OpenAI KYC (age verification) provider accused of sharing users’ data with the feds
This service is also used by Discord
Three hacktivists tried to find a workaround to Discord’s age-verification software. Instead, they found its frontend exposed to the open in
3 security researchers were looking into persona in order to bypass discords age verification
They found a Persona frontend exposed to the open internet on a US government authorized server
“In 2,456 publicly accessible files, the code revealed the extensive surveillance Persona software performs on its users, bundled in an interface that pairs facial recognition with financial reporting”
If these things are true, than persona is
(Quote from the article)
Persons is comparing your face “to watchlist photos using facial recognition, screens you against 14 categories of adverse media from mentions of terrorism to espionage,
and tags reports with codenames from active intelligence programs consisting of public-private partnerships to combat online child exploitative material, cannabis trafficking, fentanyl trafficking, romance fraud, money laundering, and illegal wildlife trade.”
269 distinct checks are made, including government databases and the internet
You get scored for how similar you to a politically exposed persons (PEPs)
“IP addresses, browser fingerprints, device fingerprints, government ID numbers, phone numbers, names, faces, and even selfie backgrounds are analyzed and retained for up to three years.”
The software is flagging your face for similarities between certain people, but since you can bypass it so easily, the question of how reliable this flagging system is, remains a big and dangerous question
It can also run finical checks
“including running checks on sanctions lists, running checks on cryptocurrency activity via the blockchain analysis firms Chainalysis and TRM Labs, and an interface to file suspicious activity reports (SARs) directly with US and Canadian federal agencies.”
Persona is used by companies like Roblox and ChatGPT as well, with many more as well
Nothing has been fully confirmed just yet, but it seems to be based on some truth
Luiz Henrique de Castro, known as one of the Suzano school sħōōtērs. he was responsible for 1 death in the Suzano school āttāck.
This 3x4 photo was probably taken in 2011 when Luiz was 18 years old, as the issuance date of his ID (RG) is from that year.
Luiz got his National Driver's License (CNH) in 2015 at age 22; his category was B. (The second pic)
Basic Information:
Luiz Henrique was born on March 16, 1993, in Suzano- São Paulo.
He was 1.80m (about 5'11") tall, brown eyes, and wore size 42 or 44 (police found receipts for the purchase of combat boots with those sizes).
Pics of him I could find:
Family Background & Personality:
He was the youngest of 3 brothers, his family was not dysfunctional and his parents and brothers treated him well. According to a neighbor who lives between the properties of Luiz and Guilherme's houses, Luiz was very protected by his parents, and they did everything for him.
Luiz was described by family and neighbors as a quiet person most of the time, spoke little, treated people with respect, and was shy. At family parties, he usually stayed quietly in the corner by himself.
he had anger and depression issues, he rarely left the house, just going out to play football, he was the type of player who got furious when he lost, He was a very unpredictable guy, sometimes he was calm and shy and sometimes he was having a fit of rage.
The father describes Luiz as someone who had the mentality of about a 16-year-old; he was naive and, according to him, his son was influenced by Guilherme to participate in the planning and execution of the attack on Raul Brasil school. For the Guilherme Vitor Grillo de Oliveira for his participation as the intellectual mentor of the massacre, Luiz was a "weak-minded" person who did what people wanted.
It is unknown whether Luiz ever had any romantic relationship in his life; people close to him report that he was never seen with girls, nor ever appeared before the family with one. He was extremely shy and reserved, and it is said that he would even turn down advances from girls. when girls tried to have a relationship with him he couldn't go through with it.
An interview of luizs father:
his parents were totally shocked to hear the news. He was the kind of person that even though he had violent outbursts of anger, even attacking people, no one would expect him to do that.
Here’s the translation · 🔗▼
Reddit - Please wait for verification
Educational Background:
There is no record of Luiz being bullied by students although he didn't get along with the teachers. He was a student who got low grades, having failed the eighth grade 3 times.
Luiz was an average student in terms of grades and studied at a few different schools:
From 2000 to 2003 at E.E. Antonio Rodrigues de Almeida
From 2004 to 2007 at E.E. Professor Raul Brasil
In 2008 at E.E. Profª Leda Fernandes Lopes
In 2009 at E.E. Lucy Franco Kowalski
He finished his studies up to completing High School through EJA (Youth and Adult Education, formerly known as supletivo) at E.E. Batista Renzi between 2011 and 2012.
Luiz worked with his father and was the main source of money to buy the equipment for the shøøting.They spent more than R$7,000 in total, Luiz also used money from his bank savings.
Luiz’s Work Experience:
Luiz got his first job in life at age 24/25. He had been working for a year at a construction company that provides services to the city of São Paulo. It is located in Guaianases, east side of the state capital. The job was formal, with a signed work card.
Luiz was a gardening assistant, worked alongside his father, and earned about R$1,500 per month.
According to his father, Luiz saved part of his money in the bank and used the rest for himself. The father reported that he told Luiz he didn't want a penny of his salary.
Among the tasks that Luiz and his father performed were removing debris, tree branches, weeding, and other general services. According to his uncle, the job was arranged for him. Luiz probably did not go through any selection process to enter the company but was hired through a referral.
Luiz was wearing his work uniform.
Luiz's social media :
Luiz's Facebook profile still exists but is private, He was quite a fan of weapons and Russia, and became interested in school attacks in 2011, after the attack on the Realengo school in Rio de Janeiro.
He was a fan of 80's rock and metal (especially Iron Maiden) and liked shooting games like Call of Duty.
And his twt:
129 followers · 0 following. Joined Jun 2017. See the latest conversations with @LZHRDC
Together With Guilherme Taucci:
According to a neighbor and friend, Luiz liked soccer and going out to ride his bicycle. Luiz used to go to Guilherme's house, and Guilherme to his. They liked to sit from around 5 PM onward under the tree in front of Luiz's house and chat normally. The uncle said they never whispered; they talked about normal subjects like soccer or something.
Luiz used to go to the lan house usually together with Guilherme. There, they used to play Counter Strike on PC and on the store's XBOX, Call of Dusty and Mortal Kombat.
They were active on Dogolachan, a Brazilian far-right extremist forum. Luiz went by the username “luhkrcher666” while Guilherme used “1guY-55chaN” They used the forum to seek weapons and support, and posted content related to their plans.
On March 7, 2019, Luiz and Guilherme paid for parking at the News Park lot. Luiz rented the white Chevrolet Onix and registered it at the News Park parking lot.
In one of his last conversations with Guilherme via cell phone, he showed concern about a scratch on the car's side mirror when it was to be returned to the rental company.
Guilherme replied: "When the car is recovered, we'll already be dead."
Final Timeline Before the Āttāck:
On Monday of the attack week, Luiz's mother took him to the doctor because he complained of the flu. Luiz took a Benzetacil injection that day and went to work. He worked normally on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, the day of the attack, he woke up as usual and left with his father around 5 AM for the Suzano station. Upon arriving there, he complained to his father about feeling unwell. The father told him to go back home and ask his mother to give him medicine. Luiz said he would go back.
His father said he called home, asked his wife if Luiz had returned, and she answered no. One of Luiz's brothers called him, and he answered but did not say where he was. That was the last time any family member had contact with Luiz before the attack.
According to his father, Luiz left nothing as a farewell and spent his last days acting normally.
Around 7:33 AM, Luiz and Guilherme got in the car and drove around the area, passing in front of Raul Brasil 3 times until they stopped at the school. During this time before the attack, Luiz and Guilherme allegedly went to the house of a neighbor who was supposedly Luiz's enemy to kill him. Luiz supposedly called the 25-year-old electrician, but he didn't answer.
The electrician testified to police that he and Luiz had a falling out after he had broken up a fight between Luiz and his own father.He had ended up assaulting Luiz during the episode.
He and Guilherme then went to the store owned by Guilherme's uncle, Jorge Antônio de Moraes, where Guilherme shot his uncle, who died in the hospital.
then they went into the school and we all know what happened next.
The way Luiz acted during the attack was quite brutal, he didn't care about hurting people with bladed weapons and slowly taking their lives, a survivor says that when attacked by him, she saw nothing but hate.
Some say they planned to kill themselves, but Luiz didn't want to die. Their last words were Luiz saying the police had arrived and they should turn themselves in. Taucci shot Luiz in the back.
We don't know if Luiz wanted to die or not, but in the end, Taucci kiłłed him.
I am sure everyone who is reading this has seen the new Discord announcement about age-verification, but if you haven’t or if you didn’t read the entire thing all the way through because the modern internet has wrecked your attention span as badly as it has mine, here it is.
I am seeing a lot of people stating that they don’t trust Discord with their personal information, and I think a lot of people in my circles are expecting me to agree with them.
They’re wrong: you do trust Discord with your personal information. Discord messages are not encrypted. They are kept forever, on Discord servers indefinitely. Every time you send a photo or a document in Discord, you are trusting Discord with your personal information. Every time you message someone your birthday, or your address, or your paypal/venmo— that’s now in Discord until you delete it from your message history, which from my experience, people don’t.
This is why, in the announcement, Discord has announced this:
Additionally, Discord will implement its age inference model, a new system that runs in the background to help determine whether an account belongs to an adult, without always requiring users to verify their age.
Discord knows it can verify a lot of users without any actual verification, and it’s announcing as much right in the text of the post.
For the people who will need to do a selfie, Discord plans to keep that verification on-device, and since it’s already implemented the selfie-verification in Australia, we would have heard about it if it was clearly offloading the work: remember, Discord is mainstream *now* but its core group is the kind of nerd who would deploy their own TeamSpeak 3 server to play DotA. The people who care about this stuff and have the knowledge to check it are sitting on the service right now, ready to sniff ports and launch Discord in Airplane Mode to run the scan. If you’re tagged for verification, you can always wait a week or two before doing it to see if anything comes out.
Now, for the elephant in the room, the vendor breach that Discord experienced back in September:
Discord no longer uses that vendor; they fired them immediately after the breach, disclosed the breach immediately, and contacted all affected users immediately. Anyone who has ever checked out haveibeenpwned knows how freaking rare that all actually is. The new vendor is the same vendor Snap and Meta are using for the same service, which might be reassuring or might just be a sign of our bleakly narrowing internet world, but either way, that vendor may very well already have your data if you have ever verified your age on FB, IG, WhatsApp, Threads, Oculus, or Snapchat. Sending your ID to them is up to you if you don’t pass the silent check or the selfie check, and I’m not going to offer advice either way, but again, they do ID verification for *Meta*, the company with shadow profiles on every human on earth, even the tribesmen of North Sentinel Island, probably.
Now, for my conclusion:
I moderate several age-gated spaces in Discord. I have those spaces age-gated for a reason: I don’t enjoy the idea of strangers’ children accessing my adult content. Discord has decided that instead of mods of each individual space moderating access to adult content, they are going to do it for me.
I’m mostly okay with that. The same way I’m mostly okay with Discord knowing the contents of every message I have ever sent my sister, my mom, my fandom BFF, strangers, my coworkers, and my neighbors. I understand if other people are not okay with this, but I need everyone who cares about my opinion to know: Discord already has your personal information.
After suffering from a severe meltdown, I have finally been able to calm down a little and figure some things out. I am still not at a point where I am able to finish my ticket application process but I've found a promising solution for myself and if all goes according to plan, it will work out in a couple of days *fingers crossed*.
With the help of some in-depth research and the advice of several very helpful people, I've ruled out certain options that wouldn't work for me, cleared up some misconceptions and gathered enough information to write something that kinda resembles a tutorial for us overseas fans although I would like to remind everyone that my method hasn't been properly tested yet.
What is Lawson e-Ticket?
Some background info. The two biggest traditional ticketing services in Japan are "e+" and "Lawson Ticket". By now, everyone should be familiar with these two names because I've talked about them a lot in my posts. These services do have huge hurdles for overseas fans since they require registration via SMS verification from a Japanese number and they only accept Japanese payment methods. However, with some private (friend/acquaintance) or professional assistance (proxy company) in Japan, overseas fans have always been able to overcome these hurdles without too many issues so they could get tickets for concerts. Once someone has handled the registration, ticket lottery application, payment and issuing, you can simply receive the paper ticket and be done with it.
Now what is so different about Lawson e-Ticket? Well, Lawson Ticket is gradually moving into a digital direction like so many other companies these days. Their e-ticketing system was introduced many years ago and was always offered as an alternative, meaning that for event tickets, users were able to choose to receive an electronic ticket via the smartphone app or a physical paper ticket that could be printed at a Lawson store. For more recent events however, they have decided to remove that choice and only offer e-tickets and that's where overseas fans will run into a lot of trouble!! Every single person who wants to enter the venue will need a valid e-ticket. On their own verified app. On their own smartphone. With their own SIM card (unique phone number). Unfortunately, the Lawson e-ticket app is not foreigner-friendly at all. This makes ticket issuing, distributing and selling very difficult, if not impossible. More details below...
What do I need to get Kalafina FC e-tickets?
Botanical Land / NikuChoco Membership
Lawson Ticket (WEB) account incl. SMS verification for ticket lottery application + VPN + mobile device.
Japanese SIM card with phone number and DATA/VOICE plan
Lawson e-Ticket (APP) account incl. SMS verification for ticket issuing.
A proxy or acquaintance in Japan to help with certain steps.
Re 1) You can still become a FC member in the next few days in case you are very desperate to take part in the FC lotteries. I'd advice you to use this opportunity since the venues don't have a huge capacity (around 2-3k) so tickets might be in very short supply once the FC lotteries are over. But at the same time, it's important to remember that even if you do take part in the FC lotteries, there's never a guarantee that you will win everything you applied for but chances are generally higher compared to regular lotteries and sales. Check out my detailed post on Japanese Ticket Lottery Odds HERE. There's always the possibility to hire a proxy service like SOSJapan to handle the FC registration (and following steps) for you.
Re 2) I had this misconception that I would only be able to apply for the ticket lottery via the app (they explain it very badly on the ticket site). However, turns out the app is really just for issuing/displaying/transferring purposes, you cannot actually do any other stuff through the app so we can worry about the app verification in a later step. My first mistake was to attempt the application on my PC which completely threw me off. Don't do that! It won't work! You'll just see rubbish and won't be able to click on the buttons to finish the application. Use your mobile device instead of a PC to go to the respective fan club site, log in, then click the link for the ticket application which will forward you to the Lawson site. My second mistake was not using VPN before. Be sure to have a reliable VPN service like Surfshark at hand!! It should be turned on during this entire process. While being on your phone and using VPN, everything will be displayed correctly on the Lawson site so you can click through the application process. At one point you will be asked to log into your Lawson account, this is where the traditional WEB account comes into play. I've had one for years so that isn't an issue for me but I realise it might be an issue for others. The website registration also requires an SMS verification so that's a big hurdle. Not as big as for the app though since you can actually choose any "available" Japanese number to use for this step. This gives you a few more options than the app (which will automatically pick the number of the SIM in your device). This also allows a proxy service to handle all of this for you. If you have used a proxy service to get tickets from Lawson in the past, they should have an account in your name already. If not, you should ask them to handle both the FC registration as well as the Lawson ticket application for you. Before the application process can be finished, you also need to enter a mobile phone number which will later be used to verify the ticket app but more on that in Step 3.
Re 3) Now this is the tricky part. As mentioned in Step 2, you don't actually need to verify your app during the ticket application process but you will eventually need to verify it to use/display your ticket on your phone otherwise you will not be able to enter the concert venue. For this, a Japanese SIM card is required. The SIM will have to be in your device and it needs to have a working DATA and VOICE plan (pretty sure I read somewhere that mobile data needs to be turned on if you want to receive the Lawson SMS so you can't go for a light plan with just VOICE/SMS). You will also have to be in Japan during this verification process in order to receive the domestic SMS from Lawson e-ticket. Important!! While you will not need to physically have the SIM with you during the ticket application process, you should be aware that you still need to know the phone number of that SIM for the application and payment process because the number you applied with needs to match the number you verify your app with or else you won't be able to issue the tickets in the app. None of the SIM cards that were recommended to me would have arrived in time in my country to get access to that phone number. Some of the suggested SIM cards (e.g. Rakuten SIM) are even blocked on the Lawson app so that would have been a very bad idea. Right now, I believe that Mobal Sim is probably the best and most reliable option for overseas fans because they offer long-term plans without having to commit to a contract. But you'll have to get someone in Japan to buy/receive the SIM for you within the next few days because shipping overseas will take way too long. This is what I have chosen to do. An acquaintance in Japan has ordered the SIM for me and it will be shipped to his home in the next couple of days. As soon as he has it, he'll hopefully be able to send me the number of the SIM which I can then use to complete my applications through the Lawson WEB service. Technically, this is something a proxy service could also handle for you? They can buy the SIM for you, handle the application process on Lawson WEB and eventually send you the SIM for the app verification. But I am not sure if they actually do this. You would have to ask them.
Re 4) Eventually I will have to get the SIM from my acquaintance (which will either be in December or January - depending on what I decide to do; Or I'll just ask him to ship it to my home address in advance). Once I have the SIM in my possession and I get myself to Japan, I can put the SIM in one of my old smartphones and download the Lawson e-Ticket app on that phone to finally complete the verification process (please note that the app is only available in Japanese app stores so you will need an additional Japanese Apple ID etc). I am making sure to mention that it should be a separate device from your regular one with your local SIM because you don't want to risk having to do the SMS verification again and again. If you change your device, reinstall the app, deauthorise the app, or transfer (swap) your SIM card after having issued a specific ticket to your app, your ticket will automatically be invalidated and that's definitely not something we want to happen. Please also be aware that you will probably be stuck with that mobile plan for a while because there's no way of knowing if you'll have to make another verification at some point. With apps these days, you never know.
Re 5) Without some form of help in Japan, all of this is probably impossible. This can be a proxy service or a kind person, it's up to you what works best in your case. I got Step 1 done all by myself (using TENSO) and Step 2 done basically by myself but with a little assistance from a friend in Japan many years ago. I will still need someone to handle the payment for the tickets as well as the whole SIM card thing for me but as I've mentioned, I've arranged something with an acquaintance and hopefully, everything will work out smoothly.
You can skip Steps 1 and 2 if you can find a kind FC member who is willing to apply for an extra "companion" ticket on your behalf which they can then "distribute" to you. (The lottery allows up to 2 tickets per person per performance which is less than last time. Not sure how many people will risk applying for more tickets than necessary since it could reduce their chance of winning). The Hikaru X lottery is also still happening and it doesn't require a FC membership so there will be more people you can ask to apply for an extra ticket on your behalf. There is a possibility that this lottery won't be e-ticket exclusive but we won't know for sure until the application period starts. Last but not least, there will be a general sale which may or may not happen exclusively via Lawson e-ticket or with an option to print physical tickets (general sales usually have a paper ticket option but not always). Again, you can ask someone to buy an extra ticket on your behalf. At any rate, it's very important to remember that if it's an e-ticket, you will eventually have to get it transferred to your own app so Steps 3 and 4 are a MUST DO!! But you won't need the SIM card right away since you are skipping the application step.
Some personal notes: Right now this is all new territory for me. I am anxious as hell and don't really know what to do next. I think you can tell by the way this is written that my mind is all over the place. I am literally going crazy. I will have to start planning my Japan trip(s) very soon. Originally I was just going to Wakana's concert on Dec 18 and be done with it. But then Keiko announced her birthday event and I wanted to go on a longer winter trip so I could attend both. Initially I was excited to go but then I found out that this was Lawson e-ticket exclusive so I immediately lost all hope. Soon after, the Kala-lives were announced and I completely abandoned the idea of travelling to Japan in December because two months in a row would just way too much, my main priority was just to be there in January. Sadly, it turned out that this was e-ticket exclusive as well so I had my little meltdown. Now that I have possibly found a solution for my problems, I am suddenly confronted with all these options and I don't know what to do. I already have my ticket for Wakana and I would probably want to get the whole app verification thing handled as soon as possible (for my peace of mind) so I am considering making a very short trip to Japan in December and then a slightly longer one in January for the Kala-lives. But now Keiko's birthday event has also become a possible option for me again so of course it's tempting to apply for that as well but dammit, it would have to be a very extended stay in Japan to make it to Keiko's as well as Wakana's event in December but that's quite unreasonable, even for a crazy person like myself. I could have maybe justified it if I didn't have the Kala-lives coming up in January but now...*sighs* I realise it's stupid to worry too much about all of this as long as I don't even have any tickets. Who knows, I might not even win tickets for the Keiko birthday event and then the decision will be made for me anyway. Sorry you have to listen to my endless rambling, I just need to vent a little. It's just killing me that I currently can't do anything and I have no idea if my plan is gonna work.
You told BetterHelp your deepest secrets. You had no idea who was listening.
$7.8 million. That's the fine.
2 million people. That's how many got sold.
BetterHelp is the most downloaded mental health app on earth. Millions chose it specifically for privacy. No insurance. No paper trail. No employer finding out. It felt safer than the traditional system.
It wasn't. It was the opposite.
Here's the full story.
How it started: a real problem, a clean pitch
Mental health care in America has a gatekeeping problem. Traditional therapy is expensive. Insurance claims create paper trails. Some employers have access to health records. For a lot of people the barrier isn't willingness. It's exposure.
BetterHelp launched in 2013: therapy on your phone. Licensed therapists. Affordable. Private. Nothing leaving the app.
By 2020: 30,000 therapists. 2 million users. $240–$360/month.
People chose BetterHelp because it felt like the safer option.
That's not what was happening.
What they actually did with your data
Here's what nobody talks about: you didn't give BetterHelp permission to share your mental health information with ad platforms.
You answered a questionnaire to match with a therapist. BetterHelp took your answers. Your email. Your IP. The single fact that you, specifically you, had sought mental health counseling.
Then they packaged it and sent it to Facebook, Snapchat, Pinterest, and Criteo.
The purpose: "lookalike audiences." Find users who look like someone who sought therapy. Target them with ads. The therapy platform became an ad machine. The users were the inventory.
BetterHelp's own privacy policy said: "we will never use your information for advertising purposes."
March 2023, the FTC said: you lied.
The scale nobody talks about
2 million people affected.
5.5 million data points sent to Snapchat alone.
Not anonymized trends. Not aggregate statistics.
Individual-level mental health data. Specific people matched to email addresses and IP addresses, delivered to ad networks so the algorithms could profile them.
Facebook now knows you have anxiety. Snapchat knows you sought help for depression. That data doesn't expire when you cancel your subscription. It lives inside ad platforms indefinitely.
You can cancel your account. You cannot unshare what's already sold.
0:03 / 0:31
The loophole that made all of it legal
Here's where it gets dark.
Your traditional therapist is bound by HIPAA. Federal law. They cannot share your records without explicit consent. Built specifically because health data is uniquely sensitive.
BetterHelp is not bound by HIPAA.
Legally, they're a tech company. Licensed therapists operate inside their app, but the data architecture runs under tech company rules. No federal health privacy law. No mandatory protections. Just whatever their privacy policy says. And if they break it, it's an FTC matter. Civil. No one goes to prison.
Talkspace. Calm. Headspace. Woebot. All the same structure.
The gap exists because the law was written before therapy apps existed. Nobody updated it.
And it gets worse.
While you were trusting the platform with your most vulnerable moments, BetterHelp's own terms of service included this:
"We do not represent to verify, and do not guarantee the verification of, the skills, degrees, qualifications, licensure, certification, credentials, competence or background of any Counselor. It is your responsibility to conduct independent verification regarding any Counselor."
Your responsibility. To verify the person you're paying $300 a month to treat your mental health.
You get the aesthetic of therapy. The licensed professionals. The session notes. None of the legal protections, and apparently, none of the vetting either.
Why the fine didn't fix anything
BetterHelp never admitted wrongdoing.
They paid $7.8 million. Kept the same business model. The existing data, already inside ad networks, was untouched by the agreement. A company with hundreds of millions in annual revenue paid less than a week of profit and continued operating as the most downloaded mental health app on earth.
The fine was the cost of doing business. The model was worth more than the penalty.
The irony that should bother everyone
Think about what drove you to a therapy app in the first place.
You wanted privacy. You specifically didn't want your mental health information inside a system that could leak, to employers, to insurers, to anyone. You chose the app because it felt safer than the traditional route.
That instinct, that specific desire for privacy, is what made you valuable to BetterHelp.
The product wasn't your subscription fee. It was the profile: a verified person who sought mental health counseling, matched to an email and device ID, ready to be packaged and sold.
The data they sold was the fact that you wanted help.
You went to BetterHelp for privacy. That's exactly what they sold.
Sharbel on X: "You told BetterHelp your deepest secrets. You had no idea who was listening." / X
any tips for Adult Phone Calls? i've been putting some off and it's going to start costing me money if i don't Get It Together soon, but that pressure just makes it harder!! part of my issue is not knowing what The Script is and part of it is that i find real-time conversation as An Adult really daunting....
Yes!
Okay so a big part of my job is answering phone calls; I am a professional person who answers phone calls from people who would rather not have to call me and who are usually confused and upset by what is happening, which often has the potential to be expensive for them. It's a stressful call to make!
As a professional phone answerer, here are the things that help ME when people call:
Be able to describe the reason that you're calling and what you would like to do about it. This is a simple two-step giving basic background information and your desired outcome so that the person answering the phone can get the process started for you. Examples:
"Hi, I'm a new patient referred by Doctor X; I'd like to make an appointment with Dr. Y."
"Hi, I tried to use my credit card but it was rejected, I would like to know why."
"Hi, I am calling about a late payment; I would like it removed from my record."
"Hi, my sink is leaking and I'd like to schedule a visit for repair."
"Hi, I think my computer has a virus, I'd like to bring it in to get checked out."
Call when you have some time. Don't call when you've only got five minutes to be on the phone, this could take a while and you will be less stressed if you call when you've got at least ten minutes to half an hour where you won't be interrupted. If you are less stressed, the person taking the call will be less stressed, and the whole process will work better.
Have any account/ticket/serial number/referral information handy. Pre-game the call in your head and think about any questions they might need to ask you, then gather the information they might need. Examples:
If you're calling about something like a car or computer hardware, know the basics of make/model/age.
If you're calling a financial institution or service provider, have your account number, verification information, etc. handy
If you're calling a medical office you might want to have a list of medications as well as your insurance card available.
And here's some information that might make CALLERS more comfortable:
We're not mad at you for making the phone call; talking to you is our job. You're not bothering anyone or imposing on anyone's time. Please make the call instead of churning in panic for weeks or months; it's much easier to fix something or resolve an issue if it's addressed early than if you respond to it months down the line.
You can just say right off the bat that you're not sure about the call or that you don't know what's going on and you need help. You might want to say something like "Hi, I'm having an issue and I don't know the next steps to take to get it resolved; could you please help me?"
You can also just say something like "Hi, thanks for helping me; I'd like to let you know that I have a little trouble using the phone and may need to ask questions as we go or think for a second. Thanks for being patient with me, here's my issue."
There is like a zero percent chance that your call is going to be one of the more stressful things they do that day. The call is stressful for you, it is very routine for them, and they are used to everything from getting screamed at to trying to communicate in languages they don't speak to help callers.
Also: if you have not called this place before, feel free to call it with no plans to speak to anyone just to see how the phone system works. It may be an automated phone system and you can call and pre-navigate the options and take notes for when you're ready to call back, and you may be able to find out more of what the system will ask of you. If you get picked up by a person when you're not ready you can simply say "Oh, I'm sorry, I've got another call coming in, I'll call back, thank you" and hang up.
The Script for most Adult-type phone calls is "I am having X problem and I need help fixing it," and then requests for information and someone either providing a resolution for you issue or escalating it to the next step in the process.
It's hard to pre-plan a script without more details because some people you'll call will have a more difficult script than others (canceling cable, for instance, can be a hassle and there are people out there who have written specific instructions on how to do that) and some will be very easy (scheduling an appointment or opening an account can often be very simple!) but regardless of how difficult the specific script is you can ask for help along the way, and the process will be easier if you've done a little information gathering about your own needs/issues/desired resolution.
Good luck! Please don't let the phone scare you too much! People on the other end of the phone are usually quite happy to help.
If it's something really contentious like dealing with a collections agency, look up specific resource guides because that's where it pays to have a very specific idea in mind of how you're going to approach the problem.
Why Did Serveta Never Compete for Miss Universe? A Theory on Serveta's Life and Skwisgaar's Birth
Hello everyone! This theory was born simply from the phrase, "Skwisgaar is technically a nepo baby." I wanted to look into just how Nepo he actually was and if it was ever that serious. While digging, I formed a small theory based on the information I found.
GIST: Serveta is victim of hyper sexualization and grooming in the pageantry world. As a young woman, Serveta competed for Miss Sweden and won. She was given the opportunity to compete for Miss Universe but was later rejected because she became pregnant, something contestants are not allowed to be in order to compete. The birth of Skwisgaar rendered Serveta from living out her dream of becoming Miss Universe, which is the goal for pageantry contestants and would have made Serveta very wealthy and famous. The resentment she felt for Skwisgaar turned into neglect and sexual abuse.
TW: Sexual Abuse of a Minor
As always, longer theory under the cut!
Miss Sweden and Miss Universe
Ingrid Goude, the real 1956 Miss Sweden.
Miss Sweden began in 1949, 7 years before Serveta would compete in 1956. Miss Sweden is the beauty pageant that contestants need to win in Sweden in order to represent Sweden in Miss Universe, a highly sought out pageantry for women all across the globe. Miss Universe is recognized as one of the Big Four Beauty Pageants in the world. (Miss World, Miss Earth, and Miss International)
Rules
In order to compete, there are certain rules the contestants need to follow.
Miss Sweden x
Not allowed to be married (Has been possibly changed)
Not allowed to have kids (Has been possibly changed)
Age: As of September 2023, there is no upper age limit. Previously, the age range was 18 to 28 years old on the date of the national competition.
Citizenship: Each delegate must be a citizen of the country she represents.
Marital Status and Parental Status: Since August 2022, there are no restrictions on marital status or having children. Previously, contestants could not be married, divorced, pregnant, or have parented a child.
Criminal Background: While there is no official rule, most countries would likely not send a delegate with a criminal record.
Citizenship Verification: Delegates must provide documented proof of citizenship in the country they represent. This could involve birth certificates, passports, or other official documents.
Background Checks: While not always explicitly stated, many countries conduct background checks on potential delegates to ensure they don’t have any criminal records or controversies that could tarnish the pageant’s image.
Transgender Participation: The Miss Universe Organization currently does not allow transgender women to compete. This is a complex issue with ongoing discussions, and the policy might evolve in the future.
Winnings for Miss Sweden
In both modern time and in 1956, the rewards for winning Miss Sweden focuses a lot on exposure rather than money. Winning usually meant that contracts for modeling companies would open up, be awarded scholarship money for school, win a small amount of cash, or gain allowances for personal services like hair and clothing. x x x
However, both times, the winner of Miss Sweden (as long as they are not too young to compete) can be sent to compete in Miss Universe, which is the big reason for winning this competition.
Winnings for Miss Universe
In modern times, Miss Universe receives her prestigious title along with x:
A $250,000 cash prize
A $50,000 monthly salary during her reign, as reported by EFE
The opportunity to champion charitable causes and promote international initiatives
All expenses paid for trips in private jets
The reigning queen also lives for a year in the organization's luxurious apartment in New York City.
Will host Miss Universe's upcoming YouTube traveling show
A luxurious watch
From this list (and the fact that I can not find information on what the winner of Miss Universe of 1956 won) the winnings for Miss Universe in 1956 most likely consisted of:
Some kind of high paying salary or cash prize
A crown
A title
A movie contract x
Some expenses paid for pageantry related things
The opportunity to become an advocate for social issues or causes.
All in all, winning Miss Universe ultimately is a much bigger deal with higher cash rewards, more prestige, and plenty of career opportunities after your reign is over. It would make a lot of sense for those who won Miss Sweden to compete in Miss Universe.
Sexual Abuse and Grooming In Pageants
JonBenét Ramsey, victim of sexualization from child pageants
Training
Women do not just compete for titles like Miss Sweden without training. Child Pageants are money making machines. Think of it in the context of a family vlogger harassing their children and/or forcing them to be in videos and participate. Just like how these children have no laws pertaining to their rights as workers, the same goes for child pageantry contestants.
Many young girls go through serious training for pageants, often resulting in these children being restricted from proper sleep, nutrition, and socialization. Remember Toddlers and Tiaras?
This is labor. This is a child. The US has labor laws in place for children but they don't cover pageants, these children are at the mercy of their parents or caregivers.
Womanhood and "Sexiness"
Child pageants are meant to mimic adult women pageants in every way except for age x. This includes the phases (swimsuits, evening dress, interview) and the manner in which they wear their clothes. These children are showcasing themselves as women, and these pageants do not exist without women being sexy. Therefore, these young girls only know that in order to be a woman, they must be sexy x. How do you become sexy? Showing skin, being provocative, being competitive. These young girls are growing up believing they will only become woman once they do these things. This plays into gender conforming behavior as well, as it becomes a subconscious belief that womanhood = femininity, sexuality, appearance, servitude x.
These pageants mimic adult women pageants which many people have criticized for the provocative nature. By having young girls compete in these pageants, which require provocative acceptance, adults are teaching their girls to behave and participates in the behaviors of provocativeness x.
Consequences
In reports of children being sexually abused, research shows that the sexualization of children is a contributing factor to their abuse. Also, if a child is winning constantly in a competition that is based primarily on their looks, they are more likely to develop psychological issues later on in life, such as depression, low self-esteem, and eating disorders. There is also a link to lowered sexual efficacy and contraceptive use later in life. x
The sexualization child in these pageants are directly related to the sexual abuse they face. These people can be judges, parents, assistants, and watchers. Imagine you're a famous child pageant winner, sooner or later, adult fans are going to try and meet you. What's the likelihood of 100% of these people having your best intentions to heart? Low. These children grow up in a provocative and hyper sexualized state, they are going to grow up and be hypersexual in order to achieve womanhood, including a lowered chance of wearing contraceptives.
The psychological problems related to perceptions of the self are long lasting and carry onto adolescence and adulthood due to the hyper fixation on their physical appearance at an early age. The implications regarding the achievement of "perfection" and the perception of body image that have been taught to these them remain engrained in the way they view themselves long after they retire from pageant competitions and transition into adulthood. x
Does this all sound familiar?
"I could never lose the weight after you were born! And look at the veins in my bosom, they're like a roadmap of Stockholm!"
Serveta is a victim of child sexualization and grooming.
Canon Information on Serveta
Past
So what do we know of Serveta? Well, one thing we know is that Serveta is Miss Sweden of 1956. That's basically all we know of her past, other than her promiscuity. There are a few pieces of her present that should also be acknowledged before we continue.
Present
Something I want to highlight are the pictures inside Serveta's home.
These images consist of one thing; herself. In these two frames alone, all of the picture but one are of Serveta. There is one lone picture of Skwisgaar as a child (which we also see during the flashback of this episode by the front door.) but the rest are of Serveta. Take note that most of these photos are also a young Serveta, thought there is arguably some photos of her in her older age. Specially the side profile picture above the lamp and the one long photo above little Skwisgaar.
Out of all the things to decorate her house with, and it's with herself. Her younger self. Serveta is surrounding herself with images of her former self, in a body that she no longer has. She is obsessing over the looks she once possessed during her pageantry years. The same goes for her clothing options.
Serveta wears a long dress that shows cleavage, is form fitting, and has a split up the leg. She is refusing to let go of her past teachings in pageantry of what it means to be a woman, which is to be sexy. Even after all of these years, Serveta is still suffering from her days in the pageantry world.
Theory
Serveta was a young and upcoming pageantry winner. She spent a god chunk of her life in the pageantry world, winning awards and titles, until finally competing in Miss Sweden, which she won. Serveta had every intention of competing for Miss Universe, however, due to her exposure in the pageantry world (Hyper-sexualization, grooming, gender conforming) Serveta had become pregnant. In a Skwisgaar interview, he reveals that his mother liked guitar players. Serveta was attracted toward men who were completely opposite of the world she grew up in. Her promiscuity was manufactured from an unsafe childhood in the pageantry world. Her pregnancy however, disqualified her from competing in Miss Universe (and other high end pageants), thus resulting in all of her work, pain, and world being in shattered. In turn, Serveta relied on the one thing she did have, which was her body and her looks. Her own trauma translated into neglecting Skwisgaar and Skwisgaar's own sexual abuse. However, Serveta was aware of Skwisgaar's talent once he acquired his guitar and knew she had to nurture it till fruition, just like how Serveta's own parental figure did to her.
From 1942 to 1945, the Code Talkers were key to every major operation of the Marine Corps in the Pacific Theater.
March 17, 2025
HEATHER COX RICHARDSON
MAR 18
From 1942 to 1945, the Code Talkers were key to every major operation of the Marine Corps in the Pacific Theater. The Code Talkers were Indigenous Americans who used codes based in their native languages to transmit messages that the Axis Powers never cracked. The Army recognized the ability of tribal members to send coded language in World War I and realized the codes could not be easily interpreted in part because many Indigenous languages had never been written down.
The Army expanded the use of Code Talkers in World War II, using members of 34 different tribes in the program. Indigenous Americans always enlisted in the military in higher proportions than any other demographic group—in World War II, more than a third of able-bodied Indigenous men between 19 and 50 joined the service—and the participation of the Code Talkers was key to the invasion of Iwo Jima, for example, when they sent more than 800 messages without error.
“Were it not for the Navajos,” Major Howard Connor said, “the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima.”
Today, Erin Alberty of Axios reported that at least ten articles about the Code Talkers have disappeared from U.S. military websites. Broken URLs are now labeled “DEI,” an abbreviation for “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.”
Axios found that web pages associated with the Department of Defense have also put DEI labels on now-missing pages that honored prominent Black veterans. Similarly missing is information about women who served in the military, including the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) of World War II. A profile of Army Major General Charles Rogers, who received the Medal of Honor for his service in Vietnam, was similarly changed, but the Defense Department replaced the missing page and removed “dei” from the URL today after a public outcry.
Two days ago, media outlets noted that the Arlington National Cemetery website had deleted content about Black, female, and Hispanic veterans.
The erasure of Indigenous, Black, Hispanic, and female veterans from our military history is an attempt to elevate white men as the sole actors in our history. It is also an attempt to erase a vision of a nation in which Americans of all backgrounds come together to work—and fight—for the common good.
After World War II, Americans came together in a similar spirit to create a government that works for all of us. It is that government—and the worldview it advances—that the Trump administration is currently dismantling.
The most obvious attack on that government is the attempt to undermine Social Security, a system by which Congress in 1935 pulled Americans together to support the nation’s most vulnerable. President Donald Trump and his sidekick billionaire Elon Musk have been asserting, falsely, that Social Security is mired in fraud and corruption.
Today, Judd Legum of Popular Information reported that an internal memo from the Social Security Administration, written by acting deputy commissioner Doris Diaz, called for requiring beneficiaries to visit a field office to provide identification if they cannot access the internet to complete verification there. Diaz estimated that implementing this policy would require the administration to receive 75,000 to 85,000 in-person visitors a week.
But Social Security Administration offices no longer accept walk-ins and the current wait time for a visit already averages more a month, while this change would create a 14% increase in visits. The administration is currently closing Social Security offices. Diaz predicted “service disruption,” “operational strain,” and “budget shortfalls” that would create increased “challenges for vulnerable populations.” She also predicted “legal challenges and congressional scrutiny.”
In the news over the weekend has been the story of 82-year-old Ned Johnson of Seattle, Washington, who lost his Social Security benefits after he was mistakenly declared dead. Upon that declaration, the government clawed back $5,201 from Johnson’s bank account, canceled his Medicare coverage, and warned credit agencies that he was “deceased, do not issue credit.” While Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” said the error had “zero connection” to its work, it is at least an unfortunate coincidence that Musk has repeatedly insisted that dead people are collecting benefits.
Various recent reports show the cost of the destruction of the government that worked for everyone. Kate Knibbs of Wired reported today that cuts at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) have decimated the teams that inspect plant and food imports, creating risks from invasive pests and leaving food to rot as it waits for inspection.
Today, Sharon LaFraniere, Minho Kim, and Julie Tate of the New York Timesreported that cuts to the top secret National Nuclear Security Administration have meant the loss of critical employees—from scientists and engineers through accountants and lawyers—at the agency that manages the nation’s 3,748 nuclear bombs and warheads. The agency was already shorthanded as it worked to modernize the arsenal and was hiring to handle the additional workload. Now it appears to have lost many of its leaders, who were most likely to be able to land top jobs in the private sector.
Republicans convinced Americans to vote to undermine a government that enables all of us to look out for each other by pushing a narrative that says such a government is dangerous because it gives power to undesirables and lets crime run rampant in the U.S. On Friday, Musk reposted an outrageous tweet saying that dictators “Stalin, Mao, and Hitler didn’t murder millions of people. Their public sector employees did.”
The idea that a government that works for everyone is dangerous is at the heart of the administration’s rhetoric about the men it has deported to El Salvador without the due process of law. Although we have no idea who those men are, the administration insists they are violent criminals and that anyone trying to protect the rule of law is somehow siding with rapists and murderers. On Saturday, Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a statement saying that the judge insisting on the rule of law was supporting “terrorists over the safety of Americans.”
In place of a world in which the government works for all Americans, President Donald Trump and his supporters are imposing authoritarianism. This morning, Trump declared the presidential pardons issued by his predecessor, President Joe Biden, “VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT,” and went on to say that members of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol “should fully understand that they are subject to investigation at the highest level.” The Constitution does not have any provision to undo a presidential pardon, and Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times noted that “[i]mplicit in his post was Mr. Trump’s belief that the nation’s laws should be whatever he decrees them to be.”
After White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt walked back Trump’s insistence that Biden’s pardons were invalid by saying that Trump was just suggesting that Biden was mentally incompetent when he signed the pardons, Trump pulled the Secret Service protection from Biden’s children Hunter and Ashley, apparently to demonstrate that he could.
The rejection of a government that works for all Americans in order to concentrate power in the executive branch appears to serve individuals like Musk, rather than the American people. Isaac Stanley-Becker reported in The Atlantic on March 9 that although the government awarded Verizon a $2.4 billion contract to upgrade the Federal Aviation Administration’s communications network, Musk has instructed his SpaceX company to install its equipment in that network. Those installations seem designed to make the U.S. air traffic control system dependent on SpaceX, whose equipment, Stanley-Becker notes, “has not gone through strict U.S.-government security and risk-management review.”
When Evan Feinman, who directed the $42.5 billion rural broadband program, left his position on Friday, he wrote an email to his former colleagues warning that there would be pressure to turn to SpaceX’s Starlink for internet connection in rural areas. “Stranding all or part of rural America with worse internet so that we can make the world’s richest man even richer is yet another in a long line of betrayals by Washington,” he wrote.
Cuts to the traditional U.S. government also appear to serve Russia. Over the weekend, the administration killed the Voice of America media system that has spread independent democratic journalism across the world for 83 years. About 360 million people listened to its broadcasts. The system was a thorn in the side first of the Soviet Union and now of Russia and China. Now it is silent, signaling the end of U.S. soft power that spread democratic values. “The world’s autocrats are doing somersaults,” the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank wrote.
And maybe those two things go hand in hand. Maggie Haberman, Kate Conger, Eileen Sullivan, and Ryan Mac of the New York Times reported today that Starlink has been installed across the White House campus. Officials say that Musk has “donated” the service, although because of security concerns, individuals typically cannot simply give technology to the government.
Waldo Jaquith, who worked for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy under President Barack Obama and who specializes in best practices for government procurement of custom software, posted on social media: “I'm the guy who used to oversee the federal government's agency IT telecommunications contracts. This is extremely bad. There is absolutely no need for this. Not only is it a huge security exposure, but the simplest explanation for this is that it is meant to be a security exposure.”
The test of whether Americans will accept the destruction of a government that works for the common good and its replacement with one that works for the president and his cronies might well come from the need to address disasters like the storm system that hit the Deep South and the Plains over the weekend. At least forty people died, including four in Oklahoma, three in Arkansas, six in Mississippi, three in Alabama, eight in Kansas, four in Texas, and at least twelve in Missouri. High winds, tornadoes, and fires did extraordinary damage across the region.
The destruction caused by a hurricane that flattened Galveston, Texas, in 1900 was a key factor in developing the modern idea of a nonpartisan government that could efficiently provide relief after a disaster and help in the process of rebuilding. As Alex Fitzpatrick of Axios reported last week, Trump has suggested “fundamentally overhauling or reforming” the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) or even getting rid of it entirely, turning emergency relief over to the states. A new analysis by the Carnegie Disaster Dollar Database shows that Republican-dominated states receive a lot of that assistance.
Sarah Labowitz, who led the study, told Fitzpatrick: “Up to now, when there is a disaster, the government responds. They clean up the debris, they rebuild the schools, they run shelters, they clean the drinking water. All of that is supported by a federal disaster relief ecosystem that spreads the risk around the country, spreads the costs around the country. And if we stop spreading the costs around the country, then it's going to fall on states, and it's going to fall on states really unevenly.”
