BOSTON (AP) — Cars are getting an “F” in data privacy. Most major manufacturers admit they may be selling your personal information, a new study finds, with half also saying they would share it with the government or law enforcement without a court order.

The proliferation of automobile sensors — from telematics to fully digitized control consoles — has made them prodigious data-collection hubs.

But drivers are given little or no control over the personal data their vehicles collect, researchers for the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation said Wednesday in their latest “Privacy Not Included” survey Security standards are also vague, a big concern given automakers’ track record of susceptibility to hacking.

“Cars seem to have really flown under the privacy radar and I’m really hoping we can help remedy that because they are truly awful,” said Jen Caltrider, the study’s research lead. “Cars have microphones and people have all kinds of sensitive conversations. Cars have cameras that face inward and outward.”

Unless they opt for a used, pre-digital model, car buyers “just don’t have a lot of options,” Caltrider said.

Cars scored worst for privacy among more than a dozen product categories — including fitness trackers, reproductive-health apps, smart speakers, and other connected home appliances — that Mozilla has studied since 2017.

Not one of the 25 car brands whose privacy notices were reviewed — chosen for their popularity in Europe and North America — met the minimum privacy standards of Mozilla, which promotes open-source, public-interest technologies and maintains the Firefox browser. By contrast, 37% of the mental health apps the non-profit reviewed this year did.

Nineteen automakers say they can sell your personal data, their notices reveal. Half will share your information with the government or law enforcement in response to a “request” — as opposed to requiring a court order. Only two — Renault and Dacia, which are not sold in North America — offer drivers the option to have their data deleted.

“Increasingly, most cars are wiretaps on wheels,” said Albert Fox Cahn, a technology and human rights fellow at Harvard’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. “The electronics that drivers pay more and more money to install are collecting more and more data on them and their passengers.”

“There is something uniquely invasive about transforming the privacy of one’s car into a corporate surveillance space,” he added.

A trade group representing the makers of most cars and light trucks sold in the U.S., the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, took issue with that characterization. In a letter sent Tuesday to U.S. House and Senate leadership, it said it shares “the goal of protecting the privacy of consumers.”

It called for a federal privacy law, saying a “patchwork of state privacy laws creates confusion among consumers about their privacy rights and makes compliance unnecessarily difficult.” The absence of such a law lets connected devices and smartphones amass data for tailored ad targeting and other marketing — while also raising the odds of massive information theft through cybersecurity breaches.

The Associated Press asked the Alliance, which has resisted efforts to provide car owners and independent repair shops with access to onboard data, if it supports allowing car buyers to automatically opt out of data collection — and granting them the option of having collected data deleted. Spokesman Brian Weiss said that for safety reasons the group “has concerns” about letting customers completely opt out — but does endorse giving them greater control over how the data is used in marketing and by third parties.

In a 2020 Pew Research survey, 52% of Americans said they had opted against using a product or service because they were worried about the amount of personal information it would collect about them.

On security, Mozilla’s minimum standards include encrypting all personal information on a car. The researchers said most car brands ignored their emailed questions on the matter and those that did offered partial, unsatisfactory responses.

Japan-based Nissan astounded researchers with the level of honesty and detailed breakdowns of data collection its privacy notice provides, a stark contrast with Big Tech companies such as Facebook or Google. “Sensitive personal information” collected includes driver’s license numbers, immigration status, race, sexual orientation, and health diagnoses.

Further, Nissan says it can share “inferences” drawn from the data to create profiles “reflecting the consumer’s preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities, and aptitudes.”

It was among six car companies that said they could collect “genetic information” or “genetic characteristics,” the researchers found.

Nissan also said it collected information on “sexual activity.” It didn’t explain how.

The all-electric Tesla brand scored high on Mozilla’s “creepiness” index. If an owner opts out of data collection, Tesla’s privacy notice says the company may not be able to notify drivers “in real time” of issues that could result in “reduced functionality, serious damage, or inoperability.”

Neither Nissan nor Tesla immediately responded to questions about their practices.

Mozilla’s Caltrider credited laws like the 27-nation European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation and California’s Consumer Privacy Act for compelling carmakers to provide existing data collection information.

It’s a start, she said, by raising awareness among consumers just as occurred in the 2010s when a consumer backlash prompted TV makers to offer more alternatives to surveillance-heavy connected displays.

The post Carmakers Are Failing The Privacy Test. Owners Have Little Or No Control Over Data Collected appeared first on BlueMarlinTech.

Billionaires play an outsized role in shaping the global economy, politics, and philanthropy. Forbes puts the number of billionaires in the world at 2,668 in 2022. The wealthiest among them is (LVMH) co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Bernard Arnault, who became the richest man in the world in 2022.

The individuals on this list belong to an even more exclusive club and wield still more power. Many are founders of technology giants, with much of their wealth still invested in the companies they started.

These billionaires can, however, still borrow against that wealth to avoid selling stock, deferring (or eliminating for heirs) taxes on unrealized capital gains in the process. Multi-billionaires can also take advantage of a panoply of tax deductions to offset reported income, leaving some on this list paying no income tax in recent years.

With so much of their wealth in publicly traded stocks, the net worth of the richest can fluctuate with market valuations. For example, Musk saw his net worth surge in 2021 thanks to the increase in the share price of Tesla. Tesla shares rose nearly 50% in 2021. And like a pendulum, his net worth dropped in 2022 due to falling share prices in Tesla, of which he owns 15%. Musk also had to sell many of his shares in Tesla to fund his acquisition of Twitter. As a result, in December 2022, he became the second-richest person in the world, behind Bernard Arnault.

Similarly, Meta Platforms (META) founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg fell out of the top 10 in February 2022, when the company’s share price plunged after a disappointing earnings report. Zuckerberg’s net worth was reported to be $43.7 billion in December 2022.83

Below are the 10 wealthiest people on the planet as of the same date, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. All figures are current as of Dec. 13, 2022, unless otherwise stated.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Bernard Arnault, co-founder, chair, and CEO of LVMH, is the richest person and the richest man in the world with a net worth of $172.9 billion.
• Behind Arnault is co-founder and CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk.
• Other billionaires with some of the largest net worths include India’s Gautam Adani, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and Microsoft’s Bill Gates.
• Six of the top 10 billionaires made their fortunes in technology, with Arnault, Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett, Adani Group founder Gautam Adani, and Reliance Industry’s Mukesh Ambani being the exceptions.
• Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg dropped off the top 10 list in February 2022.

1. Bernard Arnault

• Age: 73
• Residence: Paris
• CEO and Chair: LVMH (LVMUY)
• Net Worth: $172.9 billion
• Christian Dior Ownership Stake: 97.5% ($132 billion total)
• Other Assets: Moelis & Company equity ($25 billion public asset) and $10.3 billion in cash

French national Bernard Arnault is the chair and CEO of LVMH, the world’s largest luxury goods company. LVMH brands include Louis Vuitton, Hennessey, Marc Jacobs, and Sephora.

Most of Arnault’s wealth comes from his massive stake in Christian Dior SE, the holding company that controls 41.2% of LVMH. His shares in Christian Dior SE, plus an additional 6.2% in LVMH, are held through his family-owned holding company, Groupe Familial Arnault.

An engineer by training, Arnault first showed his business acumen while working for his father’s construction firm, Ferret-Savinel, taking charge of the company in 1971. He converted Ferret-Savinel to a real estate company named Férinel Inc. in 1979.

Arnault remained Férinel’s chair for another six years, until he acquired and reorganized luxury goods maker Financière Agache in 1984, eventually selling all its holdings other than Christian Dior and Le Bon Marché. He was invited to invest in LVMH in 1987 and became the majority shareholder, chair of the board, and CEO of the company two years later.

2. Elon Musk

• Age: 51
• Residence: Texas
• Co-founder and CEO: Tesla
• Net Worth: $168.5 billion
• Tesla Ownership Stake: 15% ($63.6 billion)
• Other Assets: Space Exploration Technologies ($46.9 billion private asset), The Boring Company ($3.33 billion private asset), Twitter ($20.2 billion private asset)
  

Elon Musk is the second-richest man in the world. He was born in South Africa and attended a university in Canada before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned bachelor’s degrees in physics and economics. Two days after enrolling in a graduate physics program at Stanford University, Musk deferred attendance to launch Zip2, one of the earliest online navigation services. He reinvested a portion of the proceeds from this startup to create X.com, the online payment system that was sold to eBay and ultimately became PayPal Holdings (PYPL).

In 2004, Musk became a major funder of Tesla Motors (now Tesla), which led to his current position as CEO of the electric vehicle company. In addition to its line of electric automobiles, Tesla produces energy storage devices, automobile accessories, and, through its acquisition of SolarCity in 2016, solar power systems. Musk is also CEO and chief engineer of Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), a developer of space launch rockets.

In 2020, Tesla shares soared 740% to propel Musk up the wealth rankings. In December 2020, Tesla joined the S&P 500, becoming the largest company added. In January 2021, Musk became the richest person in the world—a title he held till December 2022, when his net worth fell due to a decrease in Tesla’s share price over the year.

Image courtesy Getty Images/Saul Martinez.

Musk asked his Twitter audience on Nov. 6, 2021, whether he should sell 10% of his Tesla stock, framing the issue as a response to criticism of unrealized capital gains as a means of avoiding taxes. He proceeded to sell shares worth $16.4 billion over the remainder of 2021.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, cited a media report that Musk paid no income tax for 2018 to argue for the adoption of a wealth tax. “And if you opened your eyes for two seconds, you would realize I will pay more taxes than any American in history this year,” Musk responded on Twitter.

Thanks to the surge in Tesla shares in 2021 and private transactions boosting the reported valuation of SpaceX, Musk’s lead in the global wealth rankings continued to grow. His net worth hit a high of $340 billion in November 2021.

In April 2022, Musk began a campaign to take Twitter private, which culminated in a $44 billion buyout. Musk planned to fund the deal with $21 billion of his own capital. In the run-up to the buyout announcement, Musk sold 9.6 million shares of Tesla, valued at roughly $8.5 billion.

In July 2022, Musk decided to back out of the Twitter buyout. Twitter filed a lawsuit against Musk to force the buyout to go through. Musk countersued the company but then reversed course and declared he was willing to buy Twitter after all. The deal officially closed in October 2022, giving him an almost 80% stake in the company.

3. Gautam Adani

• Age: 60
• Residence: Gurgaon, India
• Founder and Chair: Adani Group
• Net Worth: $125 billion
• Adani Enterprises, Adani Power, and Adani Transmissions Ownership Stakes: 75% each ($72.45 billion)
• Other Assets: 66% of Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone ($12.2 billion public asset), 61% of Adani Green Energy ($22.6 billion public asset), 37% of Adani Total Gas ($18.1 billion public asset) 
  

Gautam Adani, the founder of Adani Group, surpassed Mukesh Ambani in March 2022 as the richest person in Asia. Through his ownership of the Adani Group, Adani owns major stakes in six key Indian companies, including a 75% stake in Adani Enterprises, Adani Power, and Adani Transmissions, as well as a 66% stake in Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone, 61% stake in Adani Green Energy, and a 37% stake in Adani Total Gas.

Adani entered the power generation market in 2009 with Adani Power. Adani created Adani Enterprises in 1988 to import and export commodities. In 1994, his company was granted approval to develop a harbor facility at Mundra Port, which is now the largest private port in India.

Adani dropped out of college and previously worked in the diamond trade. Adani now has the largest port operator, closely-held thermal coal producer, and coal trader in India. In 2020, he purchased a 74% stake in Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, India’s second-busiest airport.

The billionaire was kidnapped and held for ransom in 1997. Adani was also in Mumbai’s Taj hotel during the 2008 terrorist attack.

4. Bill Gates

• Age: 67
• Residence: Washington
• Co-founder: Microsoft (MSFT)
• Net Worth: $115 billion
• Microsoft Ownership Stake: 1.3% ($26 billion)
• Other Assets: $55 billion in cash and billions over multiple other companies
  

While attending Harvard University in 1975, Bill Gates went to work alongside his childhood friend Paul Allen to develop new software for the original microcomputers. Following this project’s success, Gates dropped out of Harvard during his junior year and founded Microsoft with Allen.

The largest software company in the world, Microsoft, also produces a line of personal computers, provides email services through its exchange server, and sells video game systems and associated game devices. It has recently invested heavily in cloud services.

Gates shifted from the company’s CEO to the role of board chair in 2008. He joined Berkshire Hathaway’s board in 2004. He stepped down from both boards on March 13, 2020.

Image courtesy Getty Images/Jack Taylor.

Bill Gates has much of his net worth in Cascade Investment LLC. Cascade is a privately-held investment vehicle that owns a variety of stocks including Canadian National Railway (CNR), Deere (DE), and Republic Services (RSG), as well as private investments in real estate and energy.

5. Jeff Bezos

• Age: 58
• Residence: Washington
• Founder and Executive Chair: Amazon (AMZN)
• Net Worth: $114 billion
• Amazon Ownership Stake: 10% ($89.9 billion)
• Other Assets: Blue Origin ($9.15 billion private asset), The Washington Post ($250 million private asset), and $14.5 billion in cash.
  

In 1994, Jeff Bezos founded Amazon.com in a garage in Seattle, shortly after he resigned from the hedge fund giant D.E. Shaw. He had originally pitched the idea of an online bookstore to his former boss David E. Shaw, who wasn’t interested.

Though Amazon originally started out selling books, it has since morphed into a one-stop shop for everything under the sun and is expected to overtake Walmart as the world’s largest retailer by 2024. Amazon’s pattern of constant diversification is evident in some of its unexpected expansions, which include acquiring Whole Foods in 2017 and entering the pharmacy business the same year.

Bezos owned as much as 16% of Amazon in 2019 before transferring 4% to his former wife, MacKenzie Scott, as part of their divorce proceedings. In 2020, Amazon’s share price jumped 76% on the heightened demand for online shopping amid the COVID-19 pandemic. On July 5, 2021, Bezos stepped down as CEO of the e-commerce giant, becoming its executive chair.

Image courtesy Getty Images/Alex Wong.

Bezos originally took Amazon public in 1997 and went on to become the first man since Bill Gates in 1999 to achieve a net worth of more than $100 billion. Bezos’ other projects include aerospace company Blue Origin, The Washington Post (which he purchased in 2013), and the 10,000-year clock—also known as the Long Now.

On July 20, 2021, Bezos, his brother Mark, aviation pioneer Wally Funk, and Dutch student Oliver Daemen completed Blue Origin’s first successful crewed flight, reaching an altitude of more than 66 miles before landing safely. Bezos’ wealth peaked at $211 billion in the same month.

6. Warren Buffett

• Age: 92
• Residence: Nebraska
• CEO: Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A)
• Net Worth: $108 billion
• Berkshire Hathaway Ownership Stake: 14% ($107 billion)
• Other Assets: $1.10 billion in cash.
  

The most famous living value investor, Warren Buffett filed his first tax return in 1944 at age 14, declaring earnings from his boyhood paper route. He first bought shares in a textile company called Berkshire Hathaway in 1962, becoming the majority shareholder by 1965. Buffett expanded the company’s holdings to insurance and other investments in 1967.

Widely known as the Oracle of Omaha, Buffett is a buy-and-hold investor who built his fortune by acquiring undervalued companies. More recently, Berkshire Hathaway has invested in large, well-known companies. Its portfolio of wholly owned subsidiaries includes interests in insurance, energy distribution, and railroads as well as consumer products.

Buffett is a notable Bitcoin skeptic.

Image courtesy Getty Images/Alex Wong.

Buffett has dedicated much of his wealth to philanthropy. Between 2006 and 2020, he gave away $41 billion—mostly to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and his children’s charities. Buffett launched the Giving Pledge alongside Bill Gates in 2010.

Now 92 years old, Buffett still serves as CEO, but in 2021 he hinted that his successor might be Gregory Abel, head of Berkshire’s non-insurance operations.

7. Larry Ellison

• Age: 78
• Residence: Hawaii
• Co-founder, Chair, and CTO: Oracle (ORCL)
• Net Worth: $93.7 billion
• Oracle Ownership Stake: 40%+ ($68.3 billion)
• Other Assets: Tesla equity ($7.56 billion public asset), $17.2 billion in cash.
  

Larry Ellison was born in New York City to a 19-year-old single mother. After dropping out of the University of Chicago in 1966, Ellison moved to California and worked as a computer programmer. In 1973, he joined the electronics company Ampex, where he met future partners Ed Oates and Bob Miner. Three years later, Ellison moved to Precision Instruments, serving as the company’s vice president of research and development.

In 1977, Ellison founded Software Development Laboratories alongside Oates and Miner. Two years later, the company released Oracle, the first commercial relational database program to use Structured Query Language. The database program proved so popular that SDL would change its name to Oracle Systems Corporation in 1982. Ellison gave up the CEO role at Oracle in 2014 after 37 years. He joined Tesla’s board in December 2018 and stepped down in June 2022.

Oracle is the world’s second-largest software company, providing a wide variety of cloud computing programs as well as Java and Linux code and the Oracle Exadata computing platform.

Oracle has acquired numerous large companies, including human resources management systems provider PeopleSoft in 2005, customer relationship management applications provider Siebel in 2006, enterprise infrastructure software provider BEA Systems in 2008, and hardware-and-software developer Sun Microsystems in 2009. In December 2021, Oracle agreed to buy medical records software provider Cerner (CERN) for $28.3 billion in cash.

Long known for extravagant spending, Ellison has invested heavily in luxury real estate over the last decade. Perhaps his single most impressive acquisition was the $300 million purchase of nearly the entire Hawaiian island of Lanai in 2012, where the billionaire has lived since 2020. Ellison has built a hydroponics farm and a luxury spa on the island.

Ellison has focused his philanthropy on medical research. In 2016, he gave $200 million to the University of Southern California for a new cancer research center. Ellison backed the Oracle Team USA sailing team, which won the America’s Cup racing series in 2010 and 2013.

8. Mukesh Ambani

• Age: 65
• Residence: Mumbai, India
• Owner: Reliance Industries
• Net Worth: $89.6 billion
• Reliance Ownership Stake: 42% ($90.1 billion total)
• Other Assets: $410 million in real estate.
  

Mukesh Ambani is the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, the world’s largest oil refiner and one of the world’s most valuable companies.

The conglomerate was founded by Ambani’s father, Dhirubhai Ambani in 1966 as a textiles company and is now one of the leading segments of India’s economy. Reliance’s operations include oil and gas, petrochemicals, refining, retail, and media.

Prodip Guha/Getty Images.

About half of Ambani’s wealth is derived from his stake in Reliance, which amounts to 42% of the public company. He owns Antilia, a real estate complex in Mumbai that’s worth $410 million. Ambani also owns the Mumbai Indians, a professional cricket team.

In 2016, Ambani launched a 4G phone network across India, netting more than 420 million subscribers, and is planning to launch 5G services.

9. Steve Ballmer

• Age: 66
• Residence: Washington
• Owner: Los Angeles Clippers
• Net Worth: $89.3 billion
• Microsoft Ownership Stake: 4% ($80.6 billion total)
• Other Assets: Los Angeles Clippers ($3.16 billion private asset), $5.5 billion in cash.
  

Steve Ballmer joined Microsoft in 1980 after Bill Gates convinced him to drop out of Stanford University’s MBA program. He was Microsoft’s 30th employee. Ballmer went on to succeed Gates as Microsoft CEO in 2000. He held the position until stepping down in 2014. Ballmer oversaw Microsoft’s 2011 purchase of Skype for $8.5 billion.

Ballmer owns an estimated 4% of Microsoft, making him the software giant’s largest individual shareholder. In 2014, shortly after stepping down as Microsoft CEO, Ballmer purchased the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team for $2 billion.

Steven Ferdman / Getty Images.

Ballmer lived in the same dorm and on the same floor as Bill Gates while the two attended Harvard University. The brotherly relationship between the two became strained when Ballmer started pushing the tech company into hardware, such as the Surface tablet and the Windows mobile phone, during his tenure as CEO.

10. Larry Page

• Age: 49
• Residence: California
• Co-founder and Board Member: Alphabet (GOOG)
• Net Worth: $86.9 billion
• Alphabet Ownership Stake: 6% ($72.8 billion total)
• Other Assets: $14.1 billion in cash.
  

Like several of the tech billionaires on this list, Larry Page embarked on his path to fame and fortune in a college dorm room. While attending Stanford University in 1995, Page and his friend Sergey Brin came up with the idea of improving Internet data extraction. The duo devised a new search engine technology they dubbed Backrub after its ability to assess links to a page.

From there, Page and Brin went on to found Google in 1998, with Page serving as CEO of the company until 2001, and again between 2011 and 2019.

Google is the world’s dominant Internet search engine, accounting for more than 92% of global search requests. In 2006, the company purchased YouTube, the top platform for user-submitted videos.

After acquiring Android in 2005, Google released the Android mobile phone operating system in 2008. Google reorganized in 2015, becoming a subsidiary of Alphabet, a holding company.

Image courtesy Getty Images/Justin Sullivan.

Page was among early investors in Planetary Resources, a space exploration and asteroid-mining company. Established in 2009, the company was acquired by blockchain firm ConsenSys in 2018 amid funding problems. He has also shown an interest in flying car companies, investing in both Kitty Hawk and Opener.

Shares of Google soared almost 50% in 2021, moving Page and Brin up the billionaire list. Page’s net worth went from just below $52 billion in March 2020 to the current $86.9 billion.

Who Are the Top 10 Richest People in the World?

The top 10 richest people in the world are:

• Bernard Arnault
• Elon Musk
• Gautam Adani
• Bill Gates
• Jeff Bezos
• Warren Buffett
• Larry Ellison
• Mukesh Ambani
• Steve Ballmer
• Larry Page

The post Bernard Arnault The Richest Man In The World. appeared first on BlueMarlinTech.

The post Ontario expecting another wave of COVID-19, top doctor recommends ‘layers of protection’ appeared first on BlueMarlinTech.

The post How singer Asake turned young Teenager in London UK to an influencer and celebrity. appeared first on BlueMarlinTech.

The post The stress test to qualify for a mortgage will remain in place as interest rates continue to soar. appeared first on BlueMarlinTech.

Ottawa must investigate TikTok over national security concerns as more jurisdictions in the United States move on banning the controversial social media app based in mainland China, says Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong.

Chong said the app’s reach and ability to manipulate algorithms and laws in China requiring companies there to co-operate with the government, including on intelligence operations, could present a national security threat to Canada.

“I think the government needs to take this threat much more seriously than they have,” Chong said. “If you look at what our closest allies have done, they’ve all taken some action.”

He said algorithms could be manipulated for foreign influence operations, such as pushing disinformation meant to politically divide Canadians, and data the app collects on Canadians themselves could be used in espionage operations. The company, which hosts videos made by users meant to be entertainment, is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance.

TikTok Canada has insisted the fears are unfounded and the company works to protect user data and algorithms.

In the United Kingdom, the government closed its Parliamentary TikTok account over the summer due to security concerns.

In Ireland, the country’s Data Protection Commission recently sent the results of an inquiry into the handling of children’s data to other EU members. A draft decision from the inquiry said TikTok is also to be hit with a range of fines, the Irish Times reported Nov. 24.

On Tuesday U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and House Representatives Raja Krishnamoorthi and Mike Gallagher introduced bipartisan legislation meant to ban TikTok from operating in the U.S.

Source *Toronto Star*

The post Ottawa must investigate TikTok over national security concerns appeared first on BlueMarlinTech.

As the “Afrobeats to the World” movement continues to gain intense momentum, shocking collaborations continue to surface between African stars (especially Nigerians) and stars from other parts of the world.

Fridayy, took to Instagram on December 7th, 2022, to announce the cool feature with YBNL/Empire signee Asake.

The post WATCH American rapper, Friday remixed song “Blessing.” Ft Asake appeared first on BlueMarlinTech.

Ben Kesslen

President of the World Jewish Congress Ronald Lauder is calling for Kanye West’s music to be removed from streaming services, saying the rapper is “espousing Nazism” and must be deplatformed.

In a letter exclusively obtained by the Post and sent to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Spotify CEO Daniel Ek on Wednesday, Lauder called it “unacceptable that neither Apple Music, nor Spotify have removed Mr. West’s music” as the rapper now known as Ye continues to espouse virulent anti-Semitism.

“Kanye West’s antisemitic tirades go beyond trafficking in conspiracy theories. He is espousing Nazism in its purest, most hateful form, and is perhaps the singular embodiment of the alarming rise of Jew hatred in America,” the billionaire philanthropist wrote. 

“As long as his hateful voice is carried on Apple and Spotify’s music streaming platforms, they are in league with those who wish harm to Jews the world over,” he said.

The heir to the Estée Lauder fortune also said that by continuing to host Ye’s on their platforms, the Apple and Spotify are “profiting off of Jewish hate.”

Ye tweeted in October that he planned to go “death con 3” on Jewish people, and professed his love and admiration for Hitler during an interview with alt-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on his InfoWars show. 

“I like Hitler,” Ye said. “There’s a lot of things that I love about Hitler — a lot of things.”

Ye has consistently repeated untrue conspiracy theories about jewish people, continually associated himself with known racists and his behavior has been viewed as normalizing antisemitism.

Shortly after his openly anti-Semitic behavior began, figures posted a banner reading “Kanye was right about the jews” over a Los Angeles freeway and made Nazi salutes at passing motorists. Following that a saboteur projected “Kanye is right about the jews” onto a Florida football stadium, drawing wide condemnation.

Lauder wrote he is “relieved” Adidas ended their partnership with Ye, but thought “their delay in making what should have been a clear-cut decision to rid their halls of such a dangerous voice is unacceptable.”

Source New York Post.

The post World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder calls for Apple, Spotify to remove Kanye’s music. appeared first on BlueMarlinTech.

The Royal Canadian Mint is issuing a new $2 coin with a black ring in honour of the late Queen Elizabeth II.

The coin, dated 2022 and set to go into circulation later this month, will include the regular design elements of a $2 coin in addition to the black band, which is intended to symbolise a mourning armband.

The centre of the coins remains gold, with its silver outside replaced by black nickel. The late Queen’s image will be emblazoned as usual on one side, with the traditional polar bear design by Brent Townsend on the other.

The Queen died in September after 70 years on the throne. She was succeeded by her son, King Charles III.

“Queen Elizabeth II served as Canada’s head of state for seven decades, and for millions of Canadians, she was the only monarch they had ever known,” Marie Lemay, President and CEO of the Royal Canadian Mint, said in a press release. “Our special $2 circulation coin offers Canadians a way to remember her.”

The Mint is creating nearly five million coins in an initial run, although more may be created if needed. They will begin entering the national coin distribution system Wednesday, and will appear to the public throughout the month as banks restock their $2 coin inventories.

In addition, the Mint will hold public coin exchanges in Ottawa and Winnipeg on Wednesday and Thursday.

Canadian coins have included the likeness of the reigning monarch since production started in 1908, a fact that led to speculation after the Queen’s death that the Mint would need to quickly produce new legal tender with King Charles III on them.

The post New $2 coin with black ring will honour late Queen Elizabeth III appeared first on BlueMarlinTech.