American Airlines is rolling out facial recognition at TSA checkpoints. No ID, no boarding pass; just your face. It’s branded as “Touchless ID,” and it’s live in major airports like DCA, LGA, ATL, and SLC. It’s opt-in for now, but let’s be honest: the pressure to opt out grows by the day...

UK: Kent Police Pays £20,000 Compensation to Retired Constable for Unlawful Arrest Over Tweet

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UK: Kent Police Pays £20,000 Compensation to Retired Constable for Unlawful Arrest Over Tweet

Dragged from his home by baton-wielding officers, a pensioner's tweet turned into a £20,000 lesson in overreach.

Fifth Circuit Affirms Reasonable Expectation of Privacy in Cloud Storage in Dropbox Case

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Fifth Circuit Affirms Reasonable Expectation of Privacy in Cloud Storage in Dropbox Case

The ruling redraws the boundary lines for state surveillance in the cloud era with a thick constitutional marker.

The EU just dropped €5M on a “fact-checking” program. What it actually built: a censorship machine. Only pre-approved orgs (like those previously tied to Meta) get the money. They’ll “fact-check,” store the “truth” in a central database, and get emergency tools to crush dissent in real time. It’s open to EU states plus places like Ukraine and Moldova; regions they say are vulnerable to foreign influence. The real play is surveillance and message control in strategic zones.

T-Mobile Faces Backlash for Auto-Enabled Screen Recording in T-Life App Without User Consent

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T-Mobile Faces Backlash for Auto-Enabled Screen Recording in T-Life App Without User Consent

T-Mobile’s silent rollout of the T-Life screen recorder revives the oldest question in tech: who’s watching, and who gets to know?

The EU’s Digital Services Act doesn’t always have to tell platforms to censor: it makes them want to censor. Commissioner Henna Virkkunen says most takedowns aren’t government-ordered, and points to transparency data showing 99% of removals are based on platform T&Cs. But that’s not independence, it’s anticipatory compliance. These companies know the game: say the wrong thing, pay the price. Brussels doesn’t need to issue takedown orders when the regulatory threat is baked into the architecture. By holding platforms legally liable for failing to remove certain content, the DSA incentivizes silence without overt demands. Trusted flaggers and direct orders are just the visible tip. The real enforcement lives in boardroom decisions made to dodge EU retaliation.

TEXAS just passed a law that turns Big Tech giants Apple and Google into bouncers at the gates of the internet. Under SB 2420, starting 2026, app stores must verify the age of every user. Want to download a weather app? You’ll need to show ID. And if you’re under 18, you can’t install anything without a parent’s permission. This isn’t about “protecting children.” Porn apps are already banned in the app stores. This is about creating a mass surveillance system that erases anonymity, chills speech, and forces Texans to hand over their real identities to access digital life. The state tells developers to “delete the data.” But delete when? And trust who? Developers? Apple? Google? You’re betting your privacy on a handshake. Meanwhile, Apple and Google are forced to collect and store troves of sensitive info from every user, just to comply. For Texans, from next year, everything you say on a social media app can be tied to your real-world identity. And if you think this ends in Texas, think again. Utah passed a similar law. Congress is eyeing one, too. The war on online anonymity is here.

TEXAS just passed a law that turns Big Tech giants Apple and Google into bouncers at the gates of the internet. Under SB 2420, starting 2026, app stores must verify the age of every user. Want to download a weather app? You’ll need to show ID. And if you’re under 18, you can’t install anything without a parent’s permission. This isn’t about “protecting children.” Porn apps are already banned in the app stores. This is about creating a mass surveillance system that erases anonymity, chills speech, and forces Texans to hand over their real identities to access digital life. The state tells developers to “delete the data.” But delete when? And trust who? Developers? Apple? Google? You’re betting your privacy on a handshake. Meanwhile, Apple and Google are forced to collect and store troves of sensitive info from every user, just to comply. For Texans, from next year, everything you say on a social media app can be tied to your real-world identity. And if you think this ends in Texas, think again. Utah passed a similar law. Congress is eyeing one, too. The war on online anonymity is here.

CANADA: A YouTuber builds a massive following. CBC doesn’t like that. They call it a “content farm”, reach out to YouTube, and the channel is nuked. No strikes. No warnings. Just gone. Real Talk Politiks did the unthinkable: they got bigger than state media. So CBC leaned on YouTube and celebrated the takedown. They even titled a video “How we shut down one of Canada's biggest news 'content farms’”. When that blew up, they locked comments and quietly changed the title. What triggered all this? An AI-generated Reagan clip that maybe should have had a label. Normally that gets a correction. Instead, it got the whole channel deleted.

French Justice Minister Proposes a Ban on Cash

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French Justice Minister Proposes a Ban on Cash

A country’s war on drugs doubles as a referendum on the right to privacy.