An Electronic Frontier Foundation review of Flock Safety's license plate reader logs found police officers across the U.S. entering flippant or nonsensical justifications—like 'LMAO', 'LOL', 'idk' and random keystrokes—for searches spanning thousands of cameras. One Lake County, Indiana officer searched over 19,000 cameras across 1,558 cities with the stated reason 'LMAO', while more than 6,300 searches from over 30 agencies simply listed 'TBD'.
techtimes.co.uk
· 2026-09-15
Local governments nationwide, from Florida to Washington state, are terminating contracts with Flock Safety amid public backlash over its AI-powered license plate readers. However, ending these agreements doesn't guarantee immediate camera removal or deletion of previously collected data, since contract terms vary widely on data retention after termination.
theverge.com
· 2026-09-14
A secret room inside AT&T's Folsom Street facility in San Francisco, known internally as the SG3 Secure Room, was found to contain a Narus STA 6400 device capable of intercepting and analyzing high-speed internet traffic. The setup used beam splitters attached to fiber optic backbone lines, giving it access to both domestic and international communications passing through the building. Former AT&T technician Mark Klein exposed the facility, prompting a 2006 lawsuit from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
en.wikipedia.org
· 2026-09-11
Governor Gavin Newsom signed a package of bills regulating how minors interact with social media platforms and AI chatbots in California. The chatbot rules impose time limits, mandate mental health safeguards and self-harm protocols, require parental notifications, and mandate independent child safety audits with legal liability for noncompliant companies. Separately, social media platforms must block users under 16 from accessing features deemed 'addictive,' including autoplay, notifications and personalized algorithmic feeds.
engadget.com
· 2026-09-10
Utah's Department of Commerce has agreed not to enforce SB 73, a law that took effect this week making adult websites liable for users who access them via VPN, while a federal judge weighs a legal challenge. The law treats anyone physically located in Utah as a Utah user regardless of VPN use, and bars sites with significant adult content from encouraging VPN use.
engadget.com
· 2026-09-03
GoKawiil