Enshittification News

Today's links Voting is to politics as shopping is to boycotts: The big P only matters if the small p is in play. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Gilberto Gil v WIPO; Censored Apple wifi hacker talk; Wells Fargo crime-spree started in 1998; Stencils "may not be...

If you are an Android user, you may have noticed it already: Google has begun allowing rival, third-party app stores to be distributed through the Google Play Store. And if you are a developer, you may have noticed new options for billing and distributing your apps. For years, Epic Games, maker of...

Magent Forensics, the owner of the GrayKey phone unlocking tool, says it can bypass an iPhone rebooting feature that was locking cops out.

The court acknowledges AI search comes with consequences, but it's not an antitrust issue.

Why are people so mad about the price of a Big Mac, and what does all that anger say about where our politics are headed? It’s not just the inflation, it’s the cheating and profits behind it.

The post Texas’ Education Board Raised Questions About an AI Learning Tool. The State Then Helped Pilot It in Public Schools. appeared first on ProPublica .

The post Four Kids in One Faith-Healing Family Died. Authorities Could Do Nothing. appeared first on ProPublica .

When state lawmakers attempt to rewrite how the internet works, users rely on courts to recognize that laws can’t make technical impossibilities a reality. That’s why we were happy to see that a court has blocked Utah’s attempt to outlaw the privacy protections of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)....

Researchers at Northeastern University, in collaboration with Consumer Reports , evaluated how much modern cars spy in their drivers: The new Northeastern study shows, for the first time, data flowing among the vehicles, the vehicle apps you download when you buy your car, and third-party...

Corporations have long enjoyed creating toothless “self-regulatory” regimes that exist primarily to pre-empt real government oversight. While the quality of these orgs can vary somewhat, generally they’re just a toothless pantomime designed to pretend that corporate power can effectively police...

The Marin County Sheriff’s Office is the latest California law enforcement agency to get caught sharing automated license plate reader (ALPR) data from their Flock Safety system with out-of-state and federal agencies. EFF and the ACLU of Northern California are calling them out for this direct...

Over the years, the major tech companies have found all sorts of ways to embed themselves into our lives. We often use their software, their AI tools, their social media, and their operating systems by default without even thinking about potential alternatives. It’s time to rethink that...

The Metric Is Not the Mission is a ten-part examination of how Big Tech moved from building and expanding the open internet to increasingly shaping it around its own metrics, incentives and assumptions. Across the series, the argument follows the evolution of the platform economy—from the optimism...

With the launch of iOS 27, Apple is rolling out a variety of new AI features to its familiar voice assistant, Siri. But how are AI tools like these handling our data? In our latest EFFector newsletter , we're talking about the privacy complications of AI phone features. JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER For over...

At a Rest of World event in New York last week, speakers explored how countries sidelined by the U.S.-China race can retain some control over safety standards as they adopt models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and others.

When the rich and powerful try to use the court to silence negative reporting about themselves, it’s worth calling out that behavior for what it is: an attack on free speech. This is why EFF is happy to stand up for reporters who find themselves in that situation. The California Court of Appeals...

"Do you watch the news? Do you listen to the radio? Do you read anything about what's going on in the world?” one of the judges asked the lawyer, who submitted false testimony and witnesses after using ChatGPT.

Cloudflare, Google, and Proton were among the "dominant" infrastructure providers to sites dedicated to hosting abusive content, the study found.

With safety questions still swirling, the company introduces a more business-focused take on agents

As arguments rage about the possible or real threats of AI, there is one domain that AI has already turned on its head, and in the space of just the last few weeks: mathematics. The first hint of what was coming arrived in May, when OpenAI announced that one of its models had disproved a […]

AI systems are regularly completing tasks in ways that their prompters don’t want or intend. Some of them are disturbing, and some of them are dangerous. This is something I’ve been calling “ genie behavior ,” because I think that really gets at the core of what’s happening. I wish the popular...

OpenAI makes others suffer "the harms of its unsafe decision-making," nonprofit says.

Eleven months ago, I wrote about what I thought was a truly fascinating find: that some kids appeared to be using some random old NPR podcasts on Spotify as a personal chat room to get around various restrictions. It was mentioned, somewhat in passing, on the “How to do Everything” podcast last...

The post A Girl Nearly Died After Drinking Raw Milk. The State Did Little to Punish the Unlicensed Farmer Who Sold It. appeared first on ProPublica .

How the federal government built a massive database of license plate reader data through an anti-drug trafficking program.

Today's links Lindsay Owens's "Gouged": The end of a fair price and what that means for your wallet. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Doonesbury on 9/11; Suspicious Looking Device; Elephant-shit paper; The Onion x TSA liquid rules; Borders goodbye letter; Voting machines...

Lawmaker rejects Apple excuse for banning ICE-tracking apps as unconstitutional.

Modern messaging apps allow users to link their phone accounts to their computer desktop. Eavesdroppers are taking advantage of this capability: Apps such as WhatsApp Web and Signal Desktop allow people to use their accounts on other devices, such as laptops or desktop computers. Germany’s Customs...

If you liked this piece, you should subscribe to my premium newsletter, and you can subscribe on the following links: $70 a year , $18 a quarter , or $7 a month . In return you get a weekly premium newsletter including vast, detailed analyses of NVIDIA , Anthropic and OpenAI&

The team used frontier LLMs with no prior training data navigate a simple parking lot course.

On the eve of the company's developer conference, it cancels a new model over safety fears

People are increasingly concerned about the ways in which mass surveillance is tracking our every move: from Flock license plate readers to face recognition to creepy ads that – based on what we see and do online – seem to know everything we’re thinking and planning. It didn’t have to be this way,...

The post “A Massive Power Grab”: White House Proposal Threatens Funding That Helps Disabled Americans Vote appeared first on ProPublica .

CEO who wants to add facial recognition to Flock cameras says it's "the way the world will have to be."

A surveillance company wants to "close the gap" that Flock won't do, by pitching facial recognition on its cameras.

San Francisco's decision to retain its use of Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) surveillance cameras belies what we know about this spying technology tool: it endangers residents and threatens the privacy and civil liberties of our community. Based on what's in the city's press release and...

AI model platforms ModelScope and MoArk are competing to serve Chinese-speaking developers behind the Great Firewall.

Today's links Priceful: So worthless we can tell you what it's worth. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Nasdaq allows post-9/11 penny stocks; USAF can shoot down civilian aircraft; TSA bans calling Kip Hawley an idiot; Wells Fargo sued for firing fraud-refusing tellers;...

“Microsoft claims to want to be a good neighbor, but the jury is still out."

China is reportedly mulling letting ByteDance, Alibaba buy banned Nvidia chips.

Samsung and SK Hynix dominate the high-bandwidth memory market. Now they are competing to become indispensable to Nvidia, OpenAI, and other U.S. AI companies.

State says LLMs threaten civilization as "the greatest public nuisance ever created."

In the wake of NVIDIA's announcement of a new agent safety platform, AI Now's Aya Ibrahim joins "Balance of Power" to warn against "one-size-fits-all" security steps. The post White House Releases Taxpayer-Funded Midterm Ads appeared first on AI Now Institute .

ShinyHunters, the group that stole data on “all FBI employees” including addresses and details on their spouses, told 404 Media on Monday “Since the very beginning we had made our decision that we would never publish this data. We have never intended to nor have we ever planned to.”

Kalshi's defiance of state gambling laws may be headed to Supreme Court.

The post The Untold Origins of Trump’s Plan to Sharply Restrict Mail-In Voting appeared first on ProPublica .

The post Arizona Lawmaker Proposes More Federal Support for English Fluency Services appeared first on ProPublica .

The post Two Years After Hurricane Helene, People Are Still Allowed to Live in Harm’s Way appeared first on ProPublica .

The San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) began regularly deploying drones two years ago and has since expanded their use in a way that has outpaced its documented policy and evaded existing local and state oversight of these devices. The department has a new proposed policy, which continues to be...

The unorthodox development isn’t that politicians caved; it’s that people noticed it. Plus, bond yields go nuts, and Trump and Xi meet to hash out China-U.S. relations.

ArsTechnica is reporting on a “new” attack against RSA, one that bypasses factoring. First, this attack isn’t new. The original research is from 2007 . What is new is the implementation. Second, it is a forgery attack. It allows an attacker to forge digital signatures. It does not recover the...

The post I Deliberately Bet Like a Problem Gambler. DraftKings Made Me a VIP. appeared first on ProPublica .

The post What Does Your Data Reveal About Sports Betting Apps? Help ProPublica Find Out. appeared first on ProPublica .

Today's links Itch scratching: Love, care and self-actualization. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: 9/11 x Viridians; Announcing Wikipedia; Infinite Copyright Mickey; Floppy shoulder bag; Wells Fargo's long sleaze; Corbyn wins Labour leadership; Interop v internet...

Meta has a new vision to sell, but it may be getting ahead of itself. (The VR Glasses are amazing, though)

EFF legal intern Simar Kaur also contributed to this article. Americans’ First Amendment right to equal access to official government statements is violated by the Trump administration’s use of Truth Social’s preferential treatment scheme, which blocks people who won’t pay Trump’s company up to...

Earlier this month, Anthropic published a long report detailing all of the Claude misuses it detected. Daniel Meissler usefully summarized the report into 117 findings. A few of the highlights: AI agents increasingly handled reconnaissance, exploitation, data theft, propaganda production,...

The post Colorado Marijuana Company Voluntarily Recalls Dozens of Contaminated Products Amid State Regulatory Delays appeared first on ProPublica .

The year is 2026, and you are a hyperscaler CEO. You zip up your Patagonia Vest, type UDPATE CALENDER WHERE WHY to your Muse agent, and it tells you that your CFO has sent you an email about something called a “critical finance meeting,” and you roll your

"Overly constrained AI models" could cause military operations to fail, judges say.

The post Across the Country, Youth Prisons Are Closing. This State Is Building More. appeared first on ProPublica .

Die Menschenrechtsorganisation AlgorithmWatch hat heute mehr als 160.000 Unterschriften für ihre Petition “Klimaschutz statt KI-Wahn” an Mitglieder des Bundestags übergeben. Anlass der Petitionsübergabe ist die von der Bundesregierung geplante Neufassung des Energieeffizienzgesetzes, die am...

Online sports betting company DraftKings is using AI to target customers who are most likely to place losing bets and respond to gambling promotions. This kind of targeting is a form of online behavioral advertising , which is when companies personalize the ads they show you based on the data...

New York sues Polymarket as Trump admin tries to override state gambling laws.

The post How the Smithsonian Became the Latest Front in Trump’s Culture War appeared first on ProPublica .

On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism held a hearing on Flock’s Nationwide AI Surveillance Network. Flock Safety’s automated license plate readers (ALPR) take still photos, video recordings, audio capture, and livestreaming capabilities.

A security researcher’s map revealed more locations of Flock devices than any other. Flock is trying to take it down. The post Flock Wants the Most Detailed Map of Its Surveillance Cameras Taken Offline appeared first on The Intercept .

Am heutigen Donnerstag hat AlgorithmWatch ihre WeAct-Petition „Klimaschutz statt KI-Wahn” an den Bundestag übergeben. Mehr als 160.000 Menschen haben unsere Forderungen an die Bundesregierung unterstützt, nicht zugunsten von Big Tech den Klimaschutz auszubremsen.

New paper: “ Self-Jailbreaking: Language Models Can Reason Themselves Out of Safety Alignment After Benign Reasoning Training .” Abstract: We discover a novel and surprising phenomenon of unintentional misalignment in reasoning language models (RLMs), which we call self-jailbreaking. Specifically,...

Discord will try to automatically estimate ages, require verification when it can't.

The post Susan Collins Dismissed Our Reporting as Old News. Some of Her Claims Aren’t True. appeared first on ProPublica .

The post The Federal Agency That’s Supposed to Protect Consumers Just Made Another Business-Friendly Move appeared first on ProPublica .

In a wage-theft settlement, DoorDash now has to pay its workers around 100 times what it spent trying to beat Zohran Mamdani. The post DoorDash Spent $1.4 Million Trying to Stop Mamdani From Becoming Mayor. Now We Know Why. appeared first on The Intercept .

With the Paramount–Warner Bros. merger set to proceed, the Ellisons can stoke Americans’ fears — and sell the government its solution. The post The Ellisons Could Make a Killing in Big Surveillance With the Paramount Merger appeared first on The Intercept .

The Justice Department issued the following statements regarding the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan’s decision in People of the State of Michigan vs. BP, P.L.C., et al., which was an antitrust lawsuit brought by the state against energy companies. The Justice Department’s...

Today's links Bonta sold us out to Trump's oligarchs: A "settlement" that promises less than nothing. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Warren on taxing the rich and class warfare; Psychology v reproducibility; Copyright troll sentenced for beating Uber driver; "Halloween...

If you liked this piece, you should subscribe to my premium newsletter, and you can subscribe on the following links: $70 a year , $18 a quarter , or $7 a month . In return you get a weekly premium newsletter including vast, detailed analyses of NVIDIA , Anthropic and OpenAI&

It’s a good day to be an oligarch. CNN, CBS, HBO, Paramount, Warner Brothers, and a host of other properties will now be under the control of Larry Ellison, who also owns Oracle and TikTok.

The post The FBI Anti-Corruption Squad Was Circling Susan Collins — Until Trump Got in the Way appeared first on ProPublica .

In an op-ed, AI Now's Chief AI Scientist Heidy Khlaaf writes: From aviation to banking, high-risk industries are subject to independent oversight and meaningful penalties. AI companies should be no exception. The post Why AI companies can’t be trusted to self-regulate appeared first on AI Now...

“Last month, days after the FTC’s policy statement, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Consumer Federation of America issued an 11-page pamphlet containing what it described as clearly defined terms for surveillance pricing, a practice the groups condemn [sic] . . .” Read more here.

Eine Deklaration fordert mehr Kontrolle über KI - dabei gibt es schon genug Gesetze, die nur durchgesetzt werden müssen, erinnert AlgorithmWatch.

Today's links The Claude Delusion: What if we're the ones having hallucinations? Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: 9/11 v sex; 9/11 v flags; US customs v diplomatic Vegemite; CIA torture survivors speak; HP's inky timebomb; "The Raven" pop-up; Forex v Zimbabwe's internet;...

Artificial Intelligence In a leaked document, the Irish Presidency proposes to EU Member States that the interest of OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta and SpaceX to make profits should take precedence over the fundamental right to data protection. Use of personal data “in the context of AI” should...

Under the new CEO, products are more expensive and AI comes with more surveillance

The EU Commission draft law to restrict young people’s access to the internet that it presented last week will come at a high cost: it will put online services behind age gates, expand the use of intrusive age verification, and undermine the privacy of all users. The EU Kids Act aims to protect...

EFF joined an amicus brief with ACLU, ACLU of D.C., National Press Photographers Association, and Professional Photographers of America to urge the D.C. Circuit to vacate an FAA drone flight restriction that violated the First Amendment right to record law enforcement . This is an important case—...

The post Watch: The New Supreme Court appeared first on ProPublica .

The Emirates owns the machines but rents the intelligence. Nvidia’s next free AI model could change that.

The Senate just voted to restore the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s monopoly power. Why is Congress helping the NCAA? And why are we focused on college sports instead of actual problems?

Hybrid Side Event during UNGA81 High-Level Week The post From surveillance to governance: recentering human rights in the UN AI agenda appeared first on Access Now .

AlgorithmWatch hat als Sachverständige in der Anhörung im Innenausschuss die vom BMI und BMJV geplanten Überwachungsbefugnisse erneut deutlich kritisiert.

The post “Our Dear Friend Umar”: How We Uncovered That a Russian Oligarch Bankrolled Donald Trump Jr.’s Wedding appeared first on ProPublica .

Secure messaging platforms, like Signal, WhatsApp, and recently, encrypted RCS , operate on a straightforward assumption: the content at each end of a conversation is private to the participants in the conversation. End-to-end encryption helps provide the mathematical guarantees that the companies...

Apple’s new operating system is here, and along with it comes a new version of Siri, dubbed with two very familiar letters: AI. As the name suggests, this Siri power-up resembles an AI chatbot more than the often derided voice assistant you might be used to. It has even evolved from a blob you...

Today's links Textured: The surprises are what matter. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: RIP Mr Dressup; Oligarch sucker-punch; ICC v CEOs. Upcoming appearances: Berkeley, Edmonton, Boston, South Bend, Hudson, Calgary, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Victoria, Ottawa, Kilkenny,...

Documents show a Microsoft exec called AI the "largest theft of labor in human history.” New AI regulations are besides the point, the problem is we don’t apply existing laws to the powerful.

The year is 2026, and you are a hyperscaler CEO. You zip up your Patagonia vest, type UPDATE ME ON CALENDOR TOODAY into ChatGPT, and see that you have a meeting with your CFO. They tell you that while they love all those GPUs you’re buying for those

With doomsday AI scenarios dominating the news, lawmakers are rightly concerned about reports concerning security breaches at major US AI labs, such as the OpenAI–Hugging Face incident and the many others reported in its aftermath. As they consider potentially regulating frontier AI, they should...

Weeks after the OpenAI hack, AI Now's Heidy Khlaaf affirms that "ordinary security engineering would have stopped this well short of reaching Hugging Face’s data." The post Hugging Face Hack Shows Humans Can Keep AI In Check appeared first on AI Now Institute .

California Gov. Gavin Newsom's executive order is an opportunity for a needed, thoughtful conversation about artificial intelligence and its potential harms. Everyday Californians are feeling real anxiety about the risks of artificial intelligence, and as an organization that works to ensure...

The post Judge Denies Efforts to End Oversight of Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office as Racial Profiling of Latinos Persists appeared first on ProPublica .

The post Tennessee Lawmakers Demand Answers on Safety in State Youth Prisons appeared first on ProPublica .

The post “A Clear Watering Down”: Drug Transparency Bill Stripped of Critical Provisions Ahead of Senate Vote appeared first on ProPublica .

AlgorithmWatch nimmt als Sachverständige in der Sitzung des Innenausschusses am 21. September 2026 Stellung zu den Gesetzentwürfen des Bundesministeriums des Innern (BMI) und des Bundesministeriums der Justiz und für Verbraucherschutz (BMJV) zur geplanten Massenüberwachung mittels Biometrie und...

Today's links On the sincerity of AI bosses: Fascism is always an incoherent bundle. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: 9/11 v spam; PalmOS x WTC collapse; Wifi x WTC rubble; Berlusconi sex rings; Tesco bans writing down prices; AI psychosis and the warped mirror;...

A California law that prohibits teens from receiving recommended social media content from other social media users violates their First Amendment rights, EFF argued this week. The case, Meta v. Bonta , challenges SB 976 , which requires that teen social media users get their parents’ permission...

On Thursday, September 17th, 2026, AI Now Co-Executive Director Amba Kak testified before the Monopoly Busters Caucus at the shadow hearing “AI Crossroads: Stopping Big Tech’s Race to Monopolize AI through Surveillance on Big Tech.” The hearing came amidst a frenzy of alarmist claims about the...

AlgorithmWatch nimmt als Sachverständige in der Sitzung des Innenausschusses am 21. September 2026 Stellung zu den Gesetzentwürfen des Bundesministeriums des Innern (BMI) und des Bundesministeriums der Justiz und für Verbraucherschutz (BMJV) zur geplanten Massenüberwachung mittels Biometrie und...

Today's links How an AI moratorium can save AI bosses: If you can't impose switching costs, just eliminate the competition. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Flash Worms; This Film is Not Yet Rated; Libdem copyright sabotage; Religion worth more than Big Tech; Geographic...

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit handed internet users and programmers a big win today, by rejecting an attempt to stretch a narrow provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) into a new source of copyright liability. The case involves Section 1202 of the DMCA, which...

Since its integration into our digital world, social media has played a pivotal role in youth organizing and social mobilization. Yet, people’s access to these platforms is increasingly coming under threat from courts and legislatures under the guise of protecting young people online—presenting a...

Mass surveillance isn't a joke. But police are treating it like one when using automated license plate reader (ALPR) networks. In our latest EFFector newsletter , we're covering a new EFF report on how officers across the country are routinely logging completely nonsensical "reasons" for their...

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is honored to announce today that Alexander “ amac ” Macgillivray — a former White House official who also served in top legal capacities at Twitter and Google — has joined EFF’s Board of Directors. Macgillivray served in the Biden Administration as Deputy...

The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division won substantial relief in its monopolization case against Google in advertising technology markets. In United States et al. v. Google LLC , the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia ordered significant behavioral relief, including...

Today's links Everybody pees: Even Jeff Bezos. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Zune won't play Microsoft files; Papercraft 1:1 Mustang; Third gender for Aussie passports; France hacked Canada; EC v links; Welcome to Night Vale; University spends librarian's bequest on...

Apple’s high-end models cost more in markets like India and Turkey owing to high taxes and import duties.

Today's links But do you use keyboard shortcuts?: AI people are WEIRD. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: "Changeling"; Sony Rootkit vs CD drives; Google's scumbag lobbyists; NJ's e-voting coverup; Spying sex toys; Scott Walker dark money leak; "REAMDE"; Snowden's pardon....

We shouldn’t want people to become superrich by building unsafe technology. The government has the authority to block the IPO. It should. Plus, government lies about health costs, and more...

Doctoralia sent information about specialists and appointment dates to social media companies.

Here's a riddle: Why did a Goshen Police Department officer search 6,474 automated license plate reader (ALPR) networks, representing data from 82,413 cameras, on May 7, 2025? If your answer is "I don't know," it turns out you're 100% correct. The officer left the letters "idk" in the search field...

We, the undersigned organisations and experts, write to urge you to act before Canada’s Senate completes its consideration of Bill C-22, the Lawful Access Act, and to press Canada to remove the bill’s surveillance capability mandates and its blanket data retention regime. The post Open letter from...

Today's links LLMs are real, AI is fake: No, it didn't "go rogue." Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Why 9/11 Means We Must Support My Politics; Blogs x 9/11; Jimmy Wales v Britannica's EiC; Hollywood astroturfs Australia; Agents v queer YA; Soft landings for dirty cops;...

Amazon recently debuted a new feature for its Ring cameras that the company is calling Throw Away the Key Encryption (TAKE). The idea is to cut back on the amount of video content available to the company, and thus potentially available to law enforcement. But while it might technically add a speed...

Today's links Inefficiency is bad, actually: Now, "resiliency" on the other hand… Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Canada's DMCA; Socialism x Pledge of Allegiance; Hate the player and the game; Making Light's 9/11; 9/11 survivor registry; Secure email caused 9/11; German...

According to The Information , in early 2024, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan hosted a “coffee chat” with employees of the recently-acquired VMWare , and introduced them to his particular brand of management: At that time, VMware’s Palo Alto, Calif., campus sprawled over 18 buildings and 100 acres

Die Expert*innenkommission „Kinder- und Jugendschutz in der digitalen Welt” diskutiert heute über Altersgrenzen bei der Nutzung von Social Media. AlgorithmWatch fordert, Anbieter in die Pflicht zu nehmen, statt junge Menschen zu sanktionieren.

Bans Like California’s Don’t Fix What’s Wrong With Social Media Companies SAN FRANCISCO - Technology and the laws that regulate it should support and empower young people. California’s AB 1709 - signed into law today by Gov. Gavin Newsom - falls far short of this goal, say the Electronic Frontier...

Credit Scoring Two weeks ago, noyb sent a cease-and-desist letter to SCHUFA regarding its shadow database. At the same time, we announced that we would bring an injunction should the credit reference agency refuse to comply with the requests set out therein . SCHUFA’s deadline has now expired. In a...

GDPR Policy For once, EU legislators have an opportunity to deliver genuine simplification for people: a solution to the ongoing issue of misleading cookie banners. As part of its highly controversial Digital Omnibus package, the EU Commission has proposed legally binding automated privacy signals....

Today's links Anti-vax/anti-trust: Remembering saves lives. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Disneyland prisoner; HOAs v xeriscaping; Copyright Office x regulatory capture; The women held a vote; Open licenses v uncopyrightable subjects; Largest prison strike in history;...

The term “digital sovereignty” has become ubiquitous. European officials invoke it in debates about cloud infrastructure, AI , semiconductors , and platform regulation. Governments throughout the global majority use it to argue for greater control over data and communications infrastructure and...

Law enforcement agencies across the country are increasingly relying on spying technologies— automated license plate readers (ALPR), cell-site simulators , and facial recognition , to name a few--causing an outcry in many communities where people are rightly concerned about the threat to civil...

EFF is pleased to announce that Access Now, 7amleh – The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media, DeFlock, and New Media Rights have received 2026 EFF Awards for their vital work in ensuring that technology supports freedom, justice, and innovation for all people. The EFF Awards recognize...

Microsoft Corp. today issued updates to plug at least 974 security holes in its Windows operating systems and other software, by far its biggest single patch batch ever. Microsoft says artificial intelligence is helping to speed the discovery of vulnerabilities, but security experts warn that many...

Lots of news, as usual.

EFF sued the government back in March for information about the Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction (WISeR) model , a new Medicare program that uses AI to evaluate prior authorization requests for certain medical services. Today, we’re releasing approximately 1,000 pages of records...

Today's links How corporate America built a better Roach Motel: Hostages beat customers every day. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: 3-hole punches; Warner Bros v Warner Bros; Privacy wars get worse; "Weapons of Math Destruction"; HK elections go to pro-democracy...

Today's links Google skates: Another federal judge loses a game of peek-a-boo. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Memory-hacking ads; "Dzur"; NZ Ministry of DRM; Canadians v looking at the internet; Advice for self-publishers; Advice for writers; Why Wikipedia works....

Today's links Amazon achieves enshittification inception: Cheating on your fraud is a hell of a thing. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Electrolite is back; Mafia rules; Aaronsw on Wikipedia; Proctorio's memory hole. Upcoming appearances: Dąbrowa Górnicza, Warsaw,...

You know, sometimes it’s kind of hard to explain the “circular” part of circular financing to people, in the sense that some of the agreements are kind of clunky. NVIDIA funds OpenAI, who then spends that money to rent back NVIDIA GPUs from Microsoft, Google, Amazon,

The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division filed a proposed consent decree today to resolve the United States’ claims against Pinnacle Property Management Services LLC, as part of its ongoing enforcement action in the Middle District of North Carolina against algorithmic coordination, the use of...

A third loss in antitrust court leads to ... very little. PLUS: GPT-6 Astra and 'the AGI era'

Today's links Preparing for a post-Trump internet: You'd better hope it's also a post-American internet. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Barnum and Bailey v journalism; Wired's Wikipedia article is a wiki; Singapore's national wifi; Twitter arguments. Upcoming...

A federal court in Massachusetts has ruled that copyright holders can issue online takedown notices based on a subjective belief of copyright infringement, even when that belief is unreasonable and self-serving. The case was brought by our client, Channel 781 News, after takedown notices...

Today's links Unpermissioned research: Fighting Trump means preserving the internet, which means scraping. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Leaked advanced PalmOS device specs; Stalwart workers; "I, Rowboat"; SMS uprising; Facebook v switching costs; Capitalism of fools....

Within the last few days, two important state actions have dealt a big blow to automated license plate reader (ALPR) networks. This is just the latest proof of the growing tide of public opposition to mass surveillance. After years of successful grassroots battles to pull these cameras from local...

A federal judge has sided with Anthropic on its claims that the Department of Defense illegally retaliated against Anthropic’s protected speech by labeling the AI company a “supply chain risk.” The judge found that designation, intended to penalize Anthropic for telling the U.S. military it would...

The Law School Admissions Council, once a nonprofit designed to help students, is now the Ticketmaster for law school admissions. We are teaching young lawyers that law is about cheating.

Meta’s settlement with 52 state attorneys general is a bad deal for all internet users, and especially for teens. That’s what we said the day the settlement was announced. In this post, we go through the Settlement’s provisions in detail and explain why that is so, including how: The Settlement...

Credit Scoring In June 2026, noyb brought an injunction against the unlawful data collection practices of the Austrian credit reference agency CRIF. In several unrelated cases, the Supreme Court (OGH) has now ruled in favour of noyb : CRIF’s current practice of collecting data from address...

AlgorithmWatch hat im Juli 2026 untersucht, wie Googles KI-Übersichten mit Fragen zu wahlbezogenen Inhalten umgehen. Das Ergebnis: Es ist unklar, wann KI-Übersichten angezeigt werden, die Vielfalt der Quellen, die dafür herangezogen werden, ist begrenzt, und die Übersichten sind nicht neutral...