Extremely impressive work by @rishkebab.blacksky.team and the Blacksky team: Acorn, a platform for growing and managing communities on decentralized infrastructure. "It started, as most things do at Blacksky, with moderation" ... gotta like that!

If you're interested in Flock and other ALPRs, oh boy, do I have a feed for you! blacksky.community/profile/then... On Bluesky: bsky.app/profile/then...

Victory in Seneca, MO! 🏆 "Beyond the technical and customer service issues, Chief Altic expressed concerns about reports of camera misuse throughout the country. These reports reinforced his decision to discontinue the program." [1/2] #deflock #surveillance #alpr

#waleg update: There's a committee hearing tomorrow morning on SB 6002, the Driver Privacy Act, regulating Flock and other ALPRs. If you're in Washington, please sign in OTHER (Strengthen) - and consider submitting written testimony. (1/N) www.takeaction.network/xactions/47677

FediForum "Growing the Open Social Web" Un-Workshop position statement thenexusofprivacy.net/fediforum-growing-the-open-social-web-un-workshop-position-statement-2/

Apparently (have been a WA stater for almost six years, and just learning now) when it's an even year, the leg. session goes twice as fast as odd-numbered years. Darn even years! 😄

#waleg 2026 at the midpoint: surveillance, privacy, AI, and age verification legislation overview privacy.thenexus.today/waleg-2026-o... We're almost exactly halfway through the 60-day session ... so it seems like a good time for an update.

Colleagues and I recently completed a study (to be published in the next few months in the Yale Journal of Law and Technology) in which we evaluated data brokers’ claims: we acquired several million rows from data brokers selling data they claimed to be anonymous and collected with consent. 2/

We're thrilled to welcome three new privacy experts to our Board of Directors: @dbrody.bsky.social, @rcalo.bsky.social, and Katherine Strandburg! We're looking forward to their guidance as we continue fighting to protect the fundamental right to privacy in 2026. epic.org/press-releas...

What are you looking for in social media? privacy.thenexus.today/what-are-you... Your perspectives welcome! - as replies here - in the pol.is conversation at pol.is/7xjmwmuxnt?r... - in the CryptPad form at cryptpad.fr/form/?ref=pr... I'll write up the results later this month

What are you looking for in social media? privacy.thenexus.today/what-are-you... Your perspectives welcome! - as replies here - in the pol.is conversation at pol.is/7xjmwmuxnt?r... - in the CryptPad form at cryptpad.fr/form/?ref=pr... I'll write up the results later this month

Garrett Langley, CEO of Flock Safety, is oblivious. This man cares more about selling a product than actual community safety or anything that might resemble democracy. Shameless plug but we're starting a session of SASSI School focused on Techno-Fascism in January. Garrett may be discussed.

NEW: CBP is doubling down on a surveillance strategy built around small, human-portable drones, pushing border enforcement toward a distributed surveillance network that can operate in harsh climes and mixed terrain to rapidly cue agents.

I have been reliably informed that recording a voice note is "creepy." So. If you have a question about surveillance at work, you can now (1) send us an email (2) record it directly at TheFairFightPod dot com OR (3) send us a creepy voice note

Even though we work on KOSA everyday, we didn’t know what bills would be in last weeks’ markup until 48 hours before the hearing. This is the strategy- ram bills through before the public has had time to know what’s going on. But you can always count on us to sound the alarm 🚨

Section 230 has no useful purpose?? Section 230 IS THE REASON THE INTERNET EXISTS. ARE YOU KIDDING ME @judiciarydems.senate.gov @whitehouse.senate.gov ??? Who wrote this bill?? Why are you all supporting this? You should be ashamed of yourselves!!

If Congress’ goal is truly to protect kids online, the best way to do so is through a federal data-privacy standard that prioritizes their safety today and can adapt to the technologies of tomorrow. This version of KOSA doesn't come close to meeting the mark.

House E+C hearing takeaways: - Dems voted against KOSA due to the duty of care + against COPPA 2.0 due to preemption of state laws. - With KOSA, the House is concerned with FTC overreach to police online free speech. This is a good thing + a sign that your advocacy is working!

Wow, in the subcommittee hearing, all the Democrats voted "no" on KOSA -- I think it was a straight party-line vote.

Happy spooky month and reminder to people to call your democratic senators and republicans and house democratics and republicans to oppose kosa and make sure the bill doesn't pass www.stopkosa.com sign this petiton as well! #savespeech

🚨🚨 Tomorrow, a House Energy & Commerce subcommittee is voting on passing KOSA & several other age verification bills. We need to spread mass opposition now. We cannot allow this to pass. We have to drive mass calls into congress NOW Call 202-224-3121 www.badinternetbills.com

Sure. Start here: www.vice.com/en/article/e... then here: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/05/29/o... here: www.transparentsletter.com academic study: citap.pubpub.org/pub/cosl/rel... letter from MA-based LGBTQ orgs delivered to Warren last month: www.fightforthefuture.org/news/2025-09...

#savespeech #stopKOSA Today, I also come bearing notes from the Judiciary Committee hearing on "online child safety." + THE GOOD: - No vote on any legislation. - Anger on KOSA in the House being defanged. - A few new bills, two of them seem ok: + the (ECHO) Act + the Stop Sextortion Act

SD City Council votes on Flock TODAY at 2pm downtown. Today is the day to hold our representatives accountable. Come to City Council. If you can’t, call in. Action toolkit: trst.fyi/stop-flock-e Want a reminder or tips? Dm us

I've been experimenting with a feed focused on KOSA, the App Store Accountability Act, SCREEN Act and other bills currently active. It's not yet ready for prime time yet, so if you happen to find it, be aware that it's missing a lot!

"Everyone on every side of KOSA and age verification... have a shared frustration in what tech companies are able to do to us every day. Congress is giving all of us crumbs rather than doing what needs to be done.” - @sarahephilips.bsky.social www.theverge.com/policy/83712...

Is Congress’s bipartisan child online safety coalition unraveling? @viacristiano.bsky.social thinks so, in his coverage for @techpolicypress.bsky.social of today's hearing on KOSA, COPPA 2.0, and more than a dozen other bills. www.techpolicy.press/congresss-bi...

I think everyone in Congress wants to censor the Internet, but they can't agree on exactly how. They cast all opposition to #KOSA as coming from "Big Tech" and either cannot or will not admit otherwise.

A contentious House hearing considering two major child online safety bills, KOSA and COPPA 2.0, signaled that the once-surging alliance of lawmakers pushing to bolster federal protections is splintering, reports Cristiano Lima-Strong.

#GivingTuesday 2025 There are a lot of worthy organizations out there. If you've got a bit of money to spare, please consider joining me in supporting one or two of these – or similar organizations in your area. (1/N) privacy.thenexus.today/givingtuesda...

Potential new WA legislation around #ALPR data retention & access. However, it feels like this might only end up further normalizing this form of mass surveillance and make cities more comfortable installing such infrastructure. Just ban ALPRs entirely! 🚫 #deflock #washington #surveillance

If you want to enable WhatsApp’s “Advanced Chat Privacy” in group chats, you might also want to lock down the permissions of that chat first. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...

A roundup of personal data consolidation, surveillance, and destruction-of-oversight news from the @unbreaking.org Data Security team, who will surely be having amazing conversations at various dinners next week.

Add Massachusetts to the list of states that has protections to keep out-of-state law enforcement from getting access to in-state surveillance data---but Flock Safety has still made that data available to police around the country. Well done, @jaystanley.bsky.social.

As a complement to Erin's post, I've been working on some threat modeling (including mitigations) for responding to this situation here in the ATmosphere as well as on fedi. This is at a very early stage ... feedback welcome! thenexusofprivacy.leaflet.pub/3m3tn33jfyk2n

Overflowing room for our session on Indigenous data governance and the @localcontexts.bsky.social labeling tools. People are eager to learn tools to support Indigenous communities governance of their data #LivingData2025

There was already a *lot* going on with Bluesky, and now it's under even more pressure. I wrote about how I think about moderation, affordances, expectations, human needs, and powerful trolls for @techpolicypress.bsky.social www.techpolicy.press/trump-admini...

This is what solidarity looks like thenexusofprivacy.net/what-solidar... Part 2 of “Decentralization” and erasure: Blacksky, Bluesky, and the ATmosphere Here's a thread with some highlights (🧵)

So far, I've been mostly ignoring Bluesky, with the attitude "Wake me up when I can do Bluesky without doing business with Bluesky the company." @jdp23 just woke me up! https://thenexusofprivacy.net/what-solidarity-looks-like/ I'm using a private PDS run by a friend, and using it to log into […]

This is what solidarity looks like thenexusofprivacy.net/what-solidar... Part 2 of “Decentralization” and erasure: Blacksky, Bluesky, and the ATmosphere Here's a thread with some highlights (🧵)

Accessibility in the ATmosphere? The current state of accessibiilty on Bluesky leaves a lot of room for improvement. So, let's start making things better! thenexusofprivacy.leaflet.pub/3lxxyg36k5s2t As a first step, let's focus on gathering information ... #accessibility. (🧵, 1/N)

OK! Today's the day! Kicking off the home for the #PrivateDataWG in the new @atprotocol.dev hosted Discourse forum Thanks to @ngerakines.me for spinning up the infra, including login with ATProto powered by AIP If you're interested in Private Data, login and introduce yourself.

Accessibility in the ATmosphere? The current state of accessibiilty on Bluesky leaves a lot of room for improvement. So, let's start making things better! thenexusofprivacy.leaflet.pub/3lxxyg36k5s2t As a first step, let's focus on gathering information ... #accessibility. (🧵, 1/N)

Mississippi, Bluesky, Blacksky, the ATmosphere, Mastodon, and the Fediverse privacy.thenexus.today/mississippi-... A summary of the situation (both in the ATmosphere and the Fediverse) links to a bunch of interesting discussions, and an appendix on just why age verification laws are so bad. 🧵

ICYMI: Amazon still doing Amazon things The company is not only reintroducing new versions of old features that allow police to access footage from Ring users Amazon is introducing a new Ring feature that will allow police to request *livestream* access to our home security devices. @eff.org

The RuralPrivacy.org page is finally live! Help add to our growing library of peer-created templates and community education materials, so we can interrupt the creep of surveillance tech in towns both big and small.

A credit-reporting agency falsely claimed people were terrorists. When the citizens sued, guess who the courts sided with. I spoke w/ @daniel-solove.bsky.social on techtonic.fm about how our privacy is being destroyed. Often, he says, "the law is the villain." buttondown.com/creativegood...

Study finds A.I. LLMs advise women to ask for lower salaries than men. When prompted w/ a user profile of same education, experience & job role, differing only by gender, ChatGPT advised the female applicant to request $280K salary; Male applicant=$400K. thenextweb.com/news/chatgpt...

"To keep the US happy, Mark Carney’s Liberal government is pushing Bill C-2 — expanding surveillance, limiting refugee protections, and eroding privacy in the name of national security. It’s Canada’s own PATRIOT Act, minus the excuse of an actual attack. " buff.ly/ct1U1O2