Glenn Beck thinks ‘cash for clunkers’ site takes over your computer



By David Edwards and Daniel Tencer



Published: August 2, 2009
Updated 2 hours ago





TV host Glenn Beck has a theory about the real reason the US government launched the “cash-for-clunkers” program: It’s a secret conspiracy to take control of your computer.

At the heart of Beck’s theory is the Cars.gov website, where the public can find information about the wildly popular cash-for-clunkers program. On his Fox show Friday, Beck displayed a “terms of use” warning, which he claimed was from the Cars.gov site, stating that anyone accessing the site would be effectively making their computer a part of the US government computer network — and the US government therefore has lawful access to all the files on that computer.

There’s only one problem with Beck’s theory. According to Jed Lewinson at the Daily Kos, the privacy statement is not from Cars.gov at all, but from the Esc.gov website, where car dealers log in to log transactions.

But that factual problem did not discourage Beck and his co-hosts.

“Here you are, trying to be a good citizen … and guess what, they are jumping right inside you [sic], seizing all of your personal and private information, and it’s absolutely legal, Glenn. They can do it,” said Fox’s Kimberly Guilfoyle.

Added Guilfoyle: “They can continue to track you, basically forever, once they’ve tapped into your system … it’s so broad that they can do just about anything.”

Beck concluded: “I know who our czars are now, and this collection of these czars, these are evil people. These are wicked, crazy, frightening people.”