On 'Last Week Tonight,' John Oliver threatens to blackmail Congressmen with their own digital data.
The show’s main segment concerned data brokers, the companies that collect your digital data, package it, and sell it to anyone who’s interested — sometimes in bundles based on shared characteristics. Real names of these bundles include “Ambitious Singles,” “Couples With Clout,” and “Kids and Cabernet.” Oliver pointed out that the names also sound like “immediately green-lit shows on TLC.”
Thing is, brokers group people in far less fanciful ways — according to their medical ailments, for instance. Or as “Suffering Seniors” and “Help Needed—I Am 90 Days Behind With Bills.” Last year, Epsilon, one of these ghoulish companies, was forced to pay $150 million in penalties because they’d knowingly sold the data of 30 million people to scammers targeting seniors.
Now, none of this is particularly new. Several of the news clips Oliver showed were eight to 10 years old. An unsettling example of a stalker finding and killing a woman after paying a broker $45 for her data was 20 years old. So why was Oliver devoting a whole show to it now? Blackmail! He and his staff paid for the data of a subset of individuals with traits that a lot of Congressmen have, and who were online within five miles of the Capitol building. Though Oliver was cagey about what they found, he indicated they were able to identify several specific lawmakers and their potentially problematic search histories. But he didn’t reveal anything more than that.
“You might want to channel that worry into making sure that I can’t do anything,” he advised. “Sleep well!”
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
John Oliver Says Goodbye to ‘Business Daddy’ AT&T in Epic FashionThe ‘Last Week Tonight’ host flipped his former overlord off, saying it’s “frankly two more bars than you’ve ever had.”
Read more »
John Oliver Gives Former Parent Company AT&T Two-Middle-Finger Send-offThis 'is frankly two more bars than you have ever had,' the 'Last Week Tonight' host quipped.
Read more »
‘Last Week Tonight’: John Oliver Recalls His Past Insults Directed Towards Alt-Right Network OAN And Their Lawsuit Against AT&TAccording to John Oliver on Last Week Tonight, One American News (OAN) has a legal bone to pick with him. Back in January 2022, DirecTV planned to drop One America News Network (OAN), the right-win…
Read more »
I'll Admit It: I'm Down Bad For John TurturroHollywood hearthrob, he is not. But he is the daddy of my most demented daydreams.
Read more »
John Hinckley, failed assassin-turned-musician, books NYC concertHinckley opened fire on and wounded President Ronald Reagan outside of a Washington, DC, hotel on March 30, 1981.
Read more »
Father John Misty Charms Us Like Cole Porter on LSDWith delicate orchestral arrangements, a dead Turkish Angora, and an overlying Old Hollywood theme, Chloë and the Next 20th Century is the most un-Misty-like album yet. We’re OK with that
Read more »