From Brussels to Texas, privacy battles escalate: AI access mandates, mass surveillance revelations, and wearable data risks.

Sources:

• EU Orders Google to Give Rival AI Apps the Same Android Access as Gemini
• LG TVs and monitors said to surveil users and install bloatware without asking
• ICE shared Medicaid data it wasn't supposed to have with Palantir
• Madison Square Garden sues media outlet over allegations of secret database tracking celebrity 'risk scores'
• Trump says China stole 220 million U.S. voter files in largest election-data breach
• Inside Pegasus: The evolution of the world's most notorious spyware system
• Meta Patents Technology to Detect Your Mood by Constantly Analyzing Your Tone of Voice
• San Francisco warns Apple and Google to stop profiting from AI nudify apps
• Why the EU's so-called Chat Control law has privacy experts up in arms
• How Texas Police Spent $4.5 Million on Four Chevy Tahoes
• Fitness Trackers Are a Subpoena Away: EFF Finds Only Apple Encrypts Health Data
• Burnham to scrap digital ID to focus on 'helping with cost of living'
• EU-Funded Herta Security Runs Banned Facial Recognition on 4,000 Indian Cameras

📰 Read the full edition on the site

Trump exposes massive voter data theft, Iran targets troops via ad tracking, Apple sued, period apps scrutinized, and Qantas gets a pass.

Sources:

• Trump reveals China stole voter registration data from 220M Americans
• Apple Sued Over Reported 'Hide My Email' Flaw - MacRumors
• Iran used ad tracking to hunt American soldiers: Report
• Period and Ovulation Apps Privacy Review 2026: Is Your Period Tracker Safe?

📰 Read the full edition on the site

23andMe settles for $18M, Samsung clarifies health data consent, OpenAI encrypts agent chats, and Indian nuclear plant data leaked.

Sources:

• States reach $18 million settlement with 23andMe
• Refusing Samsung Health AI training will not wipe your health history after all
• OpenAI's Codex now encrypts instructions between AI agents, leaving developers blind to internal delegation
• Kudankulam nuclear plant data breached, NPCIL says core systems untouched

📰 Read the full edition on the site

A look at surveillance nodes, LAPD's Flock negotiations, xAI's data leak, Google's AI training, and the data center boom.

Sources:

• You Know About Flock Cameras, Meet Nema Nodes: They Turn Streetlights Into A Surveillance Network
• LAPD renegotiating deal with Flock Safety to access company's license plate readers
• Grok Build was uploading entire Git repositories to xAI's cloud, including committed secrets
• Google is training AI on even more of your data now, unless you opt out - here's how
• New York Just Banned Large Data Centers—5 Numbers Explain Why the Backlash Is Spreading Nationwide

📰 Read the full edition on the site

From a quiet ban on census privacy tools to a landmark ruling on AI chats, this edition covers five critical privacy developments.

Sources:

• Right-Wing Groups Just Got a Big Win on the Census
• Surprise, Surprise: More Evidence That What You Say To Your Chatbot Isn't Always Private
• Why careful people still end up on data broker sites
• First American sued by homeowners over its property database
• Criminals scamming billions from Medicare using fake AI voices, hacking data — all without setting foot in the USA

📰 Read the full edition on the site

From thermal satellites to gunshot detectors, this week's privacy news reveals growing tensions between tech capabilities and civil liberties.

Sources:

• This UK Satellite's Thermal Camera Raises Major Privacy Concerns
• Patreon Blocks Crawlers From Stealing Creators' Work for AI Training
• New Google Tags Will Tell You When an Ad Was Made or Altered Using AI
• LAPD suspends use of Flock surveillance cameras over privacy issues
• Meta Patent: AI That Tracks Your Emotions Over Time
• Is the government listening? Gunshot detectors spark backlash
• EDPB blocks AI firms from using consent as an excuse to scrape
• Meta kills Muse Image feature that let anyone generate AI photos of Instagram users without consent
• Google may use your photos and voice to train AI
• Meta blocks camera on AI glasses if LED light is destroyed
• Taboola turns 7 million DeeperDive users into ad inventory for any chatbot

📰 Read the full edition on the site

EU parliament approves suspicionless message scanning until 2028; EDPB issues strict blockchain guidelines; Puerto Rico exposes 1M SSNs; Meta pauses keystroke tracking; artists confront AI data scraping.

Sources:

• EU Parliament greenlights Chat Control 1.0 – Breyer: “Our children lose out” – Patrick Breyer
• EU Finalizes GDPR Blockchain Rules: Encrypted Data Is Still Personal Data
• A Puerto Rico government agency exposed 1M Social Security numbers
• Meta CTO says employee-tracking data landed ‘where it wasn’t supposed to go’
• Their music may have trained AI. No one asked them either way

📰 Read the full edition on the site

Supreme Court ruling ends FTC independence, EU votes on message scanning, and Transsion phones leak telemetry to China.

Sources:

• We tracked our blackmailer to a village in Nigeria and showed up with cameras (and a machine gun).
• EU to extend temporary message-scanning regime to detect child sexual abuse online | Euronews
• TikTok is tracking you, even if you don't use the app. Here's how to stop it
• Supreme Court Ends FTC Independence, Opening US Data Privacy Enforcement Gap
• 1-in-2 phones sold in Africa exfiltrate telemetry to China - NowSecure
• This Massive Data Breach Compromised Nearly 7 Million Driver's Licenses

📰 Read the full edition on the site

Supreme Court lets Texas enforce app age verification; Europol faces complaint over shadow IT; Google expands Search data for AI; Scattered Spider hacker arrested.

Sources:

• Supreme Court declines to block Texas age-verification law for app downloads | AP News
• Windows 11 identifier code used to track Scattered Spider perp after Microsoft shared info with FBI — 19-year-old US-Estonian hacker arrested over alleged ties to infamous extortion group | Tom's Hardware
• Complaint urges ban on ‘unlawful’ Europol processing of personal data | Computer Weekly
• Is Google using your searches to train its AI? Here's how to opt out
• Hilton, LinkedIn, PNC Bank, Wells Fargo face class actions over alleged pixel tracking, privacy violations

📰 Read the full edition on the site

Reno police sued over facial ID arrests; Connecticut enacts child privacy law; Google changes IP tracking; Microsoft device ID revealed.

Sources:

• “Lawsuit: Reno police made thousands of unlawful arrests using facial ID”
• “Attorney General Tong: New Connecticut Online Privacy Protections for Children Now in Effect”
• “The Best Private Messaging App Isn’t WhatsApp or Signal, It’s Delta Chat”
• “Google's update on IP tracking has crossed a new line — here's why a VPN is more crucial than ever”
• “A Hacker's Arrest Reveals Microsoft Can Track Users Via a Windows Device ID”

📰 Read the full edition on the site