Author: Bill Budington

A set of radio devices and technologies are opening the doorway to new and revolutionary forms of communication. These have the potential to break down the over-reliance on traditional network hierarchies, and present collaborative alternatives where resistance to censorship, control and surveillance are baked into the network topography itself. Here, we look at a few […]

The opening and closing months of 2024 saw federal enforcement against a number of location data brokers that track and sell users’ whereabouts through apps installed on their smartphones. In January, the Federal Trade Commission brought successful enforcement actions against X-Mode Social and InMarket, banning the companies from selling precise location data—a first prohibition of […]

404 Media, along with Haaretz, Notus, and Krebs On Security recently reported on a company that captures smartphone location data from a variety of sources and collates that data into an easy-to-use tool to track devices’ (and, by proxy, individuals’) locations. The dangers that this tool presents are especially grave for those traveling to or […]

On September 19, the FTC published a staff report following a multi-year investigation of nine social media and video streaming companies. The report found a myriad of privacy violations to consumers stemming largely from the ad-revenue based business models of companies including Facebook, YouTube, and X (formerly Twitter) which prompted unbridled consumer surveillance practices. In […]

Imagine your search terms, key-strokes, private chats and photographs are being monitored every time they are sent. Millions of students across the country don’t have to imagine this deep surveillance of their most private communications: it’s a reality that comes with their school districts’ decision to install AI-powered monitoring software such as Gaggle and GoGuardian […]