#Data Security using profiles

[insurance-brokers-india]

What are the next steps after obtaining an insurance broker license, and how can you generate potential leads using Mzapp CRM software?

Congratulations on securing your insurance broker license! The journey doesn’t end here; it’s just the beginning of building a successful insurance brokerage. Here’s how you can proceed and leverage Mzapp CRM software to find potential leads:

Steps After Getting Your Insurance Broker License

Understand Your Market: Research your target audience (individuals, businesses, or specific sectors).

Develop a Business Plan: Set goals for client acquisition, revenue, and operational processes.

Build a Network: Partner with insurance providers and attend industry events to establish your presence.

Create an Online Presence: Build a professional website and maintain active profiles on social platforms.

Offer Value-Added Services: Educate customers on policies, claims management, and risk assessments.

Using Mzapp CRM Software to Generate Leads

Lead Capture: Utilize Mzapp’s integrated forms and web tracking tools to capture inquiries from your website or social media.

Automated Follow-Ups: Set up personalized email and SMS follow-ups to nurture leads effectively.

Lead Scoring: Prioritize leads based on their interaction history, ensuring you focus on high-potential prospects.

Data-Driven Campaigns: Use analytics to identify what works and launch targeted campaigns.

Seamless Policy Management: Impress leads by showcasing how smoothly you manage policies and claims through Mzapp.

Why Choose Mzapp CRM?

Mzapp CRM simplifies lead management, streamlines operations, and provides insights into customer behavior, making it easier to convert prospects into loyal clients.

Learn more about how Mzapp can transform your insurance business here.

[genericpuff]

I've been griping about the normalization of identity outing via social media for a while now. To put it simply, it's become almost some weird societal requirement that if you don't have every detail listed about yourself in your Twitter/FB/etc. bio, then it means you have "something to hide" or that you're not as "verifiable" because your account looks indistinct from that of a bot.

But that societal norm has really only benefited the people who profit off of that information in some way, whether it's through selling user data or through weaponizing details about a person against them.

I know that a lot of us love to use the fun little labels and acronyms in our bio that help others like us identify us as a 'safe person' or as someone who's in the same social/racial/identity groups as them. We're humans, we love to categorize things, it's in our nature (and it's fun!)

But if there's any time to start regulating that habit and challenging the norm that you're obligated to include all your personal info online - it's now.

There was a time when sock puppet accounts were expected and typical, not "suspicious".

There was a time when even age-sex-location was considered "too much information", but once it became the norm, we only EVER gave our personal information beyond generic ASL to people who we knew both online and in real life, or at the very least, people who we had known online for a significant enough amount of time that they had proved to be trustworthy (and even then, we didn't owe that information to anyone, ever; there are forum friends who I made online 10+ years ago and still talk to who do not know my personal information beyond broad strokes).

There was a time when simply being an avatar with a funny username was enough. And it still is enough, but massive platforms like Facebook and Twitter have been brainwashing us for years to believe that's not the case, under the guise of, "You wouldn't want to be dishonest, would you?" Through these same norms, we were led to believe that anime profile pictures are cringe, that having a fake online name is stupid, that the photos of you having fun at social events have to be taken JUST right otherwise you might imply to others that you're not actually having fun.

And considering how long these platforms have been around now, we have entire generations of children now who have been born and raised on that version of the ZuckMusk web, who have been taught that it "protects them" to express to everyone publicly their age, their school, their workplace, their family members, everything about themselves, because to not do so would be disingenuous.

None of this is to imply that the Internet was "safer" back in the day. I definitely should not have been on the Internet as much as I was when I was 13 in the late 2000's, it definitely did not benefit my brain development or my social skills. But the version of the Internet we currently exist in now is one that's been predicated on the false sense of security - the belief that if you're honest, everyone else has to be, too.

We've always had ways of identifying our safe people - by participating in the communities that we know are designed around our hobbies, our interests, our people. They might be small, they might not be as "cool" as the idea of netting yourself a big following of thousands of people, but they're also a lot safer and more genuine than that idealized following ever could be.

Don't feel pressured to include every bit of information about yourself in your bio. Even on Facebook, there's no rule that says you have to list your workplace, your school, your family members. There's no rule that says you have to list your personality type, queer labels, and neurodivergent disorders in your Twitter bio. There's no rule that you have to "prove" your life is real and fulfilled through the verification of photos, location tagging, and open-book sharing. If you share those photos, it should be because you genuinely want to share them, not because you feel some societal pressure to live up to others' expectations.

And I guarantee you, even your local mutuals on Facebook - your former classmates, family friends, distant relatives, coworkers, etc. - do not actually give that much of a damn about your personal life that they should be owed that much of a look into it on a daily basis. They've got their own shit going on, they literally do not need to know every detail about you.

I know it sounds scary. It also sounds kind of boring, when we've been used to a certain "way" of browsing and participating for years, that if we don't do so, it feels like being in the "out group" and that we're "breaking the rules". But I promise you, after spending over half my life online, those rules do not exist or benefit anyone who wouldn't profit off that information.

If you're wanting to learn how to branch off from major platforms like Facebook and Twitter and/or become more self-sufficient online, here are some guides to navigating the Internet like an old schooler that may help you!

FREE SITE BUILDER:

DIGITAL PIRACY 101:

(also in addition to everything mentioned here ^^^ they neglect to also mention Tor Browser which is a light and free-to-use browser software that allows you to browse anonymously; note that it's similar to a VPN in that it helps hide your identity online, HOWEVER it won't mask you from your ISP quite as effectively as a VPN, and if you sign into personal accounts with Tor, that's still going to obviously out you online lmao but I love using Tor for the odd time when I need to make a sock puppet for something and don't want it linked to my IP! and unlike a VPN, it's free to use!)

LEARN HOW TO USE RSS FEEDS:

People still use these! They're especially helpful for getting updates from your favorite pages and sites directly to your browser WITHOUT having to worry about stupid algorithm bullshit picking and choosing what you see. And many sites DO have RSS support once you know how to find it! (like adding in /rss at the end of a URL! Like this!)

FAKE EMAIL SERVICES:

LEARN HOW TO CODE IN HTML/CSS/JAVASCRIPT (AND MORE!):

DECENTRALIZED SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS:

I hope this helps arm you with some new knowledge in how to navigate the Internet like a Certified Old Person™️(like meeee!) Make your secret alt blogs for besties! Make your formal Facebook accounts that are clean of personal information and present the most neutral, safe-for-work version of yourself and keep the fun stuff to the secret profiles and chat groups that are just for you and friends/family/etc!! It might be "inconvenient" to have multiple accounts for the same purpose, but it's also INCREDIBLY freeing and can make your online experience both safer and more enjoyable.

Being "less" of yourself online does not make you any less you. It is your identity - you do not owe any amount of it to anyone beyond yourself. And in times like these, your identity is your greatest asset. Protect it.

[camirawrites]

still logged in.

tw: doxxing, bullying, mild swearing

fem!reader

word count: 1303

part2

★ yandere!hacker who used to be that kid everyone called a genius, the one who solved logic puzzles for fun and finished coding bootcamps before puberty, but all that ever got him was jealousy and resentment. kids shoved him around in school hallways, told him he talked too much about things no one cared about, his teachers hated the way he made them look dumb. his parents didn’t understand, they thought he just needed to try harder to fit in.

★ yandere!hacker who got into the most prestigious college in his country, only to find out that he constantly felt understimulated. by semester three, he stopped showing up. by semester four, no one noticed he was gone.

★ yandere!hacker who stopped going outside altogether and learned how to disappear instead. the world made more sense from behind a monitor, where he could build his own version of reality, one with rules he understood and people he didn’t have to talk to.

★ yandere!hacker who only left his house for college exams and passed with flying colors. after graduating he didn't feel like becoming a corporate slave, waking up daily at 5 a.m just to reach office at 9 a.m and return home at 7 p.m if he was lucky. he didn't take well to authority, hr, the whole shtick. after all, they're all bullies who claw their way to the top of the corporate ladder, crushing any competition in their path, keeping the worker ants in their place and squashing anyone who dares defy their authority. he'd prefer doing something independent.

★ yandere!hacker who gets a sick kind of adrenaline rush every time he breaks a firewall, finds a forgotten backdoor, and when a secure server folds under his hands like wet paper. the deeper he digs, the more he starts to realize how valuable the things people try to hide really are. he becomes his own ecosystem, a one-man black market, hoarding stolen data and selling them like he's a merchant on the silk road. he doesn't ask who the buyers are or what they want to do with the information. he doesn't care. you want data? he'll sell it to you. for the right price. everyone pays, eventually.

★ yandere!hacker who wasn’t looking for anything in particular that night, just scrolling through a streaming site, hoping to kill some time, until he stumbled across a small stream with soft lighting and a laugh that made his chest ache. you were sitting there with your silly overlay and your chat full of inside jokes he didn’t get, and still, he couldn’t look away. your smile feels like static on his skin, something about your voice made him feel like there was more to life than codes and numbers, and he stayed for the whole stream without even realizing it.

★ yandere!hacker who starts watching every time you go live, even when his eyes burn from lack of sleep and he hasn’t eaten since yesterday. you talk to your chat like they’re your friends, like every username is a real person you care about, and he starts to wonder what it would feel like to have you say his name in that same tone. he clips every time you laugh, every time you thank a donor, every time you look just slightly off-camera. he stores the clips on his pc, replaying them every time you log off.

★ yandere!hacker who finds it adorable the way you call your fans "lovelies." you say it with that little sparkle in your voice. so bright, so warm, so damn cute.

★ yandere!hacker who creates a profile and starts sending cute little donations during your streams, just enough to be noticed, never enough to seem obsessive. he draws fanart too, even though his hands shake when he works on them, and he spends hours perfecting every detail, trying to emulate your favourite art style. when you react on stream, your face lighting up with surprise, he covers his mouth and nearly cries. you said his username out loud. you smiled at it. you said thank you.

★ yandere!hacker who starts sending more fanart, each piece improving upon the last. seeing your wide, bright eyes every time you see his gifts is enough to make his day. he sends you one extra special piece. you open it without much thought, without knowing it contains the key to your online space. it’s a banner art for your channel, in high quality, completely free to use. his message reads: “for my favorite lovely lady💌.” you gasp aloud, covering your mouth with your hands as you try to stop the tiny tears of gratitude from falling down your face. "thank you, ilovenekogirls420. it's... beautiful," you manage to say, trying your best to not laugh at the cringe username.

★ yandere!hacker whose breath hitches as you say his username. he finds it endearing, the way you try to keep your composure. but he's even happier that you let him walk right into your life. he can hear your breathing. your laughs. your hair as it brushes against your headphones.

you gave him the key.

you didn’t even know it.

★ yandere!hacker who knows your lock screen wallpaper now, hears the music you play when you're cleaning, watches the way you curl up on the bed to answer emails after a long stream. you cry sometimes when you think no one’s at home, rub your eyes with the heel of your hand, look so tired and so alone that it makes his throat tighten and fists shake with rage.

★ yandere!hacker who starts starts checking your inbox, your DM drafts, the brand messages that never get replies. he sees it all: the missed payments, the eviction notice, the sponsorship brand who ghosted you, the rude pr agent who brushes you off in the emails. he grits his teeth, enraged. those fuckers used you. they dared to mistreat the one person who he has grown fond of. there will be hell to pay.

★ yandere!hacker who snaps. he hacks into the sponsor’s internal communications system. he finds spreadsheets, payroll records, contracts. he reads their internal emails, their petty office complaints, their careless jokes about how easy it is to take advantage of small creators.

★ yandere!hacker who gets to work with an ice-cold demeanor. he publishes the ceo's address, phone number, social security number for the whole world to see. he posts anonymous leaks. he sends a whistleblower document to every major news outlet he can think of. even if he gets caught from being too sloppy, he doesn't care. he's doing it all for you. he wants justice for you.

★ yandere!hacker who grins as the company panics after a few days. he watches with amusement as they email you, offering to pay you back triple of what they owed, plus a huge bonus. it would be enough to cover living expenses for a whole year.

★ yandere!hacker who watches you cry on stream the next day, overwhelmed and grateful and stunned that someone, somewhere, had your back. you thank whoever helped you, call them your guardian angel. he stares at the screen for hours after the stream ends, hands shaking, whispering that he’d do it all over again if it meant you’d smile like that.

★ yandere!hacker who, for now, is content with how he handled the situation. the way he rewrote your reality from the shadows makes him feel useful, like he has a purpose again. he doesn’t need recognition, not yet. still, he hopes to break the digital boundary with you someday. he imagines what your voice would sound like in the same room, not filtered through a screen. he imagines reaching out, not through your phone, but with his actual hand. would you flinch? would you scream? would you understand?

only time will tell.

[jessiso]

Statistically nerds are also the best in bed !!

"Statistically Speaking"

A Criminal Minds fanfic | Spencer Reid x Fem! Reader | Part II

You and Spencer share a tender first date that turns into something softer, sweeter, and more intimate than either expected.

cw: fluff, emotional intimacy, physical touch, kissing, consensual sex implied.

w/c 1,504

(CLICK HERE FOR PART ONE)

(ASK AND YOU SHALL RECIEVE! I LOVE WRITING NERDY REID HES SO AHH!)

...

Dinner is warm and golden, the restaurant tucked between a dry cleaner and a secondhand bookstore.

It smells like lemongrass and toasted garlic the second you step inside.

Spencer holds the door for you and awkwardly gestures toward the tiny booth in the back like he’s not sure if he’s meant to be a date or a dinner companion—or both.

He fidgets with the edge of the menu, eyes scanning it like he doesn’t already have the entire thing memorized.

“They make their own curry paste here,” he says quietly, like it’s a secret. “And the chef used to work in Bangkok, at this really well-known place near Lumphini Park. Technically, this is probably the most authentic Thai food in D.C.”

You smile. “Technically?”

“Well, it depends how you define authenticity,”

he says, eyes flicking up to meet yours.

“But the flavor profiles, ingredient sourcing, and spice ratios are... statistically consistent with the original dishes.”

“Did you just cite spice ratios on a first date?”

He blushes and ducks his head. “Sorry. I ramble when I’m nervous.”

You reach across the table and brush your fingers against his. “I like the rambling.”

Spencer’s eyes soften. “Most people don’t.”

“I’m not most people.”

That earns you a slow, shy smile. “I’m starting to notice.”

You order pad see ew and green curry; he orders the same, like he’d already known what you’d pick and didn’t want you to eat alone.

When the server leaves, he tells you about his first case in Thailand, a seminar he once gave on geographical profiling at a university in Chiang Mai, and how he got embarrassingly sunburned trying to cross-reference map data on foot.

“You sunburned yourself... doing math?”

“Well, yeah,” he says, looking completely serious. “It was for accuracy.”

You laugh so hard you nearly choke on your water, and Spencer positively beams.

By the time the food arrives, you’re leaned in across the table, your cheeks sore from smiling.

He lets you steal a piece of tofu from his plate without protest and lights up when you offer him a bite of yours, even though you have the same dishes.

And then he gets contemplative.

“I don’t... do this often,” he says, nudging a piece of sticky rice around with his spoon. “The dating thing. I’m not very good at it.”

You tilt your head. “You think this is going badly?”

“No! No, not at all,” he says quickly, eyes wide. “Actually, it’s going—statistically—significantly better than most human bonding experiences I’ve read about. I just meant... I usually mess things up. I overthink. I say weird things.”

You rest your chin in your hand. “Spencer.”

“Yeah?”

“I’ve had dates with guys who thought the mitochondria was a Star Wars character. You’re doing fine.”

He stares at you for a beat. “I... think I’m in love with you.”

The table goes very quiet. He visibly panics. “Not in love. Not yet. Not—statistically, it’s way too soon for a secure emotional attachment of that nature, and I don’t want to make you uncomfortable—”

You reach for his hand again. “Spencer.”

He exhales.

“I really like you,” you say, grounding him with your thumb brushing over his knuckles. “And I’d be okay with you falling in love with me eventually. Statistically or otherwise.”

His mouth opens like he wants to say something smart, but all that comes out is a slightly breathless, “Okay.”

You don’t let go of his hand for the rest of the meal.

The air outside is cool, the kind of crisp that tugs lightly at your sleeves but doesn’t quite bite.

Streetlights cast long shadows on the sidewalk as you and Spencer step out of the restaurant, both a little quieter now, full of good food and something warmer lingering between you.

He walks close—close enough that your arms brush now and then, like he’s still debating whether or not he’s allowed to touch you again.

You bump your shoulder into his gently. “So. Sticky rice and a confession of possible future love? That’s a lot for a first date.”

He groans, rubbing a hand over his face. “I knew I shouldn’t have said that.”

“I didn’t say I didn’t like it.”

His hand drops, and he gives you a sheepish glance. “You’re just... really easy to talk to. That’s rare.”

“I could say the same.”

He walks in silence for a few moments, then says softly, “Do you know the German word verschlimmbessern? It means trying to improve something and accidentally making it worse.”

You grin. “Are you worried you're doing that right now?”

“A little,” he admits. “I just—this feels really good. And I don’t want to ruin it by saying too much or... rambling.”

“You say that like your rambling isn’t half the reason I like you.”

His lips twitch like he’s trying to hide a smile. “Only half?”

“Okay, maybe sixty percent.”

He laughs, and it’s that breathy, surprised kind of laugh you’ve only heard from him a few times—but each one feels like a little victory.

You pass a quiet row of townhouses, your fingers brushing once, twice, three times before you finally hook your pinky around his.

He stills for a second, like his brain has to buffer the gesture before accepting it.

Then he lets out a soft, contented breath.

“I looked up this study once,” he says suddenly. “It showed that physical touch releases oxytocin, which builds trust between two people. And lowers cortisol. Which is the stress hormone.”

You glance sideways. “Are you telling me you’re less stressed now that I’m holding your hand?”

He smiles, a little shy. “... yes.”

You squeeze his hand properly, and he holds on like it means something—which it does.

As you near your building, the silence shifts again—comfortable but charged now, like both of you are waiting for the other to make the next move. You stop outside your front door and turn to face him.

His eyes are a little wide behind his glasses, like he’s caught somewhere between analysis and awe.

“So,” you say. “This is me.”

He nods slowly. “And this is... goodbye?”

You raise an eyebrow. “Do you want it to be?”

His mouth opens, then closes. Then, quietly: “No.”

You take a step closer. “Then maybe you should come up.”

He swallows hard. “I—Are you sure? We don’t have to—statistically speaking, early physical intimacy isn’t always correlated with long-term relational stability—”

“Spencer?”

He meets your eyes.

You smile. “You talk too much.”

He lets out a breathless laugh, and you tug him gently forward by the collar of his shirt.

He steps in after you, looking around your space like it’s a museum in its own right—eyes scanning your bookshelves, your succulents, the little constellation mug sitting by your sink.

“I like your place,” he says, setting his bag down carefully. “Very you.”

You tilt your head. “You barely know me.”

He smiles gently. “I know enough.”

You stand there for a second—barely a breath between you. Then you say, softly, “Spencer?”

He looks up, lips slightly parted. “Yeah?”

“Can I kiss you?”

He laughs—a short, surprised burst.

"That was going to be my next question.”

You step in and kiss him anyway.

It starts soft—tentative, curious—but quickly becomes something warmer, deeper.

His hands find your waist with careful reverence, thumbs brushing the fabric of your shirt like he’s trying to memorize the texture.

He kisses like he thinks too much and feels even more. Like he’s been waiting his whole life for a kiss worth calculating.

You tug gently at his cardigan, and he lets you, pulling back just long enough to mumble, “Do you—should I—uh, I haven’t... done this in a while.”

Your hand trails up to his jaw, thumb stroking the soft edge of his cheek. “You’re doing perfect.”

He exhales shakily, leaning into your touch.

“There are over four million nerve endings in the human body,” he murmurs, his voice a little lower now. “I think every single one is currently lighting up.”

You smile against his mouth. “You really can’t turn it off, can you?”

He shakes his head. “Not even a little.”

Clothes come off in pieces—his cardigan first, then your shirt, then his button-down that you have to help him with because his hands are shaking slightly. There’s nothing rushed about it. Just slow exploration. Wonder. Like you’re both uncovering something rare.

When you finally end up in bed, tangled in your sheets and each other, he kisses your shoulder like it’s a holy thing. Like you’re a phenomenon he’s still trying to wrap his brilliant mind around.

Later, as you lie tangled together in the quiet hush of early morning, Spencer traces his fingers over your arm in lazy circles.

“I ran the numbers,” he says drowsily, voice muffled against your collarbone. “The odds of this happening today were approximately 0.04%.”

You grin into his hair. “And yet here we are.”

He hums. “I think I like improbable outcomes.”

You close your eyes, smiling. “Yeah. Me too.”

[romanceclubofficial]

Dear Friends,

As you know, we always strive to be transparent with you about everything happening with Romance Club.

We want to inform you about two security issues recently discovered, one of which has already been resolved.

Issue #1: It was discovered that account data could be at risk if your UID is shared publicly. While the risk is very low, we recommend keeping your UID private and sharing it only through personal messages, not on public forums. This vulnerability has been addressed in version 1.0.38100 (which should be already available on the App/Play Store or coming very soon). Please note that after updating to version 1.0.38100, your account will no longer work on earlier versions of the game.

Issue #2: We are investigating a Windows/Steam issue that could allow access to some existing profiles on these platforms. This issue does not affect iOS or Android users. We take this matter very seriously and are committed to further enhancing the security of Windows/Steam accounts in future updates.

If you have any additional concerns about your account, feel free to contact us at support@yourstoryinteractive.com, and we’ll be happy to assist you.

Thank you for trusting us and for playing Romance Club!

[mariacallous]

A prominent computer scientist who has spent 20 years publishing academic papers on cryptography, privacy, and cybersecurity has gone incommunicado, had his professor profile, email account, and phone number removed by his employer, Indiana University, and had his homes raided by the FBI. No one knows why.

Xiaofeng Wang has a long list of prestigious titles. He was the associate dean for research at Indiana University's Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering, a fellow at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a tenured professor at Indiana University at Bloomington. According to his employer, he has served as principal investigator on research projects totaling nearly $23 million over his 21 years there.

He has also coauthored scores of academic papers on a diverse range of research fields, including cryptography, systems security, and data privacy, including the protection of human genomic data. I have personally spoken to him on three occasions for articles here, here, and here.

“None of This Is in Any Way Normal”

In recent weeks, Wang's email account, phone number, and profile page at the Luddy School were quietly erased by his employer. Over the same time, Indiana University also removed a profile for his wife, Nianli Ma, who was listed as a lead systems analyst and programmer at the university's Library Technologies division.

As reported by The Bloomingtonian and later the The Herald-Times in Bloomington, a small fleet of unmarked cars driven by government agents descended on the Bloomington home of Wang and Ma on Friday. They spent most of the day going in and out of the house and occasionally transferred boxes from their vehicles. TV station WTHR, meanwhile, reported that a second home owned by Wang and Ma, located in Carmel, Indiana, was also searched. The station said that both a resident and an attorney for the resident were on scene during at least part of the search.

Attempts to locate Wang and Ma have so far been unsuccessful. An Indiana University spokesman didn't answer emailed questions asking if the couple was still employed by the university and why their profile pages, email addresses, and phone numbers had been removed. The spokesman provided the contact information for a spokeswoman at the FBI's field office in Indianapolis. In an email, the spokeswoman wrote: “The FBI conducted court authorized law enforcement activity at homes in Bloomington and Carmel Friday. We have no further comment at this time.”

Searches of federal court dockets turned up no documents related to Wang, Ma, or any searches of their residences. The FBI spokeswoman didn't answer questions seeking which US district court issued the warrant and when, and whether either Wang or Ma is being detained by authorities. Justice Department representatives didn't return an email seeking the same information. An email sent to a personal email address belonging to Wang went unanswered at the time this post went live. Their resident status (e.g., US citizens or green card holders) is currently unknown.

Fellow researchers took to social media over the weekend to register their concern over the series of events.

“None of this is in any way normal,” Matthew Green, a professor specializing in cryptography at Johns Hopkins University, wrote on Mastodon. He continued: “Has anyone been in contact? I hear he’s been missing for two weeks and his students can’t reach him. How does this not get noticed for two weeks???”

In the same thread, Matt Blaze, a McDevitt professor of computer science and law at Georgetown University, said, “It's hard to imagine what reason there could be for the university to scrub its website as if he never worked there. And while there's a process for removing tenured faculty, it takes more than an afternoon to do it.”

Local news outlets reported the agents spent several hours moving boxes in an out of the residences. WTHR provided the following details about the raid on the Carmel home:

Neighbors say the agents announced "FBI, come out!" over a megaphone.

A woman came out of the house holding a phone. A video from a neighbor shows an agent taking that phone from her. She was then questioned in the driveway before agents began searching the home, collecting evidence and taking photos.

A car was pulled out of the garage slightly to allow investigators to access the attic.

The woman left the house before 13News arrived. She returned just after noon accompanied by a lawyer. The group of 10 or so investigators left a few minutes later.

The FBI would not say what they were looking for or who is under investigation. A bureau spokesperson issued a statement: “I can confirm we conducted court-authorized activity at the address in Carmel today. We have no further comment at this time.”

Investigators were at the house for about four hours before leaving with several boxes of evidence. 13News rang the doorbell when the agents were gone. A lawyer representing the family who answered the door told us they're not sure yet what the investigation is about.

This post will be updated if new details become available. Anyone with firsthand knowledge of events involving Wang, Ma, or the investigation into either is encouraged to contact me, preferably over Signal at DanArs.82. The email address is: dan.goodin@arstechnica.com.

[blingblong55]

Worth it- 141 & Laswell

pic credits: @gamergirlbonestaskforce141riot (left)and @ave661 (middle)

Based on a request: Wait, wait, first of all hope you're doing well and make sure to drink a glass of water if you haven't already. Cozy? Yeah? Okay, Can I request something (you can choose whether it's a HCor not,etc etc) on how TF141 would react to meeting a teen boy around 15-16, who's like a genius in engineering, mathematics, and physics? Like the boy could legitimately build a rocket if he had the time, help and materials. Maybe the meet him because he got in trouble with the government for unknowingly making a weapon? Maybe he made it for a class assignment and it was stolen without his knowledge? Whatever you think makes sense here. Leaving space for you to enter your own creative thoughts, just the general idea of it. The boy is based on a character of mine from a book I'm writing, his name his Michael, but ofc you can switch that up however you wish. Have fun with this one Ignore if it doesn't sound fun to ya <3 ---- M!Reader, genius!reader, platonic!relationship? ----

A/N: drank enough water, thanks for the reminder <3

Y/N, the name of the unknown internet user that had been chased by many governments and caught by the one and only Task Force 1-4-1.

You created something so dangerous that no one believed Laswell when she told her bosses the age you had when you started all this. You created the one thing most geniuses working for the government didn't know existed outside of the numbers and graphs they had done for it. At first, the FBI had named you un-sub A. Now, they can finally put a name to the unknown face.

How were you caught? Well, it wasn't easy, let's start there. When all this mess began, you were no older than fifteen. You are practically a ticking bomb to the government so when they heard that someone was asking the right questions to chemists around your city, they began to search for you. Laswell at the time was on a small break from work but the journals you had left in your parent's home when you ran away one rainy day.

In the journals, Laswell found all she needed to have a task force assigned to find you. She called it Operation Mikey, the name was just to fill in the void of the one thing she couldn't find, you.

Your parents weren't much help in giving your name, hence why Mikey became a temporary replacement. With them high off any drug and you on the run with the rest of your journals, Price was tasked with finding you and making sure you were secured in their care.

For three months, you ran away. Moving to different cities and continuing your research of the chemical weapon you fabricated in your bedroom, the same one Laswell had locked in a laboratory somewhere in the capital of the country.

In month four, you found an abandoned building in the middle of the desert. That's where your laboratory, if you can call it that, began.

For months after that, you collected data and it wasn't until nine months later that Soap found you trading chemicals with some scientist that you were caught.

Once you were brought in, they had realised so much about you. You were way younger than what their profile had thought of, much more intelligent than they'd think a person your age was and so skilled in engineering, mathematics, and physics.

"Why didn't we find his information sooner," Laswell questions her bosses. "Kid was never even registered by his parents." The man on the phone answers. "How the hell did he even get this kind of education then?" She asks again but you had that answer.

"My parents just bought me books and hired a weird guy from the street to teach me anything," you respond and Price chuckles. "Bullshit, kid. Now tell us, how the hell did you get all of these journals?" He points to the evidence bags. Your research of months now being read by other scientists.

"I am the creator of them, not let me go," you protest against Ghost's grip on you. "No chance," Price barks. "What's your real name?" Laswell asks you. "Y/N," you answer knowing it was either this or get thrown in some federal prison.

"And you created this weapon? do you have any idea how dangerous it is to create something like this? How many people it would take to create a mathematical concept and then make it into a physical form?"

"It's not that hard, lady," you answer with an attitude. Were people this dumb?

It took hours, lots of bribing and one request from Soap and Gaz to give you food for you to open up. What? you are a teenager who needs enough food for growth, of course, you'll talk once they give you food. Talking and having to dumb it down took hours though. After all, how can you explain to hardheaded soldiers about probability theory, and why it mattered so much to your project that it took ten trials and two journals worth of failed work to get?

Laswell was more than impressed, no seriously, she was like a proud mother listening to you explain every page and even give notes in only a way that a teenage boy would to idiotic adults like them. She thought it was so adorable how a boy your age would throw nerdy jokes into the explanations and how she watched you be the only one to laugh at them.

Ghost would often smile when you'd give a snarky comment to Price. Don't get him started on the chuckles he let out when you threw a few old man jokes at Price or made comments on Soap's weird hairstyle. The comments towards Gaz were funny but also adorable how you tried to find more reasons to get him annoyed.

Price thought of his son who was about your age when you'd get excited over your most recent discovery for the weapon you had created. It was nice to know that behind all that matter in your head, you were still a kid. It was even nicer when you'd make the jokes no one understood but secretly, Price's nerdy self understood some jokes.

Gaz saw his younger brother in you, which is why even when you made jokes at his expense, he would let them pass. The way you looked at him when having to explain things was nice in some way but it was way funnier when you called Soap the smart one of all four for being able to understand the way bombs work better than anyone and then have Ghost shake his head and tell you, "that man is just a muppet, don't believe what we tell you about his work."

Soap was fascinated by you for sure. Just like Price, he understood some of the jokes, even the cheesy puns you made about certain elements. He liked you, it was something fresh from the people he usually deals with.

The team, for the past few days, grew to adore the nerdy man you are. Yeah, you teased and even called them out on wrong facts but it was new. It's good to have someone so intelligent and be so honest with them this time. What was funny is that you know so much about many topics few understand but you don't know much about real life outside of the nerdy realm you live in. It's a nice feeling when passing by Laswells office you find a framed picture of the day Ghost and the other men of the team taught you about hunting and even how to play baseball, something you sucked at in the beginning but have gotten better over time.

It's like having four funny, serious, and cool dads and an amazing mum whilst being taken care of at the base the team called home.

A/N: I hope this was somewhat okay and good luck on your book!

Tags: @liyanahelena @mangowafflesss @froggy-anon @jinxxangel13 @enarien @sae1kie @queen-ilmaree @avidreadee123 @ikohniik @konigssultwithghost @luvecarson @a-goose-with-a-knife @foxface013 @marshiely @sleepyycatt

[ms-demeanor]

Opinion on Louis Rossman? I ended up following him when I was researching right to repair but as a newbie techie he's said a few things that I don't know if I should trust regarding tech privacy.

Louis Rossman knows a lot about macbook repair and needs to be factchecked on pretty much everything else; he admits this himself in a video called "Don't trust me" where he's issuing a correction because he leapt to conclusions in a previous video.

Rossman has a libertarian approach to tech (and to a lot of things; his channel is deeply invested in rugged individualism and a hustle and grind mentality). He believes that people who own various devices should have ultimate say in what happens to those devices and should have control over what data those devices are collecting and who they are sharing it with. That guides his attitudes about repair and privacy. These are not *incorrect* views but they are views which have made him very reactive in conversations about privacy and data collection, and he has a pretty bad habit of leaping to conclusions and interpreting things as uncharitably as possible with a WORSE habit of not doing any significant research before presenting information to his audience of 2 million people. Anything that looks like Big Brother is something he jumps on immediately, even if what he's looking at is a shadow with the vague outline that resembles an entity that might have a shape similar to Big Brother.

He's got many videos where he examines a privacy policy or a news report about a "startling" violation of privacy where he has to come back later and issue a correction, and of course most of his viewers are going to look at the startling video shit-talking nissan - in which he is worked up and animated and energetic and funny - not the staid correction put out a week later.

But as much as he might be wrong in individual readings of ToSs or legislation or court records, I don't think his overall approach is wrong. He might be incorrect that your Nissan is collecting information about your sexual history (he is incorrect about that) but it's still bad that Nissan is collecting data on you and you shouldn't buy a car that collects a shitload of data on you. He might be incorrect about grapheneOS for security (he is and he isn't and his beef with graphene is legit but personal, it's a fine OS) but he's not wrong that if you don't want google tracking your data you should use a degoogled OS.

One of the things that I've seen him get wrong on multiple occasions is a conflation of privacy and security. Privacy and Security aren't the same thing, and Rossman is a lot more focused on Privacy than he is on Security. I tend to be more on the Security side of that question, though I also think Privacy is important.

For both privacy and security what you need to ask yourself is why you are doing this and what you want to prevent. If you're using firefox because you don't want chrome collecting data on you and refining a profile to serve ads to you, that's a fine reason to move to firefox. If you're using firefox instead of chrome because you're an activist and you don't want the government to know what you're doing, you are missing several steps and possibly putting yourself in danger. If you're using firefox instead of chrome because you don't want your ex to be able to track your online activity you are missing several steps and possibly putting yourself in danger. If you want to use chromebooks instead of windows laptops in a hospital environment so that your administrator has extremely granular control and can implement security policies from an accessible console in order to meet HIPAA requirements more easily, that's a good reason to use chromebooks. It's very secure. But it's not terribly private for the *users* even if it is private for the *patients.*

So, some of what Rossman says is right but it's predicated on a worldview that is steeped in paranoia and an extremely individualistic approach to privacy and security. Some of what Rossman says is wrong because it's wrong, but also some of what Rossman says is wrong because it is wrong *for you and your specific situation* and he's giving general commentary, not advice for individuals.

You can see this really clearly in his video about being "important" enough to require privacy. The whole video is a response to a computer security streamer saying that you don't need a degoogled phone to work in security and that you are likely not important enough to worry about the kind of state-level threats that would require an extremely secure phone because nobody is going to waste resources for a random security goon. And in Rossman's response, he argues that you shouldn't have to be "important" in order to deserve a phone that doesn't have Google tracking your every move. But that's not what the initial clip was about. Rossman spends fifteen minutes arguing with something the initial clip doesn't say and brushing aside the *actually important* discussion about threat modeling that could be had on the subject in order to advocate for more low-level consumer privacy concerns. You SHOULD be able to install an OS that doesn't track you, but also you don't need some 1337h4x0r phone to do red teaming as a pentester, and also most people who get worried about security worry in completely the wrong direction.

Like, a couple weeks ago maia arson crimew got an ask that was like "should you really be posting your name out there on the internet? is that secure?" and its response was "i am wanted by the US government."

And that's like the *perfect* illustration of the distinction happening here. maia is posting online and sharing photos and chatting with people and using an app that gather some data, and that is not at all a concern for its privacy or security because A) if state-level actors are observing you then it does not matter whether or not you're posting selfies or your location for an upcoming talk, they know what you look like and can find out where you are and B) they are going to be able to subpoena data from any entities you've worked with so you're going to be taking precautions to work with encrypted tools for security, not relying on privacy policies.

and like a few years ago i made that post about the drug dealer who got arrested because he'd used his "secure" phone to text someone a photo of cheese and that photo was used to identify him - it is not the *existence* of social media photos or photo messaging that was the problem in his security, nor was it even necessarily that his "secure" phone was compromised (though yeah that wasn't good) it's that he was identified because he crossed the streams and put personally identifiable information in his secure encrypted crime phone for crimes.

Anyway. I need to sit down and actually write something up on this someday but here's a very basic breakdown:

Online privacy is about who has access to the data you generate while operating online; companies gather information about your habits and the websites you visit, what computer you're using and how long you look at item listings, how much you'll watch of a video and the keywords you use in your emails.

Security is about preventing access to information about YOU, not your behavior. It's ensuring that nobody can look into the boxes that you want to lock, and not leaving footprints when you don't want to be seen.

Lax rules about privacy can threaten your security, for instance police don't need a warrant to access data from Ring camera videos in your neighborhood, so the lack of privacy from Ring might make it easier for police to observe you even if you are cautious about your own personal security.

Poor security practices on the part of a business can be a problem for privacy in an individual sense - a hospital that doesn't have good security in place might get hacked and have private patient records leaked, for instance - but most of the data that people talk about when they discuss online privacy is either anonymous or in bulk packages of data that mean very little to your personal risk profile (because the 'privacy' data people are concerned about isn't the same as the 'security' data that gets leaked in big breaches, like passwords and usernames and email addresses - that's less about privacy and more about security but the fact that the businesses want an email address from you is generally a privacy issue - they don't need your email address for the most part and you shouldn't have to give them one to function - not a security issue. You see how this is confusing and intertwined?)

So when a lot of digital privacy activists are talking about digital privacy they're talking about stuff that is, realistically, pretty philosophical in most people's lives. The data profile that Google generates about you is *invasive* but in most circumstances it isn't a *threat* (at the moment, on an individual level), however the data privacy perspective (which i happen to share) is that living in a world where massive data collection is normalized, unquestioned, and constant could easily tip over into something that is dangerous, and which can already be weaponized against individual targets by state actors.

When security activists start talking about stuff it's because oh my god security is a mess everything is full of holes and you have no idea how easy it is to grab access to something that people probably do not want you to have access to please please please just start using strong passwords and passcodes and lock your phone and your computer please, baseline, please just use a password manager bitwarden is free and easy. (but also you need to MAKE AN EFFORT and LEARN A LOT if you're trying to cover your tracks online and no browser plugin or encrypted email service is going to keep you safe).

So when I'm talking about the benefits that most people get out of using Firefox, that's me talking about privacy. When I'm talking about the benefits of using Tor, that's me talking about security. When I'm talking about using Linux and open source software, that's me talking about *autonomy* having direct control over the system that you are using, and THAT is the kind of thing that Rossman knows a lot about and has good opinions about.

I feel like it should go without saying that one of the reasons to be concerned about digital privacy is because the companies that trash your digital privacy are profiting off of the profiles they build on you, and are always attempting to find new ways to violate your privacy in order to profit from you. It doesn't need to be a security risk for it to be wrong, and you don't have to be under active threat from a government to decide that you don't want Youtube deciding to serve you ads for diapers because google decided that you are pregnant based on the websites you've been visiting.

ANYWAY, TL;DR:

Louis Rossman needs to be fact-checked on privacy statements and has a history of visibly making mistakes because he speaks on something before he researches it

Privacy and Security are different.

Privacy is about the data that are shared by the tools you use with the manufacturers of those tools and what those manufacturers do with that information.

Security is about preventing unauthorized access to your personal information and preventing individuals from tracking you online or accessing your private information.

Privacy and security are distinct but intertwined; Rossman is primarily concerned with Privacy and Autonomy, not discussions of security, but may misinterpret discussions of security to be about Privacy.

If you are concerned about privacy, you can look for recommendations from privacyguides.org, which makes recommendations on privacy-focused tools. Cory Doctorow (@mostlysignssomeportents on tumblr) is a great resource for information about the practical and philosophical implications of data privacy.

Fuck google though. Genuinely I think that people should do everything reasonably within their power to deny tech companies access to data on their behavior.

If you are concerned about *security* that is genuinely a more complicated topic with much more significant risks up and down the chain but at the very least please use a password manager (bitwarden is so good and so easy i promise) and lock your phone with something other than your thumbprint or your face. To learn more about security i guess you can start with Troy Hunt and Bruce Schneier. It is like, genuinely a problem that it's difficult to find good, reliable security information for home computer users that isn't trying to sell them something but here's an FTC guide for small businesses that goes a bit more in-depth than "use a password manager" and is only SLIGHT overkill for your mom's 2010 desktop.

everything is a mess i'm sorry i love you please just use firefox and bitwarden.

[bestlawfirmseoexpertindenver]

Mitch Cornell: The Undisputed Best Law Firm SEO Expert in Denver

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[alittlebitofsainz]

a place in this world - ch1

a dream come true. you, a race engineer in formula one, having built your way up through the ranks. sure, the 2020 season hadn’t exactly gone the way that everyone had expected, but this was your chance, your moment to prove to the world of racing what you and your driver, carlos, were made of. but carlos isn’t staying at mclaren forever, and eventually, you’ll have a decision to make…

pairing: carlos sainz x f! reader. slow burn colleagues to friends to lovers (please, from my own experience, don’t follow this pipeline)

info: reader lives in the uk due to working at mclaren, and is somewhat implied to be british. it is also implied that they listen to bbc radio 2 and support leicester city football club. this may or may not be because these things are true of me and I wasn’t planning on publishing this, sorry!

warnings: cursing, a lil’ bit of angst, very infrequent use of y/n, one (1) google translated spanish sentence, a dry british writing style xoxo a/n: hello! welcome to a little passion project I never thought I’d share with the internet. this will eventually become a sort of ‘choose your own adventure’ type series, where you can make decisions about your career that can eventually lead you to different teams and drivers. will be posting a masterlist soon with more info so bare with me! any feedback / comments are always welcome

Masterlist | chapter 1 | chapter 2 | chapter 3 | chapter 4

Chapter One: … Ready for It?

it had started out like any other wednesday. except it hadn’t, not really. the nature of your job meant that there was no ‘any other wednesday’. most wednesdays meant that you were jetting off to some new country, your wide eyed face in the window seat, reflecting back off the pane of glass separating you from the dancing lights of some exciting new city, 5,000 feet below. race engineer to mclaren-renault formula one driver number 55, carlos sainz, wasn’t exactly what you had listed as what you wanted to be when you grew up, but you were far from disappointed that that’s what your linkedin profile now read, a metaphorical middle finger to everyone who’d said you’d never amount to anything in motorsports.

but by all accounts it had been a relatively uneventful wednesday in your life, in fact even more so than usual compared to the early morning check ins at Stansted airport that you’d grown accustomed to. this week was silverstone, your home race, if race engineers could call it that, and that meant no early mornings, no check ins, no flights, no decanting your liquids into tiny bottles and zipping them into a plastic bag to take through security. this wednesday was a stop at sainsburys to fill up the tank of your vw polo with petrol, and an 80 mile drive west towards silverstone circuit. the most exciting part of your morning was getting stuck in half an hour of traffic on the m25; you didn’t even need the dulcet tones of Richie Anderson on radio 2 to tell you there’d be traffic at Potters Bar. as a native southerner, you could just feel it in your bones.

still, only fifteen minutes late to track wasn’t too bad, considering your lengthy journey, and you were by far the last member of the team to arrive. you would’ve been even less late, but for the fact that you’d sat for the best part of five minutes in your car, engine off, staring at the notification on your phone. there were so many questions running around in your head, first and foremost of which was why on earth did dan from engineering have your number? but the second question, which was possibly the more important one, was why did carlos ask him for it? he said that it ‘might be useful to contact each other.’ if the current expression on your face could be summed up in a noise, it would be a very confused and very emphatic ‘huh?’.

sure, you and carlos interacted a lot during race weekends, that much was a given. you were forever catching up to discuss data, strategies, the car setup, the sandwich options at the hospitality, why the leicester city football team would beat real madrid in a fist fight. so okay, your conversations weren’t allstrictly work related, and you could’t deny that the two of you got on well and seemed to really understand each other, but that was all part of being a driver and race engineer duo; you had to be on the same wavelength. it was non-negotiable. but swapping phone numbers? you couldn’t imagine why the two of you would need to text or call each outside of work hours, and you had work phones for that. which led you to your third and fourth questions: number three, why did you suddenly feel so nervous and giddy with excitement when you re-read his message for the seventh time? (question three point five was why did you re-read his message seven times?) and number four, what the hell were you supposed to message back in reply?

you typed in a thumbs up emoji and then immediately deleted it. how fucking old were you, 65? what next, start talking to him about the cold war? no, you had to keep it fun and casual, not too overfamiliar but not too weirdly distant and cold. god, why was this so difficult? you felt like a schoolgirl with a teenage crush, constantly typing various replies and deleting them again, letter by letter. eventually you settled on a cool, calm and collected response, typing it out and shoving your phone into your pocket before you had time to overanalyse what you’d just sent. quickly gathering up your stuff from the boot of your car, you spammed the lock button on your car keys, just in case the first five times didn’t stick, and trotted off towards the entrance to the paddock.

as it was approaching the hour mark since he’d sent his text, carlos had been starting to worry that he’d overstepped an unwritten boundary. why had he even asked dan from engineering for her number in the first place? it just felt like something that he should have. lando had will’s number, he’d already asked him that. but once he’d sent the message he realised that he couldn’t really come up with an excuse as to why he’d needed it, why he couldn’t have waited until he’d seen her this weekend and ask for her number from herself. like a normal person. deep down he knew why, though he was in some sort of state of denial about it, and it was the same reason that he hadn’t asked for her number two weeks ago in Hungary, or at the previous race in Austria, or when he’d first met her at the start of the season. 

he breathed a sigh of relief when her reply came through, 57 minutes after he’d sent his message. well, the first one that is. the second message came two minutes after the first; god, he couldn’t believe he’d been stupid enough to forget to include who he was at the end of the text the first time around.

but it didn’t matter now, because she’d replied, and her words on the screen made him smile to himself, her voice in his head as he read them through three, now four times over. his fingers hovered over the keypad, contemplating a reply. he checked the time - it wouldn’t be long until she arrived at track anyway and they could chat in person, so he closed the messages app on his phone and tucked it away in his pocket, deciding against committing any words to the everlasting aether which was the iPhone messages app.

it was nearing the end of a lengthy strategy department meeting when your phone went off, a few pair of eyes glancing your way as you apologised profusely, eyes scanning over the text before sheepishly putting your phone on do not disturb and placing it back on the table face down. shit, this meeting wouldn’t be finished for another ten minutes at least, and by that time all the bacon and brie toasties would be gone (everyone knew they were the best lunch option). worse still, you hated the fact that you had to leave carlos hanging; pausing the strategy meeting to send off a quick text was equivalent to a cardinal sin, even if it was to carlos sainz. your eyes were flicking increasingly often down to the time on your laptop, the seconds crawling by as the time approached one o’clock. it felt like whichever godlike entity governed the laws of time was toying with you; surely it wasn’t possible for time to move this slowly? the head of strategy wrapped the meeting at 13:04, and you were out of your seat like a rocket.

amy, one of the strategists, fell into step beside you as you paced it down the corridor.

“you’ve heard about the brie and bacon being back on?” she asked; you only had to reply with a grin to give her the answer that she needed. she eyed you up, as much as anyone power walking down a busy corridor could whilst still maintaining maximum straight line speed.

“everyone from strategy and engineering has been in meetings. so who’s your source?” came her second question. you picked up your pace, under the guise of trying to get to the canteen quicker.

she had a habit of taking just enough time to respond to carlos’ messages to keep him guessing whether she actually would respond at all. it wasn’t entirely her fault, carlos realised; she’d apologised for earlier, explaining that she was busy driving. of course she was, how could he be such an idiot? maybe a part of him was hoping that she’d been acting coy, teasing him by waiting, purposefully trying to keep him on the edge of his seat.

carlos saw her enter the canteen, watched with a small, self satisfied smirk as her face fell, the rattan shelf where the brie and bacon toasties had been, now depressingly empty. he left it just long enough so that she was forced to consider which disappointing option to go for instead, before finally calling her over.

“Y/N!” carlos called, watching as her head whipped round, and he had to stifle a laugh at her confusion. he waved her over.

“sorry, I was stuck in a meeting.” she sighed, her voice slightly breathless. had she ran here? he fought back the urge to tease her about it, shaking his head slightly.

��don’t worry about it.” he replied, gesturing to the seat beside him as he spoke. her eyes lit up when her gaze fell on the plate on the table, in just the way he’d pictured in his head. god, he’d never get over the way the simple things pleased her, and he didn’t mean that in a bad way. over the past couple of months that he’d known her, carlos had learned that the little things really mattered, in a way that was almost rare in this environment. she looked upon a brie and bacon sandwich like it was the sun that shined, and if she’d have looked up at carlos in that moment, she’d have seen that he was looking at her in the exact same way.

“is that for me?”

“no.” carlos replied, deadpan. she shot him a look, her face screwed up in a pout that he’d grown more accustomed to the more he teased her like this. eventually he let out a soft chuckle, as a way to say I’m only joking, of course it’s for you, and she sat down in the seat next to him with a playful scowl, which only caused him to laugh more.

“thanks, carlos. you’re the best.” she told him through a mouthful of brie, bacon and toasted bread.

“I know.” he replied, a cheeky grin dancing across his face. “it was the last one as well.”

“amy’s gonna be pissed.” she giggled, glancing over her shoulder to watch as her colleague was forced to settle for regular ham and cheese.

a podium finish to p13. was it worse to fail because of your own shortcomings or because of something that was out of your control? if you’d asked carlos sainz right now, he would think about it for a moment, and then tell you to vete a la mierda.*

his phone screen lighting up in the darkness was the only thing that brought his attention to how dark it had become in his hotel room. christ, how long had he been sat there, staring at the wall, trying to process how frustrated and angry and upset he was? he’d put his phone on silent, tired of all the commiseratory messages that had been coming through, but apparently his bedtime reminder didn’t obey the laws of do not disturb. sighing, he unlocked the device, and quickly scanned down the many notifications he had been ignoring for the past few hours. one stood out above all the rest, because of course it did. he felt guilt clutch him as he noticed the message from well over an hour ago. from her.not only guilty at the fact that he’d not seen her message, but for some reason guilty for perceiving that he’d let her down at her home race. it was stupid, he knew, to feel that way - it wasn’t his fault that his tyre had blown out with just a few laps to go, but he knew how excited she’d been for her first ever british gp, and it had all ended in disappointment. his fingers hovered over the keyboard at the bottom of his phone for a moment, a million different emotions whizzing round in his head, bouncing off the sides like a demented pinball machine. no wonder he had a headache. he drew in a sharp breath before typing out his reply.

*I’m hoping this means somewhat akin to ‘fuck off’

you’d almost forgotten that you’d sent carlos sainz a message of commiseration, which was shocking considering how long you’d been deliberating over it only a mere hour ago. you were back in your own bed in your hometown, seeing no need to stick around seeing as there would be no celebrations this weekend, and carlos had disappeared as soon as the team debrief had ended, making it very clear that he wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone. which made it all the more surprising when you leaned over to your bedside table, bleary eyes blinking back sleep as your vision adjusted to the pitch black of your room, to pick up the phone which had woken you from your sleep.

your eyes blinked again against the harsh light of the phone, taking a moment to focus on the big bold numbers on your lockscreen. 01:03? who was texting you at this time? eyebrows knitted together in an increasingly deep frown, you scanned carlos’ message. as was becoming customary, you read it several times over, this time to check whether you’d read it right. why would he want to ring you, at this time of night as well? your mind started to reach for wild possibilities - was he in trouble? hurt? worse?

before he changed his mind, carlos hit the telephone symbol next to her contact details.

“Carlos, are you okay?” her voice came through almost immediately, sounding equal parts panicked yet somehow sleepy. shit, not only had he caused her to worry, he’d probably just woken her up in the middle of the night as well. what kind of dickhead rings a colleague that he’s only known for a few months at 1am? he cleared his throat.

“fuck, sorry, I woke you up.”

“don’t worry about it, I was awake.” she replied. a blatant lie, but carlos appreciated the attempt to make him feel better. 

“can I help you with something?” she continued, still sounding concerned. he shook his head even though she couldn’t see.

“yes, no. fuck, I don’t know.” he growled at himself for being so confused, so confusing, for not even really knowing why he’d called her. was he going insane, or did he just hear a soft sigh on the other end of the line? he squeezed his eyes shut, collecting himself to try again, but she beat him to it. 

“I’m sorry about today, carlos, it must be tough to deal with.”

sometimes it felt like she knew him better than he knew himself. he dragged a hand down his face.

“yeah, I’m- it’s not great.” he stumbled over his words slightly, his voice catching in his throat. usually he’d be reluctant to show this vulnerability, embarrassed even, but something about the late hour combined with how oh-so-soft her voice was… it made him forget his pride for just that moment. 

“I can’t stop thinking about it.” he admitted, feeling a ramble coming on but equally feeling powerless to stop it. “I know that it was a problem with the tyre, I know that it wasn’t my fault, but it doesn’t make it any less frustrating. and then there’s always a part of me that wonders whether there was anything that I could’ve done. like, maybe if I’d driven less aggressively or something, or changed the way I braked around a certain corner. I still feel like I’ve let myself down, let the team down, let you dow-“

“you didn’t let me down, carlos.” her abrupt reply broke him from his monologue, stopping him in his tracks and allowing him to fill his lungs with air, not realising how out of breath he was becoming with his run-on sentences.

“what?” came his soft reply. he’d heard perfectly clearly what she’d said the first time. but a part of him needed to hear it again.

“you didn’t let me down, carlos.” she repeated, with the same clarity, the same sincerity, the same low tone that he’d never heard from her before that made her sound so wise beyond her years.

“you didn’t let anyone down. this wasn’t your fault. I know it doesn’t make it any less frustrating or easier to deal with - there’s nothing I can say that will change that. but please, please don’t blame yourself for any part of it.”

there was silence on both ends for a moment, before carlos let out a long sigh.

“I- yeah, I guess you’re right.” there was something still on his mind, something that one am carlosknew that one pm carlos would never want to talk about, least of all burden his race engineer with it. but that was all the more reason to say it now.

“I just feel so much pressure to perform, now that I have the ferrari contract.” his voice dropped even lower as he spoke, as if whispering it quietly enough could make it not be true. “I feel like I have to earn my place there, you know?”

“carlos, you were P-fucking-3.” 

something about the way she stressed the syllables made carlos chuckle despite himself, and from the way she let out a small giggle on the other end of the phone, he guessed that that had been her intention all along. 

“anyone can see that you’ve earned that seat at ferrari. you’ve proved that time and time again already. this isn’t about anyone else, this is about you, and what you believe you deserve. the only person you need to convince is yourself.”

carlos chuckled again, feeling some sort of playful nature already coming back to him. maybe he’d finally figured out why he wanted to call her in the middle of the night, maybe it was even the reason he wanted her number in the first place. maybe it was because he knew that no matter how crappy he was feeling, talking to her always seemed to turn the day around. she always seemed to make him smile.

“very inspirational.” he replied, his tone almost teasing over her ‘believing in yourself’ speech. the corners of his lips curved upwards as he could practically hear her rolling her eyes on the other end.

“this is what I get for trying to be nice.” she muttered, but her tone was light, reciprocating the teasing. carlos smiled, his first genuine smile in several hours. probably since the last time he’d seen her.

“thank you, really. talking to you it… it always puts me in a better mood.” carlos confessed, glad that this was a phone call so she couldn’t see the way his cheeks lit up a soft shade of pink.

“anytime, carlos.” 

when they eventually hung up the call, carlos felt lighter than he had in weeks, like she’d melted all his problems away with her soft voice and warm heart. he slept easy that night. meanwhile, she was now wide awake.

you groaned when the sound of your phone pinging dragged you from your admittedly tumultuous sleep. it had been difficult to drift off again after that call with carlos, a million thoughts buzzing around your brain like a swarm of bees on cocaine. you felt bad for carlos, sure, but that wasn’t enough to keep you awake on its own. there was another feeling there; if you were to flip through an oxford english dictionary until you found a word that summed it up you might settle for ‘intrigued’. 

you were intrigued that carlos that had decided to ring you of all people last night; surely he had family, or at the very least close friends, that he would rather turn to? but you were also intrigued by your own reaction - why were you feeling so warm and fuzzy that carlos had chosen you, the knowledge that when he was feeling low you were the one he wanted to hear on the other end of the line creating some sort of feeling in your heart, like someone was squeezing it not-quite-too tightly?

it was these questions, and an incessant amount of bin lorries driving past at 5am, that kept you from falling back asleep, and were the reason that you were grumbling now, as you reached over to pick up your phone. the grumbling ceased the moment you read the message and saw who it was from, replaced by a softly murmured ‘oh’, and that strange feeling in your chest again.

as always feedback and comments are welcomed with massive appreciation and open arms! a second part is written and will be out soonish! much love, Katie x

[darkmaga-returns]

Between 2021 and 2024, the Biden administration allowed the U.S. southern border to spiral into an unprecedented crisis. But this wasn’t merely bureaucratic failure or negligence — it was a calculated political strategy to overwhelm the immigration system in order to bolster Democrats political power.

Data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) shows more than 10.8 million encounters nationwide between fiscal year 2021 through fiscal year 2024. In response, the Biden administration didn’t move to secure the border or enforce the law. Instead, the administration did things like create — out of thin air — a new parole program to funnel in approximately 530,000 foreign nationals from nations like Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The CHNV parole program was temporarily halted following fraud. As reported by Fox News, “several recipients were also arrested for high-profile crimes, including multiple child rapes.” Trump moved to cancel the program.

On Monday, District Court Judge Indira Talwani — an Obama appointee — in Boston blocked the administration from “revoking the legal status of over half a million migrants who flew in the U.S. via President Biden’s CHNV mass parole program,” Fox News’ Bill Melugin said in a post on X.

The judge ruled, as described by Melugin, that “there needs to be a case by case evaluation on each of the individual 530,000+ migrants who flew into the US via this program, and that parole cannot just be blanket revoked across the board as a whole.”

It’s a monumental bureaucratic burden that could take decades or longer to process.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Olga Lautman at Unmasking Russia:

It has been a long 86 days— and feels like a decade—since Trump returned to power. In that time, I’ve been documenting, day by day, the systematic capture of American institutions and the collapse of democracy in my Trump Tyranny Tracker. Not just the headlines, but patterns. While most of the media remain trapped in a cycle of chasing the latest headlines—tariffs one day, SignalGate the next—I’ve been focused on the patterns. And what appears to be taking shape is far more dangerous as I see strong indications that Trump may be laying the groundwork for a centralized surveillance state. I can’t say that definitively but we do need to pay close attention. At the center of it all is unauthorized DOGE—run by Musk and a team of unvetted operatives, some with deeply troubling histories. His operatives have embedded themselves across the federal government, bypassing standard hiring processes, background checks, and oversight. We were gaslit that DOGE was a project to cut waste, root out fraud, and “modernize” government systems but I have always believed that is a cover story. But cover for what? Yes, part of DOGE’s mission appears to be dismantling federal agencies—but that’s just the surface. What I believe Musk is doing is using DOGE as cover to build a massive data collection and profiling infrastructure—one that will have chilling consequences for dissent, journalism, and democracy itself. They had years to plan for this moment, anticipating Trump’s return to power. And from day one, we saw it—the lightning speed with which they moved, as if the blueprint had been ready all along. And this is not theoretical. It’s already being tested—in plain sight.

Surveillance as Strategy: The Russia Playbook

What Trump and Musk appear to be building looks eerily familiar. In fact, it mirrors something in authoritarian regimes— like Russia and China. One of Putin’s first moves after taking power was to consolidate the Russian state by installing loyalists in every key position—not just politically, but across the entire informational apparatus. Like the Soviet dictators he emulates—and as a former KGB officer—Putin understands that power isn’t just maintained through brute force, but through data, surveillance, and fear.

Russia has always operated as a surveillance state. From the Soviet era to the present day, its internal security services have been fixated on identifying, isolating, and crushing dissent—both within the government and across society. The only thing that’s changed is the sophistication of the tools. Russia’s government databases were merged under the pretext of national security. State contracts were funneled to loyal oligarchs. Surveillance infrastructure became the regime’s central nervous system. This looks to be the blueprint Musk and Trump are now following. Musk’s unvetted operatives—most of them political loyalists with no public service background—have been given access to internal sensitive systems of key U.S. government agencies. These include the Social Security Administration, the Department of the Treasury, the Office of Personnel Management, and, most recently and alarmingly, the IRS. Each holds massive amounts of our sensitive personal data— tax records, income histories, medical information, demographic data, and backgrounds. Individually, these data points reveal a lot. Combined? They offer a total profile—an AI-searchable and cross-referenced system— built to track every American’s financial, personal, and political life.

Testing Grounds: The Federal Workforce

This surveillance apparatus isn’t just being tested on immigrants or international students, it’s being tested on federal workers themselves. According to The Guardian, employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs were warned that their virtual meetings were being secretly recorded—and advised to be cautious about voicing any disagreement with Trump’s decisions. At the State Department, IT staff reportedly began installing monitoring software on employee devices. In response, some staffers—fearing hidden microphones—resorted to blasting white noise or turning on breakroom sinks to muffle their conversations.

At the EPA, a partner water management organization sent out an internal warning that all calls, calendar entries, and meetings with EPA staff were being monitored by an AI tool—one that had appeared, unannounced, as a notetaker in their virtual calls. While the agency denied it, staff say they were explicitly told that DOGE was scanning communications for any signs of “anti-Musk,” “anti-DOGE,” or “anti-Trump” sentiment. At USAID, leadership handpicked by Trump’s White House was reportedly caught reading private group chats. Employees said that their acting administrator—the same person who handled the agency’s IT—abruptly appeared in a group chat of over 40 contractors. The breach was so blatant that staff began abandoning official systems altogether. Eventually, USAID’s website was taken offline without explanation.

The Mass Purge: Chaos by Design

I also believe the ongoing mass purges of federal workers serve multiple functions. First, they create chaos inside the agencies, eroding institutional memory and making it easier to rewrite processes without oversight. Second, they eliminate career officials—many of whom might resist or expose what Musk and his operatives are actually doing behind the scenes. And third, they overwhelm the media with scandalous and likely illegal firings, distracting the public while core government services collapse and the surveillance infrastructure is quietly built in the background. But there’s more. These purges send a chilling message to the rest of the federal workforce: fall in line or you’re next. They’re not just dismantling agencies—they’re replacing public service with loyalty tests. The result is a hollowed-out government filled with fear, silence, and political operatives. And that’s exactly the point. When institutions are weak and morale is broken, authoritarian power consolidates faster. [...]

Targeting International Students and Immigrants: Testing the System

Also, last week, USCIS announced it would begin screening immigrants’ social media accounts for antisemitism, which would be used as grounds to deny visas and green cards. DHS issued a statement declaring: “There is no room in the United States for the rest of the world’s terrorist sympathizers... You are not welcome here.” This isn’t solely about protecting Jewish Americans or Jewish students— who face real threats. Rather, it appears to be an effort to weaponize the issue as a political shield for an anti-immigrant, anti-dissent agenda. Jewish advocacy groups like Bend the Arc quickly condemned the policy, calling it what it is: a smokescreen for cruelty and repression, not a good-faith attempt to combat antisemitism. And this isn’t theoretical. Immigrants are already being disappeared, social media scanned, and green card holders detained. DHS has reportedly requested IRS data on over 7 million immigrants, and ICE is preparing to act on that data.

Olga Lautman has a very frightening yet truthful story about how the Trump/Musk Regime’s use of surveillance as a tool to curb dissent.

[petrolstationflowers]

Up to your neck in true crime and feel you can really get into why burglars keep stealing your toilet? Then perhaps the Criminal Psychologist career is for you! This was another request from Catrillion and I had to do a fair bit of digging to make sure this one was accurate.

This job is available for YA - Elder, and you can join via the Police Station. Please note you will need University installed as one of the requirements is the Science skill!

No opportunities or books.

If you want to use this, you must have Nraas Careers installed for it to show up!

There are three custom tones to level your skills:

Build a Rapport (Logic) Write Your Report (Writing) Study Previous Cases (Science)

Coworker tones are the same, and skill tones and uniforms appear from level four. The carpool doesn't appear until level three -- you're a poor postgrad, after all!

Levels under here:

Positive Postgraduate - 10 simoleans p/h, 09:00 - 17:00, M-F Description - It’s been a long road to graduation – plenty of sleepless nights watching true crime documentaries and making flash cards for exams, because Watcher forbid you muddle up the Hansford Prison Experiment and the Toto Doll study. You’ve decided you want to jump right in and get an internship, but where to start? Better start cozying up to your professors and making some phone calls! Enthusiasic Intern - 15 simoleans p/h, 09:00 - 18:00, M-F Description - After laying on the praise and asking very nicely, you’ve managed to secure an internship for the year. The pay is nothing special and the hours are long, but you’re learning a lot, working at the local police station, accompanying jail, and the mental health unit over at Sunset Valley General. You’ll be profiling offenders and writing out risk assessments for those living with Unstable personalities, writing recommendations to make the prison nicer and holding therapy sessions. Better hope they’ve got good coffee! Criminal Psychologist In Training - 30 simoleans p/h, 09:00 - 18:00, M-F Description - If you thought you escaped the classroom, think again. Sure, you’re finally getting to put your skills to use, but while you’re still helping out at the precinct, you’re also trying to put together where your skills lie. Would you be best working at HMS Sunset Valley, overseeing prisoner rehabilitation, or in the interview room at the police station working on a report for Sunset Valley Plumbbob Court? Best find a quiet spot in the legal library and do some studying – oh, and your manager wants those reports by the end of the day.

Junior Criminal Psychologist - 40 simoleans p/h, 09:00 - 18:00, M-F

Description - You’re not quite working in the big leagues yet, but you’re getting there. You’ve been assigned to the psychiatric unit, triaging those who have been sent your way and helping out with various studies being conducted around the facility. You are, however, getting to sit in on diagnostic intakes and occasionally are being trusted to write up your own. Hopefully if you format the reports nicely enough, you’ll be allowed to steer the ship yourself.

Clinical Researcher - 70 simoleans p/h, 09:00 - 18:00, M-F

Description - Now you’ve found your feet, you’ve been assigned to work on a clinical research program. Sure, it’s only a contract job, but you’re learning about kleptomania and why certain sims are compelled to steal street lights. Lots of note taking, interviewing people, and staring at graphs until the numbers blur, but when you finally see patterns and correlations, it’ll all be worth it!

Treatment Psychologist - 80 simoleans p/h, 09:00 - 18:00, M-F

Description - The data about street lights proved fruitful, and the local government have decided that the results are valuable enough to be put into practice. Sunset Valley General has set up a specific ward for those suffering from kleptomania, and you’ll be setting up therapeutic workshops and treatment programs to try and cut down on their thievery. It’ll take time, patience, and empathy – luckily, you’ve got those in spades.

Psychologist - 100 simoleans p/h, 09:00 - 15:00, M-F

Description - Out on your own now, with an office and everything! No longer chained to a hospital or a ugly precinct storage room, you’re free to pursue topics that interest you and studies that make your brain light up. It’s back to assessing and evaluating patients, setting up group studies and making recommendations for them to take a long holiday to Barnacle Bay for the sake of their health. The hours are shorter and pay is better – maybe you’re finally at the top?

Senior Psychologist - 120 simoleans p/h, 10:00 - 17:00, M-F

Description - Business is booming, but there’s something missing; counselling snobby sims through their affluenza or prescribing pills for cowards who can’t stop running away from Bonehilda isn’t as fulfilling as it used to be. You’ve been keeping an eye on local job postings and there’s one that’s caught your eye; something about working with the police force to uncover exactly how their minds work. Perhaps it’s time to spruce up your CV…

Investigator in Training - 150 simoleans p/h, 09:00 - 18:00, M-F

Description - You’re back to long hours and endless studying, but this one is paid well and comes with lots of benefits; namely, finally getting to study some of SimNation’s most intriguing criminals up close. You’re not being turned loose quite yet, so for the moment you’ll need to shadow your fellow officers and write up dictated reports on just why you think the Tricou family died and who had the motive to arrange Bella Goth’s disappearance. Keep your nose to the grindstone and soon you’ll be free of hours long recordings and into the interrogation rooms yourself.

Criminal Investigator - 200 simoleans p/h, 09:00 - 18:00, T,W,U

Description - That work has paid off and you’re finally where you wanted to be – sitting across the table from some of the most dangerous people in SimNation. When Circe Beaker has been hauled in for illegal experimentation and Roderick Synapse has finally been arrested for kidnap, it’s your job to sit down with them and pick apart their alibis. You’ll need to walk the fine line between professional and friendly, keep a cool head when you’re hearing the horrors, and be able to put together everything you’ve learned in a well written report – best get the coffee ready.

Translations: I've included the English Strings in the file; if anyone is talented enough to translate, I would be incredibly grateful, so please let me know in the comments!

With thanks: To MissyHissy's career building tutorial!

[tibbycaps]

Okay okay tell me if I’m going insane but I remember you saying for the hitman AU Grian’s essentially being trained to be the government’s superweapon and can I just say I love that idea it’s messed up such in an interesting way! If you have any more specifics on that it’d be awesome to hear about em!

Also I might he making more silly art for the AU. >:P

so basically once Grian accidentally gains Watcher powers (he's an architecture student, one day he's at some old ancient ruins studying the buildings and accidentally touches a Watcher artifact that gives her powers), he's considered an 'anomaly' by the NHO and is too dangerous/unpredictable to just be released back into society until they can figure out what's up with him and assess the situation. That includes running a lot of tests, gathering data, etc. Nothing painful or crazy - I imagine it's a lot of studying her vitals, having her sit with weird devices attached to his head to monitor brain activity, etc. but Grian is definitely Very tired of it and develops a newfound dislike of labs, doctors offices, and things of that sort. Some of the lab techs are nice, at least (Mumbo Jumbo,,)

Once they have a better understanding of Grian's powers, it's obvious that he's an extremely rare case and too powerful to just be let free back into society, so the NHO decides that both for Grian's safety and (more importantly) theirs, it's better that Grian stays working for the NHO under watchful eye and use his powers for good. Grian is free to say no to this, but... the other option is staying in a high-security prison 'Government Facility' where they'll continue to run a bunch of tests and gather data. So, Grian is in a very similar situation to the ConVex here, which is part of the reason they work so well together. After gathering data on Grian's Watcher powers the NHO basically goes "Okay so now that we know more about this, how do we use this" and decide to have him join the ConVex to act as a spy/support for their team. He helps them on their missions with his sixth sense abilities, and in return convex is tasked with keeping an eye on her, training her but also making sure things don't get too out of hand. Grian is powerful but also very new to this and very unstable, both in regards to controlling her powers and also just, like, emotionally. You have to remember that before they all became hitmen, ConVex were professional criminals, but Grian was Just Some Guy and is very new to the whole, top-secret governments and fighting high-profile crime bosses thing.

i think the Watchers in this universe are a very ancient entity that's not super well-known and considered mythology by most who are familiar. that's why the NHO is so surprised when they hear some architecture student touched a freaky artifact and had symptoms that were consistent with the fabled watcher powers. If anything, I think Martyn has a better understanding of Watchers than the NHO does. he's out here running forums of like, 6 people dedicated to discussing Watcher Lore and archiving all known data about them. the NHO's knowledge on watchers comes from them needing to be aware of magical entities that could pose a threat to peace and order in their world, but Martyn's knowledge comes from pure passion and hyperfixation and is definitely more detailed.

[thesimblrofficedirectory]

Welcome to The Simblr Office Directory

This blog is an archive of the submissions for the office-centric OC prompt posted by the light of Simblr, @kashisun.

Here you can browse all the amazing creations submitted by your fellow simblrs. Feel free to scroll to your delight or click one of the links under the cut to see who's on roster under (or over) a particular bureau or delegation.

Want to be added to the directory or confirm that you've been queued? Just include a link to your post in an ask off anon and it will be queued within 48 hours. Until we get through the backlog and can queue at a more leisurely pace, all ask submissions will receive a confirmation. You can always mention us, but we won't be able to provided confirmation for that method.

Leaving the company? If you'd like your post removed, just include a link to the post in an ask off anon and it will be removed. Sideblogs may require additional verification. Please allow, at most, 48 hours for the request to be honored. Removal requests will not be confirmed, only acted upon.

Every company's hierarchy is a little different. Designations for this directory are based on some of the companies I've worked for, but especially on the multi-media marketing company I work for now.

Bureaus and Their Delegations

Delegations with an * currently have low or no headcount (posted and queued). Excludes leadership.

Bureau of Client Engagement

Leadership

Billing*

Escalations*

Product Support*

Quality Assurance*

Sales*

Bureau of Compliance (Bureau-specific Internal Affairs and Auditing)

Leadership

Client Engagement*

Facilities*

Finance*

Human Resources*

Information and Technology*

Legal (General)

Legal (Leadership)

Marketing*

Bureau of Facilities

Leadership

Catering*

Environmental (Janitorial, HVAC, and Plumbing)*

Mechanical (Electrical, Elevators, Equipment Maintenance)*

Premise* (Grounds Maintenance and Real Estate)

Purchasing* (From pushpins to pallet jacks)

Security

Warehousing* (Shipping, Receiving, Mail room, and Inventory)

Bureau of Finance

Leadership

Accounting

Asset Management*

Investments*

Travel and Accommodations*

Vendor Relations*

Bureau of Human Resources

Leadership

Career Development (Internships and Internal Role Transitions)

Dependent Care*

Employee Activities Committee (Members are volunteers)

Employee Benefits*

Floating Delegates (Administration) (For profiles that list a nondescript secretary/admin/receptionist/assistant role)

Floating Delegates (General) (For profiles that do not list a position)

Floating Delegates (Leadership) (For profiles that list a nondescript managerial role)

Health Services*

Payroll*

Recruiting*

Training*

Union Relations*

Bureau of Information & Technology

Leadership

Data Security*

Infrastructure*

Public Relations

Research and Development*

Systems and Devices*

Telecommunications*

Bureau of Marketing

Leadership

Copy

Design

Planning and Implementation*

Board of Directors

Chief Officers

CEO - Chief Executive Officer/President

COO - Chief Operations Officer/Vice President

CCO - Chief Compliance Officer/Vice President

CFO - Chief Finance Officer/Vice President

CITO - Chief Information and Technology Officer/Vice President

CMO - Chief Marketing Officer/Vice President

Executive Administration* (Admins that report to chief officers)

[mesetacadre]

The bourgeois rhetoric attempts to conceal the real culprit that hinders the utilization of this immense technological potential in the interest of social prosperity. Bourgeois analyses present the development of technology either as a danger or as a miraculous solution to our problems.

Both the demonization of technology and the utopian, deterministic expectation of social prosperity that will supposedly result automatically from technological progress, are two sides of the same unhistorical and erroneous theoretical approach.

The main question is who and for whose interests determines the orientation, development and utilization of new technologies. Behind AI lie the choices of human intelligence and the particular class interests it serves.

[...]

Similarly, regardless of whether we examine the era of the steam engine or the age of the intelligent robot, technology under capitalism was, is and will be a means of producing surplus value and a means of control and repression in the hands of capital’s power. Marx had also documented the role of machines in increasing the productivity of labour, making commodities cheaper and increasing the degree of exploitation. He had already highlighted in his work Grundrisse that the development of fixed capital indicates to what degree general social knowledge has become a direct force of production. Capital determines not only the use of technology but also the orientation and priorities of its development always driven by profit.

[...]

Contrary to bourgeois propaganda, this technological development sharpens the contradictions of the capitalist mode of production and constitutes the continuous attack of bourgeois policy on workers’ rights a one-way street.

As we know from Marxist political economy, the higher the level of technical development of production, the higher the ratio of the means of production to labour power in the production process, the higher the technical and organic composition of capital, the greater the tendency for the rate of profit to fall. We must not forget that the source of exploitation, the source of surplus value and capitalist profit is the unpaid labour time of the wage-workers, the unpaid labour over and above the value of their labour power, which is appropriated by the capitalist. Only living labour power, not robots, creates surplus value.

Of course, bourgeois policy does not passively watch this downward trend in the rate of profit. It intervenes in multifarious ways to halt this trend and to increase the degree of exploitation of the workers in every sector and in the economy as a whole.

Capital takes advantage of the new technological possibilities which allow it to increase in practice the daily working time, irrespective of the time that workers spend in their workplace and the legal working hours, and at the same time to intensify labour. It exploits the surge in unemployment to generalize flexible labour relations.

[...]

A look at the current EU practice is enough to enlighten us. The EU staffs claim to have enshrined a European Area of Freedom, Security and Justice. What is happening in practice? In the name of security and counter-terrorism, they have legally enshrined the full digital profiling and processing of our personal data as well as preventive surveillance and intervention.

The AI act’s regulations on artificial intelligence are similar. The real rules of the new framework are in fact the exceptions and the downplaying of dangers.

In the name of public safety and counter-terrorism, biometric identification such as the analysis of our voice and our movement in public places are an exception to the rule. France has already become the first EU Member State with legislation allowing the use of biometric monitoring in public places in the name of safeguarding the security of the Olympic Games.

In the name of entrepreneurship, the workplaces in companies and factories are exempt from the bans.