By Rex M. Lee Security Advisor | My Smart Privacy

Security advisor Rex M. Lee investigates why IDEMIA, a French identity-security firm, processes passports, fingerprints, and facial recognition data for the TSA, CBP, and FBI. With IDEMIA's public-security division now being sold to Spain's Amadeus IT Group, Lee asks the bigger question: why is any foreign-owned company trusted with America's most sensitive biometric data?

Rex Lee, Security Advisor and Tech Journalist explains that modern technology and data-driven systems are increasingly used to influence behavior and public opinion, while efforts to regulate these practices are complicated by widespread reliance on the same technologies across politics, business, and society.

Security advisor and tech journalist Rex Lee of My Smart Privacy confronts a provocative question: Is China quietly winning the global data center buildout — and with it, the AI race? Drawing on years of research, he makes the case for what he believes the evidence overwhelmingly shows.

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Interview with Rex Lee

Smart Home Connected Products Pose National Security Risk:

 A new report from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies warns that Chinese-made cellular modules could pose a significant national security risk to the United States.

Rex Lee, a technology journalist and cybersecurity adviser at ‘My Smart Privacy,’ joined NTD to offer his expertise.

By Rex M. Lee | Security Advisor

We are at a pivotal moment in history—the evolution of artificial intelligence integrated into a data-driven business model centered on targeted advertising, rooted in Surveillance Capitalism.

Surveillance Capitalism is fueled by addictive, brain-hijacking and manipulative advertising technologies, now amplified by AI systems capable of inducing behavioral conditioning—what many recognize as the Eliza Effect. This is not just theory; it is the underlying premise warned about in the film Ex Machina.

To fully understand the warning depicted in that film, we must revisit a defining moment in modern history…

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Learn what enterprise IT leaders are prioritizing for content, sessions, and strategic investment heading into 2026. Data-driven recommendations drawn directly from what 118+ enterprise IT leaders told us they need, value, and will act on. 

Rex M. Lee, Tech Journalist and  Security Advisor explains that while immersive experiences like Ascended Intelligence show AI’s potential as a human-enhancing tool, fear-driven narratives and overhype in the West are slowing adoption and eroding trust. Meanwhile, countries like China are accelerating ahead by promoting widespread AI acceptance—highlighting a growing strategic and national security risk if the West does not shift toward responsible, optimistic engagement with AI.

Security Advidor Rex Lee shares his thoughts on the urgent need for reform in the digital data economy, highlighted at SXSW 2026, where discussions emphasized the failures of today’s surveillance-driven, error-prone data systems and their massive economic and societal costs. He outlines the Clean Data Alliance’s vision, centered on the Electronic Bill of Rights, which promotes consent-based, privacy-preserving, and user-controlled data practices to replace exploitative “dirty data” models. Lee stresses that restoring human agency over personal data is essential for building ethical AI and trustworthy digital systems that respect civil liberties, security, and human rights.

The Global AdTech AI-Quantum Algorithmic Control Platform and Ecosystem Explained

By Rex M. Lee | Security Advisor | My Smart Privacy | BlackOps Partners- Washington, DC

In this important interview with NTD News, security advisor and investigative tech journalist Rex M. Lee discusses the rising cyber and intelligence threats emerging in the context of the Iran conflict and the broader evolution of tech-based hybrid warfare.

Lee explains how civil-military fusion programs are increasingly leveraging everyday consumer technologies—including smartphones, tablet PCs, connected products, PCs, and servers supported by Android, iOS, and Windows—as data collection and targeting platforms.