Topicsdigital rights14 items
A California appeals court revived an unfair-competition suit over Apple's past iPhone repair practices—not by finding liability, but by accepting a marketwide competition theory of injury.
Inspired by courthousenews.com · Courthouse News
California lawmakers unanimously passed an amendment exempting most open-source operating systems from the Digital Age Assurance Act—a needed correction to a law written for platforms, not forks.
Inspired by tomshardware.com · Tom's Hardware
A paper on “agentic flooding” shows AI making government services easier to navigate. Friction was the rate limiter; the worst response is rebuilding that burden on purpose.
Inspired by arxiv.org · Chris Schmitz, Lewis Hammond and Alan Chan
The New York Times and Slashdot on Samuel Tunick—GrapheneOS duress at CBP Atlanta, a § 2232(a) felony, and whether using a privacy tool during a disputed search can itself become the crime.
Inspired by m.slashdot.org · Slashdot
Flock Safety’s new privacy guardrails—seven-day default retention, mandatory Audit Assistance, case codes, and auto lockouts—arrive after years of abuse cases, contract suspensions, and ACLU skepticism that this is PR, not reform.
Inspired by flocksafety.com · Flock Safety
Littleton, Massachusetts says Flock Safety reactivated license plate cameras the town had deactivated for privacy review—without notice—raising whether municipalities actually control the surveillance systems they pay for.
Inspired by lowellsun.com · The Lowell Sun
Savannah fired four officers and two civilians for personal Flock Safety searches—127 inappropriate queries among ~39,000 this year—showing audit logs catch abuse after the fact, not as access control for nationwide plate data.
Inspired by wtoc.com · WTOC
Houston-area agencies are investigating officers accused of using Flock’s license plate database for personal stalking, while the Institute for Justice has documented at least 28 ALPR misuse cases—showing audit logs do not prevent abuse when nobody reviews them.
Inspired by chron.com · Chron
California’s DROP platform reached its August 1, 2026 processing milestone—one request can reach hundreds of registered data brokers, with per-day fines for noncompliance, while the real test will be whether deletion results are audited and enforced.
Inspired by privacy.ca.gov · California Privacy Protection Agency
GrapheneOS responds to prosecution involving its duress-password feature by stating that creating and using the OS is legal and constitutionally protected—arguing privacy tools need funding, legal durability, and a nonprofit structure that can protect contributors when the software becomes inconvenient.
Inspired by x.com · GrapheneOS
Inkless is a free document-signing service built around legally defensible electronic signatures and an audit trail of consent, timestamps, and IP addresses—arguing process evidence matters more than a signature image on a PDF, though free accounts retain documents only 14 days.
Inspired by useinkless.com · Inkless
The Guardian covers NoMark and others targeting Flock Safety cameras—arguing the real story is searchable mass vehicle tracking of innocent drivers, and that invasive ALPR networks need warrants, short retention, audits, and public approval before becoming everyday infrastructure.
Inspired by theguardian.com · Jonah Valdez
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
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
