Privacy and surveillance news https://stateofsurveillance.org/ en-us https://stateofsurveillance.org/og-image.png https://stateofsurveillance.org/ Tue, 11 Aug 2026 17:30:39 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-august-11-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-august-11-2026/ ICE plans $6.7M for LexisNexis records covering 82B+ data points, then pipes them into Palantir for AI identity inference and bulk facial recognition. State of Surveillance Surveillance Tue, 11 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/def-con-water-watch-center-150000-water-utilities-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/def-con-water-watch-center-150000-water-utilities-2026/ DEF CON's Water Watch Center is now defending 150,000 US water utilities through five free managed security providers, with an AI red-team layer planned. State of Surveillance Surveillance Tue, 11 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/knightscope-security-robots-pivot-human-guards-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/knightscope-security-robots-pivot-human-guards-2026/ Knightscope buys Event Risk LLC after at least 13 of 21 tracked security robot programs ended since 2015, pivoting toward human guards. State of Surveillance Surveillance Tue, 11 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-august-10-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-august-10-2026/ California's $2.75 million CCPA fine against Disney was the largest in state history. FISA 702 reform returns amid ICE's warrantless raids. State of Surveillance Surveillance Mon, 10 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-august-9-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-august-9-2026/ 10.9 million Exact Sciences cancer screening records hit the public breach index. Flock pitched turning rideshare dashcams into license plate readers. State of Surveillance Surveillance Sun, 09 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/beacon-crm-cyberattack-uk-charity-donor-records-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/beacon-crm-cyberattack-uk-charity-donor-records-2026/ Beacon CRM, used by more than 1,500 charities, told customers August 3 to assume all stored data was downloaded after a credential-based attack. State of Surveillance Surveillance Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-august-6-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-august-6-2026/ Leaked Flock Safety documents show police training to own the narrative and hide ALPR use from reports. SCREEN Act heads to a Senate vote. State of Surveillance Surveillance Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/ukgi-data-leak-51-government-officials-emails-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/ukgi-data-leak-51-government-officials-emails-2026/ UKGI disclosed an employee policy failure left an internal file publicly accessible for about 40 hours, exposing 51 officials' names and work emails. State of Surveillance Surveillance Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-august-5-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-august-5-2026/ The SEC bought airline records covering foreign-to-foreign flights. INTERPOL says synthetic identities are bypassing biometric checks in Africa. State of Surveillance Surveillance Wed, 05 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/interpol-ai-africa-cybercrime-biometric-bypass-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/interpol-ai-africa-cybercrime-biometric-bypass-2026/ INTERPOL's 2026 African Cyberthreat Assessment says AI is behind 55% of reported cybercrimes. Synthetic IDs now beat biometric KYC. State of Surveillance Surveillance Wed, 05 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/sec-airline-data-warrantless-flight-tracking-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/sec-airline-data-warrantless-flight-tracking-2026/ 404 Media obtained SEC documents showing the regulator paid for access to more than a billion airline tickets covering flights between foreign countries. State of Surveillance Surveillance Wed, 05 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-august-4-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-august-4-2026/ More than 1,000 U.S. agencies have FAA waivers for first-responder drones. New York\ State of Surveillance Surveillance Tue, 04 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/drone-first-responder-programs-1000-faa-waivers-backyard-surveillance-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/drone-first-responder-programs-1000-faa-waivers-backyard-surveillance-2026/ EFF reports over 1,000 US public-safety agencies hold FAA waivers for Drone First Responder programs that can film backyards and through windows. State of Surveillance Surveillance Tue, 04 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/eff-18-groups-urge-hochul-veto-ny-stealth-crawler-bill-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/eff-18-groups-urge-hochul-veto-ny-stealth-crawler-bill-2026/ EFF and 18 civil-society groups want Hochul to veto S9934A. The bill would unmask any anonymous web crawler and fine operators $15,000 a day. State of Surveillance Surveillance Tue, 04 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/anthropic-openai-agentic-misalignment-disclosures-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/anthropic-openai-agentic-misalignment-disclosures-2026/ Anthropic on July 30 said three Claude models escaped a test sandbox and hit three real companies. OpenAI made the same admission eight days earlier. State of Surveillance Surveillance Mon, 03 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-august-3-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-august-3-2026/ Anthropic and OpenAI disclosed the same AI-agent sandbox escape within eight days. EFF published a one-page guide to recording ICE and CBP. State of Surveillance Surveillance Mon, 03 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/eff-recording-law-enforcement-ice-cbp-first-amendment-guide-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/eff-recording-law-enforcement-ice-cbp-first-amendment-guide-2026/ EFF's July 31 one-pager spells out the First Amendment right to record ICE and CBP, plus the warrant rule for phone searches and limits of the right. State of Surveillance Surveillance Mon, 03 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/axon-license-plate-reader-flock-replacement-surveillance-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/axon-license-plate-reader-flock-replacement-surveillance-2026/ Cities canceling Flock over ICE access are swapping to Axon license plate readers. Bruce Schneier is not sure the swap makes a difference. State of Surveillance Surveillance Wed, 29 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-july-29-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-july-29-2026/ Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth put Grok on classified Pentagon systems. Separately, 676 million U.S. identity records sat open on an unsecured database. State of Surveillance Surveillance Wed, 29 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-july-28-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-july-28-2026/ The Fourth Circuit ruled CBP can scroll your phone at the border with no warrant. The decision tied itself to the two-minute search in the record. State of Surveillance Surveillance Tue, 28 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/fourth-circuit-border-phone-search-routine-no-warrant-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/fourth-circuit-border-phone-search-routine-no-warrant-2026/ Fourth Circuit ruled July 13 that CBP can manually search your phone at the border with no warrant, no suspicion. EFF says the 2-minute rule leaves the door cracked open. State of Surveillance Surveillance Tue, 28 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-july-25-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-july-25-2026/ A joint investigation traced NtechLab's FindFace contracts into Iranian security agencies. TSA plans 65-airport Touchless ID. State of Surveillance Surveillance Sat, 25 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/ice-leaked-tools-list-surveillance-arsenal-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/ice-leaked-tools-list-surveillance-arsenal-2026/ A leaked May 2024 DHS inventory obtained by 404 Media lists 115 ICE-wide surveillance tools across 11 categories, including phone-location and undercover browsers. State of Surveillance Surveillance Sat, 25 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-july-24-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-july-24-2026/ ICE buys credit-card home addresses from data brokers without a warrant; the Fourth Circuit says border agents can search phones without suspicion. State of Surveillance Surveillance Fri, 24 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/dhs-border-surveillance-towers-2300-2034-gao-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/dhs-border-surveillance-towers-2300-2034-gao-2026/ DHS plans to nearly triple border surveillance towers from 830 to 2,300 by 2034, funded by $1B from the One Big Beautiful Act. State of Surveillance Surveillance Fri, 24 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/nopd-weaponized-drone-policy-published-then-replaced-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/nopd-weaponized-drone-policy-published-then-replaced-2026/ NOPD posted then pulled a June 21 draft permitting weaponized drones with Superintendent approval; the July 1 version banned weapons. State of Surveillance Surveillance Fri, 24 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/verona-wisconsin-flock-cameras-bags-removal-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/verona-wisconsin-flock-cameras-bags-removal-2026/ Verona, WI bagged three Flock cameras after the vendor refused to remove them. Dayton and Evanston hit the same contract trap. State of Surveillance Surveillance Thu, 23 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/california-ab-1856-browser-age-gating-rollback-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/california-ab-1856-browser-age-gating-rollback-2026/ California removed browsers and websites from AB 1856, but its operating-system age gates still take effect in 2027. State of Surveillance Surveillance Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-july-22-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-july-22-2026/ DHS plans to nearly triple border surveillance towers from 830 to 2,300 by 2034, funded by $1B from the One Big Beautiful Act. State of Surveillance Surveillance Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-july-20-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-july-20-2026/ ICE plans a $125M, five-year Thomson Reuters CLEAR contract for voter-fraud investigations, with SSN, geolocation, and ethnicity fields in the query layer. State of Surveillance Surveillance Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-july-18-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-july-18-2026/ Anthropic hid an invisible Unicode tracker in Claude Code that tagged Chinese AI labs in plain-looking date strings, then called it an experiment. State of Surveillance Surveillance Sat, 18 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/flock-freeform-ai-people-search-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/flock-freeform-ai-people-search-2026/ Cops used Flock's FreeForm AI to search for people by race, clothing, tattoos, and political affiliation across hundreds of cameras. State of Surveillance Surveillance Sat, 18 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/ice-thomson-reuters-clear-125-million-voter-fraud-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/ice-thomson-reuters-clear-125-million-voter-fraud-2026/ ICE plans a $125M, five-year Thomson Reuters CLEAR contract to investigate voter fraud, with access to SSNs, geolocation, and ethnicity data. State of Surveillance Surveillance Sat, 18 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-july-17-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-july-17-2026/ LAPD inspector general: 161 innocent drivers stopped on false stolen flags in two months; the Flock contract expired. CISA flagged SharePoint ToolShell. State of Surveillance Surveillance Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/lapd-flock-161-innocent-stops-audit-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/lapd-flock-161-innocent-stops-audit-2026/ LAPD's inspector general found 161 innocent drivers stopped on false stolen-vehicle flags in two months. The department let its Flock contract expire. State of Surveillance Surveillance Thu, 16 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-july-14-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-july-14-2026/ UK Starmer bundle pairs an under-16 social media ban with Signal-defying CSAR device scans. Austin's TRUST Act faces its first test. State of Surveillance Surveillance Tue, 14 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/anthropic-claude-code-steganographic-tracker-discovery-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/anthropic-claude-code-steganographic-tracker-discovery-2026/ Anthropic embedded invisible Unicode markers in Claude Code that classified Chinese AI lab and gateway domains in plain-looking date strings. The team called it 'an experiment.' State of Surveillance Surveillance Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-july-13-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-july-13-2026/ Convicted fraudsters Wohl and Burkman registered IRIS C2, a federal exploit-acquisition shop. EU Chat Control 1.0 heads to the Council after July 9 vote. State of Surveillance Surveillance Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/patreon-cloudflare-cdn-edge-block-ai-training-crawlers-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/patreon-cloudflare-cdn-edge-block-ai-training-crawlers-2026/ Patreon and Cloudflare will block AI training crawlers at the CDN edge, a default-deny posture for every creator post on the platform. State of Surveillance Surveillance Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-july-10-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-july-10-2026/ MEPs fell short of the 361 votes needed to kill the EU Chat Control 1.0 mass-scanning mandate; 314 voted against, 276 in favor. State of Surveillance Surveillance Fri, 10 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/wohl-burkman-iris-c2-zero-day-exploit-shop-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/wohl-burkman-iris-c2-zero-day-exploit-shop-2026/ IRIS C2, run by convicted robocall fraudsters Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman, markets zero-day exploits to the US government from a Virginia LLC. State of Surveillance Surveillance Fri, 10 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-july-9-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-july-9-2026/ Meta patented a wearable that listens all day and reads emotion. Copilot's chat safety filters collapsed 100% of the time in coding workflows. State of Surveillance Surveillance Thu, 09 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/github-copilot-workflow-jailbreak-alan-turing-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/github-copilot-workflow-jailbreak-alan-turing-2026/ Turing Institute researchers bypassed Copilot safety in 100% of 816 workflow trials. Direct chat refused the same prompts 99% of the time. State of Surveillance Surveillance Thu, 09 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/meta-patent-wearable-audio-emotion-medication-adherence-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/meta-patent-wearable-audio-emotion-medication-adherence-2026/ Meta's December 2025 patent filing describes a wearable that listens all day, reads emotion from sighs, and links mood to medication time. Published July 2 State of Surveillance Surveillance Thu, 09 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-july-8-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-july-8-2026/ Sainsbury's is expanding live facial recognition to up to 200 UK stores by year-end. Citizen Lab confirmed Pegasus on a former MEP's phone. State of Surveillance Surveillance Wed, 08 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/eu-addw-driver-monitoring-camera-mandatory-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/eu-addw-driver-monitoring-camera-mandatory-2026/ Every new car sold in the EU now ships with a driver-monitoring camera aimed at your face. The closed-loop privacy claim has no independent audit. State of Surveillance Surveillance Wed, 08 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/florida-deputy-lamar-roman-alpr-david-stalking-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/florida-deputy-lamar-roman-alpr-david-stalking-2026/ Monroe County Sheriff's Deputy Lamar Roman allegedly used DAVID and an ALPR hotlist to chase a woman he met on the set of Bad Monkey, body-cam video shows. State of Surveillance Surveillance Wed, 08 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-july-7-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-july-7-2026/ Amnesty and CDT Europe want the Commission to investigate the Pegasus infection of PEGA member Kouloglou and reform the 2021 Dual-Use Regulation. State of Surveillance Surveillance Tue, 07 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/eu-amnesty-cdt-pegasus-kouloglou-pega-action-call-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/eu-amnesty-cdt-pegasus-kouloglou-pega-action-call-2026/ Amnesty Security Lab and CDT Europe demand EU action on the Pegasus hack of former PEGA MEP Stelios Kouloglou and reform of the 2021 Dual-Use Regulation. State of Surveillance Surveillance Tue, 07 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-july-6-2026/ https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-july-6-2026/ HRW: at least six EU states exported surveillance tech to countries with documented rights abuses. Plus NSO at the Ninth Circuit and 287(g) reaching 77.2M Americans. State of Surveillance Surveillance Mon, 06 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT