Scan your passport to join our social network.

Don’t worry, it’s European.

Needless to say, unless you’re a complete and utter fool, do not join W and warn your friends not to join W either.

https://wsocial.news/

#EU #europe #W #socialNetwork #identityVerification #surveillance #privacy #humanRights #democracy #data @lain https://lain.com/objects/aaa7d9d6-331b-4a59-aeda-b2badafc15c3

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Screenshot: Mona for Mastodon 08:21 wsocial.news Log in Hosted in Europe Built on the open AT-Protocol Verified human users Trust Your Feed. We are building W:- a social media platform made in Europe, for the world. Governed by European law, data hosted on European infrastrücture, and designed for conversations among: humans around the world. Public Beta launch starts on June 17, 16:00 CET 38 days 06 hours 38 minutes 09 seconds Apply for Beta access

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Screenshot: wsocial.news: green check mark on phone reads ID verified

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Screenshot: W identity 08:23 Mona for Mastodon wsocial.news W Log in W Identity W verifies users through a separate app, W Identity. The decentralised W Identity app ensures full privacy. No personal identity data leaves your device unless you choose to share it GET IT ON Google Play Download on the App Store

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Screenshot: questions How do I identify myself? You identify yourself through W Identity, a separate app that scans your passport or national identity card and verifies you directly on your own device. You stay in control of what you share with other apps and services. Your ID data is stored only on your device unless you choose to share specific parts of it. Questions where the answer details view is closed: Must I use my real name? What happens if I lose my device?

#AI #surveillance

"THE RISE OF EMOTIONAL SURVEILLANCE

Companies are monitoring workers not just for productivity but for agreeability.

The good news, for me at least, is that the computer thinks I have a nice personality. According to an app called MorphCast, I was, in a recent meeting with my boss, generally 'amused,' 'determined,' and 'interested,' though—sue me—occasionally 'impatient.' MorphCast, you see, purports to glean insights into the depths and vagaries of human emotion using AI. It found that my affect was 'positive' and 'active,' as opposed to negative and/or passive. My attention was reasonably high. Also, the AI informed me that I wear glasses—revelatory!

The bad news is that software now purports to glean insights into the depths and vagaries of human emotion using AI, and it is coming to watch you. If it isn’t already: Morphcast, for example, has licensed its technology to a mental-health app, a program that monitors schoolchildren’s attention, and McDonald’s, which launched a promotional campaign in Portugal that scanned app users’ faces and offered them personalized coupons based on their (supposed) mood. It is one of many, many such companies doing similar work—the industry term is emotion AI or sometimes affective computing."

https://archive.ph/95Vdu

I've been rewatching the tv series, Person of Interest (2011).

It's writing covers ai usage in the context of surveillance at a meta level, with plenty of action. Very Asimovian at that level.

I recommend watching it if you never have, or re-watching it now that ai surveillance is a thing.

It captures broad strokes at the meta level. But it simplifies to make it understandable and entertaining.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Person_of_Interest_(TV_series)

#ai #surveillance #privacy #infosec #tv

#DHS can’t create vast #DNA database to track #ICE critics, lawsuit says

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/05/ice-protesters-sue-to-stop-dhs-from-seizing-dna-samples/

#privacy #surveillance

EU calls VPNs “a loophole that needs closing” in age verification push

https://cyberinsider.com/eu-calls-vpns-a-loophole-that-needs-closing-in-age-verification-push/

#EU #AgeVerification #idverification #VPN #privacy #surveillance #dystopia #technology #government

"... If I sold Google some data cables, and months later sent them an email “btw in 5 business days your cables will start sending all the data going through them to me, even though you specifically told me not to enable this feature, unless you re-disable it”, I would go to jail for hacking."

#Surveillance #Panopticon #SpyWare #Google #Gemini #Privacy #Security #Email

"We're entering an era of automated, turbo-charged assaults on privacy – and as tech companies give the government new AI-driven means of monitoring Americans at a massive scale, we're also seeing a bipartisan resistance from elected leaders to update the privacy rules of engagement for a new future.

This dynamic was witnessed this past week in the bipartisan passage of an extension to a key spy bill, but also through a deluge of less-publicized privacy-eroding bills collectively defining a new era of government-obtainable user data.

Evolving Surveillance Threats
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, or FISA, has long served as a controversial pillar of how the U.S. conducts surveillance abroad. It allows federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies to intercept the digital communications of foreign nationals located outside the United States without warrants, and is one of the most controversial pillars of modern surveillance policy.

At the center of FISA is a secretive court that reviews and approves government requests to conduct surveillance, without the knowledge of the person being monitored. While intended to target foreign individuals outside the United States, FISA surveillance inevitably sweeps more broadly. Because online networks are global, FISA surveillance can also extend to individuals who are not themselves under investigation. As a result, entirely domestic conversations can be collected, stored, and queried by intelligence agencies without requiring a traditional warrant.

Despite controversy over FISA, a bipartisan coalition within the U.S. House of Representatives just approved a three-year extension of the spy power program, declining to make any revisions."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/era-mass-surveillance-taking-shape-204900849.html

#USA #Surveillance #MassSurveillance #FISA #PoliceState

"Lawsuit accuses DHS of plugging DNA database into ICE surveillance machine.

Four protesters are suing to stop the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from seizing DNA samples from Americans arrested while peacefully protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity.

In a complaint filed in an Illinois district court on Wednesday, protesters arrested at the Broadview ICE facility during “Operation Midway Blitz”—when thousands of federal agents flooded Chicago—demanded an injunction to stop alleged violations of the First and Fourth Amendments, as well as the Administrative Procedure Act.

They have accused the federal government of “wrongfully arresting peaceful protesters, collecting their DNA, uploading their genetic profiles to government databases, and storing their DNA samples in federal labs—permanently.”

Out of 92 non-immigration arrests at Broadview, they emphasized, only one protester was convicted. That conviction was based on pleading guilty to concealing a prior felony charge and “had nothing to do with the protests at Broadview,” the protesters said."

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/05/ice-protesters-sue-to-stop-dhs-from-seizing-dna-samples/

#USA #Surveillance #ICE #DNA #DHS #PoliceState

No more back doors!

Apple Warns Canada's Bill C-22 Could Force Encryption Backdoors

https://www.macrumors.com/2026/05/08/apple-warns-canada-bill-force-encryption-backdoors/

#Apple #Canada #Encryption #Vulnerability #Privacy #Surveillance #Security #Tech

The ACLU sued a landlord for forcing AI surveillance into tenants' homes.

This isn't a dystopia. It's just a Friday.

Your rental is watching you. Here's how to lock them out.

Ep 25 → impracticalprivacy.com

#Surveillance #Privacy #TenantRights #IoT #surveillancecapitalism #privacymatters #rentersrights #smarthome #surveillancestate #lease

"We Found The Companies Selling Your Biometric Data to ICE"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExvV2mbXc7A

#ICE #MobileFortify #AI #surveillance

#ICE Plans to Develop Own #SmartGlasses to ‘Supplement’ Its #FacialRecognition App

https://www.404media.co/ice-plans-to-develop-own-smart-glasses-to-supplement-its-facial-recognition-app/

#FRT #privacy #DHS #surveillance

Come on! Of course Meta has removed end-to-end encryption from Instagram. Meta is in bed with the surveillance state. They need to read your DMs to know how you think in order to control you when Digital ID and CBDCs, underpinned by AI surveillance, are enforced.

#ai #surveillance #fascism #tech #spooky #palantir

An investigator (with access to very sensitive information) with Switzerland’s Federal Police (+/- equivalent to the FBI), was found to have been working for the mafia.
Meanwhile, the government wants to update the existing surveillance law and significantly expand state surveillance in the country.
what could go wrong ?

#switzerland #privacy #surveillance #security #cyber

Meta removed E2EE from Instagram DMs today, May 8, ending private encrypted chats and enabling broader message scanning for abuse detection 📩🔓
The change follows global pressure tied to CSAM enforcement, raising transparency and user-control concerns around private communication 🕵️‍♂️⚠️

🔗 https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/news/story/instagram-removes-end-to-end-encryption-in-messages-your-dm-chats-are-longer-private-2908633-2026-05-08

#TechNews #Instagram #Facebook #Meta #E2EE #Privacy #Encryption #Messaging #CyberSecurity #WhatsApp #ChatControl #Surveillance #FOSS #Security #SocialMedia #DataPrivacy

A small walkable area where you are expected to use cars or electric trikes with parcels delivered by robot, are surrounded by even more CCTV than you would get in Britain feeding Woven City AI Vision Engine, and no-one goes outside.

"Toyota built a $10 billion private utopia—what’s going on in there?
Woven City is a privacy nightmare but could be helpful to an OEM desperate to be more."

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/05/inside-toyotas-10b-private-utopia-big-ideas-few-people-cameras-everywhere/

#Japan #transport #Toyota #surveillance

🌎 Mental privacy is one important cog in a much larger interconnected tech surveillance issue.

#mentalprivacy #ai #digitalcommons #surveillance #climatecrisis #LLM #chatbot

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Text connecting climate and other societal crisis to tech surveillance.

A little break from "#TheranasAI" court coverage...

You know that thing where you just want to read an article and instead spend 4 minutes clicking motorcycles for Google? Wrote about why that's not a bug, it's the whole point — and why it keeps getting worse.

reCAPTCHA: from digitizing books to mandatory phone verification. Same company. Very different ambitions.

https://blog.ppb1701.com/prove-youre-human-pay-with-your-data

#blog #cloudflare #google #privacy #recaptcha #surveillance #userhostile #bigtech

Free software offers trust and privacy; #Ring offers mass surveillance: https://u.fsf.org/4aw #Flock #privacy #surveillance

Mickey Mouse is watching you: Disneyland deploys facial recognition

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/28/disneyland-entrance-facial-recognition

#privacy #security #surveillance #facialrecognition #disney #disneyland #california

"Since December 2025, the European Union and the United States of America have been negotiating an agreement to exchange information for security screenings and identity verification related to border procedures and visa applications. The European Commission’s current proposal, published by Statewatch, manifestly violates EU law. It goes much further than their limited mandate for negotiation granted by the Council of the EU and against essential data protection safeguards set out by the European Data Protection Authorities. Anyone’s data exchanged under this proposed agreement could be used for a wide range of purposes. This includes preventing or arresting people travelling to the USA who have voiced opposition to US policies in Europe, or for automated discriminatory profiling of travellers, including EU citizens."

https://www.statewatch.org/analyses/2026/eu-us-data-exchange-proposal-in-conflict-with-eu-laws/

#EU #USA #DataProtection #Surveillance #DiscriminatoryProfiling #CivilLiberties

When Big Tech is warning Canadians about their privacy you know it is serious. @OpenMediaOrg #cdnpoli #Canada #billC22 #surveillance #privacy

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/apple-argues-liberals-lawful-access-bill-could-put-users-personal-data-at-risk-9.7190092

Dynamic pricing seems to ask: “What are the conditions right now?” Surveillance pricing asks: “Who are you, and how much can we extract from you?”

https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2026/05/05/Browsing-History-Grocery-Bill/

I feel like this is close to @pluralistic 's heart

#CDNPoli #Canada #surveillance #surveillancePricing

#FTC to ban #DataBroker #Kochava from selling Americans’ location data

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/ftc-to-ban-data-broker-kochava-from-selling-americans-location-data/

#privacy #surveillance

Instagram will no longer encrypt chats starting this Friday

Meta announced that IG will officially discontinue end-to-end encryption feature on May 8th.

All DMs will be decrypted once it reaches Meta's servers.

https://cybersecuritynews.com/instagram-end-encryption-direct-messages/

#Meta #Instagram #privacy #surveillance #security #enshittification #messaging #socialmedia #technology

It'll just scan a user's face to recognize if they are a teen or not.

No big deal.

Meta AI will analyze faces of teen users 'but it's not face recognition'

https://9to5mac.com/2026/05/05/meta-ai-will-analyze-faces-of-teen-users-but-its-not-face-recognition/

#Meta #AI #Privacy #Surveillance #Tech

Texas Observer: As License Plate Readers Expand in Texas, Privacy Advocates Are Fighting Back

The Kyle City Council voted to apply for more state grant money for Flock Safety cameras despite a string of local-level contract cancellations of the booming surveillance company’s services.

https://www.texasobserver.org/license-plate-readers-texas-privacy-advocates/

#flock #privacy #fascism #surveillance #bigbrother

Shut Down Turnkey #Totalitarianism

William Binney, the #NSA #surveillance architect-turned-whistleblower, called it the "turnkey #totalitarian state." Whoever sits in power gains access to a boundless surveillance empire that scorns #privacy and crushes #dissent. Politicians will come and go, but you can help us claw the tools of oppression out of government hands.
#security #whistleblower

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/04/claw-back

Utah’s New Law Targeting VPNs Goes Into Effect Next Week

Next week Utah will become the first state in the nation to target the use of VPNs to avoid legally mandated age-verification gates. Advocates in states like Wisconsin successfully forced the removal of similar provisions due to constitutional and technical concerns

#utah #privacy #surveillance #VPN #ageverification #technology #tech

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/04/utahs-new-law-regulating-vpns-goes-effect-next-week

Associate Press wins a Pulitzer for showing how across the world, surveillance technology – often made by Silicon Valley and sold with US government blessing despite sanctions – is increasingly monitoring the moves of citizens who have done nothing wrong.

#Tech #Surveillance #SiliconValley #Journalism
https://apnews.com/surveillance-digital-cage

Uncovering Global #Telecom Exploitation by Covert #Surveillance Actors

https://citizenlab.ca/research/uncovering-global-telecom-exploitation-by-covert-surveillance-actors/

#privacy