Revealed: how Russia uses mobile ‘super-app’ Max to spy on its citizens

Research shows tens of millions of people are being forced to use platform that amounts to ‘backdoor’ on their device…

 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/18/russian-super-app-max-spy-citizens

 

The Air Marshals Keeping Watch On Eric Swalwell - The Atlantic

Despite the seriousness of the accusations against Swalwell, many aspects of the FBI’s request to the Federal Air Marshal Service were unusual, current and former officials told me. For one thing, the FBI does not usually investigate sexual assault. For another, asking air marshals to obtain a subject’s electronic passcodes is considered out of the ordinary even for traditional subjects of surveillance, one former official said. The agency presumes that requests for assistance from the FBI, which are not unusual, are relevant to a legitimate investigation. But the bureau’s behavior here undermines that confidence, the former official added…

 https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/09/eric-swalwell-air-marshals-fbi/688489/

 

Own a gun? Go to church? Do yoga? AI can find out in seconds. - POLITICO

“Today, anyone with access to a frontier AI model can buy your data from a broker and reconstruct an intimate picture of your life, including your location, your purchases, your browsing history, and even who you love or where you worship,” Rep. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) said in a statement. “CivAI’s work showing members and staff exactly how easy this is should be a wake-up call for Congress, which has spent years failing to act.”…

 https://www.politico.com/news/2026/09/01/wake-up-call-for-congress-lawmakers-get-a-big-brother-warning-on-ai-01054087

 

Police Are Spending Opioid Settlement Funds on Flock Cameras – Mother Jones

“Whatever funds you’re spending on a camera, you’re not spending on getting someone into treatment.”…

 https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/08/police-opioid-funding-flock-alpr-camera-surveillance-tech/

 

DHS conducted far-reaching surveillance of groups during ICE surge : NPR

For months, the documents show, federal agents secretly made recordings of meetings held at churches, libraries, restaurants and schools around the Twin Cities. They infiltrated private group chats, sought the financial records of national labor unions, and gathered information on community members who had not been accused of any crimes. 

"Quite honestly, it was breathtaking," says Rachel Levinson-Waldman, who directs the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. "Just the scope of what was being revealed in terms of how deeply it had gone, how many government resources were being devoted to this."…

 https://www.npr.org/2026/08/25/nx-s1-5941135/dhs-surveillance-minnesota-ice-surge

My testimony at Dunwoody, GA city council hearing regarding a Flock Safety contract

 https://www.youtube.com/shorts/I_y7OjsI1Zk

 

Police Surveillance & Automatic License Plate Readers #lastweektonight

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/BAEjOAe948k

Rest assured, the new CDC director thinks ‘abortion surveillance’ is essential

“The CDC collects data on abortions that are committed in the United States of America through a system called the Abortion Reporting System,” Hawley said when asking Schwartz whether she would commit to collecting detailed data on abortions. “This system is voluntary, and so a number of states, not coincidentally large blue states, do not turn over any data, so that it’s difficult to get a picture of just how many abortions and under what circumstances are committed in this country. We do know the numbers are going way up.”

 “Senator, you have my commitment,” Schwartz replied. “Abortion surveillance is absolutely a critical component of what the CDC is currently doing.”…

 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/aug/08/cdc-abortion-surveillance-schwartz-hawley

Records Reveal How Homeland Security Agents Surveilled ICE Protesters – Mother Jones

“When you are recording information about people’s political activities, you know that that is the first step towards acting on that speech,” Steinbaugh said. “And what the government then does with that information can have a real chilling effect.” 

 On July 24, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and three legal observers filed a First Amendment lawsuit against DHS, alleging the agency has “adopt[ed] a secret Protester Surveillance Policy enabling its agents to first collect records on Americans engaging in First Amendment exercise and then maintain them in DHS systems, where they can be used to retaliate against those Americans.”…

 https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/07/dhs-ice-surveillance-database-protest-public-records-spokane-hsi/

‘It’s dangerous and it’s going to erode trust’: redesign of US government websites stokes surveillance fears

The NDS built and now operates four public federal websites: ndstudio.gov, trumprx.gov, realfood.gov and trumpaccounts.gov. All four ran commercial visitor-tracking software, configured to evade the privacy tools many web users install, and none carry the public filings federal privacy law requires under laws including the Privacy Act of 1974 and the E-Government Act of 2002. 

Separately, none of the NDS’s spending or its arrangements with outside vendors appears in USAspending, the federal contracting database, raising questions about how it is funded and overseen…

 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/28/government-website-visitor-tracking-surveillance-fears

‘We should be worried’: report sheds light on ICE’s booming arsenal of hi-tech surveillance tools

”I am worried about an agency that has little oversight from Congress and internally receiving what’s essentially a slush fund. We have seen what CBP and ICE can do with a huge influx of money already – and how many civil rights violations are occurring on the ground. We know they’re building the capability to do a new type of invasive surveillance based on this new domestic terrorism memo that sets up the infrastructure to surveil people the US considers to be anti-American...”

 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/24/ice-tech-surveillance-arsenal

 

Michigan communities watch closely as surveillance law debate continues

"In 2021, the FBI reported conducting nearly 3 million U.S. person queries. An audit of those queries found that 278,000 times they did not comply with the rules. FBI agents ran queries on protesters, donors to congressional campaigns, public officials, journalists, colleagues, even ex-girlfriends."…

 https://www.michiganpublic.org/criminal-justice-legal-system/2026-05-21/michigan-communities-watch-closely-as-surveillance-law-debate-continues

US Congress passes 10-day extension of surveillance law amid Republican infighting

“The shameful midnight smash-and-grab attempt to steal away Americans’ privacy rights failed,” said Jake Laperruque, deputy director of the security and surveillance project at the Center for Democracy and Technology. “Surveillance boosters tried to sneak a sham proposal through in the dead of night because they know they’ve lost the substance of this debate.” The only way forward, he said, was a warrant rule that will “close the backdoor search loophole and protect Americans from surveillance abuse”...

 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/17/congress-fisa-extension-warrantless-surveillance-law

 

Why Congress is fighting over a central tool of American surveillance : NPR

But a number of lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, are concerned that FISA 702 allows for the federal government to spy on the communications of American citizens without a warrant, violating their constitutional right to privacy…

 https://www.npr.org/2026/04/14/nx-s1-5768270/what-to-know-about-section-702-surveillance

 

ICE is using mass surveillance on American citizens, activists : NPR

In a hearing in the farmworker case, an ICE agent identified by the initials J.B. testified about another app, called ELITE made by Palantir, that he described as being similar to "Google Maps" that shows locations of people who may be deportable and the likelihood they live there. 

J.B. described using the app as providing "leads" to choose where to do an operation...

https://www.npr.org/2026/03/04/nx-s1-5717031/ice-dhs-immigrants-surveillance-confrontation-deportation-mobile-fortify 

 

Anthropic says it ‘cannot in good conscience’ allow Pentagon to remove AI checks

"Our strong preference is to continue to serve the Department and our warfighters – with our two requested safeguards in place," he said. "We remain ready to continue our work to support the national security of the United States." 

At the core of the Department of Defense and Anthropic's standoff is a disagreement over how the AI company will permit its product, Claude, to be used. The Pentagon has demanded that Anthropic turn off safety guardrails and allow any lawful use of Claude, while Anthropic has pushed back against allowing Claude to be used for mass domestic surveillance or in autonomous weapons systems that can kill people without human input...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/26/anthropic-pentagon-claude

 

Hegseth threatens to blacklist Anthropic over “woke AI” concerns : NPR

For months, Amodei has insisted that using AI for domestic mass surveillance and AI-controlled weapons are ethical lines the company will not cross, calling such use "illegitimate" and "prone to abuse." According to a source familiar with the Hegseth meeting, Amodeo stressed those positions again on Tuesday. 

Hegseth has said Anthropic needs to allow the U.S. to use its AI in all "lawful" purposes, which could include AI-directed warfare and surveillance…

https://www.npr.org/2026/02/24/nx-s1-5725327/pentagon-anthropic-hegseth-safety 

 

The problem with doorbell cams: Nancy Guthrie case and Ring Super Bowl ad reawaken surveillance fears

"There's a very distinct and marked difference between what you have access to – in terms of whether you're paying for it or not – and what the company has access to," said Chris Gilliard, a data privacy expert who has researched how wearables and smart doorbells are contributing to mass surveillance..

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/feb/14/doorbell-cameras-ring-nancy-guthrie-super-bowl

ICE surveillance under review, inspector general says - POLITICO

Lawmakers have been raising concerns about ICE's use of facial recognition, license plate readers and databases on Americans...

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/06/dhs-inspector-general-investigates-ice-surveillance-00768778 

 

ICE has expanded its mass surveillance efforts. Online activists are fighting back. - POLITICO

Protesters are using social media and encrypted messaging apps to track ICE vehicles and agents, while hackers have targeted ICE's surveillance arsenal…

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/29/ice-tracking-tools-protesters-00755703