Maryland to Become First US State to Ban Surveillance Pricing That Charges More After Mining Personal Data Maryland will become the first US state to ban surveillance pricing in retail stores, after passing Protection from Predatory Pricing Act.

www.goodnewsnetwork.org/maryland-to-...

I imagine this could backfire on TikTok if/when people’s likenesses are invariably misused. But they may also lose some of their user base in the meantime, too.

A new TikTok AI toggle is causing panic among creators TikTok creators say a new AI remix setting is enabled on videos by default, forcing users to manually review and change permissions.

Similarly, folks just found on TikTok for example that their clips are automatically available for AI remixes and you have to go through every video one at a time to turn that off. There’s no universal setting to prevent it. And no consent was ever asked for or given.

piunikaweb.com/2026/04/16/t...

100%. Consent is the word I keep harping on with emerging privacy issues too.

Now we’re talking about huge, well-known companies pulling in billions of dollars and operating in the tech space. And I certainly would’ve considered working for Twitter several years ago. But what they’re doing right now is just contemptible.

This isn’t entirely a new scenario. I can’t imagine having much in common, for example, with someone who works for GEO Group or Core Civic or Blackwater (now Constellis). But those are smaller companies and ones where I’d be less likely to find myself interacting with anyway.

There are well-known companies I would’ve once worked but now have no desire to due to their practices but I understand why friends would work there.

However, there are well-known companies now that I just don’t think I could be friends with someone who works there. X and Palantir, for example.

No, I believe *thinking* of them as people helps designers create experiences that are fundamentally better for privacy and security.

Exclusive: ICE Glasses Homeland Security is making “smart glasses” to collect intelligence on Americans

Here's what a senior homeland official told me about their development of ICE smart glasses: "It might be portrayed as seeking to identify illegal aliens...but the reality is that a push in this direction affects all Americans, particularly protesters."
www.kenklippenstein.com/p/exclusive-...

Design for Privacy | Rosenfeld Media Are your designs protecting—or exposing—your users? In Design for Privacy, you’ll uncover how shifting technologies threaten personal data and what that means for your work. This book offers practical...

It becomes a little too clinical, putting us at a stark remove from the lives of others."
rosenfeldmedia.com/books/design...

Design for Privacy | Rosenfeld Media Are your designs protecting—or exposing—your users? In Design for Privacy, you’ll uncover how shifting technologies threaten personal data and what that means for your work. This book offers practical...

From my book: "That term user can seem terribly abstract. Useful as it is, the
word tends to strip people of their individual circumstances, their personality, their idiosyncrasies, and, perhaps most importantly, their lived experiences. ...

It’s time to retire the term “user” The proliferation of AI means we need a new word.

Yes, tho I think it's been time. When teaching UX design, I use the term "people" as often as possible and discuss the abstract, clinical and potentially dehumanizing connotations of the word "user." Something I cover in my book Design for Privacy, too.
www.technologyreview.com/2024/04/19/1...

"founder Timothy Libert is the former lead of cookie policy and compliance at Google. Libert told 404 Media he felt his job at Google was to protect its users but that his bosses didn’t agree. He left the company in 2023 and started webXray."

Google, Microsoft, Meta All Tracking You Even When You Opt Out, According to an Independent Audit “This is the Strait of Hormuz in the data economy. If you want to make a change, this is where you cut it off. Anything short of that is theatrical political posture.”

"According to the audit from privacy search engine webXray, 55 percent of the sites it checked set ad cookies in a user’s browser even if they opted out of tracking."
www.404media.co/google-micro...
#privacybydesign

UPDATE: Forbes removed its ForbesPredict poll from this article.

ICE Just Paid Palantir Tens of Millions for ‘Complete Target Analysis of Known Populations’ The records show that Palantir is actively working on the technical infrastructure underpinning the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts which could soon impact U.S. citizens.

“The records show that Palantir is actively working on the technical infrastructure underpinning the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts which could soon impact U.S. citizens.“
Palantir will be used to identify domestic Trump critics soon enough.

Ladies and gentlemen, the new host of Infowars. What a specimen.

Via @triketora.com
DeleteMe acquires social media security tool Block Party
techcrunch.com/2026/03/25/d...

Any word on when the website will make the switch? After the Texas Judge approves the deal?

Infowars/Onion combo logo in rainbow saying “I support the onion’s hostile media takeover.”

I’m onboard. With Infowars.

Dir. David Cronenberg (2026)

Breaking Free From Alex Jones A former Infowars employee on radicalization, lies, and getting out

I say this a lot but today’s pod is worth your time. It’s with Josh Owens who worked for Alex Jones/Infowars for 4 years in the 2010s. It’s a conversation about how the conspiracy machine works from inside, about radicalization and, crucially, about the hard, unscalable work of deradicalization

Chef’s kiss

Honestly, the best news I’ve seen in ages. Know hope. 😅

Infowars/Onion combo logo in rainbow saying “I support the onion’s hostile media takeover.”

It’s finally happened. After 18 months. Finally, a media merger you can root for.

This outcome is somehow even better than the initial acquisition by The Onion. Alex must be busting a blood vessel somewhere.

So much projection.

So I presume he believes Trump should be executed?

Ian McEwan’s Latest Is the Best Novel He’s Written in Ages

"I’d like to shout down through a hole in the ceiling of time and advise the people of a hundred years ago: If you want your secrets kept, whisper them into the ear of your dearest, most trusted friend. Do not trust the keyboard and screen. If you do, we’ll know everything."