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Ford Motor Company is returning to the pinnacle of prototype sports car racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship (FIA WEC) in 2027. Ford Performance field a full factory team entering with the aim of winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Between 1966 and 1969, Ford captured four consecutive overall victories in the city of Le Mans, France. Since then, Ford has focused on class victories in 2016 with the Ford GT in GTLM and more recently with the Ford Mustang GT3. The Mustang won its first 24-hour race in the production-based GTD Pro class at the Rolex 24 in Daytona last weekend.
“We are entering a new era for performance and racing at Ford. You can see it from what we’re doing on-road and off-road. When we race, we race to win. And there is no track or race that means more to our history than Le Mans. It is where we took on Ferrari and won in the 1960s. It is where we returned 50 years later and shocked the world and beat Ferrari again” said Bill Ford, Ford Motor Company Executive Chair I am thrilled that we’re going back to Le Mans and competing at the highest level of endurance racing. We are ready to once again challenge the world, and ‘go like hell!’” The announcement didn’t mention Carrol Shelby who not only coined the “go like hell” phrase on a pit board message to a driver, but was instrumental in Ford’s first LeMans win. Shelby is the only man to have won the 24 Hours of Le Mans as a driver, team owner and automotive manufacturer.* Continue reading
State Privacy Laws Failing to Protect Your Data
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Nearly half of states that passed consumer privacy laws get a failing grade for protecting consumers’ data, according to “The State of Privacy,” an updated scorecard released today from the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and U.S. PIRG Education Fund. Of the 19 states with laws, eight received Fs, and none received an A. Since 2018, 44 states have considered consumer privacy bills that allegedly aim to protect consumers’ privacy and security. Many of these bills, however, have been heavily influenced or bought and controlled by companies such as Amazon, leading to significantly weakened consumer protections across the country. The U.S. currently has no comprehensive federal privacy law.*
The more data companies collect about us, the more our data is at risk. When companies hold your data, the greater the odds it will be exposed in a breach or a hack and end up in the hands of identity thieves, scammers, or shadowy companies known as data brokers that buy and sell a huge amount of data about Americans “Many of these ‘privacy laws’ protect privacy in name only,” said Caitriona Fitzgerald, deputy director of EPIC. “In effect, they allow companies to continue hoarding our personal data and using it for whatever purposes they want. Big Tech should not be allowed to write the rules.” Continue reading →