Auto Industry TV Ads Claim Right to Repair Benefits 'Sexual Predators'

A camera slowly stalks a woman walking to her SUV in a desolate, empty parking garage. “If question 1 passes in Massachusetts, anyone could access the most personal data stored in your vehicle,” a narrator says. “Domestic violence advocates say a sexual predator could use the data to stalk their victims. Pinpoint exactly where you are. Whether you are alone …” The woman’s keys jingle as she approaches her car. The camera gets closer. The woman whips her head around. The stalker has found her. The screen flashes to black. “Vote NO on 1,” the narrator says.

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents nearly every major auto manufacturer in the United States, is funding this and a series of other TV ads like it to scare Massachusetts residents into voting against a ballot measure that would expand the state’s already existing right to repair law to ensure that you can continue to get your car fixed by anyone you want. The ads heavily imply—and at times state outright—that the legislation would somehow lead women to be stalked and sexually assaulted, a charge that cybersecurity experts say has no grounding in reality. Instead, the auto industry wants to ensure that when your car breaks, you have to take it to a manufacturer “authorized” mechanic or the dealer itself.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qj4a ... -predators


Take it to an expensive shop, get screwed. Try to fix it yourself, get raped.

Interesting ad companies. Do they also do Tobacco ads?

Rio Tinto CEO resigns after destruction of 46,000-year-old sacred Indigenous site

Hong Kong (CNN Business) — Rio Tinto (RIO) CEO Jean-Sébastien Jacques has resigned as the mining giant continues to face pressure from investors for blowing up a 46,000-year-old sacred Indigenous site in Australia to expand an iron ore mine.

... "What happened at Juukan was wrong," Rio Tinto chairman Simon Thompson said in a statement, referring to the destruction of two rock shelters in Western Australia that contained artifacts indicating tens of thousands of years of continuous human occupation.

"We are determined to ensure that the destruction of a heritage site of such exceptional archaeological and cultural significance never occurs again at a Rio Tinto operation," Thompson added.
The three executives will still receive some pay as part of the terms of their contracts, including long-term incentive rewards. They have already been penalized a combined £3.8 million (roughly $5 million) in cut bonuses.

The destruction of the Juukan Gorge caves went ahead on May 24 despite a seven-year battle by the local custodians of the land, the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people, to protect the site. Rio Tinto apologized in June.


In a report published last month, the company said that it failed to meet some of its own standards "in relation to the responsible management and protection of cultural heritage." But it didn't fire any executives — a decision that drew criticism from investor groups that accused the company of failing to take full responsibility for the demolition of the caves. The caves had significant archeological value and deep cultural meaning for Aboriginal people.