@tedcruz Texas failed to winterize its generation sources the last time this happened in 2011.

Now ask yourself, why?

Simple. Texas's extended power outage is a result of negligent GOP infrastructure policy.

THREAD.

@ProjectLincoln @tedcruz The Texas GOP has continuously rebuffed plans to invest in better infrastructure to upgrade TX power grids.

Texas was warned to weatherize power plants.

Why didn’t they?
@ProjectLincoln @tedcruz TX power companies said electricity prices are too low to provide incentives (profit) to build new plants or improve older ones. (a result of privatization of basic services.)
@ProjectLincoln @tedcruz The electrical grid in Texas was deregulated, privatized, and removed from interconnected networks to avoid federal regulation and increase profits for a small number of wealthy individuals.

Go figure.
@ProjectLincoln @tedcruz If TX ERCOT grid was on the national grid, or simply reinvested in their privatized infrastructure, they'd be fine by now.

They did neither, b/c it wasn't profitable.

It's a failure of TX leadership –– total, inexcusable, and utterly catastrophic.

Not fucking windmills.
@ProjectLincoln @tedcruz https://t.co/IOLZPymRu1
@ProjectLincoln @tedcruz https://t.co/A0HOfw993I
@ProjectLincoln @tedcruz With millions of Texans still without power amid frigid temperatures, false claims that wind and solar energy were primarily to blame spread across social media.

But gas, coal and nuclear plants caused nearly twice as many outages as wind and solar.

https://t.co/TRWr9x5N3q
@ProjectLincoln @tedcruz No. Frozen wind turbines aren’t the main culprit for Texas’ power outages. Wind power accounts for an est. 17.5% of the electricity generated in Texas.

Texas is a natural gas state.

https://t.co/kh38epoWZ0
@ProjectLincoln @tedcruz And @ERCOT_ISO has confirmed that most of the generating loss has come from (largely deregulated) gas and nuclear facilities.

Rather than taking ownership for *any* of this crisis,
@GregAbbott_TX is lying about its cause—to try to score cheap (and inaccurate) political points.
@ProjectLincoln @tedcruz @ERCOT_ISO @GregAbbott_TX Meanwhile, the parts of Texas not on its privatized ERCOT power grid (El Paso) appear to have weathered the freeze with few outages.

https://t.co/xBSqxI193K
@ProjectLincoln @tedcruz @ERCOT_ISO @GregAbbott_TX https://t.co/amMBDCM4XM
@ProjectLincoln @tedcruz @ERCOT_ISO @GregAbbott_TX https://t.co/K0DUHDYndU

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Recently, the @CNIL issued a decision regarding the GDPR compliance of an unknown French adtech company named "Vectaury". It may seem like small fry, but the decision has potential wide-ranging impacts for Google, the IAB framework, and today's adtech. It's thread time! 👇

It's all in French, but if you're up for it you can read:
• Their blog post (lacks the most interesting details):
https://t.co/PHkDcOT1hy
• Their high-level legal decision: https://t.co/hwpiEvjodt
• The full notification: https://t.co/QQB7rfynha

I've read it so you needn't!

Vectaury was collecting geolocation data in order to create profiles (eg. people who often go to this or that type of shop) so as to power ad targeting. They operate through embedded SDKs and ad bidding, making them invisible to users.

The @CNIL notes that profiling based off of geolocation presents particular risks since it reveals people's movements and habits. As risky, the processing requires consent — this will be the heart of their assessment.

Interesting point: they justify the decision in part because of how many people COULD be targeted in this way (rather than how many have — though they note that too). Because it's on a phone, and many have phones, it is considered large-scale processing no matter what.