It Happened To Me: I Clicked On A Backpack I Wanted And Got Auto-Enrolled In Their Email Program. I Now Hate The Backpack.

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.

Our #privacy holds considerable social & economic value, but the U.S.'s current approach to privacy consistently undervalues it. On #DataPrivacyDay, we revisit an OTI article highlighting the need for a privacy valuation framework. https://bit.ly/45x7h25

We're excited to share that OTI Senior Policy Analyst @sydneysaubestre.bsky.social is one of Georgetown's McCourt School Tech & Public Policy Visiting Fellows for spring 2026! https://mccourt.georgetown.edu/news/tpp-visiting-fellows-spring-2026/

#ICYMI: Last week OTI Senior Policy Analyst @sydneysaubestre.bsky.social took part in a #FOSI2025 panel on how age assurance measures can be effective, practical & responsive to the needs of children, families & industry. Check out the write-up of the day: fosi.org/event/fosi-a...

Talking about the tradeoffs between timeliness and accuracy is pretty abstract until you watch the Fed trying to read tea leaves from scraped LinkedIn data and online layoff announcements until the official data comes out

A brief that reads like an excellent feature, includes archival research, and uses a specific historical moment to help us understand the U.S. as a whole? Highly recommend.

As one fun data point: only 24% of tenure or tenure-track econ professors are women, so I don’t think these universities have much to worry about. But good to see they’re doubling down just in case.

New America experts around the web: 1️⃣ @kevincarey1.bsky.social for @theatlantic.com https://bit.ly/3WeYlJw 2️⃣ @sydneysaubestre.bsky.social quoted in @newsweek.com https://bit.ly/3W8Lgl5 3️⃣ Peter Singer for @defenseone.bsky.social https://bit.ly/4n8TiVW

OTI Senior Policy Analyst @sydneysaubestre.bsky.social was quoted in @dangooding.bsky.social's new piece in @newsweek.com. She states: "If the government can’t be trusted to respect the limits on how it uses our data, it can’t be trusted to protect our democracy." www.newsweek.com/trump-admin-...

Nice piece out today in the @nytimes.com that includes some coverage of our recent @pnas.org paper on air pollution and pets.

OTI's @sydneysaubestre.bsky.social & @premmtrivedi.bsky.social argue in @foreignpolicy.com that the #Trump admin is conducting #data theater—a move with the defining feature of performing objectivity through meaningless data staged to simulate truth. foreignpolicy.com/2025/09/22/u...

HAPPENING NOW: @gwlaw.bsky.social's @daniel-solove.bsky.social, one of the world’s leading experts in #privacy law, is sitting down with OTI's @premmtrivedi.bsky.social to discuss privacy and its relationship to power, society and #democracy! bit.ly/4kUZpvQ 💻+🏢 ONLINE & @newamerica.org in D.C.

"Bearing moral witness matters even when it doesn’t automatically produce results, because failing to show up at all cedes ground unnecessarily."

I just took a quiz on how much of my personal data DOGE can access. The results aren’t pretty. Take it now to discover how much of your sensitive info is now exposed. #HandsOffMyData www.newamerica.org/oti/briefs/q...

Open Technology Institute Senior Policy Analyst @sydneysaubestre.bsky.social breaks down #SCOTUS giving #DOGE access to Americans' Social Security #data. See what personal info of yours may be at risk! www.newamerica.org/the-thread/d...

I’ve long warned friends against commercial genetic testing — but didn’t expect 23andMe to end up trying to sell people’s DNA in bankruptcy court. Their excuse? “It’s in the privacy policy.” Meaningful consent? That’s a stretch. 🧵 (1/n)

What if mad cow, but for the internet.

In April, @sydneysaubestre.bsky.social joined @davidalruiz.bsky.social on the #LockAndCode podcast to discuss #DOGE’s push for sensitive personal data held by the federal government. The concerns shared then foreshadowed dissents on #SCOTUS decision to allow DOGE access to Social Security data:

The Supreme Court just overrode an injunction blocking #DOGE 's access to Social Security data. Millions of people’s personal records are now exposed before the courts even decide whether that access is even legal.

With #AI, #HigherEd institutions see themselves at a crossroads: Take a leap of faith on innovation, or abstain to ensure autonomy and student #privacy? The answer, per Sydney Saubestre and Joel Yong: None of the above! ⬇️ Read more in a new brief from @newamerica.org's Open Technology Institute.

@adamhsays.com is one of the only people, outside of a Hollywood writer's room, who can make me feel invested in sports. Now a Pop fan. This piece is a balm—highly recommend.

everything means the opposite for these people. freedom means your freedom to obey. the first amendment means their freedom to tell you what you can read and think.

Would this be considered method acting or just immersive theater?

Choice is when you can’t get a vaccine but your cousin can sell raw milk on Facebook. Preventive care? Gatekept. Pseudoscience? Sponsored. Funny how “freedom to choose” always means fewer choices. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/20/h...

Smartwatch data

OTI Policy Director @premmtrivedi.bsky.social was on @cnn.com this weekend speaking with @kimbrunhuber.bsky.social about age verification online and other measures to improve youth online safety! Watch the clip: www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnAb...

A really solid thread on the Spain/Portugal power outage, other then no mention of the most obvious cause: tilting at windmills. First instance well documented in 1605. Good graphs, bad grasp of history.

If TX passes SB 2880, the bill would make it illegal to “provide information” on how to obtain an abortion-inducing drug. Texas legislators not only want to make sure no one can start a discussion on abortion pills, they also want to make sure no one can find one.

You can’t fix what you don’t measure. Abortion bans and maternal health failures are costing lives—and the data is being erased. For @msmagazine.com, I wrote about the urgent need for ethical systems that track the truth and protect the people behind it. msmagazine.com/2025/04/24/d...

Honored to have my piece in @msmagazine.com, an outlet I’ve been reading since my teenage years—and one my mom’s been reading for even longer. When I texted her to tell her, she sent back: 'Ms. Magazine!!!!' Enough said.

My late father, David Martin, worked for the West Virginia State Library Commission as the Director of Graphics from 1978-1998. Originally focused on sculpture, all my childhood memories of him are by an easel, hunched over a drafting table, or silkscreening. (1/2)

When the moment came, Harvard didn’t hedge or flinch—it stood up. A reminder that integrity isn’t complicated, it’s just rare.

Had the pleasure of speaking with @davidalruiz.bsky.social, the host of Lock and Code @malwarebytes.com, about DOGE’s grab of tax records, student‑loan files—even medical info—and why that looks a lot like a data breach in plain sight.

A Republican Idaho lawmaker said ending a $30m program that helped public school students was unrelated to the recent creation of a $50m private school tax credit. The state’s most prominent conservative group (Idaho Freedom Foundation) says it should be.

As a Jewish person, I am DISGUSTED that my identity is being used by the Trump administration to justify extorting the personal information of students. This is abhorrent. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/17/u...

Universities need to band together, go to court, and use their endowments to get through the next four years -- or let Donald Trump and his minions take over everything. Those are the only choices.

What of your data does DOGE have access to? The folks at New America made a tool to show you based on your life circumstances and interactions with the federal government. www.newamerica.org/oti/briefs/q...

🆕 📣 A new interactive quiz published by @techanddemocracy.newamerica.org can help Americans understand how much of their data DOGE has in hand. Take the quiz to discover which elements of your sensitive info are now exposed. 📝 #HandsOff go.newamerica.org/what-does-do...

"Last year, the Social Security Inspector General issued a report showing Social Security has a criminal fraud rate of 0.009%. As a percentage, that's much lower than the 1.4 billion in assets that reportedly went missing on the Tesla balance sheet just last week." - @wyden.senate.gov

Privacy-boosting tech could prevent breaches, data misuse with government aid, report says. By me. cyberscoop.com/privacy-boos...

So let’s be very clear about this - DOGE isn’t saving America money. It is now among the costliest domestic programs in our history; and certainly the most significant wealth destroying.

Skype is shutting down, but my $3.42 Skype credit from 2015 is still here. It’s like a Pokémon card—outdated, yet somehow more valuable than it has any right to be. Truly the gold standard of digital currency.

How can #K12 schools strike the right balance between digital learning and student privacy? @NewAmerica.org recently convened a roundtable of students and experts to discuss how edtech could be used to shape a more modern and equitable future for learners. 💻 buff.ly/ZW8LpNl

Love to see this ‘de-extinction company’ sticking to the Jurassic Park Framework™: 1) Find extinct DNA 2) Splice it in 3) Profit?? 4) Super fluffy, highly lethal dinosaur eats the most annoying guest

Your data is everyone’s business—unless you make it harder to grab. With privacy concerns on the rise thanks to DOGE et al., my colleague Nat and I outlined five steps to start locking it down. Tips below 🧵

It's just trying to figure out where, exactly, you are dancing on your own.

Upcoming at New America 2/25 @educationwork.newamerica.org Tablets and Teaching: When, If, and How in Early Learning 2/26 @techanddemocracy.newamerica.org State and Community Adoption Initiatives: Maximizing Federal Broadband Investments 📅 #NewAmericaEvents https://buff.ly/4hok6zy

I guess we've moved on to purplewashing?