Friend, Does scrolling leave you hollowed? Is anger frictionless...but thinking like swimming against the current? You're in an algorithmic rip tide. Your mental clarity is the target. Take a beat and step out Connect with your own thoughts. It's what designers of these algorithms fear most.

NEW: Spyware installed on Kenyan filmmakers' phones in police custody @citizenlab.ca confirms cpj.org?p=516177

Powerful interests are trying to change the internet. It's worse than you know. Your safety and freedoms are on the line. Thank you for your attention to this matter. www.youtube.com/watch?v=iz_8...

NEW: Mercenary spyware is coming to the US. ICE just quietly unsuspended their contract with spyware maker #Paragon. Remember them? Caught earlier this year being used to hack Italian journalists. This is bad, let's talk about how we got here 1/ jackpoulson.substack.com/p/exclusive-...

NEW: Analysis finds UK's age verification rollout is producing exactly the opposite of the desired effect: Driving traffic non-compliant adult sites. Which punishes compliant ones. Entirely predictable. That's not the worst part 1/ By @drewharwell.com www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

NEW: WhatsApp caught & fixed a sophisticated zero click attack... Now they've published an advisory about it. Say attackers combined the exploit with an Apple vulnerability to hack a specific group of targets (i.e. this wasn't pointed at everybody) Quick thoughts 1/

WATCH LIVE: mercenary spyware abuse is evil. But how do we bring accountability to spyware suppliers & their customers? Ft @nadinefj.bsky.social @lindsaysfreeman.bsky.social & @natynettle.bsky.social By @slpjustice.bsky.social & @cyberstatecraft.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy_I...

Misguided age-verification laws are a universal mute button for free speech.

This might be the slickest free advertising the VPN industry has ever received.

UK government asks everybody to stop using VPNs. "everybody who's out there thinking of using VPNs...verifying your age keeps a child safe...So let's just not try and find a way around. Just prove your age." - UK government

WHOA: megapublisher Axel Springer asks German court to ban an ad-blocker. They claim HTML/ CSS code of websites are protected computer programs. And influencing how they are displayed (e.g by removing ads) violates copyright. Endless security, privacy and technical downside & absurdity 1/

Logo designer deletes Lorem & calls it a day.

Post images & videos of the inside your house at your peril. This new tool uses pictures taken inside your house to identify your exact location. As a service. It will be abused to target people. For theft. Stalking. And worse.

X: we are actively fighting bots Also X: here's an ad for reply bots.

Neuroticism? Ripping. Conscientiousness & agreeableness? Dipping. Via FT: www.ft.com/content/5cd7...

NEW: 🇩🇪#Germany's top court says spyware severely violates fundamental rights. Bans spyware in cases with <3year sentences. Imposes tough proportionality tests. Restricts #spyware to serious cases. Very interesting 1/ www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/SharedDocs/P...

Parents know that the UK's verification rules won't really protect their kids. But they are still worried about their children's safety. They just aren't being offered non-dystopian alternatives.

Least shocking news ever. www.politico.com/news/2025/08...

What is "own goal" in Spanish? 🇨🇳China penetrated 🇺🇸American lawful intercept systems. Turbocharging espionage against the US. Puzzled wonderment that any government would bring Huawei tech into wiretapping systems.

Age verification laws are coming fast. And, from my perspective, opponents are struggling to find impactful messaging for the general public to frame damage they are about to do to freedom. Or to propose alternate futures that address the underlying anxieties. 1/

It seems to me like a strong anti-AI stance is becoming left-coded. I'm hoping to disentangle criticisms of biz models, power-grabs, externalities (e.g. labor disruption, environmental impact), privacy etc.. vs. views on AI itself, especially when used in open-source ways. Thoughts?

Rhinoisotope

It is a lot easier to celebrate a turn towards dictatorship when you are untethered to historical knowledge. No amount of centralized power delivers a society with true personal freedom in the long run. 1/

What's something that teenage you thought was peak.. But adult you sees as weak? I'll go first: MENSA.

Consider, your Honor, that my client was being extremely productive at the time of the crash.

Couple of weeks ago we @citizenlab.ca published a report on a sophisticated Russia-linked 🇷🇺 phishing campaign targeting a UK-based Russian critic and analyst citizenlab.ca/2025/06/russ... The target @keirgiles.bsky.social has written an excellent overview: foreignpolicy.com/2025/07/02/g...

In Mexico 🇲🇽, Sheinbaum's government is pushing through Congress sweeping legal reforms that will establish mass identification and surveillance systems of the population. Here is a thread 🧵 summarizing the scope and reach of these reforms:

This is a tool for one person to acquire a lot of power. Sam Altman wants his technology to become unavoidable, and mandatory. He makes the problem. Then we depend on him to fix it. Bad move for privacy & freedom. Worse move for #Reddit , which he might very well one day compete against.

I prefer the company of people that don't snitch my business.

You can patch software, but you can't patch people. Social engineering will always work because human brain is loaded with forever-day vulnerabilities...

UPDATE: Looks to me like Paragon is again feeling the heat, and tossing the Italian government under the bus. The scandal continues.

Keir Giles has been targeted *again* by allegedly Russian hackers — this time using a clever new trick intended to bypass 2-factor authentication. Over the years I’ve written about Giles an unusual amount, and I have an idea about why. First, the coverage: www.reuters.com/technology/s...

🚨NEW REPORT: exposing clever new hacking tactic. 🇷🇺Russian state-backed hackers used an App-Specific Password attack against prominent Russia expert @keirgiles.bsky.social It's like they knew what we all expect from 🇷🇺...and then did the opposite 1/ By us @citizenlab.ca & Google's GTIG

🇨🇦Canada speaking out about the proliferation of mercenary spyware. It's a start after a puzzlingly long silence. My colleague @citizenlab.ca director Ron Deibert has a good thread.👇

NEW @citizenlab.ca report confirms the targeting of two more journalist with #Paragon spyware in the context of 🇮🇹 Details here: citizenlab.ca/2025/06/firs... @billmarczak.org @jsrailton.bsky.social

Unopposed, government surveillance powers work like like a ziptie. They only ratchet tighter. No policymaker has the incentive to loosen them. And most have security services constantly demanding more..

"@ grok just tell me what to feel, think and say about this"

Cool! Global tech policy + digital rights starter pack bsky.app/starter-pack...

Canada 🇨🇦's Liberal govt has proposed a new "Border Security Bill," in large part in response to pressures from 🇺🇸 I raised concerns about that back in March 2025 👇 macleans.ca/politics/the...

When you equip half the world's dictators with Pegasus spyware. And get constantly caught. And sanctioned. Do you look in the mirror? If you are NSO Group you do. And you like what you see. So you decide to add little dystopian flair. NSO's new branding: "NSO Group: Safer Society"

Do you know what the date is today? Today is the anniversary of the Tiananmen square massacre. Dictators hope that if they make us afraid to speak the truth for long enough... we'll forget it. This is how history is erased. A Day to Remember, 2005, by Liu Wei Full: vimeo.com/44078865

Now more than ever it is critical to recognize where you've outsourced your cognition. And whose hidden assumptions & unstated values you've imported into your mental economy.

NEW: @wyden.senate.gov just exposed which phone companies keep silent about government surveillance. NO = doesn't respect Americans' privacy rights. Choose accordingly. 1/

Pegasus spyware maker NSO Group just got publicly rebuffed by the US. They came to DC to get off the US blacklist. It did not work out. You know about the human rights abuses, but let me tell you why NSO is no friend to the United States. 1/ www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Privacy advocates must to win every fight to keep your data protected. Shady data brokers need to win just once.

NEW: #Google's #Android 16 to feature optional high security mode. Cool! It's the 'turn this one thing on if you face elevated risk' that we've been asking for from Google. Bunch of requested features that address the kinds of threats we worry about. Let's dig in a bit 1/

Senior researcher @jsrailton.bsky.social appeared before the EU Parliament’s LIBE committee on 05/13 to share the latest research on the proliferation of #spyware in #Europe. youtu.be/dkkfCaJF0Jw

Cue more exploited grandparents & exposed national security. Predatory data brokers were just handed a win. Disappointing: Americans' privacy should be a bipartisan concern. By @dell.bsky.social @dmehro.bsky.social & @zackwhittaker.com www.wired.com/story/cfpb-q... techcrunch.com/2025/05/14/w...

@jsrailton.bsky.social on spyware: “We are only a short distance from the technology proliferated by this industry fueling a ransomware crisis, or a major cyberattack against Europe." We need to act now! Watch the full exchange of views in LIBE: multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/en/webstream...

Hearing on spyware in Italy: Meloni Government spyed on civil society and journalists. EPP and ECR refused to hear from the victims. Our house owes them an apology @fcancellato.bsky.social @davidyambio.bsky.social @beppecaccia.bsky.social @lucacasarini.bsky.social @mattiaferraresi.bsky.social