Age verification expanding from websites to operating systems; California’s 2027 law requires OS setup age collection sharing age ranges to apps 🔐
OS-level age signals may enable app enforcement and future ID or biometric verification, raising privacy and open-source concerns 🔒

🔗 https://me.pcmag.com/en/security/37364/your-computer-may-soon-require-an-age-check-and-it-might-not-take-no-for-an-answer

#TechNews #AgeVerification #OperatingSystems #OS #Privacy #DigitalRights #California #California #Law #Tech #DataProtection #Surveillance #OpenSource #FOSS #Biometrics #BigTech #Regulation

Apple and Google urge Canada’s Parliament to amend Bill C-22 to require court approval before ministers can compel changes to encryption or systems 🔐
Bill C-22 also mandates up to one-year metadata retention and enables secret ministerial technical-capability orders without prior court review ⚖️

🔗 https://thenextweb.com/news/apple-google-canada-c22-lawful-access-judicial-oversight

#TechNews #Apple #Google #Canada #BillC22 #Encryption #Privacy #Surveillance #LawfulAccess #Law #DataRetention #DigitalRights #CyberSecurity #Internet #Parliament #Government

A Language Insufficiency Hypothesis argues that legal systems falsely treat words as precise instruments despite the inherent instability of language. Responding to a video (in comments), I critique how courts rely on dictionaries, punctuation rules, and corpus linguistics to manufacture definitive meanings where none naturally exist.
👉 https://philosophics.blog/2026/05/28/i-told-you-so-your-honour/?utm_source=masto&utm_medium=social
#philosophy #history #video #language #law #reading #writing #blog #podcast #LanguageInsufficiencyHypothesis #response #politics #youtube

Wow. Until now the New York Times has been little more than free advertising disguised as news for these new AI tech companies like OpenAI or Anthropic. If the New York Times is allowing op-eds accusing the Democratic Party of falling for the hype about LLMs (the hype about it soon becoming sentient and taking over the world) against all of the best expert opinion to the contrary, then The Times are clearly beginning to see a wave of revolt rising against this technology. They are probably trying to do a little damage control for all the propaganda they have been doing until now.

#tech #AI #LLMs #TechPolicy #Policy #Law

RE: https://sfba.social/@gypsyvegan/116649711978778077

Despicable

#DOJ launches a criminal investigation into #Trump #rape survivor #EJeanCarroll

The investigation is focused on whether Carroll committed perjury in testimony tied to her 2 civil lawsuits against Trump–one when testifying about the #SexualAssault by Trump in a NY department store in the mid-1990s, & another for defaming her when in 2019 he repeatedly denied the assault, said she wasn’t his type & claimed she made it up to boost book sales.

#law #LegalEthics
https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/27/politics/exclusive-justice-department-launched-e-jean-carroll-investigation

#ICE detainees are dying by #suicide at an 'alarming' rate, AP investigation finds

Brayan Rayo Garzon was distraught. Detained by ICE, he was on his fourth day of #isolation in a Missouri jail as he battled the fevers & chills of #COVID-19.

His request for #MentalHealth treatment had been put off, records show, & staff had forbidden Rayo from making his nightly call to his mother as a precaution intended to prevent the spread of illness.

#law #HumanRights #PublicHealth
https://apnews.com/article/ice-suicide-deaths-detention-custody-d902169055292dfd27f5079e609e86ad

Emily Waldorf faced a life-threatening miscarriage.

Even after she met the hospital’s CEO, called the governor and hired a lawyer, she couldn’t get care in the country’s “most pro-life state.”
https://www.propublica.org/article/arkansas-abortion-ban-miscarriage-care?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post

#News #Arkansas #Women #Health #Law #Abortion #Medicine #USPolitics

#GiftArticle

How #PredictionMarkets & #Crypto Firms Steamrolled a #Watchdog Agency With Trump’s Blessings

Last fall, a high-stakes struggle unfolded inside the red brick walls of an obscure federal agency.

Three companies — each with ties to the #Trump family’s business empire — needed the Commodity Futures Trading Commission [#CFTC] to bless their ambitions in the white-hot field of prediction markets.

#law #business #oversight #regulation #fraud #kleptocracy
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/24/us/how-prediction-markets-and-crypto-firms-steamrolled-a-watchdog-agency.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

The Guardian: Florida biologist fired over Charlie Kirk post wins $485,000 settlement

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/22/florida-biologist-fired-charlie-kirk-post-wins-settlement

#1stamendment #legal #law #uspol

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The state’s fish and wildlife conservation commission (FWC) fired biologist Brittney Brown in September after she reposted a meme on her personal Instagram account that claimed Kirk wouldn’t care about children being shot in their classrooms. She filed a lawsuit seeking reinstatement, saying she struggled to find other work because the state agency is the regulatory body for her research specialization in bird conservation. Brown on Thursday signed a $485,000 settlement agreement with agency directors that covers backpay, damages and attorney costs. She agreed as part of the deal to not seek future employment at the agency.

Judge dismisses human smuggling charges against #KilmarAbregoGarcia, who was mistakenly deported

#law #immigration #Trump #rendition
https://apnews.com/article/kilmar-abrego-garcia-el-salvador-deportation-smuggling-035a2b2ded3ede65e77566cdf12b107f

“This week I discovered the same pattern, executed by Google. Google Chrome is reaching into users' machines and writing a 4 GB on-device AI model file to disk without asking. The file is named weights.bin. It lives in OptGuideOnDeviceModel. It is the weights for Gemini Nano, Google's on-device LLM. Chrome did not ask. Chrome does not surface it. If the user deletes it, Chrome re-downloads it.”

https://www.thatprivacyguy.com/blog/chrome-silent-nano-install/

#Google #AI #Chrome #Privacy #Law #Surveillance

PetaPixel: Disneyland Sued Over Use of Facial Recognition Tech at Park Entrances. “A visitor is suing Disneyland for $5 million for allegedly failing to properly disclose the use of facial-recognition technology at park entrances and collecting sensitive data on guests. Summer Christine Duffield of Riverside County filed the lawsuit following a May 10 visit to Disneyland and its sister park, […]

Iowa Capital Dispatch: Grinnell College faces class-action lawsuit alleging privacy violations. “The lawsuit alleges that in July 2024, Eyal Hanfling visited the college’s website and that his information was then shared with third parties. The lawsuit seeks damages for Hanfling and a putative class of similarly situated users who were allegedly harmed by the site.”

Hoodline San Francisco: SF Lawyers Say Hisense TVs Turn Your Living Room Into a Spy Den. “San Francisco lawyers say Hisense USA has turned millions of its smart TVs into always-on surveillance tools, according to a federal class-action lawsuit filed last Tuesday. The complaint alleges the sets’ automatic content recognition, or ACR, can grab snapshots of what is on a screen as often as every […]

The knife of the guillotine has been called the National Razor. What does the razor do but shave the head of the king in order to prepare it for the block, and what is the block but the throne of the people? — William Hazlitt, ‘On Corporate Bodies’ (1821)
#philosophy #history #politics #law #france #justice #revolution #nokings

LA Times: Disney accused of misusing facial recognition technology

"...A visitor has filed a $5-million lawsuit against Disneyland for allegedly failing to properly disclose the use of facial-recognition technology at park and collecting sensitive data on guests...."

(paywall)
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2026-05-20/disney-faces-5-million-lawsuit-over-use-of-facial-recognition-technology

#lawsuit #disney #privacy #bigbrother #law

MinnPost: Minnesota House passes social media protections for minors, drawing opposition from tech industry group. “Some of the safety features in the bill include requiring parental consent for children signing up for social media accounts; setting privacy settings to the strongest levels by default; prohibiting targeted ads; and limiting addictive features such as infinite scrolling and video […]

A stillbirth & #Facebook post expressing her grief landed her in prison for >2 years. Experts say it’s part of a pattern

…Rousseau was arrested & charged with felony manslaughter before she was convicted in Nevada, where #abortion is LEGAL, under what legal experts say is a vague & broadly written statute that makes it a crime for any woman to take drugs [she only took cinnamon] with the intent to terminate a pregnancy.…

#SCOTUS #law #ReproductiveRights #MaleSupremacy
https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/16/us/abortion-rights-pregnancy-outcomes-criminalized

Gizmodo: FCC Attempts to Solve Robocall Problem by Potentially Creating Even Bigger Privacy Problem. “Among other sweeping changes, the era of the burner phone could end with the rollout of new ‘Know Your Customer’ rules voted on by the FCC on April 30, as noted by the blog of the D.C. telecom law firm Wiley Rein. Customers would, according to the proposed rules, have to present a government […]

Future of Privacy Forum: The EU Commission’s Approach to Age Verification: Mobile Apps, DSA Enforcement, and Challenging National Social Media Bans. “This blog post outlines the Commission’s emerging strategic approach to the implementation of EU-wide age verification measures, provides an analysis of the legal framework envisioned for their deployment, and includes notes on the […]

Hours after ProPublica reported on how a federal probe of a drugs-for-votes scheme in Puerto Rico's prisons got quashed after the 2024 elections, some of the territory’s political leaders made public calls for investigations into the allegations.
https://www.propublica.org/article/puerto-rico-trump-drugs-votes-prisons-elections-jenniffer-gonzalez-colon?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post

#News #PuertoRico #Election #Government #USPolitics #Law #Legal

#Trump admin sows “confusion” as it tries to reopen #StraitOfHormuz [they just have no idea what they’re doing]

The Trump admin’s approach to the #IranWar over the past 24 hrs has pinballed from declarations that a tenuous ceasefire was holding & military operations were over to new threats of bombing the Islamic Republic.

#idiocracy #kakistocracy #US #Iran #war #RulesOfWar #law #Congress #WarPowers #geopolitics #NationalSecurity #MiddleEast #economy #MarketManipulation
https://apnews.com/article/trump-iran-war-confusion-messaging-contradiction-20471bb90ad7abd6381a761fffeb8e96

📰 #Law & #Technology updates from https://law.yale.edu/isp

“Congrats to @ignaciocofone.bsky.social fone on Canadian Privacy Law: Cases and Materials (Emond Publishing), a casebook comprehensively covering Canada’s privacy framework across private law, statutes, and the Charter. G...”

https://bsky.app/profile/yaleisp.bsky.social/post/3ml6uqtgro222

Iranian airstrikes have damaged or destroyed at least 228 structures or pieces of equipment at #US #military sites across the #MiddleEast since the #war began, hitting hangars, barracks, fuel depots, aircraft & key radar, communications & air defense equipment, acc/to a WaPo analysis of satellite imagery. The amount of destruction is far larger than what has been publicly acknowledged by the #Trump admin or previously reported.

#IranWar #Iran #law #Congress #WarPowers #NationalSecurity

The threat of air attacks rendered some of the #US bases in the region too dangerous to staff at normal levels, & commanders moved most of the personnel from these sites out of the range of Iranian fire at the start of the #war, ofcls said.

Since the start of the war on Feb 28, seven service members have died in strikes on US facilities in the region — six in #Kuwait & one in #SaudiArabia — & >400 troops have suffered injuries as of late April, the US #military said.

#IranWar #Iran #Trump #law

…Satellite imagery of the #MiddleEast is unusually difficult to acquire at present. 2 of the largest commercial providers, Vantor & Planet, have complied with requests from the #US govt—their biggest customer—to limit, delay or indefinitely withhold the publication of imagery of the region [#censorship] while the #war is ongoing, making it difficult or impossible to assess #Iran’s counterstrikes. Those restrictions began less than 2 weeks into the war.

#IranWar #Trump #law #Congress #WarPowers

#Iran has hit far more #US military assets than reported [or admitted to by the #Trump admin], satellite images show

Imagery published by Iranian state-affiliated media & verified by The Post shows damage to at least 228 structures or pieces of equipment at US #military sites.

#TrumpsWar #IranWar #war #RulesOfWar #law #Congress #WarPowers #geopolitics #NationalSecurity #MiddleEast
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2026/05/06/iran-us-bases-satellite-images/

Investigators found that leaders of a prison gang in Puerto Rico were selling inmates drugs in exchange for voting for Gov. Jenniffer González-Colón, a longtime Republican.

After Trump’s election, prosecutors were told not to pursue charges.
https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-doj-puerto-rico-election-fraud-prison-drugs-votes?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post

#News #PuertoRico #USPolitics #Law #Legal #Fraud #Election #Prison #Vote

📰 #Law & #Technology updates from https://law.yale.edu/isp

“Big congrats to ISP Fellow María P. Angel on her new publication, "From Privacy to the Data Economy: The FTC’s Reframing of Its Regulatory Priorities," out in the Spring 2026 issue of the Arizona state Law Journal.

http...”

https://bsky.app/profile/yaleisp.bsky.social/post/3ml4i5vwgdc2m

Utah’s VPN Ban Law Goes Into Effect in Age Verification Escalation

Utah is attempting to cover up the failures of their age verification law by effectively banning VPNs.

https://www.freezenet.ca/utahs-vpn-ban-law-goes-into-effect-in-age-verification-escalation/

#Censorship #News #Privacy #Security #AgeVerification #encryption #law #legislation #US #Utah #VPN

#SCOTUS restores #access to #abortion pill #mifepristone through telehealth, mail & pharmacies

#law #health #medicine #AbortionIsHealthcare #WomensRights #ReproductiveRights #Republicans #ViolenceAgainstWomen
https://apnews.com/article/abortion-pills-mifepristone-supreme-court-louisiana-0533e83d67148fdfec53b1d0d30c1e8a

⚖️ Looking for an exciting path into litigation, #IT #law and digital rights? We’ve got you covered! We are seeking bright new people to support our work for #privacy and #GDPR enforcement from November 2026 onwards. 📆

❗ You are interested and hold a law degree from an EEA university? 🇪🇺 Apply now! https://noyb.eu/en/traineeship

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Image: illustration of diverse group of young lawyers Text: Traineeship Opportunity, apply now, make privacy real, noyb.eu

Out today: Flock has sold nearly 92,000 cameras to local police departments—including more than 10,000 in #Texas, according to an open source map.

Privacy advocates are determined to bring that number down, and they're starting to get their way. https://www.texasobserver.org/license-plate-readers-texas-privacy-advocates/

#privacy #tech #police #ICE #law #politics #USpol #news

Out today: Thanks to #Texas' Court of Criminal Appeals, no one on death row has been granted a new trial under a law meant to protect them from junk science-based convictions.

Now, the debate goes to the U.S. Supreme Court. https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-top-criminal-court-junk-science-law-supreme-court/

#politics #USpol #DeathPenalty #law #SCOTUS #news

#DOJ indicts former #FBI Director #JamesComey for a 2nd time

Fmr FBI Director James #Comey was [ridiculously] indicted Tuesday over a photo of seashells ofcls claim threatened #Trump, marking the admin’s 2nd attempt to prosecute one of his largest political opponents, 3 sources.

Trump has long pressed for his political adversaries to face charges, including #Comey who he sees as a leader in the perceived effort to “weaponize” the justice system against him.

#law
https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/28/politics/justice-department-indicts-ex-fbi-director-james-comey-again

Last May, #Comey posted a photo on social media of shells on a beach writing out the numbers “86 47,” which critics said referred to taking out or killing #Trump.

[can you imagine if this same principle were applied to trump?? & the horrid things he has posted???]

#law #DOJ #independence #RevengePolitics #Constitution #FirstAmendment #FreeSpeech

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Last May, Comey posted a photo on social media of shells on a beach writing out the numbers “86 47,” which critics said referred to taking out or killing Trump.

RE: https://mastodon.thenewoil.org/@nateb/116482814748540996

We can not have democracy without privacy.

#Democracy #Privacy #Dissent #HumanRights #FreeSpeech #Resistance #Law

CalMatters: Websites break California privacy law at ‘industrial scale,’ survey finds. “A new audit has found that websites across the internet may be failing to abide by California privacy law, ignoring a requirement to not track visitors who set a privacy control.”

Weird as it sounds, I think we need an actual law, like some kind of bill of rights, that says you can't notify me on my phone without offering me highly fine-tuned control of each kind of message.

Notifications intrude into my life. Sometimes my phone is on waiting for emergencies or other high-priority issues while I sleep. If a friend wakes me, I can have them dialed up or down in priority.

But Android is designed so Audible won't let me have control of my audiobooks in the lock screen without notifications turned on, yet once I've done that, Audible has no compunction against advertising new book releases in the middle of the night via notifications. I should be able to get cash compensation in court for that.

And my USB-C cable, once I plug it into my Android phone insists on randomly popping up an utterly inscrutible notification saying "you need to log in if you want to see notifications", or some such, and then when I do there is no notification to see. It was just random.

And Android Auto likes to give me two completely pointless notifications, one when I plug my phone into the car and one saying Android Auto is available. The first one I don't need a notification about because I just plugged in my phone. But more importantly, the second one is a lie. Android Auto MIGHT be available and it confirms nothing. The handshake may have been done wrong, so all it tells me is the thing I know already, which is that Android Auto is on the phone. But I might have to pull the plug and replug it to be properly connected. So the notification is worse than pointless and just floods my screen with stuff I don't care about that appears to need immediate attention. And then Android asks, as soon as I disconnect it, how my experience was. I always say "Bad" because part of my experience is getting asked that pesky message that I do not want and would happily say "never do this".

These all seem like technical problems, but they are not. They are reminders that we no longer control our lives, that companies can, at a whim, intrude into our lives with pointless rituals that whittle away our existence. I'm not being metaphorical when I say we need laws on this. I absolutely mean that if we don't write strong law on this, it will only get worse. Or we need to enforce the 4th Amendment on a theory, like Larry Lessig has effectively said in the past, that programmatic code is effectively a kind of government that binds us and our choices in life as surely as legal code does.

But what DO we get laws about? Having to login to use an operating system so they can track us better, know who we are and where we are at every moment. We need laws against such laws.

#marketing #notifications #android #ui #ux #settings #design #QualityOfLife #computers #LockScreen #permissions #law #legal #lawsuits #ClassAction #rights #HumanRights #BillOfRights #identity #intrusion #interruption #4thAmendment #government #code

I saw a meme post on Facebook suggesting that no one earns a billion dollars except by wage theft, that no one works a billion times harder than other hardworking people who make ordinary wages. That seems a fair claim. I wrote this next paragraph in response, kind of as a spur of the moment thought, but it's something I want to spend more time thinking about:

I used to think that one solution to this was the practice of asking CEOs to not make more than some fixed multiple of their lowest-paid employee. But now I see the goal is to not employ anyone either. A lot of the benefits for corporations are justified on the idea that they employ people, so helping them helps people. Now that this assumption is on a path to being increasingly violated, we need to reconsider our special treatment of corporations as well.

#ai #corporations #billionaires #NoBilliionaires #LateStageCapitalism #ShareholderCapitalism #RegulatoryCapture #society #ethics #unemployment #automation #law #CapitalGains #CapitalGainsTax #WealthTax #inequality #fascism #feudalism #oligarchy

#Iran foreign minister left Islamabad without meeting #US envoys, Pakistan officials say. Can you blame him? The US “envoys” were Steve #Witkoff & Jared #Kushner ffs.

#IranWar #TrumpsWar #Trump #MafiaState #WarCrimes #RulesOfWar #law #Congress #WarPowers #geopolitics #NationalSecurity #MiddleEast #inflation #economy #oil #energy #EnergyCrisis
https://apnews.com/live/iran-war-israel-trump-04-25-2026

Missouri Independent: Missouri House forges ahead with bill targeting AI deepfakes and youth social media use. “The legislation would require social media companies to implement age verification measures and prohibit them from targeting youth with ‘manipulative or addictive’ design features. It would also make it a felony to share deepfakes.”

New from Michelle Pitcher: Lawyers used rap lyrics to encourage an all-white jury to sentence James Broadnax to death.

He's still facing death this month even though another man confessed to the crime. https://www.texasobserver.org/looming-execution-questions-race-responsibility-rap/

#law #racism #DeathPenalty #politics #USpol #News #prison #HumanRights

Secretary of the #Navy #JohnPhelan abruptly leaves job as the #Trump admin continues the naval #blockade of #Iran

#IranWar #TrumpsWar #US #war #MafiaState #WarCrimes #RulesOfWar #law #Congress #WarPowers #geopolitics #NationalSecurity #MiddleEast #inflation #economy #affordability #CostOfLiving #oil #energy #EnergyCrisis
https://apnews.com/article/pentagon-navy-secretary-phelan-cao-3a871b87f1a31c1c7168f69e8fe4f7b5