Google may have created many user-friendly products, but it's obvious that some who work there, including management, are anything but friendly to those holding conservative political and religious views. Note the text in the screen shot from Hilton's program (top right) is from the internal Google message board used in Damore lawsuit against Google. It states, "People in Indiana are bigots. But they don't call it bigotry? What do they call it? Religious freedom."

Hateful, yes, and godless, too.

News reports have been circulating for some time that Google has been gerrymandering search results when topics or websites searched for are judged to be politically incorrect or against their far-left bent.

Twitter is doing the same thing, as they allow conservatives and Christians to make posts but those thoughts may never reach the followers of those posting because the writers and content are deemed unsuitable by the Twitter thought police.

I've had friends put in Facebook jail (a Facebook "time out") because their posts were judged to break Facebook's standards and policies. Their offense: being Christian, conservative, pro-life, being factual but disparaging to Islam, or all of the above!

On May 31, 2016, Facebook, along with management from YouTube, Twitter, and Microsoft signed onto a hate speech code produced by the European Union.

The Guardian story states "Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Microsoft have all been involved in the creation of the code, which is particularly aimed at fighting racism and xenophobia across Europe. Such efforts are hampered by varying enforcement in different countries, something the code is tackling."

Again, Breitbart News was the only news outlet in the US to cover this story.

Fast forward 16 months and one can see where this is going - towards all-out censorship.

On September 28, 2017, The Guardian reported that, relying on a code of conduct honor system for now, the EU's justice commissioner is resisting calls to follow Theresa May's lead and legislate to fine internet companies who fail to take down hate speech.

"In Britain, May is demanding that internet companies remove hateful content, in particular that aligned to terror organizations, within two hours of being discovered, or face financial sanctions. In June, the prime minister agreed with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, that the UK and France would create a new legal liability for tech companies if they fail to remove inflammatory content.

The EU really doesn’t have to do a thing about this. Its strongest member countries are passing laws themselves. The social media platforms are being forced to surrender. But don’t think for a moment that those running Facebook, Twitter, and other social media are not in complete agreement with stamping out “hate speech” as they define it. The only thing hindering the politically correct crowd from attaining their dream of a sanitized, perfect internet world is the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which protects free speech. Just as the patriots of 1776 fought for unfettered freedom of expression, it would appear we are again opposing forces that seek to limit and control our thoughts, mouths, and pens.

Liberty is messy. It often means that in the process of experiencing one’s own freedom there may be times when views are expressed by others that we may individually find completely abhorrent. After all, constitutionally protected free speech isn’t about protecting the speech of the majority. Instead, it is about protecting speech that most of us find repulsive. But that truth is far from the minds of the uber-left and mainstream media these days. Theirs is the way of groupthink enforced with the demonization of opposing views.

Just remember, with mob mentality leading the way, the majority of our world views the edicts of the Bible as hate speech and sees those who believe what its pages reflect as haters. Again, the question remains, by what standard and by whose definition is something deemed to be "hate speech"?

My Face to Face with Big Brother

Recently, my phone, a Motorola Moto Z Force Droid, running Android system software, was used to take a photo of a friend napping in a chair. We had a quick laugh, showed it to our sleeping friend, and went about our business. I thought nothing of it again until I received an email from the "Google Photos" service.

The email from Google displayed the picture of my snoozing friend and began with the words, "While you were busy taking photos, Google Photos was backing them up and making creations for you - Made From Your Photos." It stated, "Google Photos sends these emails so that you never miss a creation."

This has now happened a second and a third time. In one instance, the photo was one I took recently as I traveled through one of Washington State's snowy mountain passes. The other was a taken 3 years ago!

The more I examined and clicked, I found that every photo taken and kept on my phone for the past 4 years is in the hands of the servers, or perhaps actually A.I. servers, over at Google. Though I do not own an Apple phone, I am assuming that the same is likely true for iPhone users. In fact, everyone with an Android phone has given Google the right to have, use, examine, and exploit ANYTHING and EVERYTHING on your phone. It's all in the fine print that you sign off on when you purchase and activate a new phone. In fact, you cannot activate a new phone unless you give them legal right to everything on your phone.

This signals that Google can access any photos and videos on your phone. In short, theoretically this means that a third party can invade your privacy, snoop, and distribute whatever your phone's camera sees and do so in any way they see fit 

Additionally, if your videos and pictures are available for Google to access, remotely tapping into your phones microphone is far simpler and less complex.

Of course, your emails are up for grabs and so is the record of your web surfing through Google Chrome, but theoretically through any browser used in viewing websites that you may have installed (Safari, Firefox, etc.). It strikes me that the convenience of using Google Calendar (displaying my past appointments and where I am scheduled to go), Google Maps (where I’ve driven to and when), and Google Drive (used to store and share documents) is equally at risk of being accessed and shared by Google.

While writing this piece, I contacted a friend who has worked in the computer technology field for over 40 years. He owns an Android phone and told me, "With an Android phone you only have to say, "Ok Google," and state what you want. The information desired is then read back to you or the web pages you requested appear on your phone. Now people would say ‘that's ok' but they are missing the point that the phone is listening ALL THE TIME. Saying ‘Ok Google' is just the trigger to invoke the programming - but the phone is listening to everything. I know, it is scary but that is the world we have created, like it or not. 

"If we are going to carry smart phones, this is something we quickly forget about. Once we activate the phone we carry on as if nothing is amiss. But I can see the time, if it isn't here already, where a transcript of what a person was saying at the moment a crime was committed could be used against them in a courtroom. Especially if there was a racial, religious, or anti-homosexual comment made, the powers that be might automatically escalate the crime to a hate crime, which we all know is (in their eyes) much worse than just a regular crime. They have the technology and the ability to do exactly that."

As I alluded to earlier, iPhone users shouldn't breathe a sigh of relief too quickly. Consider this: You'll remember the terrorist couple who perpetrated the attack inside the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California, on December 2, 2015, taking the lives of 14 and injured 22 others. Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, who later both died in a shootout with sheriff's deputies, used iPhones. During the investigation, a public standoff developed between Apple, Inc., and FBI officials due to Apple's refusal to help the Feds access the phones' address books, phone and text records and other pertinent information relative to the crimes they committed. Apple refused to help unlock the iPhones, even stating that it was impossible to accomplish.

All of the PR grandstanding that Apple did during that period should not give us peaceful assurance that the files and information held on iPhones are safe from prying eyes. Apple desperately wanted to promote an impression of security and privacy and that iPhones are impenetrable. However, Google had access to at least my phone's photos and God knows what else. So, should I believe and trust Apple CEO, Tim Cook, who wants the public to rest assured that if we all used iPhones, Apple would champion their customers' privacy and would not have access to their online activities or records? Am I also to be confident that files purposely uploaded to cloud storage are beyond in-house pilfering by those with access to server farms far, far away? Any use of "the cloud" (i.e., online storage of data) that is traceable to a particular user's computer, phone, or tablet should never be considered "private," either.

I personally believe that it was a PR smokescreen by Apple to publicly defy the FBI and not help “crack” the Farooks’ cell phones. I submit that Apple probably had access to the information trail left behind by the pair as to whom the terrorists had texted, spoken with, or emailed. If Apple didn't, the NSA surely did.

Where All This is Going

I realize that some who read this may be thinking, "I want my files to be secure but I have nothing to hide from anyone. Safety and privacy are fine but is it really that big of a deal, Eric?" I understand just where you are coming from. Plus, as of now, Google and Amazon appear to be using the information they harvest from users only to advertise and sell the various products and services that have made them two of the richest companies in history. So it’s pure capitalism at work, right? Yes, for now. But that could change very quickly.

Just call me paranoid (I've surely been called worse), but someday law-abiding Christians may have much they'd like to veil from public view that you and I think nothing about today. Let's pull ahead in time just a bit, perhaps a year, ten years, or perhaps more. What if those who come into power politically see fit to surveil people to understand who holds to particular beliefs? Besides being a future post-Rapture tool to identifying dissidents resisting the Antichrist's mandatory "mark of the beast" spoken of in the Book of Revelation, chapter 13, clues as to an individual's worldview, ideology, and beliefs could certainly - and probably are - being cataloged by means of Information Technology. Imagine if those advocating against abortion or in support of free speech or other ideas that oppose current or future politically correct models were simply blacklisted and marked as subversives? For many in the “remnant,” this would matter only if our witness was jeopardized or thwarted, especially if we are prepared and sold out to the principles of God. But friends, family, and associations could be correlated, databased, and then used in much the same way as Hitler and the Nazis organized against those opposing the Third Reich's reign of terror. Just imagine how much more accurate - and deadly - Hitler's SS could have been if they would have had just a small portion of today's technology. What about those who own unregistered weapons today and do so completely legally? One mention of such or one picture taken in innocence could someday bring reprisals against presently law-abiding individuals who might in the future be deemed outlaws because of unforeseen changes in the authorities and the rules they live by. Frightening? Yes, but in this age, these are issues that we need to consider now.

Please understand that I am not writing with the cause of self-preservation in mind. But the fact is that God gave us a brain to think through scenarios that are affecting us now or possibly will affect us. Hopefully, those who are eternally-minded understand that, though we live with the frailties of our own humanity, if our days on earth be extended, the opportunities to be salt and light and witness for Jesus should be our goal and focus.

Databases are now undoubtedly being constructed and added to every second of every day all around us and no phone or tablet is needed for some information to be captured. We live in a surveillance world and the clarity and range of some of the cameras and equipment that we are finding out about and that are already in place are absolutely mind-blowing.

Sometimes data is also being mined from personal encounters. Recently, as I crossed an international border, the agent of the foreign country I was entering asked where I lived, a standard question even though it is clearly stated on my passport. After a few more questions, he then asked if I had any weapons, guns, knives, mace, etc., in the vehicle. Of course, I answered no, saying that I certainly understood not to carry such items across an international border into his country. Fine so far. But then he asked if I had any weapons at home. What? This is an agent of a foreign country - of which I am not a citizen - asking me a question that was simply none of his business. It was a very disquieting moment. Could it be there is being amassed an international database from conversations where such information is gained by foreign agents?

The NSA may now be accessing some or all communications and perhaps there is nothing anyone can do to completely protect his or her anonymity. However, I'm personally not going to just cede my privacy and freedom away to decidedly left-leaning tech corporations led by globalists such as Jeff Bezos and the now retired Eric Schmidt. Will I still use their products? Yes, but with caution and not in ignorance. Some may just throw out the word "paranoid," accusing me of instilling fear in others. Define it how you may. These are different days, described as "perilous times" in Scripture (2 Tim. 3:3). Instead of paranoid, I prefer to use words like "watchful," "thoughtful," and "careful" instead, which is what I advise us all to be in this "brave new world" of Information Technology.

One thing I feel absolutely sure of is that the interconnected network and the data being collected by the globalist-minded tech firms I've mentioned are inevitably going to be in the hands of Antichrist. In fact, when you think back to that "simpler time" that I mentioned at the top of this piece, without the monumental technological advances of the past 70 years, Antichrist could never have come and then accomplish the kind of worldwide domination that the Bible outlines (Rev. 13) until the time period that we are in right now.

What is amazing to me, as I mentioned in part 1 of this series, is that all around us people are purchasing and planting units in their homes to allow unprecedented access to their lives. Computers capable of receiving and sending data in various forms are in our cars, our offices, our dwelling places, and in our hands, both granting us access to information but also granting access to us all of the time. The entirety of surveillance and communication systems that man has engineered and constructed will someday be surrendered to Antichrist, who will use it against those who do not conform to his evil worldwide dictatorship.

Concerning the prophetic implications of what is now occurring, Jan Markell recently commented, "In 1948 there was a milestone event as it concerns ‘signs of the times.' That was the re-birth of Israel 70 years ago. Are we in the generation of a more current sign that could involve end-time technology, the ‘image of the beast,' ‘mark of the beast', etc? Could this wave of technology be as relevant as the stirring of the dry bones? We look at that 1948 happening in a rear-view mirror. Technology is a 21st century fulfillment."[15]

We can do little about what is coming on the world that is now before our eyes. However, it is our responsibility to not only continue to let our lights shine out as beacons of hope, but to escalate our mission of beckoning the lost to seek shelter in Christ. Those who've known me for very long know that I do not walk in doom, fear, and paranoia. I'm also not one to try to unearth a conspiracy from beneath every rock. However, I firmly believe that we should all walk in the knowledge and understanding of what is happening and how these days are replete with messages signaling the soon return of Christ for His Church. Are you ready?

Open your eyes
Everywhere there are signs
Telling us the time is near
It's a truth we can't ignore
This old world can't take much more 

All around the world
Can't you hear creation calling
Make way, soon the Savior's coming
All around the world
Creation is calling out
Oh, let us not become entangled
By the trappings of this world
Let Him come and find us faithful to the call
All around the world
All around the world