Buy Elite Status At A Discount, Get An NFT For Free [Roundup]

by Gary Leff

News and notes from around the interweb:

  • Etihad Guest will give Silver elite status to people who buy their NFTs Think of it as Etihad selling elite status at a discount, and giving you an NFT too, which tells you something about the expected value of the NFT I think.

  • The U.S. immigration agency does digital surveillance on nearly all Americans (not even just those presenting at the border or living near a border).

    ICE now operates as a domestic surveillance agency. Since its founding in 2003, ICE has not only been building its own capacity to use surveillance to carry out deportations but has also played a key role in the federal government’s larger push to amass as much information as possible about all of our lives. By reaching into the digital records of state and local governments and buying databases with billions of data points from private companies, ICE has created a surveillance infrastructure that enables it to pull detailed dossiers on nearly anyone, seemingly at any time. In its efforts to arrest and deport, ICE has ­ without any judicial, legislative or public oversight ­ reached into datasets containing personal information about the vast majority of people living in the U.S., whose records can end up in the hands of immigration enforcement simply because they apply for driver’s licenses; drive on the roads; or sign up with their local utilities to get access to heat, water and electricity.

  • Airports are getting another windfall, albeit not nearly as much as they got from Covid relief funds in their various forms. By the way, virtually no Member of Congress would ever turn away money when it’s being given out.

  • The next person who tries to self-upgrade will just tell Delta cabin crew they were “prioritizing themselves.”

  • A look at the LAX People Mover

  • American Airlines passenger stole over $10K in cash from two women on flight to Miami

  • Florida Woman Believes The Host Of Her Air BnB Planned To Sex Traffick Her And Her Friends

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. @ Gary — All things crypto are a giant scam. It amazes me that this crap has been elevated to have a ticker box right at the top of CNBC’s home page. Once this Ponzi scheme has collapsed, I guess it will be taken down.

  2. The OIDO oversees ICE, and reports directly to the Secretary of Homeland Security. So your claim that “ICE has no judicial, legislative or public oversight” is a complete fallacy.

  3. @Ritz – the agency is overseen by the parent agency, that is not judicial oversight or public oversight (unless in the latter case you are counting elections for President!)

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