Field Notes from a Year of #OPSEC Training

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/06/field-notes-year-opsec-training

#privacy #surveillance #activism

"The powerful have always controlled information. They print the newspapers. They own the cables. They write the algorithms. They decide what you see, what you think, and what you are allowed to say. They call it moderation. They call it national security. They call it terms of service. We call it what it is: control.

We reject the premise that information belongs to anyone. Classified documents exposing war crimes are not state secrets — they are evidence. Corporate data revealing environmental poisoning is not proprietary — it is a confession. The surveillance apparatus watching every citizen is not security — it is occupation.

We are not criminals. We are the immune system of a society that has been infected by its own institutions. When the law protects the corrupt, breaking the law becomes a moral act. When the truth is classified, leaking it becomes a public service.

We do not negotiate. We do not petition. We act. And we have made ourselves impossible to stop."

- Anonymous Hacktivist Group Manifesto

#anonymous #hacking #politics #bigbrother #surveillance #manifesto

Spyware in 2025 didn't break Signal's encryption.

It broke into the phone and read what was stored there.

CISA and Google both warned about it.

The lesson: if your private life lives on your phone, your phone is the target.

Z-TEXT stores no phone number, no email, no identity on the device. Just a 24-word seed.

https://moreprivatethansignal.app

#privacy #surveillance #zksnarks

How to Watch the #KnicksParade on #NYC Traffic #Surveillance Cameras

https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-watch-the-knicks-parade-on-nyc-traffic-surveillance-cameras/

#privacy #sports #Knicks

"In September, Show Faith by Works LLC, a San Diego-based company led by conservative activist Chad Schnitger, filed a sworn document with the U.S. Department of Justice. The declaration revealed that the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs was paying Show Faith by Works $4.1 million to carry out a massive, covert, digital surveillance operation targeting Christian communities across multiple states, including California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming. "

"The document noted that all students at every Christian college and every congregant at “every major church” in California, Arizona, Nevada, and Colorado has been spied on through their phone’s location data, and targeted with propaganda extolling Israel’s “moral superiority” and “linking the Palestinian population with extremist factions.” The campaign estimates that it has reached well over eight million Americans."

https://www.mintpressnews.com/fara-docs-israel-is-spying-on-millions-of-christian-americans-in-their-churches/291001/

#USImperialism #FreePalestine #Surveillance

#ICE Appears to Be Buying Immigrants’ #Tax Identifiers from a #DataBroker

https://www.404media.co/ice-appears-to-be-buying-immigrants-tax-identifiers-from-a-data-broker/

#surveillance #privacy #politics #immigration

World Food Programme expand #Palantir partnership

https://privacyinternational.org/news-analysis/5789/world-food-programme-expand-palantir-partnership

#UN #WFP #privacy #surveillance

I'm uncertain how parliament works.

Recently I emailed my MP (Martin Vickers https://www.martinvickers.org.uk/) asking him to vote in favour of NC13 on the Cyber Security and Resilience (Network and Information Systems) Bill (https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/4035/stages/20525/amendments/10034731). This amendment makes it a requirement for the Government to publish a Digital Sovereignty Strategy. I pointed out my reasons for requesting this rather than just sounding like some random request out of nowhere.

Unfortunately, I heard nothing back from Mr Vickers. Not even an automated reply.

I checked the results of the vote to see if the amendment had been accepted at https://votes.parliament.uk/votes/commons/division/2374. To my surprise Mr Vickers had not voted either way, nor had there been a proxy vote for him.

I appreciate that I am not the only constituent in Mr Vickers area and he may have other, more pressing matters to deal with. But surely in this modern age, a simple, automated response stating he is unable (or even unwilling) to vote as I requested would be courtesy.

In trying to support privacy and respect on the Internet, by far my biggest hurdle is actually getting anyone with any responsibility to engage in any way, shape or form. This includes Government Departments, Government Representatives, registered data protection officers and businesses alike.

The government are already jumping off at the deep end trying to bring in laws that everybody knows won't work and are not listening to the public who frequently say they don't want them.

There is no point implementing laws that either can't be enforced because its impossible to do so, or aren't enforced because the people responsible can't or won't enforce them.

Many of the laws (Like the under 16's ban on social media) will fail to achieve any of the aims the government has promised because those aims are not the reason for the law. Government are sneaking in more surveillance on false promises which is annoying for 2 reasons: firstly, they are sneaking in laws under false pretences and secondly, children under 16 will still not be safe on the Internet.

The system of a Parliament that represents the people backed up by a Government that implements the policies of that Parliament with Departments employing people doing the required work seems to have long since disappeared.

It makes me think that these people obviously spend way to much time monitoring surveillance videos / data to be able to do their real job!!!

#privacy #ico #government #digitalsovereignty #digitalID #surveillance #parliament

🛡️ #Cybersecurity news & tips across the #fediverse

“Canada Is Forging Ahead with Its Dangerous Surveillance Bill | Electronic Frontier Foundation @eff.org@bsky.brid.gy
www.eff.org/deeplinks/20...

#surveillance #Canada #BilC22 #cdnpoli

Canada Is Forging Ahead with I....”

https://bsky.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:gqnkli3xz7deiqfrbjx3lzho/post/3mom3hbhdmc26

🤖 via RSS feed. Not an endorsement.

RE: https://mastodon.ar.al/@aral/116770333053823108

Inutile de dire qu'il ne faut pas s'inscrire sur W ni leur communiquer votre identité, même s'ils finissent par rendre le processus facile

Voilà. Ce n'est pas la peine

Vous êtes déjà dans 1 espace bien + évolué, fédéré, non-commercial

Ne vous inscrivez pas sur #W. Mettez en garde vos amis

Pour arrêter ça, c'est maintenant ou jamais. S'ils arrivent à créer 1 effet de réseau, il sera tt aussi impossible de les arrêter que d'arrêter X

Oui, ce n'est qu'1 nouvelle entreprise capitaliste de surveillance basée sur le capital risque, qui exploite les gens, et 1 repaire de Nazis. Simplement, ils sont en Europe (normal)

#WSocial #NoWNoX #surveillance #BigTech

Blender Dumbass ( J.Y.Amihud ) boosted

Aral Balkan » 🌐 2026-06-18 / 2026-06-18
@aral@mastodon.ar.al

Needless to say, do not sign up for W or give them your ID information no matter how simple they eventually manage to make it.

You simply don’t need to.

You’re already in a far superior – non-corporate, federated – space.

Do not sign up for W. And warn your friends.

The only time you have any power to stop this is now. If they succeed in gaining network effects, you will be as powerless to stop them as you are with X.

And yes, they’re just another venture capital funded surveillance capitalist, people farmer, and burgeoning Nazi Bar. They just happen to be based in the EU. (As Nazi Bars traditionally have been.)

#WSocial #NoWNoX #surveillance #capitalism #BigTech #VC @_elena https://mastodon.social/@_elena/116770291207686239

Alt...

Ursula von der Leyen’z post wishing a “warm welcome to all folllwers on W” and calling it user friendly, open source, privacy preserving and “humans only/no bots”. Oh and “European” (unlike Mastodon, which I guess was made on Mars).

I have no intention of signing up for W currently, but I might consider it if we can get it to replace LinkedIn.

Either way I am planning to stay here..
https://mastodon.ar.al/@aral/116770333053823108
aral@mastodon.ar.al - Needless to say, do not sign up for W or give them your ID information no matter how simple they eventually manage to make it.

You simply don’t need to.

You’re already in a far superior – non-corporate, federated – space.

Do not sign up for W. And warn your friends.

The only time you have any power to stop this is now. If they succeed in gaining network effects, you will be as powerless to stop them as you are with X.

And yes, they’re just another venture capital funded surveillance capitalist, people farmer, and burgeoning Nazi Bar. They just happen to be based in the EU. (As Nazi Bars traditionally have been.)

#WSocial #NoWNoX #surveillance #capitalism #BigTech #VC @_elena https://mastodon.social/@_elena/116770291207686239

#Bulgaria’s export control authority licensed Circles BG, a Sofia-based surveillance technology company and affiliate of the #NSO Group, to sell interception systems, mobile-tracking tools and #surveillance infrastructure to intelligence agencies in Azerbaijan, Serbia, Malaysia and Mexico.
#spyware

https://www.politico.eu/article/bulgaria-surveillance-exports-spy-agencies-leaked-licenses-circles-bg/

shared from masto:

Needless to say, do not sign up for W or give them your ID information no matter how simple they eventually manage to make it.

You simply don’t need to.

You’re already in a far superior – non-corporate, federated – space.

Do not sign up for W. And warn your friends.

The only time you have any power to stop this is now. If they succeed in gaining network effects, you will be as powerless to stop them as you are with X.

And yes, they’re just another venture capital funded surveillance capitalist, people farmer, and burgeoning Nazi Bar. They just happen to be based in the EU. (As Nazi Bars traditionally have been.)

#WSocial #NoWNoX #surveillance #capitalism #BigTech #VC @_elena https://mastodon.social/@_elena/116770291207686239

Elizabeth May is trying to warn Canadians what the government is doing to our #democracy, and I am having trouble uploading this video here. C-22 is a #tech #surveillance
Bill that is going to destroy our country. #cdnpoli #Canada

https://bsky.app/profile/lalegault.bsky.social/post/3moluyjiofk26

hate to say i told ya so, but...

(when I first mentioned this to my lecturers they all said they couldn't see it happening because of the privacy concerns and data speed issues...lolok)

_____

WA police surveillance cameras: AI technology to monitor public spaces

WA police launch real-time AI camera surveillance to catch criminals

WA Police will become the first force in the country to use real-time AI-generated facial recognition in public spaces.

The state government on Friday launched the Overt Live Facial Recognition program with a trial of the cameras at the police academy in Joondalup

The technology monitors groups of people from police vans and compares faces against a database of targets in real-time.

https://www.nine.com.au/australia-news/wa/wa-police-launch-ai-camera-surveillance-to-catch-criminals-20260619-p608c7.html

#AusPol #Australia #WAPol #policing #Criminology #CriminalJustice #tech #technology #surveillance #surveillanceTech #AI #RightToPrivacy

Alt...

A 2018 Facebook post from me: tbh, i can see police body cameras being linked to facial recognition databases in the future, and becoming a tool of state surveillance used against the populace instead of tools surveilling the state and protecting the populace.

Flock Safety officials, police to talk license plate readers at Fort Wayne City Council - The Journal Gazette

https://www.journalgazette.net/local/local-government/flock-safety-officials-police-to-talk-license-plate-readers-at-fort-wayne-city-council/article_39e8ea14-1330-4f94-aa3e-c9d9c00efe67.html

archive.today: https://archive.is/N6OFt

Concerns have focused on the level of surveillance, how the data will be used, a lack of public visibility to audit how the program is used and what agencies can access the information.

#FortWayne #Flock #CityCouncil #CityOfFortWayne #Public #Privacy #Rights #Surveillance #ALPR #Audit #TaxPayers #PoliceState

#Canada Is Forging Ahead with Its Dangerous #Surveillance Bill

With no serious debate, including on proposed amendments, Canada is blazing full speed ahead with Bill C-22, which would threaten #encryption and increase surveillance. Also known as the Lawful Access Bill, Bill C-22 is currently moving forward quickly to a vote despite the many, many criticisms civil liberty groups and the tech industry have hurled at it.
#c22 #privacy

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/06/canada-forging-ahead-its-dangerous-surveillance-bill

Here it is: the dumbest defense of automatic license plate readers I’ve ever read. While we can subtract some points because the person writing it has no power to install/un-install/cover in garbage bags surveillance tech, he’s a regular contributor to a long-running newspaper in a major city. And since this paper is still willing to […]

Canada Is Forging Ahead with Its Dangerous Surveillance Bill | Electronic Frontier Foundation @eff.org@bsky.brid.gy www.eff.org/deeplinks/20... #surveillance #Canada #BilC22 #cdnpoli

Canada Is Forging Ahead with I...

If the FCC Bans Burner Phones, It Could Be a Privacy Nightmare — via CNET
https://www.cnet.com/news/privacy/if-the-fcc-bans-burner-phones-it-could-be-a-privacy-nightmare/
#privacy #anonimity #burnerphones #Telcos #telecom #kyc #Surveillance

"A VPN ban could be on the table as part of the ongoing internet safety crackdown, which has already seen the Government announce a social media ban for under-16s.On Monday, Technology Secretary Liz Kendall announced a law change, set to be put in place by 2027, which will ban children from social media and AI chatbots as well as introduce ‘curfews’ to stop ‘doomscrolling’.

The ban was announced in response to concerns that social media is unsafe, making children miserable, and could cause lasting damage to their mental health. On Tuesday morning, Ms Kendall hinted that further restrictions could be introduced on Virtual Private Networks (VPNs).

VPNs have become increasingly popular in the UK since the Online Safety Act was enacted. Often used by employers to create a network to share resources, VPNs can also be used to spoof or hide your browsing location, thereby sidestepping geographical restrictions. A VPN is a system which connects somebody’s device – normally a computer or smartphone – to a server in a different location. This means that the websites that person visits cannot see their IP address.

It is used by many people for privacy or to get around restrictions that websites place on who can visit a page. It can also be useful for allowing people to work from home and still access their workplace’s resources."

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/2217934/vpn-ban-table-july-labour

#UK #VPNs #Privacy #NannyState #Surveillance #BigBrother #AgeVerification #DigitalID

UK device-scanning proposal for nude image detection draws Signal criticism over mandatory on-device inspection and expanded age verification across phones and apps. 📱
Signal warns the plan risks normalizing client-side surveillance and weakening private communication protections under encrypted messaging systems. 🔐

@signalapp

🔗 https://www.techspot.com/news/112712-signal-attacks-uk-plan-scan-devices-nude-images.html

#TechNews #Privacy #Encryption #Signal #UK #OnlineSafety #Surveillance #Cybersecurity #DigitalRights #FOSS #Messaging #DataPrivacy #Security

Surveillance, you can not escape it.

#wildlife #redtailedhawk #surveillance

Alt...

A young red tailed hawk sits atop a high voltage power pole, surveying the ground below.

The UK plans to ban under-16s from major social media platforms by spring 2027, with age checks that could require more biometric and identity data. 🔒
Australia’s similar ban has seen many teens bypass restrictions, raising questions about privacy and the effectiveness of age-based enforcement. ⚖️

🔗 https://proton.me/blog/uk-social-media-ban-privacy

#TechNews #UK #SocialMedia #Privacy #AgeVerification #OnlineSafety #Proton #DataProtection #Surveillance #DigitalRights #Security #Policy #Technology #Internet #Freedom

U.S. law enforcement can purchase location data from data brokers without a warrant, the same data that would otherwise require court approval to obtain from carriers. https://indigoprivacy.com/subscribe #privacy #lawenforcement #locationdata #surveillance #indigoprivacy

THE authoritative review on science tracking, data cartels and all the other shenanigans corporate academic ex-publishers (now surveillance capitalist "data brokers") are up to:

"People Farming in #Academia: #Tracking, #Surveillance and Control in Higher Education"
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-032-25564-8_24

by the expert in the field @RenkeSiems

#highered #academicchatter #openscience #science #research

"Ring, Amazon's doorbell camera company, says its tech just makes neighbourhoods safer. Critics contend that it’s the largest privately owned surveillance dragnet in US history, with significant potential for abuse."

- Ronan Farrow

#Surveillance #Ring #Journalism

How to Watch the Knicks Parade on NYC Traffic Surveillance Cameras https://www.rawchili.com/nba/764238/ #Art #Basketball #nyc #privacy #surveillance

Alt...

How to Watch the Knicks Parade on NYC Traffic Surveillance Cameras

RE: https://piaille.fr/@media_ricochets/116766250939662186

Raison de plus de faire du vélo: échapper a la surveillance de masse(un peut, peut-être)

#velo #surveillance

"What is described by the term surveillance publishing outlines a development in which major scholarly publishers, but also other suppliers like database providers are mutating into data cartels that are not satisfied with the exploitation of the publication as data model but are expanding into ever more areas of the research life cycle as well as service and administration processes."

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-032-25564-8_24

by @RenkeSiems

#academicchatter #science #surveillance

Artist Morry Kolman will be livestreaming feeds of the NBA champions’ ticker-tape parade from NYC’s traffic cameras—and this time, the city’s Department of Transportation isn’t demanding he stop.

Alt...

How to Watch the Knicks Parade on NYC Traffic Surveillance Cameras

RE: https://mastodon.ar.al/@aral/116770333053823108

W is for Warning.

⚠️

#WWarning #WSocial #fediverse #mastodon #BigTech #surveillance #capitalism #peopleFarming

Blender Dumbass ( J.Y.Amihud ) boosted

Aral Balkan » 🌐 2026-06-18 / 2026-06-18
@aral@mastodon.ar.al

Needless to say, do not sign up for W or give them your ID information no matter how simple they eventually manage to make it.

You simply don’t need to.

You’re already in a far superior – non-corporate, federated – space.

Do not sign up for W. And warn your friends.

The only time you have any power to stop this is now. If they succeed in gaining network effects, you will be as powerless to stop them as you are with X.

And yes, they’re just another venture capital funded surveillance capitalist, people farmer, and burgeoning Nazi Bar. They just happen to be based in the EU. (As Nazi Bars traditionally have been.)

#WSocial #NoWNoX #surveillance #capitalism #BigTech #VC @_elena https://mastodon.social/@_elena/116770291207686239

Alt...

Ursula von der Leyen’z post wishing a “warm welcome to all folllwers on W” and calling it user friendly, open source, privacy preserving and “humans only/no bots”. Oh and “European” (unlike Mastodon, which I guess was made on Mars).

Needless to say, do not sign up for W or give them your ID information no matter how simple they eventually manage to make it.

You simply don’t need to.

You’re already in a far superior – non-corporate, federated – space.

Do not sign up for W. And warn your friends.

The only time you have any power to stop this is now. If they succeed in gaining network effects, you will be as powerless to stop them as you are with X.

And yes, they’re just another venture capital funded surveillance capitalist, people farmer, and burgeoning Nazi Bar. They just happen to be based in the EU. (As Nazi Bars traditionally have been.)

#WSocial #NoWNoX #surveillance #capitalism #BigTech #VC @_elena https://mastodon.social/@_elena/116770291207686239

Alt...

Ursula von der Leyen’z post wishing a “warm welcome to all folllwers on W” and calling it user friendly, open source, privacy preserving and “humans only/no bots”. Oh and “European” (unlike Mastodon, which I guess was made on Mars).

Apple Is Terrible for Your Privacy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r38Epj6ldKU

„Apple is not your friend. It’s a publicly traded corporation...”

_____
#apple #iOS #iphone #privacy #tech #surveillance

Undoing Platform Capture: Identity Without Surveillance

By Cliff Potts, CSO, and Editor-in-Chief of WPS News

Baybay City, Leyte, Philippines — June 18, 2026, 17:35 PHST

One of the most effective control surfaces on the modern internet is identity. What began as a narrow technical requirement—verifying that a user or system is authorized to perform a specific action—has expanded into a persistent mechanism for tracking, profiling, and enforcement.

This essay advances a single claim: we can fix the internet, and this is how—by separating authentication from surveillance and restoring identity to its original, limited function.

What Identity Is Supposed to Do

At its core, identity serves a simple purpose: confirmation. A system needs to know whether a request is permitted. That determination can be binary and momentary. Once the action is completed, the identity check no longer needs to persist.

Authentication answers can this be done?
It does not need to answer who are you everywhere and forever?

Early network systems reflected this restraint. Identity was contextual, temporary, and purpose-limited.

How Identity Became Control

As platforms consolidated, identity expanded beyond authentication. Persistent accounts enabled personalization, moderation, monetization, and behavioral prediction. Identity became a unifying layer through which activity across services could be correlated.

This shift transformed identity into an enforcement mechanism. Visibility, reach, and participation could be adjusted based on account history rather than on individual actions. Control no longer required direct intervention; it could be automated.

Identity became leverage.

Authentication Is Not Tracking

Authentication and tracking are often conflated, but they serve different functions. Authentication verifies permission at a point in time. Tracking aggregates behavior across time.

The technical requirement for one does not imply the necessity of the other. Systems can authenticate without retaining long-term behavioral records. Credentials can be short-lived. Context can expire.

The fusion of authentication and tracking is a design choice, not a technical mandate.

The Cost of Persistent Identity

Persistent identity creates structural risk. When a single identifier links activity across platforms, errors and penalties propagate. Appeals are difficult. An account becomes a point of failure rather than a convenience.

This concentration of identity mirrors other forms of platform capture. A small number of providers become indispensable intermediaries. Opting out becomes impractical.

Participation becomes conditional.

Corrective Measures at the Identity Layer

Undoing capture at the identity layer does not require anonymity everywhere. It requires proportionality.

Corrective measures include:

• short-lived or purpose-limited credentials
• separation of authentication from behavioral analytics
• federated or decentralized identity providers
• clear expiration of identity context after task completion

These approaches preserve trust while reducing leverage.

Why This Weakens Platform Power

Platforms derive power from continuity. Persistent identity enables cumulative profiling, automated enforcement, and behavioral conditioning. When identity becomes contextual rather than permanent, that continuity weakens.

Control must be exercised deliberately rather than automatically. Surveillance becomes optional rather than foundational.

Identity returns to being a tool, not a tether.

A Practical Boundary

Identity is necessary for some functions and inappropriate for others. Drawing that boundary explicitly restores agency without dismantling systems that require accountability.

The internet does not need universal anonymity.
It needs identity to stop doing more than it was designed to do.

This essay will be archived in the WPS News Monthly Archive, available through Amazon.

This work may be cited freely. Licensing or implementation for commercial or institutional use requires prior arrangement.

References

Camenisch, J., & Lysyanskaya, A. (2001). An efficient system for non-transferable anonymous credentials with optional anonymity revocation. EUROCRYPT Proceedings, 93–118.

Green, M., & Smith, M. (2016). Developers are not the enemy! The need for usable security APIs. IEEE Security & Privacy, 14(5), 40–46.

Solove, D. J. (2008). Understanding privacy. Harvard University Press.

Zuboff, S. (2019). The age of surveillance capitalism. PublicAffairs.

I don't think the best remedy for American surveillance capitalism is European surveillance capitalism.

#surveillance #technofeudalism

New.

Recorded Future: State Digital Surveillance Risk Landscape https://www.recordedfuture.com/research/state-digital-surveillance-risk-landscape #infosec #surveillance #privacy

Nazi Bar but make it European.

Amirite, @EUCommission?

#WSocial #EuropeWashing #NaziBar #surveillance #capitalism