You'll have the right to be angry about Vault 7 only after you boycott dragnet #surveillance data providers like Google, Microsoft, Skype, Facebook and LinkedIn. The true threat is coming from the private sector surveillance profiteers.

James Scott, Senior Fellow, Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology

#quote #quotes

In the era of #surveillance of the masses, I like to use phrases like terrorists, assassinate, bomb, explosions, attack, weapons of mass destruction, and so on in my on-line activities to screw up the automated government surveillance software.

Steven Magee

#quote #quotes

"Discord alternatives" searches jump 10,000% overnight as the gaming platform introduces global age verification — Is a total collapse imminent?

https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/discord-alternative-search-10000-percent-stoat

#Discord #AgeVerification #IDverification #privacy #surveillance #enshittification #dystopia #security #technology #gaming #messaging #socialmedia

Online #privacy is the cornerstone of a democratic cyberspace, a fundamental right that empowers individuals to shape their digital identity. It's not just about hiding; it's about the power to choose what facets of our lives we share in the virtual arena. As #technology advances, the call to preserve online privacy becomes more urgent, guiding us towards a future where the digital landscape is a reflection of our choices, not an open book for #surveillance.

James William Steven Parker

#quote

In a world where digital shadows loom larger than ever, Bronva emerged as a sanctuary against the encroachment of #surveillance. Inspired by the revelations of Edward Snowden, I felt compelled to create a haven where online privacy isn't a luxury but a fundamental right.

James William Steven Parker

#quote #quotes

Ring's 'Search Party' is dystopian surveillance accelerationism.

Ring's 'Search Party' is dystopian surveillance accelerationism.#Ring #Surveillance

"By housing TikTok’s data on Oracle’s cloud infrastructure—a firm whose multibillion-dollar existence is owed in part to U.S. intelligence and law enforcement contracts, and whose co-founder Larry Ellison recently bragged about AI ushering in an era where “citizens are on their best behavior”—the government has finally achieved its aim of securing the app by integrating it into its domestic surveillance dragnet. Considering the drive to secure TikTok was driven by fears of what the notoriously repressive nation of China might do with our private data, this outcome is, at the very least, highly ironic.

The technical wizardry of this surveillance relies on your Mobile Advertising ID, or MAID, a unique string of alphanumeric characters assigned to every smartphone. Every time an app, be it TikTok or a simple weather tracker, makes a bid to show you an advertisement, if your location services are enabled, it shares both your MAID and your precise GPS coordinates to thousands of private bidders. In the past, this metadata has been used by the Pentagon to identify targets.

Data brokers like Venntel and Babel Street harvest these “bid-stream” crumbs into massive, searchable oceans of movement. For ICE, this means they no longer need a wiretap; they can access a digital twin of your life, where your TikTok scrolling habits are pinned to a physical map of your home, workplace, and your child’s school or day care."

https://newrepublic.com/article/205956/americanized-tiktok-backdoor-ice-surveillance

#USA #SocialMedia #TikTok #Oracle #Surveillance #Censorship #ICE #Immigration #Trump

With #Ring, #America's Consumers Built a #Surveillance Dragnet
Ring's '#SearchParty' is dystopian surveillance accelerationism.
It does not take an imagination of any sort to envision this being tweaked to work against suspected criminals, undocumented immigrants, or others deemed ‘suspicious’ by people in the neighborhood. Many of these use cases are how Ring has been used by people on its dystopian “Neighbors” app for years.
https://www.404media.co/with-ring-american-consumers-built-a-surveillance-dragnet/
https://archive.ph/mp3qO

'What a great way to kill your community': Discord users are furious about its new age verification checks — and are now hunting for alternatives

The decision has sparked a wave of online anger not seen since Disney+ suspended Jimmy Kimmel.

https://www.techradar.com/computing/software/what-a-great-way-to-kill-your-community-discord-users-are-furious-about-its-new-age-verification-checks-and-are-now-hunting-for-alternatives

#Discord #AgeVerification #IDverification #privacy #surveillance #enshittification #dystopia #security #technology #gaming #messaging #socialmedia

School "safety" cameras abused for surveillance on a massive scale. One school district in Texas:

"Over a one-month period from December 2025 through early January, more than 3,100 police agencies conducted more than 733,000 searches on the district’s cameras..."

"Local police aid ICE by tapping school cameras amid Trump’s immigration crackdown"

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/10/ice-school-cameras-police-license-plates

#surveillance #schools #immigration #texas #ice

Classified hearing erupted in frustration as officials refused to say whether Trump wants to renew powerful surveillance law | CNN Politics

https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/09/politics/fisa-section-702-renewal-classified-hearing-frustration

#USPol #surveillance #Republicans #MAGA #GOP #Trump #politics #press

Discord will default all accounts to "teen" mode next month, requiring face scans or ID for full access to age-restricted servers. 📱
Most skip via account inference, but unverified users face filters, DM limits, and blocked Stage channels—raising privacy concerns. 🔒

🔗 https://www.theverge.com/tech/875309/discord-age-verification-global-roll-out

#TechNews #Discord #Privacy #AgeVerification #Biometrics #Gaming #Data #Security #DigitalRights #Surveillance #ID #FacialRecognition #UserRights #Tech #Regulation #Game #Games

Featured story: By converting a digital camera to reveal infrared light, photographer Jordan Vonderhaar turns surveillance tech back on itself, with bright foliage highlighting the intensity of Texas' border militarization. https://www.texasobserver.org/the-river-and-the-fever-dream-photo-essay/

#photography #border #Immigration #tech #surveillance #Texas

Alt...

Seen in infrared light, foliage glows bright red while a cluster of troops beyond the border's barbed-wire wall are highlighted in brown. A tall border barrier stretches across the horizon behind them.

Heads up to folks in the Davis/Sacramento area:

Nugget Market is now using facial recognition surveillance in its stores according to someone who posted to a campus list I'm on.

Another reason to join Davis Food Co-op (although I hear the security presence there is also up...but at least Co-op members have the ability to vote a board out and give feedback that is listened to). #DavisCA #Privacy #Surveillance

Alt...

Outside glass entrance to a grocery store. A grey sign with white writing and the icon of a surveillance camera says "For Guest and Associate Safety, Facial Recognition Technology is in use to collect and retain biometric identifier information."

Hey, speaking of #infosec disasters on the horizon... #Discord has announced global age verification. You know, face scans and ID.

Discord. The company that less than six months ago (October 2025) had an ID verification breach that exposed government-issued ID photos—including driver’s licenses and passports—of approximately 70,000 users.

The #enshittification continues apace.

Y’all know we’re gonna have to form a rebel army and take out the data centers, right? I mean, you’ve put it in the daytimer?

https://discord.com/press-releases/discord-launches-teen-by-default-settings-globally

#panopticon #palantir #surveillance

Nineteen civil society groups warn Switzerland’s plan to expand data retention would mean mass, long-term metadata storage and decryption support from online services, with major privacy and rights implications 🕵️

They urge the government to drop blanket retention and align with top EU human rights standards instead ⚖️

🔗 https://edri.org/our-work/open-letter-civil-society-concerned-about-extensive-and-indiscriminate-data-retention-regime-in-switzerland/

#TechNews #Privacy #Surveillance #Switzerland #Data #HumanRights #EU #Security #Freedom #DigitalRights #Law #Policy #Society #Accountability #Government

Fuel your anti- #BigTech rage by reviewing all the horror stories from last month:

https://blog.rebeltechalliance.org/news-roundup-jan-26/

Including a corker about how the encryption of #WhatsApp is a mirage!

A theme developing is X and Meta's 'pivot-to-paedo' - and January was full of such stories. Just when you think tech bros can't get any worse!

#privacy #surveillance #surveillancecapitalism

Data Poisoning: The Fatal Flaw in Mass Surveillance
#Surveillance #technology #AI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJf4SNuDnoI

States are probing “surveillance pricing,” where retailers use personal and location data to set individualized prices, led by a new California privacy investigation. 🕵️
The cases highlight opaque algorithmic pricing, discrimination risks, and pressure for stronger transparency and data rights rules. ⚖️

🔗 https://news.bloomberglaw.com/privacy-and-data-security/states-probe-firms-using-personal-data-location-to-set-prices

#TechNews #Privacy #Data #Surveillance #Pricing #Algorithms #CCPA #California #Retail #Grocery #Hotels #AI #ConsumerRights #Transparency #Regulation #BigData #USA #US

FBI agents reportedly failed to access a Washington Post reporter’s iPhone after a raid — the device was in Apple’s Lockdown Mode. 🔒
Court records suggest the feature effectively blocked access, highlighting limits of digital forensics vs. user privacy. ⚖️

🔗 https://www.404media.co/fbi-couldnt-get-into-wapo-reporters-iphone-because-it-had-lockdown-mode-enabled/

#TechNews #Privacy #Security #Cybersecurity #iPhone #Mac #iOS #MacOS #Apple #Encryption #FBI #Data #Journalism #Rights #Digital #iPhone #Cybersecurity #Surveillance #Infosec #Accountability #WashingtonPost

Freedom of Speech or plain old CENSORSHIP? How do these guys still have the nerve to preach Europeans about freedom of speech? This is State-led TOTAL SURVEILLANCE that has absolutely nothing to do with freedom.

"Since last March, the Department of Health and Human Services has been using AI tools from Palantir to screen and audit grants, grant applications, and job descriptions for noncompliance with President Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting “gender ideology” and anything related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), according to a recently published inventory of all use cases HHS had for AI in 2025.

Neither Palantir nor HHS has publicly announced that the company’s software was being used for these purposes. During the first year of Trump’s second term, Palantir earned more than $35 million in payments and obligations from HHS alone. None of the descriptions for these transactions mention this work targeting DEI or “gender ideology.”

The audits have been taking place within HHS’s Administration for Children and Families (ACF), which funds family and child welfare and oversees the foster and adoption systems. Palantir is the sole contractor charged with making a list of “position descriptions that may need to be adjusted for alignment with recent executive orders.”

In addition to Palantir, the startup Credal AI—which was founded by two Palantir alumni—helped ACF audit “existing grants and new grant applications.” The “AI-based” grant review process, the inventory says, “reviews application submission files and generates initial flags and priorities for discussion.” All relevant information is then routed to the ACF Program Office for final review."

https://www.wired.com/story/hhs-is-using-ai-tools-from-palantir-to-target-dei-and-gender-ideology-in-grants/

#USA #Trump #Surveillance #Palantir #ChildWelfare #DEI #GenderIdeology

LLMs = surveillance

Just say no to yet more panopticonic levels of mass surveillance, esp by strangers who dont have your best interests at heart.

Data lives forever and can be copied around infinitely...

#LLM
#surveillance
#panopticon

🚀 Episode 12 – “Hijacked Homework”

We talk five layers of classroom surveillance—from free‑tier badge apps that harvest gold‑star data to AI‑tutors that listen to every question.

🎙️ Get the legal low‑down (FERPA, COPPA, GDPR) and a practical, low‑cost privacy toolkit (burner tablets, VPNs, paper opt‑outs, data‑deletion requests, contract advocacy)

👉 Tune in:
https://impracticalprivacy.com

#Privacy #EdTech #Surveillance #Data #DataProtection #Surveillancecapitalism #Education

"Many years on from the first use of facial recognition technology by police in the UK, and half a decade since the Court of Appeal ruled against South Wales Police in Liberty’s world-first legal challenge to the technology, the public is finally being given the chance to have its say on facial recognition."

#UKPol #Surveillance #CCTV #FacialRecognition

https://www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/issue/facial-recognition-consultation-have-your-say/

"Reflectacles are designed to fool facial recognition systems that use infrared for illumination and systems using 3D infrared mapping/scanning. Two analog technologies are used to maintain your privacy: infrared blocking lenses and reflective frames. Each design has its own purpose."

https://www.reflectacles.com/#home #Privacy #Surveillance

"ICE Out of Our Faces Act" would ban #ICE & #CBP use of #facialRecognition

The bill would make it "unlawful for any covered #immigration officer to acquire, possess, access, or use in the US—(1) any #biometric #surveillance system; or (2) info derived from a biometric surveillance system operated by another entity." All data collected from such systems in the past would have to be deleted. The proposed ban extends to cover other tech, such as #voiceRecognition.
#privacy

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/02/ice-out-of-our-faces-act-would-ban-ice-and-cbp-use-of-facial-recognition/

#InspectorGeneral Investigating Whether ICE's #Surveillance Tech Breaks the Law

#DHS’s #IG is investigating potential #privacy abuses associated with #Immigrations & Customs Enforcement’s surveillance & #biometric data programs, according to a letter sent to two senators.

Last week, we reported that Senators Mark Warner & Tim Kaine demanded that DHS inspector general Joseph Cuffari investigate immigration-related surveillance programs across DHS, #CBP , # #ICE.

https://www.404media.co/inspector-general-investigating-whether-ices-surveillance-tech-breaks-the-law/

ICE and CBP’s Face-Recognition App Can’t Actually Verify Who People Are

„ICE has used #MobileFortify to identify immigrants and citizens alike over 100,000 times, by one estimate. It wasn't built to work like that—and only got approved after #DHS abandoned its own #privacy rules….“

https://www.wired.com/story/cbp-ice-dhs-mobile-fortify-face-recognition-verify-identity/

#ICE #Surveillance #USA #Fascism

The Zine from 404media About ICE Surveillance Is Here!

https://www.404media.co/icezine/

"You are holding a zine about the surveillance tools used by ICE, and what we have learned so far about how you can resist this technology.

This zine was reported and written by 404 Media, a journalist-owned investigative website and now, we suppose, a print publication. Our status as a small outfit of reporters who own the means of production (a website), means that we have the freedom to report on the topics we believe are the most important. For the last year, that has been Donald Trumpʼs mass deportation
campaign, and the technology powering it."

PDF Zine: https://www.404media.co/content/files/2026/02/404ICEZINE.pdf

#Zine #Surveillance #USA #ICE #Tech #Technology