks like it’s time for Hackaday to pursue a biography series based on the many great minds who are the ones delivering on the promise and vision of today’s (and tomorrow’s) space race. Get us started by talking about your favorite behind the scenes science folks in the comments below.
It is indeed unfortunate to be “inspired” and have as role-models, tycoons with highly questionable motives (primarily profit) on all their ventures so far. Thank you for bringing this up!
I would suggest Hackaday focus on a series of great minds like the ones you mentioned and additionally: Cayley, Goddard, Kemurdzhian, Keldysh, Severin, Xiji and many others.
Yes, we need everything into the hands of 4 billionaires. I can’t wait until I don’t have to care about voting and budget allocations anymore, the 4 billionaires will do it for me!
here is a perfect example of the insanity we face, the “billionaire” has never created anything least of all solutions to problems. the slap their name on other peoples work and make people pay more money they they should ever to get it.
“not inclined to believe that the primary drivers behind creating SpaceX, Blue Origin and perhaps some others were profit,”
Everyone knows government contracts have no profit. That’s why Boring, Lockheed and Raytheon are so broke.
Musk is a welfare queen.
Musk main goal is to feed his own ego and nothing else.
musk is a narcissistic sociopath who’s trying to get his name remembers and be doesn’t care how many lies he has to tell or people have to die to have that happen. and when his plan fail as there is no other option for them but to fail they are that stupid.
he will have damage space exploration for years to come
I don’t know you have all day?
someone stopping to help fix a flat tire, returning a lost toy, return someones dropped money and so on.
they’re not typically the kind you see in history books tho, history writers do so love to writer about mythological figures rather then the harder dirty truth of incremental change and group dynamics. its one of the greater flaws of the human mind, we’re not very good at understanding the complexity of reality but the mind is very good at personal understanding so it likes personalize complex concepts by choosing “avatars” (think wearing the same underwear for good luck or thinking a god made that glass of water fall on their laps) which is easier to understand but completely wrong.
Musk an trash like him are desperately try to make themselves seem important when they’re not. because they are just sad pathetic people and i just feel sorry for the people that fall for it,
you post more then boards on straw man argument Msat
any good musk does for the world will be purely incidental, the people he hurts to get his ego fueled nightmare already out number those it could ever help. this isn’t a binary issue its simply the fact his actions haven proven he’s toxic in the purest sense.
One has to wonder.
The people behind SpaceX’s rockets were already working for NASA on the very same problem, when Musk bought and hired them to sell NASA the same technology by the same people. The only “thing” here is that NASA was having a hard time securing funding, so they made this whole “commercial space flight” switcheroo to make it look like they’re doing something different.
Even the re-usable rockets are just a rehash of the old McDonnell Douglas DC-X concept that was funded by NASA, and the technology was transferred to NASA in 1996 in order to develop into the DC-XA.
Everything that Musk is doing is projects that NASA was doing, handed over on a platter to privatize the profits.
The Mars business is just a red herring. It’s an implausible goal set for the point that it’s really difficult, perfectly useless, and you can waste a lot of public money trying to.
Where is Musk’s personal fortune on the line? He hasn’t got a dime in it – NASA is paying nearly all of it. If SpaceX goes bankrupt, Musk will actually be on the receiving end of the line because he funds his companies by lending them the money, not investing.
Should he be forced to liquidate the company, the money would go to pay all the debtors, including himself.
It didn’t start with a boatload of cash from NASA, but neither were they doing anything interesting before they got into contact with NASA and got access to all the cool tech that they had sitting on the shelf.
They started in 2001 with a bunch of other venture capitalists, then in 2002 bought Tom Mueller who was working for TRW under a sub-contract for NASA to develop exactly the kind of low-cost engines that SpaceX needed. Tom took the TR-106 and turned it into the Merlin engine, and NASA started throwing billions of dollars worth of contracts to them, which enabled Musk to pull in billions of dollars worth of public loans plus investments from companies like Google.
You mean buying companies that made products that could sell, then selling the companies to get richer?
Elon didn’t make PayPal happen. He bought in just as it got going.
NASA has totally turned over it’s responsibility to the private sector. At a budget of over 25 billion, what does it say that a private company given just a few of that can bring back the space program and put us back in low earth orbit on our own ships. I’m 52 and saw what it NASA could do “back in the day”. Now NASA is just a money dump supporting a failed bureaucracy that killed the crews of two shuttle missions and still can’t see past its own politics. It seems odd that the one guy that actually pulled this off wasn’t on screen. Although we got to see a lot of politicians that could no more work out the math behind three sides of a triangle try and steal credit for something that started over 10 years ago.
This is fantastic. I was also shocked that NASA Administrator Bridenstine called out Elon Musk or Richard Branson as the inspirational examples. I think I understand the top-of-mind idea, that this was a triumph of *commercial* space development. And I was absolutely thrilled by this success. And I think the era of cost-plus space contracting is on its way out. And…
Yes, all of that. But the idea that we need to emulate the billionaires seems at least tone-deaf to me. Not the greatest hot-take interview. If that’s what it was. It was all very strange.
SpaceX and the SSP: Elon Musk and the Biggest Lies of the …
Elon Musk is a total fraud – New York Post
The cult of Tesla’s Elon Musk lives on – Vox
Nobody On Earth Can Launder And Hide Illicit Cash, Or Bribe Politicians, Like Elon Musk
In one of a series of wild tweets posted last week, Elon Musk stated he would be “selling almost all physical possessions” and that he would “own no house.” He appears to be actually following through with that promise, as chronicled in a great story in The Wall Street Journal about Musk’s personal finances that you should go read.
According to the WSJ, despite being worth an estimated $39 billion on paper:
Musk also doesn’t take a salary at Tesla, but he apparently became eligible for stock options worth more than $1 billion this week. To get that money, he will need an eye-watering $592 million to exercise the option, according to the WSJ. It’s not clear if Musk has the money on hand to exercise that option or if the money raised from the house sales will be used to help pay for the sum. “Mr. Musk said he wasn’t selling his possessions because he needs the money,” the WSJ reported.
The article also lists a few times Musk has said he’s cash poor. Here’s one example:
Here’s another:
The whole article has a lot of history about Musk, interesting information about his finances backed up by regulatory filings, and numerous quotes from Musk himself, and I sincerely recommend taking 10 minutes to read it in full.
Musk has Goldman Sachs, Welles Fargo and Wilson Sonsini Mobster-Class executive bankers hide his money in a rabbit warren of HUNDREDS of trusts, shell corporations and fake charities from South Dakota, to Switzerland to the Cayman Islands to Russia.
A federal investigation to show the tentacular diagram of scams has been demanded!
FBI, SEC, FTC and citizen forensic investigators are hot on his trail, though!
These are the illicit things that sociopath narcissist Musk has engaged in with the taxpayer cash he mooched from government treasuries:
Rising”.
The Malignant Narcissism And Cartel Climate Of SpaceX’s Elon Musk And His Billionaire Frat Boy Club
At almost every juncture, Elon Musk has made egotistical decisions that lead to more failures. His behavior is that of a person who has no care or concern for the health, safety and welfare of the American people. Nothing could epitomize that more perfectly than his grotesque suggestions that we should shoot nuclear bombs off on Mars or that nobody will care that his Starlink Satellites are designed to spy on the public. This would seem comical, and entirely unbelievable, if it had not actually happened.
In 2006 the many scientists told Elon Musk and his advisers of the high likelihood that a pandemic of lithium ion battery explosions would strike the nation and advised the incoming administration to take appropriate steps to reduce its impact. Obama officials hid the dangers because they owned stock in lithium and cobalt mines for those batteries, particularly in Afghanistan.
In November of 2007, the experts warned Obama that the country was likely to be afflicted with a devastating pandemic of lithium ion originating from Asian and Russian oligarchs.
In January 2009, the Obama administration was told by its own experts, Bernard Tse and his team who knew Tesla bosses, Sandia and others that the lithium ion batteries in Tesla cars had degrading chemistry which become a global pandemic of auto danger. Again, Obama chose inaction.
Obama and Musk have deprived Democratic-led regions of the country from receiving needed safety reviews of Tesla cars.
Over the year’s since 2006, Americans working with the DOE, NHTSA, SEC and other groups accelerated warnings to Obama officials. These engineers and other science professionals were intentionally ignored in order to protect politicians stock market profits.
In these, and any other examples, Musk and his inner circle of White House and Senate insiders ignored or purged experts and other truth-tellers, and lied about, misrepresented, deflected or denied the dire threat to the American people posed by the lithium ion battery scam.
Considered in total, Musk and his regime have shown themselves to be incompetent, callous, malevolent and deeply cruel in their response to the Tesla safety issue crisis (as well as to a plethora of other issues).
But to merely document the Musk regime’s deadly failures in response to the dangers of his companies is to ignore the most important question: What are Musk’s and his advisers’ underlying motivations?
This forensic question must be answered if we are ever to have a full accounting of the Musk Corruption, and see justice done for the voters, the dead tesla victims and those who will die in the future as well as the damage done to the broader American community.
The coordinated ‘main-stream’ media’s preferred storyline that suggests Musk is simply incompetent doesn’t add up because Muskhas made the wrong decision every single time in terms of how crises like this are supposed to be dealt with. (i.e. Be consistent, transparent, factual, and credible.) It’s increasingly not believable for the left-wing press to suggest that Musk has been distracted or inept during this crisis, in part because of the level of his uselessness has become so staggering.
Maybe Musk is vengeful. Maybe he wants to wreck the economy to create investment opportunities? He’s under the thumb of a foreign entity? He wants to cause panic and cancel the November elections? He’s a fatalist? Who knows. And honestly, the specific “why” isn’t what matters now. What matters is asking the difficult questions and pondering what the Musk oligarchy is truly about, no matter what lurks in the shadows…
Now the press needs to shift some of its focus and ask the truly alarming questions about Musk and his motives. Because we still don’t know why he essentially ordered his companies to embark on such sinister ventures involving slicing up brains; over-priced deadly cars for rich douche-bags; digging holes for billionaire hide-outs, launching domestic spy satellites and manipulating elections along with his boyfriend: Larry Page, etc…
Psychologist and psychotherapists have an answer: Elon Musk is a “malignant narcissist”. Musk’s mental pathologies inexorably compel him to hurt and defraud large numbers of people — including his own supporters.
Exports have looked at Musk’s borderline personality disorders. They explais that sadism and violence are central to Musk’s malignant narcissism and his decision-making about his self-promotion. They warn that Musk is abuser locked into a deeply dysfunctional relationship with the American people and that, like other sadists, Musk enjoys causing harm and suffering to any that do not recognize his “tech Jesus” self-proclaimed superiority.
Ultimately, all psychologists generally concludes that Musk is engaging in “democidal behavior” in partnership with Obama and Pelosi and cautions that the many dead and injured (so far) from the Tesla fires and crashes are not simply collateral damage from the Musk madness, but rather the logical outcome of Musk’s apparent mental pathologies and the poor decisions that flow from them.
Musk is both denying responsibility by saying things such as, “I take no responsibility. We’ve done everything right.” But at the same time, Musk is also sabotaging the efforts to stop the corruption in his empire. This is a very important aspect of Musk’s behavior. Musk is not just deflecting blame onto others, he is actively interfering with the politicianss’ ability to do their job by controlled Senators with bribes. Musk is not just incompetent. He is actively engaging in sabotage against competitors and reporters who speak the truth about him.You might wonder: How does someone with his type of mind reconcile claims like “I have total power” with “I take no responsibility”? He has said both things within a few days of each other. Well; That is a function of how the psychology of a malignant narcissist is structured. When Musk says things such as, “I have total power,” that’s the grandiosity. “I’m in total control” is a function of Musk’s paranoia, where everything bad is projected outward. Therefore, anything negative or bad is someone else’s fault. Bad things are ‘other people’ in Musk ’s mind. The grandiosity and “greatness” are all him. Musk’s mind runs on a formula which bends and twists facts, ideas and memories to suit his malignant narcissism. This is why Musk contradicts himself so easily. He lies and makes things up. His fantasies all serve his malignant narcissism and the world he has created in his own mind about his greatness.
Another component of Musk’s malignant narcissism is sadism. That part of Musk’s mind is more hidden. People such as Musk are malignant-narcissist sadists because they, at some deep level, are driven to cause harm to other people. Musk’s life is proof of this. His pedo father and trophy wife narcissist mother demonstrate his roots. He enjoys ripping people off and humiliating people. He does this manically and gleefully. He has lied thousands of times. He threatens people online and elsewhere. Most psychologists believe that Elon Musk is also a sexual sadist, who on some basic level enjoys and is aroused by watching people be afraid of him. In his mind, Musk is creating chaos and instability so that he can feel powerful.
Professor of psychiatry and psychoanalyst Otto Kernberg called that phenomenon “omnipotent destructiveness.” The bullying, the violence, the destruction, frightening people, humiliating people, getting revenge and the like — such behavior is what Elon Musk has done his whole life. It is who Elon Musk really is. Unfortunately, too many people are still in denial of that fact.
Musk has to create and control a field of negative corrupting energy around himself. For example, he pressures the scientific experts to bend the truth to his dreamworld during his press conferences. The scientists are basically Musk’s hostages. The American people are hostages as well to Elon Musk’s lies. We are being abused by him. We know that Musk is lying. We know that he’s doing nothing to help us. We feel helpless to do anything to stop him. It is causing collective mental despair. It is not that all Americans are suckers or dupes, it is that Musk is a master at such cruel and manipulative behavior.
Elon Musk is a master at getting negative attention, and the more people he can shock and upset, the better.
Malignant narcissists like Elon Musk view other human beings as kindling wood to be burned for their own personal enrichment, media enlargement and hype expansion.
Follow the facts to the obvious and true conclusion. If all the facts show that Elon Musk (and his little boy buddies Larry Page, Eric Schmidt, John Doerr, Reid Hoffman, Steve Westly, etc.) is a malignant narcissist with these powerful sadistic tendencies, this omnipotent destructiveness, where he’s getting pleasure and a sense of power from dominating people and degrading people and destroying people and plundering people and laying waste to people, both psychologically and physically, then to deny such obvious facts is willful ignorance. When Musk is finally exposed, like Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos or ENRON, it will be glorious.
Rather than making a prediction as to Musk’s specific actions when the emperor has no clothes, it is more helpful to describe the type of actions he will take. Rather than trying to say, “This is the move he’ll make.” Like in a relationship, Elon Musk is the abuser. He is the husband or father who is abusing his partner or children or other relatives. The American people are like a woman who is leaving her abuser. She tells her abuser, “That’s it! I am done with you!” She has her keys in hand and is opening the door of the house or apartment to finally leave. What happens? The democidal maniac Elon Musk will attack us, badly. Make no mistake. Elon Musk is going to find a way to attack and cause great harm to the American people if he believes that he will be fully exposed. He will use his spy satellites, his media controls, his remote controlled cars, his stock market manipulation tools, his Goldman Sachs economic destruction team and more. Musk will strike back… unless the FBI finally arrests him first.
The Bottom Line: These people are crooks, using your tax money to conduct crimes and protect themselves from arrest at your expense!
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In 2018, Brazilian police in the state of Amapá used real-time satellite imagery to detect a spot where trees had been ripped out of the ground. When they showed up, they discovered that the site was being used to illegally produce charcoal, and arrested eight people in connection with the scheme.
Chinese government officials have denied or downplayed the existence of Uighur reeducation camps in Xinjiang province, portraying them as “vocational schools.” But human rights activists have used satellite imagery to show that many of the “schools” are surrounded by watchtowers and razor wire.
Every year, commercially available satellite images are becoming sharper and taken more frequently. In 2008, there were 150 Earth observation satellites in orbit; by now there are 768. Satellite companies don’t offer 24-hour real-time surveillance, but if the hype is to be believed, they’re getting close. Privacy advocates warn that innovation in satellite imagery is outpacing the US government’s (to say nothing of the rest of the world’s) ability to regulate the technology. Unless we impose stricter limits now, they say, one day everyone from ad companies to suspicious spouses to terrorist organizations will have access to tools previously reserved for government spy agencies. Which would mean that at any given moment, anyone could be watching anyone else.
The images keep getting clearer
Commercial satellite imagery is currently in a sweet spot: powerful enough to see a car, but not enough to tell the make and model; collected frequently enough for a farmer to keep tabs on crops’ health, but not so often that people could track the comings and goings of a neighbor. This anonymity is deliberate. US federal regulations limit images taken by commercial satellites to a resolution of 25 centimeters, or about the length of a man’s shoe. (Military spy satellites can capture images far more granular, although just how much more is classified.)
Ever since 2014, when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) relaxed the limit from 50 to 25 cm, that resolution has been fine enough to satisfy most customers. Investors can predict oil supply from the shadows cast inside oil storage tanks. Farmers can monitor flooding to protect their crops. Human rights organizations have tracked the flows of refugees from Myanmar and Syria.
But satellite imagery is improving in a way that investors and businesses will inevitably want to exploit. The imaging company Planet Labs currently maintains 140 satellites, enough to pass over every place on Earth once a day. Maxar, formerly DigitalGlobe, which launched the first commercial Earth observation satellite in 1997, is building a constellation that will be able to revisit spots 15 times a day. BlackSky Global promises to revisit most major cities up to 70 times a day. That might not be enough to track an individual’s every move, but it would show what times of day someone’s car is typically in the driveway, for instance.
Some companies are even offering live video from space. As early as 2014, a Silicon Valley startup called SkyBox (later renamed Terra Bella and purchased by Google and then Planet) began touting HD video clips up to 90 seconds long. And a company called EarthNow says it will offer “continuous real-time” monitoring “with a delay as short as about one second,” though some think it is overstating its abilities. Everyone is trying to get closer to a “living map,” says Charlie Loyd of Mapbox, which creates custom maps for companies like Snapchat and the Weather Channel. But it won’t arrive tomorrow, or the next day: “We’re an extremely long way from high-res, full-time video of the Earth.”
Some of the most radical developments in Earth observation involve not traditional photography but rather radar sensing and hyperspectral images, which capture electromagnetic wavelengths outside the visible spectrum. Clouds can hide the ground in visible light, but satellites can penetrate them using synthetic aperture radar, which emits a signal that bounces off the sensed object and back to the satellite. It can determine the height of an object down to a millimeter. NASA has used synthetic aperture radar since the 1970s, but the fact that the US approved it for commercial use only last year is testament to its power—and political sensitivity. (In 1978, military officials supposedly blocked the release of radar satellite images that revealed the location of American nuclear submarines.)
Meanwhile, farmers can use hyperspectral sensing to tell where a crop is in its growth cycle, and geologists can use it to detect the texture of rock that might be favorable to excavation. But it could also be used, whether by military agencies or terrorists, to identify underground bunkers or nuclear materials.
The resolution of commercially available imagery, too, is likely to improve further. NOAA’s 25-centimeter cap will come under pressure as competition from international satellite companies increases. And even if it doesn’t, there’s nothing to stop, say, a Chinese company from capturing and selling 10 cm images to American customers. “Other companies internationally are going to start providing higher-resolution imagery than we legally allow,” says Therese Jones, senior director of policy for the Satellite Industry Association. “Our companies would want to push the limit down as far as they possibly could.”
What will make the imagery even more powerful is the ability to process it in large quantities. Analytics companies like Orbital Insight and SpaceKnow feed visual data into algorithms designed to let anyone with an internet connection understand the pictures en masse. Investors use this analysis to, for example, estimate the true GDP of China’s Guangdong province on the basis of the light it emits at night. But burglars could also scan a city to determine which families are out of town most often and for how long.
Satellite and analytics companies say they’re careful to anonymize their data, scrubbing it of identifying characteristics. But even if satellites aren’t recognizing faces, those images combined with other data streams—GPS, security cameras, social-media posts—could pose a threat to privacy. “People’s movements, what kinds of shops do you go to, where do your kids go to school, what kind of religious institutions do you visit, what are your social patterns,” says Peter Martinez, of the Secure World Foundation. “All of these kinds of questions could in principle be interrogated, should someone be interested.”
Like all tools, satellite imagery is subject to misuse. Its apparent objectivity can lead to false conclusions, as when the George W. Bush administration used it to make the case that Saddam Hussein was stockpiling chemical weapons in Iraq. Attempts to protect privacy can also backfire: in 2018, a Russian mapping firm blurred out the sites of sensitive military operations in Turkey and Israel—inadvertently revealing their existence, and prompting web users to locate the sites on other open-source maps.
Capturing satellite imagery with good intentions can have unintended consequences too. In 2012, as conflict raged on the border between Sudan and South Sudan, the Harvard-based Satellite Sentinel Project released an image that showed a construction crew building a tank-capable road leading toward an area occupied by the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army. The idea was to warn citizens about the approaching tanks so they could evacuate. But the SPLA saw the images too, and within 36 hours it attacked the road crew (which turned out to consist of Chinese civilians hired by the Sudanese government), killed some of them, and kidnapped the rest. As an activist, one’s instinct is often to release more information, says Nathaniel Raymond, a human rights expert who led the Sentinel project. But he’s learned that you have to take into account who else might be watching.
It’s expensive to watch you all the time
One thing that might save us from celestial scrutiny is the price. Some satellite entrepreneurs argue that there isn’t enough demand to pay for a constellation of satellites capable of round-the-clock monitoring at resolutions below 25 cm. “It becomes a question of economics,” says Walter Scott, founder of DigitalGlobe, now Maxar. While some companies are launching relatively cheap “nanosatellites” the size of toasters—the 120 Dove satellites launched by Planet, for example, are “orders of magnitude” cheaper than traditional satellites, according to a spokesperson—there’s a limit to how small they can get and still capture hyper-detailed images. “It is a fundamental fact of physics that aperture size determines the limit on the resolution you can get,” says Scott. “At a given altitude, you need a certain size telescope.” That is, in Maxar’s case, an aperture of about a meter across, mounted on a satellite the size of a small school bus. (While there are ways around this limit—interferometry, for example, uses multiple mirrors to simulate a much larger mirror—they’re complex and pricey.) Bigger satellites mean costlier launches, so companies would need a financial incentive to collect such granular data.
That said, there’s already demand for imagery with sub–25 cm resolution—and a supply of it. For example, some insurance underwriters need that level of detail to spot trees overhanging a roof, or to distinguish a skylight from a solar panel, and they can get it from airplanes and drones. But if the cost of satellite images came down far enough, insurance companies would presumably switch over.
Of course, drones can already collect better images than satellites ever will. But drones are limited in where they can go. In the US, the Federal Aviation Administration forbids flying commercial drones over groups of people, and you have to register a drone that weighs more than half a pound (227 grams) or so. There are no such restrictions in space. The Outer Space Treaty, signed in 1967 by the US, the Soviet Union, and dozens of UN member states, gives all states free access to space, and subsequent agreements on remote sensing have enshrined the principle of “open skies.” During the Cold War this made sense, as it allowed superpowers to monitor other countries to verify that they were sticking to arms agreements. But the treaty didn’t anticipate that it would one day be possible for anyone to get detailed images of almost any location.
And then there are the tracking devices we carry around in our pockets, a.k.a. smartphones. But while the GPS data from cell phones is a legitimate privacy threat, you can at least decide to leave your phone at home. It’s harder to hide from a satellite camera. “There’s some element of ground truth—no pun intended—that satellites have that maybe your cell phone or digital record or what happens on Twitter [doesn’t],” says Abraham Thomas, chief data officer at the analytics company Quandl. “The data itself tends to be innately more accurate.”
The future of human freedom
American privacy laws are vague when it comes to satellites. Courts have generally allowed aerial surveillance, though in 2015 the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled that an “aerial search” by police without a warrant was unconstitutional. Cases often come down to whether an act of surveillance violates someone’s “reasonable expectation of privacy.” A picture taken on a public sidewalk: fair game. A photo shot by a drone through someone’s bedroom window: probably not. A satellite orbiting hundreds of miles up, capturing video of a car pulling into the driveway? Unclear.
That doesn’t mean the US government is powerless. It has no jurisdiction over Chinese or Russian satellites, but it can regulate how American customers use foreign imagery. If US companies are profiting from it in a way that violates the privacy of US citizens, the government could step in.
Raymond argues that protecting ourselves will mean rethinking privacy itself. Current privacy laws, he says, focus on threats to the rights of individuals. But those protections “are anachronistic in the face of AI, geospatial technologies, and mobile technologies, which not only use group data, they run on group data as gas in the tank,” Raymond says. Regulating these technologies will mean conceiving of privacy as applying not just to individuals, but to groups as well. “You can be entirely ethical about personally identifiable information and still kill people,” he says.
Until we can all agree on data privacy norms, Raymond says, it will be hard to create lasting rules around satellite imagery. “We’re all trying to figure this out,” he says. “It’s not like anything’s riding on it except the future of human freedom.”
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The SpaceBee is a prototype satellite from Swarm Technologies, a start-up founded in 2016 and based in Los Altos, California. There is little publicly available information about Swarm. According to Mark Harris, the reporter at IEEE Spectrum who first broke the story[4] about the satellites’ unauthorized launch, the company is in stealth mode, the term for the period of relative secrecy of a budding start-up and a popular Silicon Valley strategy. Most of what is known about Swarm comes from a handful of websites and public records, including correspondence between the company and the FCC.
In 2016, Swarm applied[5] for a grant from the National Science Foundation. The company’s pitch was to develop a satellite-based communications network for internet-connected devices, particularly in places without access to wireless networks. “Scientific, shipping, tracking, automotive, agriculture, energy, medical, educational, and other commercial entities will have the ability to return their data from anywhere on the planet to support tracking, safe operations, and optimal and timely decision making,” the company explained. In December 2016, the NSF awarded Swarm more than $220,000 as part of a funding program for small businesses.
So, what should be done about these SpaceBees?
The FCC completed a “fact-finding inquiry” at the start of May, according to Neil Grace, an agency spokesman. The case is now with the agency’s enforcement bureau. Grace could not say whether a referral to the bureau means a penalty will be implemented. Because the unauthorized launch is a first, it’s not clear what the punishment would be. Spangelo, a former systems engineer at Google and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, did not respond to calls or emails. Neither did others employed by or associated with Swarm, according to the company’s website and public documents.
There’s no way to remove rogue satellites from orbit. Start-ups aiming to develop space-debris-clearing technology are only a few years old and still raising money[22]. According to information Swarm provided to the FCC, the SpaceBees have enough battery power to remain operational for up to 10 years. They will likely fall back down to Earth before that; the satellites are not equipped with propulsion systems, which means they don’t have engines to escape the pull of Earth’s gravity and maintain a stable orbit. Swarm’s application said the satellites will reenter the planet’s atmosphere and disintegrate in a little under eight years.
Coletta and Chapman have no plans to stop tracking the rogue satellites. They’re both a ways away from Georgia and California, where the ground stations that can talk to the SpaceBees are located. But they know where the SpaceBees are and when they’ll be passing over their heads. They can point their antennas in their direction and listen.
When I asked Grace, the FCC spokesman, about the brief signals Coletta has detected, he said he’d look into it. Swarm employees would know whether the pings came from the satellites, but they’re not talking.
These mysterious signals aside, the SpaceBees have been orbiting in silence since they launched. If the FCC decides to clear Swarm, they may turn on and start buzzing. If the agency penalizes Swarm, with fines or bans on future work, the satellites will be sentenced to a lifetime of quietly circling Earth. They will float along with the rest of the space junk until gravity beckons and drags them back down, to the place they were never supposed to leave.