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

📣Surveillance in the Majority world Network's newsletter is out!

My university has announced a fund to essentially poach doctoral students from US institutions. DM me if you do work on the history/social impacts of AI and are interested in being poached 😂

ICE officials will be receiving access to the personal data of nearly 80 million people on Medicaid in order to acquire "information concerning the identification and location of aliens in the United States,” according to an agreement viewed by WIRED.

This is truly wild: @josephcox.bsky.social got the user manual for ICE's new facial recognition app, which appears to be one of the most powerful face rec systems ever because it is connected to tons of different government databases and surveillance systems www.404media.co/inside-ices-...

We ran a randomized controlled trial to see how much AI coding tools speed up experienced open-source developers. The results surprised us: Developers thought they were 20% faster with AI tools, but they were actually 19% slower when they had access to AI than when they didn't.

New Article! I interviewed those involved in drafting ADPPA, the American Data Privacy & Protection Act, & reviewed primary sources. I tell the story of how law, legal processes, and influences on civil society skewed ADPPA in industry-friendly ways. scholarlycommons.law.emory.edu/cgi/viewcont...

In 2020, the Boston City Council passed a surveillance ordinance, requiring for the first time that police provide details about how they use approved technologies. Now, for the first time, we can see how BPD uses its vast network of surveillance cameras. data.aclum.org/article/vide...

In terms of Threads account portability, @davidimel's excellent question, and @pcottle's response: Mosseri was very candid about the goal here in his original quote in July 2023: > “I think we might be a more compelling platform for creators, particularly for the newer creators who are more and […]

Amidst a global shift towards the far-right and authoritarianism, there are clear indications from oppressive governments around the world that biometrics will be used to harm human rights, regardless of their accuracy or fairness, writes Tech Policy Press Fellow Dia Kayyali.

Real talk: Is the state AI moratorium intended to encompass not just lawsuits over causes of action under state AI laws/regs, but also the courts' self-governance? Does Congress have the power to dictate what is or is not permitted in state-court judges' standing orders for their own courtrooms?

INBOX: The Health Equity for Immigrants Coalition has condemned the sharing of sensitive personal data of more than 2 million Apple Health (Medicaid) enrollees by Washington State with the federal government. Thousands of undocumented immigrants who receive health coverage may be affected.

Big news this evening This EU ruling has been 7 years in the making www.iccl.ie/digital-data...

Great new piece by @katewillett.bsky.social “On their book tour, Thompson and Klein sound less like journalists and more like spokesmen for these groups, repeating polished talking points about who the enemies of Abundance are—leftists—and who isn’t to blame after all: oligarchs.”

On FediForum (and not just FediForum) privacy.thenexus.today/not-just-fed... A deep dive into FediForum's last-minute cancellation and the opportunities for a collective learning experience, catalyst for change, and perhaps an inflection point -- for FediForum and the broader ecosystem.

Effective moderation of social media to curb genocidal content www.dair-institute.org/tigray-genoc... A page from @dairinstitute.bsky.social with a link to a CHI paper, a 10-minute video, and a statement.

As immigration controls are violently targeting pro #Palestine students & other migrants, their low-tech tactics remain the most dangerous & authoritarian, Afsaneh Rigot writes.“The oppressed know the oppressor better than it knows itself.” We can outsmart them. the-decenter.ghost.io/dehumanized-...

Yeah really! Don't post about crimes. And ESPECIALLY don't make public posts about crimes! Maybe every person on Bluesky already knows this -- Bluesky is very explicit about being all-public. But a reminder's not a bad thing!

Opt-in or bust. Opt-out requires you to know about the processing before it happens to be excluded. If you don’t know far enough in advance to be able to take action, it’s useless as a safeguard.

👉 Are you a young lawyer and want to gain experience in #GDPR litigation and enforcement?! 💡We have a last minute opportunity to join noyb as a Legal Trainee this May! 😊 You can find all the information you need here:

For context on why I'm asking those questions, please see the draft of If not now, when? Mutual aid and organizing in the fediverses and the ATmosphere. Feedback welcome on the draft as well!

Washing Privacy Legislation update: not good, unfortunately (1/3) Friday February 28 was the “fiscal cutoff”: any bills in the House not approved by the Appropriations committee are dead for the session. Alas, Appropriations never called a hearing or scheduled a vote on either HB 1671 (the […]

If you're a Washington state resident, wa-privacy.net/email-approp... brings up draft email to the committee currently considering the People's Privacy Act. Add your name, city, and anything else you want to say, and click send. Big Tech is trying to kill the bill, so we need to push back! (4/7)

TAKE ACTION: Support the People's Privacy Act! (1/7) The People’s Privacy Act limits how much data companies can collect; prohibits transfer and sale of sensitive data without opt-in consent; and bans using kids' and teens' data to target advertising. wa-privacy.net/take-action-...

Organizing on decentralized social networks -- a survey! privacy.thenexus.today/organizing-o... (There's a CryptPad survey embedded in the page. If you run into problems seeing it, there are also links to the survey directly -- and to a Google Forms equivalent if you prefer)

Organizing on decentralized social networks -- a survey! privacy.thenexus.today/organizing-o... (There's a CryptPad survey embedded in the page. If you run into problems seeing it, there are also links to the survey directly -- and to a Google Forms equivalent if you prefer)

Short VIDEO of me discussing my article, “Data Is What Data Does: Regulating Based on Harm and Risk Instead of Sensitive Data” www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9A7...

The Washington House Technology, Economic Development, & Veterans committee's current discussing the People's Privacy Act - tvw.org/video/house-...

I'm hearing now that *every* technologist CFPB hired to investigate Big Tech was fired this evening. That's somewhere between 70-100 people. wired.com/story/dozens-of-cfpb-workers-terminated-in-after-hours-firing-blitz/

And here in Washington state, the People's Privacy Act -- which is exactly the kind of bill they're talking about -- is up for a committee vote tomorrow! If you're in Washington, please contact your legislators! @wa-privacy.net's thread makes it easy to take action. bsky.app/profile/wa-p...

65+ Civil Society Groups Urge Democratic States to Protect Individual Data, Privacy Under Trump Yeah really, sounds like a great idea to me! www.fightforthefuture.org/news/2025-02... Thanks @accountabletech.bsky.social @fightforthefuture.org and @ultraviolet.bsky.social for organizing!

65+ Civil Society Groups Urge Democratic States to Protect Individual Data, Privacy Under Trump Yeah really, sounds like a great idea to me! www.fightforthefuture.org/news/2025-02... Thanks @accountabletech.bsky.social @fightforthefuture.org and @ultraviolet.bsky.social for organizing!

WA state folks who want better privacy laws, here’s your cue (And no, it’s not age-verification)

The Electronic Privacy Information Center @epic.org rising to meet the moment, suing to protect privacy in this moment of authoritarian assault on our data. @alanindc.bsky.social epic.org/wp-content/u...

TAKE ACTION: Support the People's Privacy Act! (Washington state, 1/5) The People’s Privacy Act limits how much data companies can collect, prohibits the sale of sensitive data without opt-in consent, and bans targeted advertising to kids and teens. That's good! wa-privacy.net/take-action-...