Andrew Crocker of EFF writes: Today, along with the ACLU, EFF filed an amicus brief in the Sixth Circuit court of appeals in United States v. Sturdivant, a case where police warrantlessly tracked a suspect’s movements using Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) data. Our brief details the vast, interconnected network of ALPRs that constantly track...

Suzanne Smiley reports: Cybercriminals are infecting devices on a large scale with spyware, increasingly compromising systems belonging to average people, according to a new report from the threat hunting firm iVerify. The company found a rate of 1.07 spyware infections per 1,000 consumer scans of the startup’s free online checks. The security firm reported a...

Victor Tangermann reports: After decades of establishing itself as one of the worst guardians of personal data, Meta raised eyebrows this year by encouraging users to hand over their email logins and credit card information to its new AI agent, Muse. The tool, a privacy nightmare anthropomorphized by a furry apparition, can crawl through years...

Olivia DeRicco reports: Woodley, et al. v. Google LLC, et al. Filed: October 9, 2026 ◆ § 5:26-cv-11715 Read Complaint A class action lawsuit alleges Google and UPS wrongfully disclose users’ private data to third parties by way of the Google Search tracking widget. A proposed class action lawsuit alleges that the Google Search-based “Track...

Justin Caffier writes: It’s been hard to keep track of all the ways in which America has been speedrunning toward a full-blown fascist surveillance state over the first two years of the second Trump administration. That’s partially due to the disorienting, shock-and-awe nature of each fresh injustice. But it’s mostly because of just how many...

Zack Whittaker reports: Security researchers at digital rights unit The Citizen Lab say government spyware makers are abusing global advertising networks to target and hack devices by serving malicious online adverts. A new report published Thursday by the University of Toronto lab, which investigates surveillance and digital rights abuses, said an Israeli company called Discover-Tech...

Justin Caffier writes: It’s been hard to keep track of all the ways in which America has been speedrunning toward a full-blown fascist surveillance state over the first two years of the second Trump administration. That’s partially due to the disorienting, shock-and-awe nature of each fresh injustice. But it’s mostly because of just how many...

Zack Whittaker reports: Security researchers at digital rights unit The Citizen Lab say government spyware makers are abusing global advertising networks to target and hack devices by serving malicious online adverts. A new report published Thursday by the University of Toronto lab, which investigates surveillance and digital rights abuses, said an Israeli company called Discover-Tech...

Thinking of traveling to Russia? Be aware that the Russian government has expanded a pilot program that tracked foreign migrants in Moscow to track them across the entire country. According to a press release from Interfax: All foreign nationals entering Russia will have to install a mobile app (“Amina”) on their phones to track their...

Frank Landymore reports: Would you like a rude, and perhaps slightly humorous, reminder of how much data surveillance Amazon conducts on its customers? Have we got the thing for you! On Tuesday, one customer shared how she accidentally stumbled on an obscure section on the Amazon website that most of us overlook. It contained, to...

Release Date: Mon, 10/05/2026 WASHINGTON — U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced today it has verified the identity of over 1 billion travelers through facial biometrics, underscoring CBP’s unwavering commitment to enhancing national security, combatting identity fraud, and streamlining legitimate travel. “Accurately verifying the identity of over 1 billion travelers at air, land, and sea...

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Margaret Attridge reports: Customers who purchased Samsung Smart TVs sued over claims the technology company collects users’ real-time viewing habits without their permission for commercial purposes. Named plaintiffs Danielle Tillery, Michael Walsh and David Rosenberg, who each bought a Samsung Smart TV between 2014 and 2021, accuse Samsung of violating their data privacy by harvesting...

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Another reminder: if you’re traveling, your cell phone can be searched at the border without a warrant or even reasonable suspicion. They can just do it.  From FourthAmendment.com: At the border, defendant’s cell phone was first manually searched and then forensically searched. Neither was unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment. United States v. Robinson, 2026 U.S....

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Kelsey Reichmann reports: In an emergency order, the Supreme Court on Friday agreed to let the Trump administration resurrect a national citizenship database using Social Security information for voter verification during the midterm elections. A lower court blocked the Department of Homeland Security from collecting individuals’ Social Security numbers, citizenship status and other private data...

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Sydney Haulenbeek reports: Police wanting to use a device mimicking a cellphone tower to locate people must first get a warrant, a Fourth Circuit panel ruled Thursday. Kerron Andrews was arrested by the Baltimore Police Department in May 2014, after the police secured a court order allowing them to use a cell-site simulator to obtain...

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Anthony Kimery reports: A relatively small U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) contract has revealed unusually specific details about a little-known Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) program that centrally manages the agency’s nationwide location tracking operations. ICE awarded Ensurity Mobile Corp. a $135,000 sole-source purchase order last week for specialized devices for HSI’s Technical Operations unit....

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Henry F. Fradella The Conversation, George Grispos, and Jihun Joun report: A husband in Taiwan suspected his wife of having an affair. In September 2023, he found a used toothbrush at their holiday home, and garage video showed an unfamiliar man driving his wife there. Three months later, he opened their robot vacuum’s app to...

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Yogev Toby reports: Meet the Instagram follower that may never stop looking at your feed: the Boston Police Department. The department this summer started using new artificial intelligence software that combs through social media looking for possible threats and information helpful to investigations, a city report revealed this week. The software, dubbed LifeRaft, offers tools...

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Jon Brodkin reports: The Boston city government abandoned Flock Safety’s license-plate reader cameras after the company shared data nationwide in violation of a contract provision, according to city officials. “We have actually abandoned Flock,” Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said in her monthly “Ask the Mayor” segment on GBH News last week. Wu made the comment...

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Rindala Alajaji and Dave Maass write: Here’s a riddle: Why did a Goshen Police Department officer search 6,474 automated license plate reader (ALPR) networks, representing data from 82,413 cameras, on May 7, 2025? If your answer is “I don’t know,” it turns out you’re 100% correct. The officer left the letters “idk” in the search...

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