Free Republic

The Biden administration is spending nearly $80 million on a new system to monitor illegal immigrants that prohibits the use of any GPS technology, a decision that experts say will make it impossible to locate their whereabouts after their release into the United States. The system, according to government records reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon, is meant to track illegal immigrants via monthly check-ins via phone. Migrants released into the U.S. interior aged 18-19 are eligible for the program. Any GPS monitoring that would give exact locations, such as ankle monitor tracking, is explicitly forbidden, according to the contract....

The "mark of the beast" as described in the New Testament's Book of Revelation can be interpreted as a mark that will regulate trade. But even the Book of Revelation didn't include a pill you could swallow that would allow the government to see if you have complied with your orders. This is beyond sinister. A clip of Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla describing his company's new technology to a group of elites at the 2018 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, has gone viral on social media over the past few days. (Dr. Bourla's full remarks can be accessed on...

Google has made millions of its users the targets of a test for a new ad program without informing them, warns a privacy activist group. The Electronic Frontier Foundation said Google's test trial of its Federated Learning of Cohorts without consent "is a concrete breach of user trust in service of a technology that should not exist." Under the program, Google Chrome browsers "will begin sorting their users into groups based on behavior, then sharing group labels with third-party trackers and advertisers around the web." "Although Google announced this was coming, the company has been sparse with details about the...

First a Dallas hair salon owner was imprisoned for opening her store to earn a living. Next Texas has signed a $295 million contract for "contact tracing," by which law-abiding citizens will have to submit to monitoring about when, where and with whom they have been. While this sounds like a dark episode in the history of the communist Soviet Union or China, it is being promoted by Democratic governors today on a massive scale never accepted in the United States. It even extends into liberty-conscious, conservative Texas. Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., the chairman of the conservative Freedom Caucus, pointed...

The technocrats are talking about giving people a chip - once they've been vaccinated for the CCP virus, or otherwise proven their immunity and state of non-contagion - so that anyone with the right scanner can easily see that interacting with them is “safe.” Sounds like a great idea, doesn't it? But think about it. Even if you don't care about personal freedom, don't respect concerns for societal liberty. Just think about this a moment. The CCP virus is just the flavor of the month. It's the terrible risk of 2020, the big thing this year. In past years, we...

The only catch is that it means granting two of the world’s tech behemoths minute-by-minute updates on our movements *and* our health status. And, in so doing, triggering a cultural shift in which we’ll all be less reluctant to provide information like that to authorities forever after. Anyway, big, big news: A number of leading public health authorities, universities, and NGOs around the world have been doing important work to develop opt-in contact tracing technology. To further this cause, Apple and Google will be launching a comprehensive solution that includes application programming interfaces (APIs) and operating system-level technology to assist...

I am not much of a vanity poster. This morning I have noticed that Firefox had disabled my browser extensions for Ghostery and Adblock plus. I tried to install several other adblock anti-trackers and none of them will install. I have tried to re-install them yet I am denied. I hate to wave goodbye to Firefox as I have been onboard since the Netscape days. But, I cannot get these extensions to install no matter what I do and I will dump them if they want to force the issue

Sometimes a business inadvertently drops the pretense and just tells the world its real intentions. We saw this yesterday, when Amazon bragged about how it “allowed” an employee to lose 100 pounds by endlessly delivering boxes. Amazon saw this as a heartwarming tale about how great it is to work for the e-commerce juggernaut. It completely missed the subtext: Who needs a gym when someone can physically labor for their corporate overlord and lose weight? Now we have another, possibly darker example. Mastercard announced a new partnership with Microsoft that is tackling “digital identities.” Here’s how it described the project...

“Slugging” is an organic ride-share around the D.C. suburbs to commute back and forth to the Pentagon and the neighboring office buildings via high-occupancy vehicle lanes without a toll. As we arrive, she pulls up to the barrier, instead of pulling up to the normal “slug” drop off area, an indicator that she is going to D.C. not inside the Pentagon. As I hurry to get out, the chord gets wrapped around the seatbelt and my podcast stops. I move over to the barrier and put my stuff down to get organized, I grab the chord and the iPhone is...

SELLS, Ariz. – The reputed head of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel is threatening a more aggressive stance against U.S. law enforcement, instructing associates to use deadly force, if needed, to protect increasingly contested trafficking operations, authorities said. Such a move by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, Mexico’s most-wanted man, would mark a turn from the cartel’s previous position of largely avoiding violent confrontations north of the border – either with American law enforcement officers or fellow traffickers. Local police and federal agents in Arizona said they recently have received at least two law enforcement alerts focused on Guzman’s reported orders that...

Today the ACLU is launching a nationwide effort to find out more about automatic license plate readers (ALPR). By snapping photographs of each license plate they encounter—up to three thousand per minute—and retaining records of who was where when, license plate readers are fundamentally threatening our freedom on the open road. You may have seen the recent New York Times op-ed that admonished us to start referring to our mobile devices as “trackers” instead of “phones.” Perhaps as ALPR technology spreads we should start saying “tracker” in place of “car,” too. We need statutory protections to limit the collection, retention,...

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (Nov. 21, 2005) -- Every Marine and sailor takes pride in knowing they impact the lives of Americans, whether its fighting for freedom or just providing a presence of reassurance and safety in our country. Ten Marines with the 2nd Assault Amphibian Battalion received Purple Heart medals, and 10 Marines and one sailor received the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation medals during a ceremony here, Nov 10. Through various acts of bravery and self-sacrifice these trackers risked their lives to defend the country. There’s inherent patriotism in the manner in which they live their...

February 10th, 2003 The Sixth Sense of the IDF's Gaza Brigade Trackers Today, near the city of Mordehi, a ceremony was held in honor of the IDF's Gaza Brigade trackers. The Head of the Gaza Division Brig. Gen. Gadi Shameni, the Commander of the Southern Command's Tracker's Unit Col. Pini Ganon, and Commander of the Gaza Tracker's Unit, Major Salah Alhaib, were all present at the ceremony. The Gaza Division Commander complemented the tracker unit by saying, "I've heard it said that trackers have a sixth sense. In my opinion, tracking also requires deep thought. A tracker has to put...

Satellite trackers find Kerry the goose in Eskimo freezer British conservationists are mourning the loss of Kerry the goose after tracking him by satellite all the way from Ireland to an Eskimo's kitchen in Arctic Canada. He was found by researchers who tracked the beeps from a £3,000 transmitter on his back to a hunter's home on remote Cornwallis Island. Kerry was one of six light-bellied Brent Geese being followed on their 4,500-mile migration by the British-based Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust. Senior research officer Dr James Robinson said: "We have some Canadian colleagues in an area called Resolute Bay on...