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]
Reddit Tests Blocking Mobile Web to Force App Downloads
Reddit’s message to its most loyal lurkers is this: your anonymity is the one thing we can’t monetize.
Jess Phillips Resigns, Pushes Phone Scanning Law in UK
A departing UK minister used her resignation letter to demand device-level photo scanning on every phone in the country.
MembersThe US Government Wants Agents Wearing Face Scanners
The government is building glasses that turn a glance into a federal database query and the deployment date is already set.
Sweden Wants to Strap Tracking Devices on Children as Young as 13
The country that once exported its parenting model to the world now wants to put ankle monitors on 13-year-olds who haven’t been charged with a crime.
Shapiro’s AI Chatbot Plan Opens the Door to ID-Gated, Surveilled Conversations
Pennsylvania’s governor is using one rogue chatbot to justify putting a digital checkpoint in front of every AI conversation in the state.
The FCC Wants Your ID Before You Get a Phone Number
The FCC just proposed fixing your robocall problem by building the kind of phone-user registry that privacy advocates have spent decades trying to prevent.
France Moves to Break Encrypted Messaging
France’s parliament just endorsed the one idea every cryptographer on earth has already debunked and they’re calling it a compromise.
Travel Booking Giant to Buy Biometrics Firm for €1.2 Billion, Linking Face Scans Across Journeys
The €1.2 billion deal hands one vendor the biometric thread that links your boarding pass, your passport, and your hotel key card.
MembersThe Browser Habits That Secretly Raise Your Airfare, and the Ones That Don’t
Twenty years of privacy advice gets a stress test against the booking infrastructure built to turn your hesitation into a higher fare.
EU Pushes Meta Toward Digital ID and Age Verification Under DSA, Threatens 6% Revenue Fine
Brussels just told Meta that asking users their birthday isn’t a verification system and the fix means every social media account becomes either a behavioral surveillance file or a government ID check.
Senate Panel Backs GUARD Act, AI Age Verification Bill
Every American who wants to ask a chatbot for help would need to upload a government ID, scan their face, or hand over a financial record first.
House Renews FISA Section 702, Rejects Warrant Requirement
The reforms add paperwork and prison time for misuse, but they leave the part everyone has fought about for two decades exactly where it was.