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]
Xbox Now Wants Your Face to Let You Play Games You Already Own in Singapore
Microsoft wants your face, your passport, or your national ID, just to keep playing the games sitting on your account.
Massachusetts House Passes Social Media Age Verification Digital ID Bill
Every adult in Massachusetts would have to hand their ID to a tech company just to keep scrolling.
Idaho Bans Mandatory Digital ID With New Privacy Law
In a country racing to put every ID on a screen, Idaho just wrote the right to say “no” into law.
EU Says EUDI Wallet Is Voluntary; Germany’s SPD Plan Says Otherwise
You don’t set an 80% adoption target for something you genuinely intend to keep optional.
MembersCongress Mandated the Backdoors That Got Hacked and Is Trying to Demand More
A backdoor doesn’t check credentials. Once it exists, it’s a target for anyone with the skill to find it.
US & EU Negotiate Biometric Data-Sharing Deal
A European whose fingerprints end up in a US enforcement database by mistake would have to fix it through American courts.
Illinois Police Fight Bill to Ban Facial Recognition Use
One state legislator wants to shut down Illinois’s largest facial recognition database, and 227 police organizations showed up to say no.
Apple Expands Age Verification to Singapore & South Korea
Apple now requires adults in Singapore and South Korea to hand over government IDs or financial credentials just to download apps they’ve been buying freely for years.
WHO Pushes Digital Health Wallet Rollout
A regional digitization push places millions of health records inside a system shaped by pandemic-era control mechanisms.
Hong Kong Criminalizes Refusal to Unlock Phones for Police
The government says no new powers were added, which is a bold way to describe inventing a crime that didn’t exist last week.
Apple Forces UK iPhone Age Checks in iOS 26.4
Every iPhone in Britain is now a checkpoint, and the price of entry for many is their ID or credit card.
FC Barcelona Fined for Privacy Violations Over Biometric Data Collection
The Barcelona fine is a speed bump on a highway where banks, stadiums, and retailers are all quietly building permanent records of your face.