France Banned Social Media For Under-15s, Plus A Hidden Device In Millions Of US Cars
France has become the first country in Europe to ban social media for children under 15. Meanwhile there's real good news elsewhere: the UK's incoming PM dropped digital ID entirely, and California's Senate killed its browser-level age mandate and exempted open source operating systems. 🔎 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…
EU Passes Chat Control Anyway, Plus Microsoft's Secure Boot Mess & the Flock Resistance
This week's a double-week catch-up: the EU just greenlit Chat Control even after Parliament voted against it, Microsoft had a brutal stretch between a decade-old Secure Boot flaw and a Windows Defender zero-day, Texas's app-store age verification law cleared its Supreme Court hurdle while the KIDS Act moves through Congress, and LAPD just let its Flock license-plate contract expire. Plus a double-week Defense Bulletin with breaches, threats and open source news! 🗺️ The open-source answer to Google…
Apple Quietly Downgrades Hide My Email, Plus Chrome Kills uBlock Origin & Google's IP Tracking
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: Google preparing to use IP addresses for ad measurement across the EEA, UK & Switzerland (Aug 3) Chrome…
Meta Hid Face-Recognition Code on 50M Phones, The UK's Device-Scanning Ultimatum & A Burner Phone Ban
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 burner phones...plus the usual breaches, threats, and a stacked week of FOSS+ updates. 🗺️ The open-source…
Dashlane Confirms Hackers Stole Password Vaults, Pentagon Location Tracking, and Hackers Trick Meta's AI
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, and effective way to automatically remove your data from people search sites: https://easyoptouts.com…
A Rare Age Verification Win, AI Cameras On School Buses, And A License Plate Tracking Ban
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 programs, the open source supply chain under unprecedented attack, and a Trump Mobile data leak. In this…
A Brutal Week for Microsoft Security, Signal Threatens to Leave Canada, And Bitwarden Quietly Shifts
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 quiet changes at Bitwarden that have long-time users uneasy. 🔎 EasyOptOuts is the easy, affordable, and…
Linux's Rough Run, ICE's 20M Palantir Database & Android Good/Bad News
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, and FOSS+ updates in your weekly Surveillance Report. 🧡 SUPPORT TECHLORE Become a Techlorian and keep…
CopyFail Explained, Utah's New VPN Law, and Microsoft Edge Keeping Passwords in Plaintext
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: ★ Support this podcast ★ 🔗 SOURCES & LINKS View all sources here:…