As gadgets and services get smarter, they need more data, and face the hard problem of keeping it safe. Data privacy has become a huge problem for Google, Facebook, Amazon, and any company using artificial intelligence to power its services — and a major sticking point for lawmakers looking to regulate. Here’s all the news on data privacy and how it’s changing tech.
Want a recap of all the abuses of Flock? A look at its failures to properly secure its system? An examination of its efficacy? Well, it’s all here, along with possible solutions to the problems of warrantless AI surveillance — including a prototype secure dumb camera.
The scope of the attack and exactly what data was compromised isn’t clear, only that some “personal information and patient records were affected.” Quest says its investigation is ongoing and it will alert impacted customers “as required by applicable law.” Oddly, as TechCrunch notes, the FAQ about the breach contains “noindex” code, making it difficult for customers to find.
[Quanum | Quest Diagnostics]
The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s free browser extension is now available on Safari version 26.5 and later, along with other browsers like Firefox and Chrome. EFF says it’s working on bringing Privacy Badger to Safari for iOS, too. Earlier this month, EFF also shared some new guides with more online privacy tips and browser suggestions.
[Electronic Frontier Foundation]
A massive review of local contracts by NBC News found 55 places where Flock entered no-bid contracts that escaped public scrutiny by claiming its products couldn’t be compared to others on the market. Another 11 were priced just below thresholds that would have required local council votes.
Navigating local procurement laws is up to each public agency, Flock spokesperson Paris Lewbel said in statement, and the company provides “sole-source letters” when requested that help agencies determine if they meet the criteria.
Update: Added statement from Flock.
They See Your Photos is built using Google’s Computer Vision API, and yes, it is a promotional site for a secure Google Photos competitor. But it still succeeds in creepily demonstrating how much a company can glean from one photo. It nailed my age, income, sexual orientation, political affiliation, and religious beliefs, correctly guessed that I collect vinyl, and suggested targeting me with ads for “specialty coffee and high-end audio gear,” Ableton Live, Muji stationery, and Patagonia outerwear.
[They See Your Photos]
Toggling on the new “Surveillance” switch in the Map Options on MapQuest adds eyeball icons showing the locations of “known license plate readers” and outdoor surveillance cameras, similar to DeFlock’s ALPR mapping project.
You may have consented to sharing with Muse, but all your friends sure didn’t.
The musician and YouTuber on investigating the surveillance state and becoming the face of the anti-Flock movement.
The layoffs will impact around 270 employees and come as more states and local communities ban Flock’s automated license plate readers, according to a report from Reuters. Last month, Wired reported that Flock began offering employees voluntary buyouts as well.
Tech companies with new AI hardware want you to agree that always-listening, often-recapping devices don’t count as recording.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Opt Out October tips go over settings to change in AI tools and browsers, decentralized social media platforms to try out, and suggestions for more private alternatives to popular apps. There’s also a guide on how you can switch to Linux, which could potentially save an old Windows 10 PC, like my ThinkPad, on top of improving your data privacy.
[Electronic Frontier Foundation]
To distribute an Android app in Brazil, Thailand, Singapore, or Indonesia — even outside Google’s Play Store — developers must now go through Google’s verification. It’ll roll out everywhere else from next year. Unverified apps can still be sideloaded, but the new process includes a 24-hour waiting period before apps can be installed.
A pair of sheriff’s deputies in Pinellas County, Florida, were arrested on felony charges by their own department for using official databases to look up women they were interested in — including a 17-year-old girl.
One of the sheriff’s deputies, Karl Gwynne, reportedly looked up a woman on the agency’s automatic license plate reader database 300 times.
This time the finding is in connection to Meta’s claims about privacy, and enforcement of its misinformation policies. The case stems from a 2021 lawsuit brought by the state’s attorney general at the time, over claims related to the Cambridge Analytica data scandal. The judge will determine penalties next.
I chatted with Charlie Warzel over at The Atlantic to try to untangle this moment of massive outrage over smart glasses and Flock cameras. In August I reported on the service workers who encounter Meta glasses at their jobs, and the harassment — and social media clout — that sometimes follows.
The Verge cofounder got an extended sit-down with the Meta CEO at Connect yesterday. They covered “pervert glasses” and privacy, AI assistants and agents, and what exactly is going on with the Metaverse. He defends the company’s track record on privacy, and its future privacy plans: “More of the things that Meta is going to do going forward are going to look like WhatsApp.”
When Motorola announced its funky-looking new flagship the other day, a bunch of you wanted to know if it falls under the partnership with Graphene. The devs previously said they were waiting for security features in Qualcomm’s new chips. GrapheneOS will also roll out to Motorola foldables, but the Signature 27 comes first.
Features like Web & App Activity, Location History, and Location Accuracy were found to violate GDPR privacy rules in Europe from 2018 to 2020.
“As a result of Google’s failures, individuals could have been unaware that their location was being used to, for example, influence them with ads or to infer their interests, and could lose control over their personal data,” DPC Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle said in a statement. “The retention of users’ location data for longer than necessary aggravated this loss of control.”
They’ve opened “at least one criminal probe” following complaints about the glasses being used to film women on the street in public without their consent, Reuters reports. France’s data protection authority also says businesses are “increasingly” asking if they can ban smart glasses at work, similar to a ban under consideration in Australia.
The amount of data about you that many cars collect — and sell to third parties — is staggering.
With the launch of Meta’s new AI agent that it says can handle your life for you, the social network exec posted this video highlighting how secure, private, and trustworthy Muse is, and that it will get even more secure in the future. Trust.
New hire deportation agents were issued phones equipped with ELITE (Enhanced Lead Identification and Targeting).
ELITE analyzes government data to create “confidence scores” for potential targets; it also maps their location.
On The Intercept, one anonymous ICE agent called the app “1984 shit:” “ELITE is used on illegal immigrants right now but can easily be used on Americans.”
The San Antonio Express-News reports that a request from Pflugerville, TX, resident Sam Aly found that hundreds of unauthorized agencies were searching the city’s Flock data, even though the company claims only two agencies were improperly included. The City Council canceled Flock’s contract last week and covered its cameras.
Aly:
Between February 16 and August 15, 2026, outside agencies searched Pflugerville’s camera data 1,597,918 times. 1.6 million searches in six months. 459 different agencies searched us. That works out to roughly 8,900 outside searches per day, every day. Our own police department ran 5,078 searches in the same period. So for every 1 search by Pflugerville PD, outside agencies ran 315.
The privacy-focused browser will now let users create decoy addresses to sign up for services. Brave will still forward messages from those services to your primary email, so you won’t miss out on important updates. But it adds a layer of protection, making it harder for big tech to track you.
As Patentlyze reports, the company filed a patent earlier this year for a “hardware privacy mute circuit” for “consumer devices, such as augmented reality devices,” like Meta’s smart glasses. The patent says the mute switch would “provide tamper-resistant privacy controls that cannot be compromised through software exploits.”
[United States Patent Application Publication]
