Surveillance Report: Weekly News For Digital Freedom

Apple is moving Hide My Email aliases to a new private.icloud.com subdomain, which makes it trivial for any app or website to spot a private email and block the signup. 🔎 EasyOptOuts is the easy, affordable, and effective way to automatically remove your data from people search sites: https://easyoptouts.com Thanks to the EasyOptOuts team for sponsoring Surveillance Report! In This Episode: Googl...

Meta quietly embedded unreleased facial-recognition code, internally called "nametag" onto more than 50 million phones through its Meta AI app, then deleted it the day after Wired exposed it. This week I also get into Microsoft repos weaponized a second time to push credential-stealing malware to AI users, the UK's ultimatum to scan every device (and Signal's response), the FCC's push to kill burn...

Dashlane has confirmed hackers stole around 20 encrypted password vaults, and the company is being unusually quiet about how it happened. Plus the Pentagon admits US troops were tracked using commercial location data, Europe accelerates its move away from US tech, and hackers hijacked celebrity Instagram accounts by simply asking Meta's AI support chatbot. 🔎 EasyOptOuts is the easy, affordable, a...

A rare and genuine win against age verification with California following Colorado in exempting Linux and other open source operating systems from its Digital Age Assurance Act, directly because of community pressure. Plus AI cameras on tens of thousands of school buses being quietly repurposed for police access, a bipartisan amendment that could end nationwide automatic license plate reader progr...

A brutal week for Microsoft with seven vulnerability stories, an actively exploited Exchange zero-day, the MiniPlasma exploit (rooted in a six-year-old Project Zero report Microsoft sat on), and Pwn2Own Berlin zero-days. Plus the Shai-Hulud npm supply chain attack hitting 600+ packages, Signal threatening to pull out of Canada over Bill C-22, Meta rolling out AI-powered age detection, and some qui...

Linux gets hit with a third major vulnerability in as many weeks, a Palantir-built database of 20 million people, and Android delivers both bad news (a new VPN leak Google has refused to patch) and good news (intrusion logging for high-risk users). Plus encrypted RCS finally arrives in iOS 26.5, Instagram quietly kills its end-to-end encrypted DMs, and the usual roundup of data breaches, threats,...

This week's Surveillance Report covers the most severe Linux threat in years sending researchers and admins scrambling, Apple patching the bug police were using to extract deleted Signal messages from iPhones, Utah's new law regulating VPNs taking effect, and Microsoft Edge inexplicably storing your passwords in plaintext memory. 🧡 SUPPORT TECHLORE Become a Techlorian and keep this show growing:...

The government told you to use a VPN, but are you actually making yourself a target for NSA surveillance in the process? This week's highlight story digs into a letter from six US lawmakers pressing intelligence officials to answer whether Americans using commercial VPNs risk losing their legal protections and being treated as foreign nationals under Section 702 of FISA. Also this week: North Kore...

This week's Surveillance Report covers two sophisticated zero-click iOS exploit frameworks: Coruna and DarkSword hit hundreds of millions of iPhones in the span of a single week. Google finally revealed their controversial Android sideloading "advanced flow," and it involves a 24-hour wait, developer mode unlock, and a wall of warning screens just to install an APK. Meanwhile, Instagram has quietl...

Password managers CAN see your vault (new research reveals attack vectors), Google threatens the open Android ecosystem, Apple rolls out age verification globally, 147 million installs of Android mental health apps with security flaws, Samsung's innovative privacy display, and a massive week of breaches and updates. NO SR NEXT WEEK - Back in two weeks! 🧡 SUPPORT TECHLORE Become a Techlorian and k...

No operating system is safe, and this week, Mac users got hit from three directions at once. We cover the attacks, Discord's messy age verification expansion, hidden hotel cameras in China, and everything else threatening your digital rights. 🧡 SUPPORT TECHLORE Become a Techlorian and keep this show growing: https://techlore.tech/support 🔗 SOURCES & LINKS View all sources here: https://techl...

The FBI couldn't crack a journalist's iPhone because of one security feature, and we'll break down exactly how Lockdown Mode stopped them. Meanwhile, Austria, Spain, and Greece all announced age verification mandates in the same week, Chat Control 1.0 just got an extension, and Microsoft is finally backing away from Recall as AI fatigue reaches a breaking point. 🧡 SUPPORT TECHLORE Become a Techlo...

This week's Surveillance Report covers Microsoft handing BitLocker encryption keys to the FBI, meaning your "encrypted" Windows data isn't as secure as you thought. This two-week Surveillance Report covers age verification laws spreading across three continents, 840,000 malicious browser extension installs, WhatsApp's encryption challenged in court, a trusted Android launcher turned spyware, and h...

This week's Surveillance Report covers Microsoft Copilot's ongoing security failures putting users at risk, the FTC banning GM from selling driver location data, California banning data brokers from reselling health information, Iran's internet shutdown reaching record lengths, the EFF's guide to navigating age gates, and more! 🔎 EasyOptOuts is the easy, affordable, and effective way to automatic...

This week's Surveillance Report covers Microsoft removing offline Windows activation, California's new tool to delete your data from brokers, cryptocurrency theft traced to the 2022 LastPass breach, France's social media ban for under-15s, and more! This week's Surveillance Report covers: - Microsoft continuing to remove more offline Windows activation options as well as what you can do (besides j...

This week's Surveillance Report covers OpenAI's plan to prioritize sponsored content in ChatGPT answers, what to do if you're targeted by government spyware, Meta's secret playbook for avoiding scammer accountability, and more! This week's Surveillance Report covers: - OpenAI prioritizing new monetization models with obvious problems - How to see if you're impacted by government spyware, and what...

A federal court just blocked Texas's age verification law—here's why that matters for the entire US. Plus: AI police cameras exposed to the internet, massive data breaches, and why we're all returning to monke for the holidays. This week's Surveillance Report covers: - Federal judge blocks Texas age verification (and the precedent this sets) - AI super PACs and political manipulation - Flock's sur...

This week's Surveillance Report covers the internet's free speech protections under attack as a US Senator moves to repeal Section 230. Plus: ransomware attacks escalate with React2Shell exploitation, India orders government access to encrypted messaging, AI "superintelligence" fear is being used to justify actual corporate manipulation happening right now, and Apple still refuses to comply with E...

This week's Surveillance Report covers the dangerous reality that social media bans ARE age verification, India's push for even more invasive phone surveillance, a massive vulnerability actively exploited against major companies, the EU's new proposal to gut GDPR protections, Petco's escalating security disasters, border agents charging people for protecting their data, and more! Support Techlore:...

This week's Surveillance Report covers India’s attempt to mandate a potentially invasive app on everyone’s phone, Chat Control updates in the EU with concerns still evolving, half of US states now being age verified, more AI Slop, butt to cloud encryption, and more! Correction: One of you caught my mistake! The poopinator device is $600 *with* a monthly subscription. Sorry about that! 🔎 EasyOptOu...

This week's Surveillance Report covers Microsoft's AI Disaster getting worse on multiple levels as well as Google's AI, Malware is stealing E2EE messages from people all around the world, and updates to Chat Control & other EU regulations, and more! Support Techlore: https://techlore.tech/support Timestamps Sources 00:00 Welcome to Surveillance Report 245 00:29 WhatsApp's Phone Number 'Leak' 0...

Episode 245: This week's Surveillance Report covers WhatsApp's massive phone number enumeration flaw that exposed 3.5 billion users' data through poor rate limiting - potentially the largest data exposure in history. I also examine Google's new Android sideloading restrictions threatening open app distribution, the EU's concerning Digital Omnibus proposal that could significantly weaken GDPR prote...

After 4+ years, Nate from The New Oil is stepping down from co-hosting the pod, but Surveillance Report isn't going anywhere. Here's what's changing, what's staying the same, and how to continue listening to Surveillance Report! (Hint: Nothing changes here on the podcast!) Surveillance Report continues with the same mission: weekly privacy and security news to keep you, your family, and anyone new...

Episode 244: AI browsers are here and already pose huge risks, Windows 10 finally reaches end of life, Ring is partnering with Flock, many ICE stories, and more. Welcome to the Surveillance Report - featuring Techlore & The New Oil to keep you updated on the newest security & privacy news. Timestamps Sources (00:00) Introduction (00:29) Highlight Story (AI Browsers) (09:31) Data Breaches (...

Q&A243: Why don't people care about privacy? Is it true Proton is accepting Monero? How can you get involved in the fight for privacy? And more! Join our next Q&A on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/collection/415684?view=expanded or XMR Chat: https://xmrchat.com/surveillancepod Welcome to the Surveillance Report Q&A - featuring Techlore & The New Oil answering your questions about...