
New York Bill Would Force Age ID Checks at the Device Level
The bill’s child safety framing is doing a lot of work to normalize what is, in practice, a government-linked identity layer baked into every device you own before you open a single app.
Speech. Privacy. Liberty.
Expose Big Tech censorship, government overreach, and threats to online freedom. Join thousands fighting for digital liberty.
✔️ Unsubscribe anytime

The bill’s child safety framing is doing a lot of work to normalize what is, in practice, a government-linked identity layer baked into every device you own before you open a single app.

The message that leaves your keyboard is not the message that arrives.
THE LATEST
member exclusives

The US DHS is building a surveillance system vast enough to identify anyone on any street and is doing so without a legal framework to govern when, why, or whether it should.

Every concession Discord offered this week is a reason to stay distracted while the architecture of permanent surveillance gets bolted into place.

Eight months of flagged conversations, five wrongful death lawsuits, and a Canadian school shooting later, lawmakers have found their argument for turning AI chatbots into government reporting networks.

A leaked dashboard screenshot reveals how commercial spyware silently installs via zero-click exploits to read encrypted messages and activate microphones.

Our list favors projects that hand you the keys to the infrastructure rather than another polished cage with different branding.

How you lock down your phone now matters as much as what’s on it.

What 2026 will really measure is how Linux can survive contact with non-enthusiasts.

The myth of “social media addiction” has become a convenient moral shield for expanding digital ID systems, turning concern for kids’ safety into consent for mass surveillance.
Become a supporter and get unlimited access to investigations, analysis, and exclusive guides.

A sarcastic joke is now the centerpiece of a First Amendment case that could add to precedent about how members of Congress use their official social media accounts.

The people who spent their careers building the security systems governments want to exploit for age verification have finally had enough.

The AI era’s defining feature isn’t intelligence; it’s installation without asking.

Virginia set the government as the default gatekeeper of how long children can read, watch, and talk online, and a federal judge found that unconstitutional before the law ever took effect.

In a different timeline, wiring an age-surveillance layer into the boot sequence of every computing device in California is an idea that would have died in committee.

Two years of surveillance, £600,000 spent, and the program ended not because anyone asked if it was wrong, but because the data was garbage.

Mexico is six months away from building a surveillance system that knows the face behind every phone call in the country.

Simons was accused of running a thinktank dedicated to fighting “disinformation,” then used a government intelligence body to spread it.

The agency charged with enforcing the law that restricts children’s data collection just carved out an exception large enough to swallow the law itself.

Britain’s demand that Apple build a backdoor for everyone on earth, then quietly reframe it as a domestic matter after Washington pushed back, is the kind of legal gymnastics that makes intelligence lawyers nervous on both sides of the Atlantic.
BIG TECH ALTERNATIVES
Speech. Privacy. Liberty.
Get news updates, features, and alternative tech explorations to defend your digital rights.
✔️ Unsubscribe anytime