Over a few months, a person driving around *one* town wracked up 526 location datapoints. We know that number because police were surveilling this person--but you can be assured the geolocation data you're leaving behind is similar and just sitting on a server somewhere. ALPRs are mass surveillance.

@tiffanycaban.bsky.social arrested outside of 26 Federal Plaza along with dozens of other protesters - including faith leaders and other elected officials - demanding ICE get out of NYC

Just now, 11 state and city lawmakers were arrested by DHS police on the 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza after a hour of demanding access to the ICE lock up on the same floor. @thecity.nyc

It is weird that the assassination of essentially a celebrity influencer is a bigger deal than the shooting of two top state legislators + their spouses

New Decrypting a Defense issue. Laura addresses the NYPD secret surveillance of NYCHA residents. @diz.bsky.social discusses a false facial recognition match in NYC. Lisa examines conflicting expert testimony in the Karen Read trial and Allison answers questions about recovering deleted messages.

“Everyone, including the NYPD, knows that facial recognition technology is unreliable, yet the NYPD disregards even its own protocols...Elected officials must act now to ban its use by law enforcement.” Diane Akerman, LAS Digital Forensics Unit legalaidnyc.org/news/demands...

I just updated FIG: Filling in the Gaps for People Search Removal Services. It's a list of people search sites NOT covered by paid services. It's now in alphabetical order, easier to use with BADBOOL, added new brokers and removed defunct brokers and removal services. docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Want rayhunter updates? You can now follow the project on bluesky! bsky.app/profile/rayh...

oh it’s a mass surveillance tool now eh? cool cool

The Legal Aid Society has asked the city Department of Investigation to look into the NYPD’s use of facial technology and apparent violations of its own internal policies.

A woman in Manhattan reported to police that an Amazon delivery man, 5'6'', exposed himself to her. Police did a face recognition search, showed her result, arrested the wrong guy, 6'2''. What did the NYPD not do? Call Amazon. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/n...

The Legal Aid Society has asked the city Department of Investigation to look into the NYPD’s use of facial technology and apparent violations of its own internal policies. www.thecity.nyc/2025/08/26/n...

“It has become so clear that the NYPD cannot be trusted with facial recognition technology. They cannot even do the bare minimum in making sure it will not lead to false arrests.” www.thecity.nyc/2025/08/26/n...

Face surveillance is a scourge: scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/cgi/viewcont... www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/n...

Here is a Security Planner pages, for the U.S. securityplanner.consumerreports.org/tool/protect...

The NYPD falsely arrested a man because of a bad facial recognition match www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/n...

The actual goal of the Digital Forensics Unit is to kill off as many bad surveillance technologies as possible. ❌knightscope ❌evolv FRT, we are coming for you. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/n...

It is a fact universally known that despite how many times the police brass look people and elected officials in the eyes and say "face recognition just gives us leads"--what really happens is police go arrest the name spit out by a computer without a single question or follow up.

Adam Raine, 16, died from suicide in April after months on ChatGPT discussing plans to end his life. His parents have filed the first known case against OpenAI for wrongful death. Overwhelming at times to work on this story, but here it is. My latest on AI chatbots: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/t...

"Traditional police work could have solved this case or at least saved Mr. Williams from going through this" - @diz.bsky.social. Another bad facial recognition match leads to another false arrest. There are more out there and there will be more coming unless we ban its use.

In answer to your question, yes he is.

Why publish one story about A.I. gone wrong when you can publish two? Here's my other story today on how the NYPD used facial recognition tech to arrest the wrong man for public lewdness. The perp was 5'6''. Cops charged Trevis Williams, who is 6'2''. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/n...

Thanks to those who just came to my #hope_16 talk, all about the different ways law enforcement are compromising entire encrypted chat platforms. Here is the book if you want to read much, much more www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/josep...

NEW: Eric Adams’s free internet program for NYCHA is also linking public housing cameras directly to the NYPD’s surveillance hub — without telling residents.

📆NEW DATE: New York is under attack by a Trump administration hellbent on making us sicker, hungrier, and less safe, all while making billionaires richer. Join us on August 13 at 11AM at Foley Square to tell lawmakers: invest in NYers by taxing the rich & passing the New York for All act!

The Columbia settlement is an “astonishing transfer of autonomy and authority to . . . an administration whose disdain for the values of the academy is demonstrated anew every day.” New @knightcolumbia.org analysis of the Columbia settlement, just published. knightcolumbia.org/blog/what-th...

This morning, members of the Knight Institute’s leadership team published a critical analysis of Columbia University’s settlement agreement with the Trump administration. Read the full analysis here: knightcolumbia.org/blog/what-th...

Sneak peak of the DEFCON Voting Village speaker schedule (subject to change). Join us in LVCC West 222-223 August 8-10! docs.google.com/document/d/e...

I love getting page proofs. Our abridged 50th anniversary edition of the Church Committee Report will be out January 2026. It's the first time *ever* this landmark investigation into abuses committed by the American Intelligence apparatus has been published by a major press for the general public.

It shouldn’t be a crime to protest for Palestine. It should be illegal to circumvent privacy protections; sadly asking a buddy in FDNY is one of many available workarounds for this sort of id tech. I’m thankful for the judge & @legalaidnyc.bsky.social for following up for more answers.

"The court exposed how the FDNY worked with the NYPD to use unregulated facial recognition software to identify and prosecute a protester — without oversight, without authorization, and in direct violation of established NYPD policy." Shane Ferro,Staff Attorney More: legalaidnyc.org/news/lawsuit...

A few months ago, I revealed Mayor Eric Adams' connex w/ a secretive NYPD unit led by Adam's allies and ridden w/ abuses. A few days ago, the former NYPD commish sued Adams, citing my reporting. The former commish said the mayor was behind the “rogue” unit. www.propublica.org/article/laws...

A lawsuit filed by former Commissioner Thomas Donlon alleges that the NYPD’s Community Response Team — championed by Mayor Eric Adams — was a “rogue” unit that answered “only to City Hall.” The complaint draws extensively from ProPublica’s reporting. By @ericumansky.bsky.social

It is going to be connected to a real-time crime center giving police a huge network of linked surveillance cams (CCTV, body cams, stores, apartments, and Ring). Your Data Will Be Used Against You.

Help make this happen.

I wrote some ~weekend words~ on why you shouldn't allow AI access to your email, calendar, or any other of your most private data. This may seem obvious to some, but perhaps not to others: the privacy and security risks just aren't worth it.

The gleeful doxing of someone cheating in public is bad even if they are a CEO and even if they are a Coldplay fan. It's bad because this kind of thing is happening to random people on TikTok for such crimes as "sitting silently on a plane" or "being attractive" www.404media.co/the-astronom...

Please don’t let this become a thing

My response to Ring's decision to roll back reforms and go back to surveillance on behalf of police as a business model. This is part of a trend of companies bending over backwards to get in on the techno-authoritarian money/power grab that comes with being a lapdog of the carceral state.

When police don’t have access to a tool they want to use, they phone a friend in an agency that does

We at @thecity.nyc want to keep reporting on this. We’d like to understand how widespread this practice is, especially NYPD collaborating with other agencies to get around internal policies on facial recognition tech. Got info? Email me: [email protected] or reach out on Signal: smaldo.11

NYC lawmakers are now working to close loopholes in a the POST Act, a city law that requires tracking intergovernmental data sharing. On the table: requiring all agencies to disclose surveillance tech use & a ban on using it on law enforcement’s behalf.

Manhattan DA first charged Ahmed w a felony hate crime, but downgraded the charge. It appears from videos that whatever Ahmed was accused of throwing at another person was not a rock. The person barely flinched & tossed away the object.

A Legal Aid lawyer said the saga “brings up questions about the First Amendment and the NYPD’s prohibition on using facial recognition technology to identify people at political rallies.”

The judge’s ruling pulls no punches:

exhibit c bsky.app/profile/smal...

FDNY helped NYPD identify a pro-Palestinian protestor using the facial recognition tech, Clearview AI — which the NYPD isn’t allowed to use. Manhattan DA used the ID to charge a hate crime. A judge dismissed the case & warned about government surveillance: www.thecity.nyc/2025/07/18/n...

“The way that the NYPD used FDNY to access broader and even more unreliable facial recognition technologies — in this case, to identify a protester — brings up questions about the NYPD following its own policies, the NYPD complying with the POST Act...” @shaneferro.bsky.social said.

Why is FDNY using Clearview AI to identify protesters? GREAT QUESTION and they won't tell me so we are suing to try to find the answer www.thecity.nyc/2025/07/18/n...