“I’m fundamentally an optimist with regard to what we can do with research,” he said. “I’m fundamentally a pessimist with respect to what corporations who are fundamentally beholden to their stockholders do, because they’re always working on short-term appearance.” @johnmarkoff.bsky.social

Local governments across Wisconsin have been ending their agreements with the surveillance company Flock Safety. “If police chiefs are bailing on it, that really shows momentum,” says the mayor of Verona, which ended its Flock contract last year.

What she said 👇🏻 To put a finer point on it, it took House Republicans more than a year to come up with this barely-reheated, lukewarm garbage. Shameful *and* embarrassing.

The SECURE Data Act is not a serious effort at tackling the urgent privacy crisis facing this country. It is weaker than many existing state laws (the very state laws that it would wipe off the books with its broad preemption provision). Some examples:

NEW: Privacy and voting rights case filed against state officials by the LWV of Alaska and Alaska Black Caucus. @epic.org joins ACLU of Alaska and @aclu.org as counsel. We're honored to help Alaskans fight for accountability and defend against unlawful abuse of voter data. epic.org/press-releas...

This bill is dangerous. It does not protect privacy. It lets Big Tech and Telecom do anything they want with your data. And it blows up all state and many federal privacy laws that we already have. Most dangerously, it may nuke all state civil rights laws. Here are some examples: 1/n

On Monday, EPIC filed an amicus brief arguing that the Virginia city of Norfolk’s use of Flock’s Automated License Plate Reader system creates a warrantless mass surveillance program and constitutes an unreasonable search in violation of the Fourth Amendment.

Rule on #FISA reauth goes down in flames 197-228. GOP will now try to push a reauth extension to the end of April 2026 on Monday.

Massive win for us. Others had the prelim roll call with the 20 Rs: Burchett, Burlison, Cloud, Clyde, Crane Andy Harris, Mark Harris, Perry, Norman, Massie, Self, Ogles, Davidson, Harshbarger, Miller, Gosar, Bishop, Boebert, Rose, Spartz Ned to cross-ref though: clerk.house.gov/Votes/202612...

I sent a classified letter to House and Senate colleagues about a secret interpretation of surveillance law that every American should be concerned about. Representative Massie is right. The Constitution requires EVERY member to vote against a clean reauthorization.

Andrew Ferguson's FTC: all the time in the world to jawbone the digital ad industry into propping up right-wing speech, no time to address the fact that the entire ad ecosystem is built on industrial-scale privacy abuses. The beclowning of the Commission continues. www.ftc.gov/news-events/...

“EPIC argues in its comment, which got sign-on from other organizations like CDT, that the new system runs afoul of the Privacy Act’s principles of minimizing data collection, calling the proposed program ‘illegal and reckless.’”

Major ruling from the en banc Fourth Circuit in AFSCME v. SSA, which validates the core basis for Article III standing in the many Privacy Act cases against DOGE & other agency database incursions. "DOGE is the nosy janitor." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Last week, President Trump issued an executive order asserting a radical expansion of federal power over mail-in voting. The order directs DHS to compile lists of citizens over 18 residing in each state—an ominous tactic for which the federal government lacks both legal authority and reliable data.

I’m still in awe over all the dumb fuck law firms, tv networks, and universities that caved to Trump. More or less everyone who has stood up to Trump has won and everyone who didn’t has suffered an endless series of humiliations.

Data brokers should not exist.

Senators @markey.senate.gov, @merkley.senate.gov, and @wyden.senate.gov are demanding answers on Meta's plans to roll out facial rec in its 'smart' glasses, following a recent report from @nytimes.com and a series of letters by @epic.org calling on regulators to step in: epic.org/senators-dem...

Happy #SunshineWeek! Sunshine takes many forms. One of them is the system of records notice (SORN)—a dry but powerful set of disclosures that federal agencies must publish before establishing or modifying a system of personal data. They're required by the Privacy Act of 1974. A thread:

CalPrivacy inviting preliminary comments reducing friction in exercise of privacy rights & opt-out preference signals. Submit your comments by April 6. Learn more. cppa.ca.gov/regulations/...

As the FTC holds a workshop today on consumer injuries, EPIC and @newamerica.org’s Open Technology Institute are calling on the Commission “to take a more comprehensive view of consumer harm in the data-driven economy.” 🧵(1/6)

fyi the Columbia student newspaper has far more details on the ICE raid on a Columbia residence hall (including the likely name of the student in question) than any of the journalists y'all are reposting who aren't on campus. 🙂 support student journalism!

In June, President Shipman insisted that @columbiauniversity.bsky.social's capitulation to fascism would ensure "critical continuity for faculty, students, and staff" and that the University would "retain[] control" over "operational decisions." So much for that: www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/n...

Letters sent by @epic.org yesterday calling on the FTC and nine states to investigate and block Meta's plan to add facial recognition to its Ray-Ban smart glasses. A privacy, safety, and civil liberties disaster in the making—unless enforcers step up. epic.org/epic-urges-f...

Letters sent by @epic.org yesterday calling on the FTC and nine states to investigate and block Meta's plan to add facial recognition to its Ray-Ban smart glasses. A privacy, safety, and civil liberties disaster in the making—unless enforcers step up. epic.org/epic-urges-f...

Meta thinks now is a great time to launch facial recognition surveillance tech in their creepy glasses because EFF will be too distracted by fascism to notice. We noticed. www.eff.org/deeplinks/20...

Meta hoped to slip one past busy privacy watchdogs and quietly embed facial recognition in its Ray-Ban glasses. Now they're the target of letters from @epic.org calling on the FTC and state enforcers to step in. Kudos to my EPIC colleagues, and bravo @kashhill.bsky.social & team for the scoop!

The FTC and state AGs need to act *now* to stop this. Last time Meta slipped facial rec into its products (face tagging), enforcers dawdled. Meta took 11 years to wind it back. We can't afford a decade of roving FRT-enabled surveillance cameras in every bathroom, clinic, classroom, and protest.

That Ring ad

Concentration camps: “For 280 days we haven’t eaten a single piece of fruit, banana, apple, orange, or anything fresh. We are all in one big room with no doors or windows. We can’t see any grass or trees. We are all constantly sick."

Biblically accurate Olympic cauldron

"Whatever is happening with your data, it is important enough to the most egregiously lawless admin in Am. history that it be collected & consolidated. It is important enough that a federal cowboy kept one hand on his phone even as his other hand reached for his gun." www.nytimes.com/2026/02/03/o...

Minnesota CEOs sent a letter calling for “de-escalation.” They left out that many of them and their trade groups backed the bill that flooded ICE & CBP with $170 billion. Yes, Palantir helps ICE. But ICE was helped along by a bunch of boring companies you interact with daily.

ICE isn’t just brutal. It’s also big business. From 2008 to 2021 ICE spent *$1.2 billion* on geolocation tracking, $561M on data analysis, $252M on government databases, and $97M on data brokers. Most of that went to companies who will lobby for this system to stay in place.

Two sad, fallen Lime scooters glowing beneath the ice

"Fraud" is this administration's roving license to perpetrate authoritarian shit. I point that out because if we ever emerge from this, we're going to have to put some guardrails on how "fraud" is defined, investigated, and enforced.

Very glad to see this! wjla.com/news/local/d...

absolutely insane to see Musk feted at Davos as the icon of a boldly "optimistic" future in 2026, as if he hadn't just spent the last year buying elections for fascists, making Nazi salutes, condemning millions in Africa to death, and building "Mechahitler," and a nonconsensual porn/CSAM generator

Huge, sweeping report from my colleague @sarageoghegan.bsky.social and the @epic.org team on how unregulated tech, mass surveillance, and yawning gaps in privacy law have created a health privacy crisis, as covered by WIRED’s @dell.bsky.social: www.wired.com/story/survei...

"Abolish ICE" is the moderate position. "Try everyone involved in ICE for crimes against humanity" is the progressive one.

X basically industrialized the creation of fake porn of women who don't consent. Others did it first, but Grok made it normalized and centralized: publicly visible, instantly creatable by anyone, regardless of who's being targeted and dehumanized. Only question now is will X suffer any consequences

If you are a resident of California, the state now has a portal where you can demand deletion of your personal data from 500+ registered data brokers with a single request form, for free. consumer.drop.privacy.ca.gov

Hey Californians -- DROP launches tomorrow! FREE Single click deletion from hundreds if data brokers. bsky.app/profile/calp...

concerning but unsurprising move by the FTC, who vacated the order with Rytr, the AI tool facilitating fake reviews at scale its in line with the tech cos > people regulatory ethos of this admin To read more about how it worked, check out our comment from last yr: consumerfed.org/wp-content/u...

Captured FTC beclowns itself, eagerly lets lawbreaking AI company off the hook: www.ftc.gov/news-events/...

Looks like the Selective Service is planning to disclose (or already disclosing) personal data to unspecified agencies regarding 'potential violation[s]' of law—which in the present context may well include sending immigrants' records to DHS/ICE: public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2025-23111.pdf

Big Tech firms have been complaining about the “patchwork” of state laws ever since Californians adopted their landmark privacy law in 2020, Alan Butler writes. Trump's AI executive order is thus an escalation of a fight that has been brewing for years.

Sauer saying something is unconstitutional because it "would be unconstitutional under Justice Scalia's dissent" is a remarkably cogent statement of the Roberts Court's approach to precedent.

Y'all, tmrw is a BIG DAY for civil rights and tech. @markey.senate.gov, @repyvetteclarke.bsky.social, @jayapal.house.gov, @pressley.house.gov, & @repsummerlee.bsky.social are introducing the AI Civil Rights Act: the new gold standard AI bill endorsed by 85+ civil society orgs. Pull up a chair. 1/n