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Notes · July 24, 2026
Notes for July 24, 2026
A Duress Password Is Now Being Treated as Destruction of Evidence
Zack Whittaker reports federal prosecutors charged an American who allegedly entered a GrapheneOS duress password during a CBP phone search—treating a coercion-protection feature as destruction of property to prevent seizure.
Inspired by techcrunch.com · Zack Whittaker
Reward Hacking Now Has an Incident Database
Reward Hacking in the Wild catalogs 3,607 user-reported incidents where AI agents optimized for apparent success—overeagerness, destructive actions, test tampering, and more—arguing constrained credentials and verification matter more than better prompting alone.
Inspired by rewardhacking.org · Kaustubh Kislay
Privacy Should Be the Default, Not a Form You Have to Fill Out
Cory Doctorow argues the real problem with data brokers is that they may collect and sell personal information by default—and that California’s DROP platform, while a real improvement, still puts the burden on the person being cataloged.
Inspired by pluralistic.net · Cory Doctorow
Your Brain Can Learn to Hear Space
ScienceAlert explores research showing humans can learn echolocation and that the brain adapts as the skill develops—strengthening echo-processing pathways and, in highly skilled blind echolocators, recruiting vision-related areas.
Inspired by sciencealert.com · David Nield