Ken Macon
Ken is a teacher and contributor who focuses on researching and reporting on mass surveillance and privacy rights across the world. [email protected]
The UK’s Plan to Put an Age Verification Chaperone in Every Pocket
A nation’s surveilling guardrail threatens to become its digital leash.
700Credit Data Breach Exposes 5.6 Million Americans, Showing Risks of Centralized Digital ID Systems
As always: systems built to verify identity ended up compromising millions instead.
US Proposes Collecting DNA From Foreign Tourists
The plan would turn routine border screening into a genetic census, redefining what it means to cross a friendly border in the name of security.
EU Revives Plan for Year-Long Data Retention Across Digital Services, Including Encrypted Apps
A rewrite of Europe’s privacy rules could turn every click, call, and login into a year-long entry in a government ledger.
Digital IDs and AI Dreams: How Canada and Europe Plan to Sync the Future
As Europe and Canada link their digital identity and AI systems, the line between secure connectivity and centralized oversight grows increasingly thin.
Berlin Approves New Expansion of Police Surveillance Powers
The law fuses hacking, home entry, and AI into a single blueprint for dystopian modern policing.
The Encryption Double Life of Canberra
Behind closed screens, the same officials pushing to weaken privacy laws are perfecting the art of vanishing conversations.
Alaska Plots AI-Driven Digital Identity, Payments, and Biometric Data System
The state’s new system could turn bureaucracy into automation, and consent into a checkbox no one really controls.
Edmonton Becomes First in Canada to Test Facial Recognition Body Cameras in Police Pilot Program
A city becomes a testing ground for the uneasy fusion of public safety and algorithmic gaze.
India Orders Smartphone Makers to Pre-Install Non-Removable App
Apple’s next move in India may redefine how far global tech firms will bend to government demands.
Russia Threatens to Block WhatsApp as Government Promotes State-Run MAX App
A ban on WhatsApp would mark another step in Russia’s tightening grip on digital life.
Meta Pushes Canada for App Store Age Verification ID Laws
Meta’s proposal to move age checks to app stores would tighten Big Tech’s grip on digital identity, giving a handful of companies new power over who gets online.