The Detroit Pistons, enjoying one of their most competitive seasons in years, are embracing a digital transformation with a partnership with ID.me, a company specializing in biometric ID verification and digital identity wallets. This move reflects a growing trend in professional sports, where teams are adopting digital identity tools under the guise of enhancing fan experience but also expanding the use of biometric systems in everyday activities. https://reclaimthenet.org/detroit-pistons-partner-with-digital-id-company-to-implement-biometric-verification

B.C. court approves class-action lawsuit about privacy over Home Depot receipts Lawsuit alleges company shared customer info with Facebook owner Meta without consent https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/class-action-home-depot-b-c-lawsuit-1.7426574

The Supreme Court of British Columbia dismissed a petition by Clearview AI to overturn an order of the Information and Privacy Commissioner, barring the company from collecting face biometrics of individuals in the province without gaining their consent. It orders Clearview to “make best efforts to cease the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information collected from individuals in British Columbia without their consent.” https://www.biometricupdate.com/202501/canadian-court-upholds-clearview-biometric-data-ban

JOBS ARE going to AI no JOBS for you, RBC says it has partnered with Cohere Inc. to develop generative artificial intelligence products for the financial industry. It says the partnership will help create more accurate and verifiable models with a focus on risk and security. Toronto-based Cohere says the collaboration will use its newly launched North AI workspace to build a customized version for finance that will meet the security and privacy needs of the industry. Ivan Zhang, a co-founder of Cohere, says the new platform will help financial industry firms increase productivity and efficiency. RBC says it already uses AI in customer service, staff guidance, and to help the productivity of research analysts in its capital markets business, while TD says it uses AI to help its call centre staff. https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/company-news/2025/01/09/rbc-partners-with-cohere-on-ai-financial-platform/

This article just received an update, because I made a discovery the other day that will make the world of document signing so much more reachable to those who need to send out documents for signatures. A promo for an e-sign service crossed my screen the other day, with claims that it's free service was better than others out there. I always challenge such claims, so that sent me off to the search engine to find out if their offering really was better. First, the company only offered 2 free requests a month instead of the usual 3 most others offer, and second, there are more companies offering anywhere from 3 to 5 requests in a month than I thought. Some don't let you save templates in the free version, some are better for simple documents, some let you add as many fields as you require. Some let you duplicate a document to send to someone else. When I discovered this, another thought dawned on me, and it's a thought that has gotten me into trouble with others in the past when I first wrote this article. In fact, it was an accusation around the use of free services that spawned the article in the first place back in June 2020. I've now updated this article on how to conduct business for free! https://naturalhealthgodsway.ca/2020/06/22/business-on-a-budget-can-you-really-do-it-for-free/

"The Virginia Company of London was a joint-stock company chartered by King James I in 1606 to establish a colony in North America. Such a venture allowed the Crown to reap the benefits of colonization—natural resources, new markets for English goods, leverage against the Spanish—without bearing the costs. Investors, meanwhile, were protected from catastrophic losses in the event of the project’s failure. ..." Virginia Company of London (-aka- UNITED STATES INC.) https://archive.is/Gplvv#selection-327.0-339.326

The ownership list of the magazine includes prominent families such as Rothschild, Cadbury, Agnelli, Schroder and Layton… Aside from the Agnelli family, smaller shareholders in the company include Cadbury, Rothschild (21%), Schroder, Layton and other family interests as well as a number of staff and former staff shareholders. It is truly a magazine by the elite and for the elite, and so it provides a tremendous amount of insight into what the elite are thinking. https://activistpost.com/2024/12/a-year-of-chaos-does-a-shocking-magazine-cover-reveal-what-the-global-elite-have-planned-for-2025.html

TORONTO — Canada’s financial intelligence agency says it has imposed an administrative penalty of $2.46 million against Exchange Bank of Canada for non-compliance with money-laundering rules. Fintrac says it found Exchange Bank of Canada failed to submit suspicious transaction reports when there were reasonable grounds to do so, failed to conduct ongoing monitoring of business relationships and failed to report $10,000 or more in cash in a single transaction. https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/company-news/2024/12/11/exchange-bank-of-canada-fined-246m-by-fintrac-for-anti-money-laundering-failures/

One expert says he intends to “steer clear” of Toronto Dominion (TD) Bank as an investment for the time being as the lender deals with the fallout from a multi-billion-dollar money laundering fine in the U.S. and a weakened growth outlook. https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/company-news/2024/12/05/portfolio-manager-says-steer-clear-of-td-for-now-after-bank-cuts-guidance/

DEI is dying, as big companies wake up to an obvious truth: Dividing people divides people. DUH! Walmart is just the latest company to hop on the trend of slashing diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, joining Ford, Google, Meta and Tesla, among others. The company confirmed to Fox Business Monday that it will pump the brakes on its Racial Equity Center, which it launched in 2020 for a five-year trial period, and is ditching the term “Latinx” (which only 4% of Hispanics use themselves) in corporate messaging. The company is even cutting mention of “DEI” altogether. Rather than “diversity,” it will emphasize “belonging.” The megastore chain is the largest company to ditch DEI practices so far.