So much for that cookie-cutter lawsuit against Scientology about sharing data

Well, that didn’t last long.

In February, we told you that we had noticed some ads on Facebook asking people to contact a law firm if they had registered for online Scientology courses, telling them they might be “entitled to significant compensation.”

We tried to ask the law firm what it was looking into, but we got no response. Then, we found that the San Francisco firm, Hedin LLP, had filed a lawsuit in California on behalf of a Pennsylvania woman, alleging that Scientology had violated federal law by sharing the woman’s video-watching history with Meta, the company that owns Facebook.

It turned out that attorney Frank S. Hedin was filing dozens of lawsuits against all kinds of big companies, accusing them of using something called the “Meta Pixel,” a string of code on their websites that bloggers are actually encouraged to use in order to help target their Facebook ads.

Hedin argued that this violated a federal law that went back to the 1990s after a Washington DC newspaper had published a list of videos that Supreme Court Justice nominee Robert Bork rented from a video store. These days, the law is used to to sue online firms that share information about video-watching habits of users.

We noted that these were cookie-cutter lawsuits, and the language in them was identical in many respects. But did this lawyer, Hedin, know what he was in for suing Scientology along with the rest of the companies he was going after?

Well, apparently not. We can see from court records that the woman in Pennsylvania withdrew the lawsuit this week before Scientology had even had a chance to respond to it.

The same woman was also suing Allstate Insurance in another of Hedin’s complaints, but that lawsuit was also terminated this past week.

So, our suspicions turned out to be correct that this didn’t appear to be a very serious assault on Scientology’s vaunted legal fortress. Ah, well.

---

Clearwater group builds support for its counter to Scientology

Mark Bunker told us about the last-minute proposal that came in to try and counter Scientology’s plan to buy a public street in Clearwater as part of its “L. Ron Hubbard Hall” project. Instead of giving up the space so the church can create a plaza dedicated to Hubbard, another group envisions a memorial park dedicated to a historic Black neighborhood that once stood there.

Three members of the city council were interested enough to delay a vote on Scientology’s plan for another month. And in the meantime, Brooks Gibbs and the SaveTheGarden group have put out this very well done 11-minute video. Give it a look.

---

Tom DeVocht plumbs the depths of David Miscavige’s paranoia

Tom DeVocht has once again provided an eye-opening commentary on one of our stories. Last month, we posted a draconian confidentiality agreement that Sea Org members were asked to sign, promising never to say anything about Scientology to the world outside, and Tom provided a fun reaction to it and its craziness.

This time, we posted a ranting “eval” that revealed how much Miscavige feels like he’s surrounded by incompetent nincompoops.

Tom really went to town on this document at his new Substack, and it led him into some great areas about the depths of Miscavige’s depravity…

What happens when someone truly believes the spiritual world is physically attacking them — as laid out in the secret doctrines of Scientology? David Miscavige had 1.5-inch copper grounding rods driven six feet into the earth — which he would hold onto when he felt BTs (body thetans) jumping onto him. One in his bedroom. One outside the Lodge’s conference room. One under the conference table in the trailer we called fondly called “The Hole.”

He believed BTs were leaping onto him from Rinder, from Shelly, from everyone in the room. He believed those rods would suck them down into the ground and away from him. Sometimes he’d ask Mike or another hold the rod, but more often he’d grab them himself during meetings — hoping it was working. He also made sure no one was berthed too close to him. He believed BTs and clusters could jump through the walls or drop onto him from the floor above.

Oh, that’s good stuff. Read the rest at Tom’s Substack.

---

Want to help?

Please consider joining the Underground Bunker as a paid subscriber. Your $7 a month will go a long way to helping this news project stay independent, and you’ll get access to our special material for subscribers. Or, you can support the Underground Bunker with a Paypal contribution to bunkerfund@tonyortega.org, an account administered by the Bunker’s attorney, Scott Pilutik. And by request, this is our Venmo link, and for Zelle, please use (tonyo94 AT gmail). E-mail tips to tonyo94@gmail.com. Find us at Threads: tony.ortega.1044 and Bluesky: @tonyortega.bsky.social

For the full picture of what’s happening today in the world of Scientology, please join the conversation at tonyortega.org, where we’ve been reporting daily on David Miscavige’s cabal since 2012. There you’ll find additional stories, and our popular regular daily features:

Source Code: Actual things founder L. Ron Hubbard said on this date in history

Avast, Ye Mateys: Snapshots from Scientology’s years at sea

Overheard in the Freezone: Indie Hubbardism, one thought at a time

Past is Prologue: From this week in history at alt.religion.scientology

Random Howdy: Your daily dose of the Captain

Here’s the link for today’s post at tonyortega.org

And whatever you do, subscribe to this Substack so you get our breaking stories and daily features right to your email inbox every morning.

Paid subscribers get access to a special podcast series…

Group Therapy: Our round table of rowdy regulars on the week’s news