Once, not that long ago, televisions were beloved devices that brought families together for regular rituals of laughter, drama, and storytelling. But today, as we settle in for a night of streaming on our sleek smart TVs, that warmth feels increasingly distant. These modern monstrosities offer endless options and voice-activated convenience, but this comes at a steep price. While we put our feet up and enjoy our favorite shows, we’re also inviting a level of surveillance into our homes that would have been unthinkable a few decades ago.
According to a new report by the Center for Digital Democracy, smart TVs have become yet another cog in a massive, data-driven machine. Specifically, this machine is an ecosystem that harvests viewer data with military-like precision, prioritizing profits over privacy, individual autonomy, and, arguably, our collective well-being.
Big Brother isn't just in your living room — he knows what you’re watching, what you’re thinking, what you’re buying, and even where you’re going.
As the report details, these devices function as sophisticated surveillance tools, tracking viewers' every move across platforms. From Tubi to Netflix to Disney+, streaming services rely heavily on various data collection mechanisms to fuel a relentless advertising engine. These companies boast about their ability to collect "billions of rows of data" on their viewers, using machine learning algorithms to personalize the entire experience — from what shows are recommended to the ads viewers are served.
Tools like Automatic Content Recognition — built into TVs by companies such as LG, Samsung, and Roku — track and analyze everything you watch. ACR collects data frame by frame, creating detailed viewer profiles that are then used for targeted advertising. These profiles can include information about the devices in your home and the content you purchase, all feeding into a continuous feedback loop for advertisers. The more you watch, the more the system learns about you — and the greater its ability to shape your choices. The “non-skippable” ads, personalized to reflect intimate knowledge about viewers' behaviors and vulnerabilities, are particularly disturbing. They are engineered to be as compelling and intrusive as possible.
Smart TVs are living up to their names. They know everything about you. And I mean absolutely everything.
The streaming industry has rapidly grown into one of the most lucrative advertising sectors, with streaming platforms like Disney+, Netflix, and Amazon Prime attracting billions in ad revenue. As the report warns, these platforms now use advanced generative AI and machine learning to produce thousands of hyper-targeted ads in seconds — ads for Mom, ads for Dad, and ads for the little ones. By employing tools like identity graphs, which compile data from across an individual’s digital footprint, streaming services can track and target viewers on their televisions and throughout their entire digital lives. That's right. Smart TVs seamlessly interact with other smart devices, basically "talking" to each other and sharing valuable gossip.
This data collection goes far beyond tracking viewing habits. The report reveals that companies like Experian and TransUnion have developed identifiers that encompass deeply personal details, such as health information, financial status, and political views. Who will you vote for in November? You already know — and so does your TV.
At its core, capitalism has been a driving force of innovation, progress, and prosperity. Its brilliance lies in its ability to harness human creativity and ambition, rewarding those who bring value to the market. In its purest form, capitalism is entirely meritocratic. Capitalism has lifted millions out of poverty through competition and the pursuit of profit. Capitalism helped make America the greatest nation known to man.
However, we see today a gross distortion of capitalism’s core principles. Surveillance capitalism has taken the place of pure capitalism. Instead of fostering innovation, this monstrous model feeds off personal data, often without our knowledge or consent. It preys particularly on vulnerable groups like children, exploiting their behaviors and emotions to turn a profit. The same system that once championed freedom now thrives on violating privacy, reducing human experiences to commodities.
Smart TVs and surveillance capitalism go hand in hand.
This raises an urgent question: What can we do about it? While it’s tempting to grab a sledgehammer and smash your nosy device into a million pieces, more practical solutions exist.
Start by diving into your TV's settings and disabling data tracking features such as ACR. You can also refuse to sign up for accounts or services that require extensive data sharing. For those willing to pay a bit more, opting for ad-free services can limit the data collected on your viewing habits, though it’s not a foolproof solution.
Additionally, advocating for stronger regulations on data privacy and transparency in advertising technologies is crucial. As consumers, we need to push policymakers to implement stricter laws that hold companies accountable for the data they collect and how they use it. Organizations like the Center for Digital Democracy, which authored this important report, are already fighting for these changes. This is a matter of critical importance. Close to 80% of homes in the U.S. have a smart TV.
Big Brother isn't just in your living room — he knows what you’re watching, what you’re thinking, what you’re buying, and even where you’re going. Not for the sledgehammer, I hope.
If you thought your personal property was private, then you might not have read the agreement you signed when you purchased it — and this is especially true when it comes to your vehicle.
Car expert Lauren Fix is sounding the alarm, explaining that in the infrastructure bill of 2021, “there’s a kill switch law.”
“That kill switch law allowed them to listen in your car, to monitor your eyes, to literally track all of your information,” Fix tells Hilary Kennedy and Matthew Peterson of “Blaze News Tonight.”
“And what are they doing with that information?” She continues, “We know that manufacturers are hurting financially. We see a lot of cars sitting on lots, and as long as prices keep getting higher, their profit margins are shrinking.”
So they sell the data to places like insurance companies and the police department.
“Then, just recently Ford decided to create a patent that would sell all your information directly to the police department so that they wouldn’t have to go through some sort of contract,” Fix explains, adding, “Which, again, is a violation of our privacy and really infuriates me.”
While Americans are right to be infuriated, the problem is that they do disclose this information in the paperwork — which almost no one actually reads.
“It’s going to get worse because in 2026, all cars are going to have a kill switch in them,” Fix says. “That’s going to tell whether you’re under the influence of something by the start/stop button.”
“Is all of this perfectly legal?” Peterson asks, concerned.
“Well, it actually probably isn’t. But we sign those agreements,” Fix says.
To enjoy more provocative opinions, expert analysis, and breaking stories you won’t see anywhere else, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
It's coming from inside the car!
I've told you about the AI-enabled cameras that can tell if you're speeding — or on your phone. Now, car manufacturers are joining the assault on your privacy.
'Our investigation revealed that General Motors has engaged in egregious business practices that violated Texans’ privacy and broke the law. We will hold them accountable.'
Take Ford, for example. The iconic American company recently filed a not-so-American patent for technology that would allow a car to snitch on drivers.
Entitled "Systems and Methods for Detecting Speeding Violations" — not quite as catchy as "Built Ford Tough" — the patent filing details a system that would use vehicles' cameras and sensors to detect speeding motorists and report them to authorities.
The filing includes basic sketches and flowcharts illustrating how this technology senses speed violations, activates cameras to capture images, and transmits data to nearby "pursuit vehicles" or logs it to a server. The captured data, including speed, GPS location, and clear imagery or video, can then be sent to authorities for potential action.
According to Ford, it is developing this technology for police cars. In other words, don't worry: This invasive surveillance tech will be exclusively in the hands of the state.
And I'm sure the company would never think of adapting it so your own car can inform any nearby police that they should pull you over.
Then there's GM.
Did you know the company's so concerned about empowering you to keep your data secure that it just consolidated five different lengthy privacy statements into one disclosure document?
Talk about putting the customer first! Yeah, a massive lawsuit and widespread public backlash have a way of encouraging that.
Last month, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed suit on behalf of the state against GM, accusing the automaker of installing technology on more than 14 million vehicles to collect data about drivers, which it then sold to insurers and other companies without drivers’ consent.
The suit contends that the data was used to compile “Driving Scores” assessing whether more than 1.8 million Texas drivers had “bad” habits such as speeding, braking too fast, steering too sharply into turns, not using seatbelts, and driving late at night. Insurers could then use the data when deciding whether to raise premiums, cancel policies, or deny coverage.
The technology was allegedly installed on most GM vehicles starting with the 2015 model year. Paxton said GM’s practice was for dealers to make unwitting consumers who had just completed the stressful buying and leasing process believe that enrolling in its OnStar diagnostic products, which collected the data, was mandatory.
“Companies are using invasive technology to violate the rights of our citizens in unthinkable ways,” Paxton said in a statement. “Our investigation revealed that General Motors has engaged in egregious business practices that violated Texans’ privacy and broke the law. We will hold them accountable.”
This isn't the first time Texas has stood up for its drivers. In 2019 Governor Greg Abbott signed a bill to ban red-light cameras, two years after KXAN-NBC in Austin, Texas, reported that almost all cities with red-light cameras had illegally issued traffic tickets.
Their investigation also found that drivers paid the city of Austin over $7 million in fines since the cameras were installed, and cities in Texas made over $500 million from the cameras since 2007.
Oracle chairman and chief technology officer Larry Ellison, the world's second-richest man, recently revealed how his company could furnish authorities with the technological means to better surveil the populace and socially engineer those involuntarily living their lives on camera.
"Citizens will be on their best behavior because we're constantly recording and reporting everything that is going on," Ellison said last week at the database and cloud computing company's financial analyst meeting. "It's AI that's looking at the cameras."
After discussing broadening and implementing surveillance systems in the health and education sectors, Ellison raised the matter of law enforcement applications and police body cameras.
'Truth is we don't really turn it off.'
"We completely redesigned body cameras," said the billionaire. "The camera's always on. You don't turn it on and off."
Whether an officer is having lunch with friends or in the lavatory, Oracle will never shut its eyes.
Ellison noted, for example, that if a police officer wants a moment of relative privacy so that he can go to the washroom, he must notify Oracle.
"We'll turn it off. Truth is, we don't really turn it off. What we do is we record it so no one can see it," said Ellison. "No one can get into that recording without a court order. You get the privacy you requested ... but if you get a court order, we will judge — I want to look at that, this so-called bathroom break."
"We transmit the video back to headquarters," continued the Oracle CTO, "and AI is constantly monitoring the video."
If AI spots behavior it has been trained to regard as suspicious, then it will flag it and issue an alert to the relevant authorities.
By constructing what is effectively a high-tech panopticon, Ellison indicated that police officers and citizens alike would be more inclined to behave as convention and law dictated they should "because we're constantly recording — watching and recording — everything that's going on."
Ellison indicated that this system of digital eyes on cars, drones, and humans amounts to "supervision."
The tech magnate framed these applications as benign — as ways to curb police brutality. However, Oracle has recently given cause to suspect that there is potential for abuse.
In July, Oracle agreed to pay $115 million to settle a lawsuit in which the company was accused of running roughshod over people's privacy by collecting their data and selling it to third parties, reported Reuters.
According to the plaintiffs, Oracle created unauthorized "digital dossiers" for hundreds of millions of people, which were then allegedly sold to marketers and other organizations.
Critics responding online to Ellison's remarks also expressed concerns over how such applications will all but guarantee a communist Chinese-style surveillance state in the West — something that's already under way in the U.K., one of the most surveilled countries on the planet.
'There isn't much not being watched by somebody.'
The U.K.'s former Home Office biometrics and surveillance commissioner Fraser Sampson told the Guardian before ending his term last year that AI was supercharging Britain's public-private "omni-surveillance" society.
"There was a lawyer back in 2010 who used the expression 'omni-surveillance,' and I think, yes, we are in that. There isn't much not being watched by somebody. The thing is, almost all of it's been watched by people on private devices. And they now share it, whether they want them to or not, with everybody, the police, the state, the foreign government, anybody," said Sampson.
"When all that needed a human to edit it, it wasn't an issue because no one was going to live long enough to get through 10 minutes. But now you can do it with AI editing. All of a sudden you can tap that ocean," added the watchdog.
The U.K. has ostensibly taken a turn for the worse under the current Labor government, which is working to greatly expand the use of live facial recognition technology.
While some have taken to keyboards to bemoan the growth of the Western surveillance state, so-called Blade Runner activists have, in recent years, taken to chopping down public and private cameras, including low-emission cameras.
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America was founded on liberty and rights, but Big Tech and Big Government keep trying to take them away.
The latest example comes from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, whose National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence is currently working to develop wide-reaching digital IDs. More specifically, NIST is collaborating with tech companies and banks to link mobile driver’s licenses with people’s finances. The broader purpose is to work toward developing a digital ID for everyone that centralizes all their personal information, supposedly to boost cybersecurity and provide more convenience for financial transactions.
The more digital ID is developed in America, the more alternatives to digital ID will become rarer, more complex to use, and, eventually, outlawed or severely restricted.
Working with various associations, the California DMV, the Department of Homeland Security, Microsoft, iLabs, MATTR, OpenID Foundation, and various large financial institutions, including Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase, NIST has now contracted various digital identity specialist companies to implement the project.
According to NIST digital identity program lead Ryan Galluzzo, NIST’s advances are about allowing people to present ID in the most convenient and secure way possible while still allowing them to rely on traditional physical ID.
“We want to open up the use of modern digital pathways while still allowing for physical and manual methods whenever they may be necessary.”
By linking banking information with mobile driver's licenses, NIST will move one step forward to implementing a central digital ID that contains people’s private information. NIST promises that this new digital ID acceleration “will address ‘Know Your Customer/Customer Identification Program Onboarding and Access’ which will demonstrate the use of an mDL and/or Verifiable Credentials (VC) for establishing and accessing an online financial account.”
The project will move forward in three main steps. According to NIST, it will aim to standardize and promote “digital ID standards” while still respecting and maximizing “privacy and usability.” This digital ID project is currently in the build phase.
With technology that now analyzes how people walk and breathe and their irises, to identify them beyond a shadow of a doubt, and phones and GPS systems geolocating individuals at almost every moment of the day, digital ID is ripe for abuse by an authoritarian government or malicious actors. The easier it becomes for a citizen’s important data to be accessed by law enforcement, government, or bad actors, the closer we get to a digital panopticon in which citizens are constantly tracked and subject to potential suspicion while having no recourse to alternative methods of payment or identity.
This move forward linking mobile driver's licenses with banking is bigger news than it appears on the surface. While it can be easily justified and explained as necessary, innovative, and forward-thinking, the more digital ID is developed in America, the more alternatives to digital ID will become rarer, more complex to use, and, eventually, outlawed or severely restricted. What starts as an incentive or benefit all too often becomes a mandate and a requirement down the road. NIST’s moves to build up a more powerful and connected digital ID will inevitably lead to Americans becoming less free, regardless of how these policies are framed or how much of a positive spin they are given.
Former Democratic Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard recently exposed that she had been put on the TSA’s “Quiet Skies” watchlist, which is often used for tracking potential domestic terrorists.
And after endorsing former President Trump — she’s still on the watchlist.
“I’m the most recent target for the Kamala Harris administration. For criticizing Kamala Harris, they put me on a secret domestic terror watch list, which I’m told is still operational and still going on,” Gabbard tells Glenn Beck.
But that’s not her only concern with the current and potentially future administration.
“On the issue of war and peace, which doesn’t get talked about often enough in these presidential elections, but really is core to our ability to live in a free and peaceful and prosperous society. Kamala Harris and Joe Biden have gotten us embroiled in multiple wars in different parts of the world,” Gabbard explains.
“It is directly because of their foreign policy that we sit here one spark away from nuclear war,” she continues, while Glenn notes that Kamala’s DNC speech really did make her sound like a warmonger.
“I was shocked, it was almost like part of her acceptance speech at the convention was written by John Bolton. I mean she sounded like an absolute hawk, like Lindsey Graham, when it comes to war,” Glenn says.
“It didn’t surprise me,” Gabbard explains. “It was just another proof point showing that Joe Biden hasn’t been calling the shots and making decisions over the last three and a half years. If Kamala Harris is elected president, neither will she.”
“She is the latest figurehead for the military industrial complex, the deep state, national security state, all of those who derive the mainstream propaganda media, those who derive power or profit from us being in a constant state of war, wrote those talking points.”
“And that script was fed into that teleprompter, and Kamala Harris declared it loud and proud,” Gabbard continues, adding, “So we know exactly who she’ll be working for.”
To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
The United Kingdom has resurrected a COVID-era measure to censor law-abiding citizens — which includes threatening them with jail time if they disobey.
One 55-year-old woman was arrested over a post because it contained inaccurate information about the identity of the suspect accused of the killings of three young girls in Southport.
Peter Gietl, the managing editor for Blaze Media’s Return, is horrified.
“This story has me riled up. I used to live in London; I really love England,” he tells Jill Savage and Matthew Peterson of "Blaze News Tonight." “Basically, what we’re seeing is it didn’t take long for the new Labour government to find an excuse to bring out draconian measures on dissent and free speech.”
“Where this is going is really concerning,” he continues, adding, “and it’s all happening very quickly.”
And the Crown Prosecution Service of England couldn’t have made it more obvious how concerning this really is.
A video posted to its social media contained the statement: “You can be PROSECUTED for posting material online which incites VIOLENCE or HATRED. You can also be PROSECUTED for sharing this material. Your online actions can have consequences.”
“These images you’re seeing on the screen, which you know the government is putting out, it’s Orwellian,” Peterson comments, noting that another post from gov.uk said, “Think before you post.”
“Well, we shouldn’t forget, Matt, that Winston Smith, '1984,' did take place in England. So there always has been this somewhat fascist streak,” Gietl says.
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Independent reporter Matt Orfalea has blown the lid wide open on the manipulation of American voters by the Biden-Harris campaign during the 2020 election.
Orfalea discovered a Zoom meeting from right after the election in which the Biden-Harris team reveal "how they manipulated voters to think Biden’s mental decline was ‘disinformation.’”
In the call, it was revealed that the Democratic National Committee created a program to protect, track, and have social media platforms flag misinformation narratives — which included conversation online about corruption.
The team had bragged that this campaign, which involved Big Tech collusion and the “targeting” of internet users in real time, resulted in 200,000 votes for Biden.
“This is your federal government and your Democratic National Committee putting a program together to target you,” Glenn Beck says, outraged.
Rob Flaherty, who was the 2020 Biden-Harris campaign digital director, called the program “one of the smartest things orchestrated by the Democratic Party.”
Then, Biden for President's director of rapid response, who later became the Biden administration’s White House deputy director of digital strategy, said on the same Zoom call that “there was a massive amount of disinformation relating to Biden’s mental fortitude.”
“She explained that people were making posts related to topics deemed disinformation, and they were targeted in real time online, based on their online behavioral cues, building out personas based on the kind of content that you were consuming and were searching for, and the kind of websites you were visiting,” Glenn explains.
“They are monitoring every keystroke you make. If you say something out of line with what the state wants you to say — this is KGB stuff,” he continues.
One of the most infuriating aspects of this entire campaign is that those who saw through it were all called conspiracy theorists.
“Remember how we were all told that it is a conspiracy theory?” Glenn asks. “As they’re telling us that they have to police us for mis-, dis-, and mal-information, they told us that he was fine, that he was top of his game.”
Then after his disastrous debate, it became impossible to keep up the charade.
“All of a sudden, it was okay to question his mental acuity, and so they did, to the point where they operated a coup on him,” he adds.
To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
Ford, once an icon of American innovation, now wants to take the lead on another emerging and upcoming trend — mass surveillance.
In January 2023, Ford filed a patent application for a new technology that would allow it to track the driving behavior of vehicles on the road and report speeding violations to law enforcement. Vehicles would have cameras that activate if they detect speeding vehicles nearby and capture high-quality images of the offending vehicle and its identifying features, such as license plates or accessories attached to the offending car. Then, those images and GPS data would be shared with local law enforcement to decide whether to initiate a chase.
Many believe that these cameras violate drivers’ privacy. But it shouldn’t come as a surprise that corporations and governments worldwide already have methods to spy on their citizens. Governments have been found to hack into private individuals’ phones through software provided by corporations, and the NSA admits to purchasing Americans’ sensitive data.
Local law enforcement has always partnered with corporations to surveil the public by installing cameras to detect speeding and running red lights. These cameras have come under fire for their questionable legality and efficacy, spurring some states to ban them.
Car makers already have a habit of violating drivers’ privacy. A New York Times reporter found that General Motors 'tricked millions of drivers into being spied on' by tracking detailed driving data and adjusting insurance rates accordingly; those with supposedly poor driving behavior would see their rates increase.
In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill to ban red-light cameras in 2019, two years after KXAN, an Austin-based NBC affiliate, reported that almost all cities with red-light cameras had illegally issued traffic tickets. Their investigation also found that drivers paid the city of Austin over $7 million in fines since the cameras were installed, and cities in Texas made over $500 million from the cameras since 2007.
For now, Ford’s new camera idea remains a patent application, so it's not certain whether we’ll see F-150s snitching on you for going five mph over the limit, even if Ford is granted the patent. But if it does become reality, we’ll probably see F-150s snitching on you for no reason at all. After all, if red-light cameras are faulty, why won’t Ford’s camera be?
Car makers already have a habit of violating drivers’ privacy. A New York Times reporter found that General Motors “tricked millions of drivers into being spied on” by tracking detailed driving data and adjusting insurance rates accordingly; those with supposedly poor driving behavior would see their rates increase.
As a result, lawmakers urged the Federal Trade Commission to crack down on car makers’ privacy violations. In a letter to the FTC, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) accused GM, Honda, and Hyundai of spying on drivers and selling data for pennies. In the letter, they claim that Honda sold data from 97,000 cars, at a rate of 26 cents per car, to Verisk, a data analytics provider for insurance companies, between 2020 and 2024. Between 2019 and 2024, Hyundai sold data from 1.7 million vehicles, at a rate of 61 cents per car, to Verisk.
“The FTC should hold accountable the automakers, which shared their customers’ data with data brokers without obtaining informed consent, as well as the data brokers, which resold data that had not been obtained in a lawful manner,” the two senators urged.
Car makers aren’t the only ones scheming to snitch on drivers, though. Popular apps like Life360, a location-sharing app popular for families with teens, are accused of selling families’ data to insurance companies. Despite being advertised as an app that helps improve families’ safety, it violates families’ privacy. In 2021, one former X-mode employee claimed, “Life360 had the ‘most valuable offerings due to the sheer volume and precision’ compared to other sources of data,” according to the Verge.
MyRadar, a weather forecast app, and GasBuddy, which finds the cheapest gas stations, are also accused of violating privacy for profit.
Some insurance companies are finding ways to gather driving data without buying it from someone else. Progressive, for example, has a product called the Progressive Snapshot. Drivers voluntarily attach the device to their vehicles, allowing Progressive to track their driving behavior. Each time the device detects a hard brake, it will beep, encouraging drivers to alter their behavior on the road.
Progressive claims that safe drivers will be rewarded with discounts, but it's uncertain whether it will benefit most drivers. People who work in big cities must deal with bumper-to-bumper traffic during rush hour, causing them to brake harder or unexpectedly. Even though frequent hard braking is out of their control, they may see their insurance rates increase.
Fortunately, Progressive Snapshot is a voluntary program. However, insurance companies already have ways to track driving behavior without alerting their customers. In an era that feels eerily similar to Orwell’s "1984," it's only a matter of time until all Americans realize they’re being spied on.
Warhawk and former National Security Adviser John Bolton asked the deep state on Wednesday to deep-six former Hawaii Democrat Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and former Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz because their nominations to President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet threaten the establishment. Trump tapped Gaetz to serve as attorney general and Gabbard to serve as director of […]
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