Listening about the future of journalism in the era of AI at @columbiajournalism.bsky.social Many things I’m hearing make my blood curdle. Or boil, not sure yet.

This week in digital censorship and surveillance: - Meta might be able to read users' WhatsApp messages; - Chicago activists are suing the DHS for unwarranted DNA gathering; - DHS wants location data of a Canadian who criticised ICE, and more. Subscribe! ctrlspydel.substack.com/p/a-tale-of-...

This week in digital censorship and surveillance: - DHS will equip ICE agents with smart glasses; - AI is coming for your work emails and Slacks; - Apple has fixed a bug that allowed extracting deleted Signal messages... and more. Subscribe! ctrlspydel.substack.com/p/humans-sur...

So now AI can fell things... www.wired.com/story/anthro...

This week in digital censorship and surveillance: - Delivery robots are using geo data from Pokemon Go; - Media outlets are barring Wayback Machine from archiving them; - Another U.S. woman jailed because of a faulty facial recognition. Subscribe! ctrlspydel.substack.com/p/the-quiet-...

This week in digital surveillance and censorship: - OkCupid has settled with the FTC for sharing user data with an AI startup; - Starlink resellers are getting arrested in Iran; - Russia wants internet providers to charge users for VPN traffic. Subscribe! ctrlspydel.substack.com/p/going-digi...

This week in digital censorship and surveillance: - Police uses web cookies to identify suspects, according to recent warrants regarding a false bomb threat; - An AI startup is quietly recording and publishing invite-only Zoom meetings; Subscribe! ctrlspydel.substack.com/p/surveillan...

This week in digital censorship and surveillance: - Leaked government contracts reveal DHS' new surveillance tech purchases; - A DOGE member allegedly took Social Security data to his new job; - Russia is in a mobile internet shutdown. Subscribe! ctrlspydel.substack.com/p/no-price-t...

This week in digital censorship and surveillance: - A Tennessee grandma spent 6 months in jail due to facial recognition tech failure; - Palantir is building "bossware" for the USDA; - Iranians are threatened with punishment for using VPNs. Subscribe! ctrlspydel.substack.com/p/the-antidote

Most people also won’t finish your 500-word article. So write at whatever length is appropriate for the subject.

This week in digital censorship and surveillance: - CBP is buying cell phones’ locations data from private brokers; - EFF and ACLU ask court to prohibit searches of phones at the border; - Iran bough facial recognition tech from Russia. Subscribe! ctrlspydel.substack.com/p/first-blood

This week in digital censorship and surveillance: - DHS is seeking to combine all of its agencies’ biometric systems into one. - A hobbyist developer created an app detecting smart glasses around you. Subscribe to stay informed! ctrlspydel.substack.com/p/small-batt...

This week in digital censorship and surveillance: - Amazon Ring's Search Party has been created to track people, not only lost dogs. - DHS is trying to deanonymise users that criticise ICE en mass. - How to protect your privacy while planning a protest. ctrlspydel.substack.com/p/the-power-...

This week in digital censorship and surveillance: - Salesforce, Google and Palantir employees ask the companies to stop their work for ICE. - U.S. State Dept is deleting its own pre-Trump tweets. -U.S. smuggled Starlink terminals into Iran. Subscribe! ctrlspydel.substack.com/p/get-used-t...

This week in digital censorship and surveillance: - TikTok users could not share anti-ICE videos last weekend. - Dozens of US public health databases haven't been. updated for months. - Amazon Ring integration with Flock is on hold. ...and more. Subscribe! ctrlspydel.substack.com/p/the-many-f...

This week in digital surveillance and censorship: - U.S. retailers are now using facial recognition in their stores. - DOGE misused social security data. - Iran might stay cut off the global internet permanently. Subscribe! ctrlspydel.substack.com/p/panic-at-a...

How does AI surveillance work in U.S. schools? I talked with Sal Mani from VOLT AI about privacy, false positives and how to get it right. Subscribe to my newsletter to learn more about AI surveillance and other technologies of control. ctrlspydel.substack.com/p/exclusive-... #AI #surveillance

This week in digital censorship and surveillance: - Iran is on week 2 of the internet blackout. - Tech activist published search logs of Flock's license plate readers and exposed API keys for the company's customer data. ...and more. Subscribe! ctrlspydel.substack.com/p/blacked-out

This week in digital censorship and surveillance: - security test of ten internet-connected toys for kids, - how to protect your phone from searches at the border, - how to avoid surveillance during a protest, ... and more. Subscribe and support! ctrlspydel.substack.com/p/a-practica...

This week in digital surveillance and censorship: - AI surveillance system in a U.S. school mistook a clarinet for a gun; - Customs and Border Protection is seeking light-weight, desert-resilient drones to patrol the border; ... and more. Subscribe! ctrlspydel.substack.com/p/dispatch-o...

This week in digital censorship & surveillance: - “City brains,” “smart courts,” “smart prisons” and other wonders of AI surveillance in China; - U.S. prisons inmate are unknowingly training AI tools; - Russia blocks FaceTime and Snapchat. Subscribe! ctrlspydel.substack.com/p/the-great-...

This week in digital censorship and surveillance: - Workplace surveillance tech can lead to harmful mistakes, - U.S. human rights organizations demand that ICE stop using its facial recognition app, Mobile Fortify, and more. Subscribe! ctrlspydel.substack.com/p/your-ai-hr...

"As AI becomes more intelligent, general, and especially autonomous, it will less and less bestow power — as a tool does — and more and more absorb power. This means that a race to build AGI and superintelligence is ultimately self-defeating." control-inversion.ai

This week in digital censorship and surveillance: - Big-time police surveillance is coming to college football games; - ICE hiring bounty hunters to locate undocumented immigrants for $180m; - Americans taking down Flock cameras, and more. Subscribe! ctrlspydel.substack.com/p/big-brothe...

Exploiting underpaid workers to their last drop of sweat before making their jobs obsolete is definitely the AI revolution the humanity needs. www.forbes.com/sites/iainma...

Is anyone here using AI health apps? How is it?

The way tech billionaires are increasingly turning into self-proclaimed messiahs is another proof that extreme wealth makes people lose their minds. Taxes are a mental health tool, y'all.

First, Peter Thiel's Antichrist tour, now Alex Karp's weird interview. Are people at Palantir ok?.. gizmodo.com/palantir-ceo...

This week in digital censorship and surveillance: - USCIS to get more biometric data from immigrants – and citizens, - U.S. police now has a mobile facial recognition app similar to what ICE has, - How to opt out of TSA's face scan, and more. Subscribe! ctrlspydel.substack.com/p/the-overflow

Scandinavia is the last remaining bastion of human sanity in this world www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

🔎🩺INVESTIGATION: Doctors stripped of their licenses for serious misconduct can move and keep practicing abroad. Reporters found over 100 cases where banned doctors were relicensed in other countries—most of them are still treating patients. #BadPractice @vsquare.bsky.social @occrp.org

This week, someone sued the New York City over the NYPD surveillance practices, and the lawsuit reads like a Halloween story. Also: the latest on the ICE surveillance expansion, some _almost funny_ hiccups of the spyware industry, and more. Subscribe! ctrlspydel.substack.com/p/youre-bein...

Wow, Russia's "toll farms" have been considered a viable business model and are now being emulated by "startups" in the U.S. www.404media.co/a16z-backed-...

Would you trust an AI surveillance system to be in charge of your children's security at school? That is already happening in the U.S. Also in this week's newsletter: Amazon on a quest to become police surveillance one-stop-shop, and more. Subscribe! ctrlspydel.substack.com/p/ai-nanny-b...

NYC people! Are there any mayoral debate watch parties tonight?

Blue collar jobs will be devoured by AI and we all are funding that feast www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/t...

What a complete incompetence www.lawfaremedia.org/article/anna...

It's especially funny to get letters from your uni with requests to donate when you're unemployed. Was only funnier back when I had student debt.

Reasons for optimism this week: 1. America's trade unions and @eff.org believe mean tweets shouldn't cost people visas, 2. ... that's all Also: bizarre mutations of Russian internet censorship, why facial recognition sucks, and what is a browser fingerprint ctrlspydel.substack.com/p/access-den...

It takes genuine curiosity about fellow humans to really love New York.

Apple and Google took down apps helping citizens track and report ICE raids, NYPD will be watching CCTV cameras in NYCHA buildings, Signal might leave Europe over "Chat Control", and more – in this week's newsletter. Subscribe to stay informed 📨 ctrlspydel.substack.com/p/melting-do...

It's funny how U.S. companies are all after govt contracts now – just as they are in Russia. But in Russia, the govt has the natural resources money and monopoly in many fields, while the individual consumer market is much weaker on the global scale. Discuss?.. www.forbes.com/sites/thomas...

When freedom of the press is under attack, journalists vanish, lies become law, and the voice of the people is silenced. It’s not just how democracies die, it’s how countries falter. It’s how they fall. OCCRP fights back with facts — and we need you with us: membership.occrp.org/truth-or-sil...

Spoke to my colleague Callan Quinn for her Scamurai podcast. We discussed some creepy stories of digital surveillance, the double-edged sword of censorship, and the new trend that is freaking us out: humans outsourcing their thinking process to AI. Check it out! www.scamurai.io/p/ep-6-digit...

ICE plans to monitor social media, landlords want to know all about your pay checks, and grocery stores may soon have surveillance drones to track shoplifters. Wonder what is going on with tech of mass surveillance in the U.S. these days? Subscribe ↘️ ctrlspydel.substack.com/p/no-opting-...

Would you be bothered if you landlord wanted to see ALL of your paystubs? www.404media.co/landlords-de...

Flock, an AI cameras manufacturer, is planning to sell surveillance drones to retail chains, so that they can track and chase shoplifters. www.technologyreview.com/2025/09/25/1...

This week had some good news for privacy-minded people: Meta does not have to reveal the identity of user who published a name of ICE agent (so far), and Microsoft is no more providing Azure for intercepting Gazans' calls (so far?) Otherwise, same blues 🌎 ctrlspydel.substack.com/p/little-win...