Appreciate you jumping in to help folks! Great stuff!

16/ Indeed the Tucson cops did have this. Good reminder of why LOCAL NEWS MATTERS.

So many shady things happening very locally on the surveillance beat.

Without good reporting, a lot of privacy trees fall, unheard, in the forest.

bsky.app/profile/jero...

15/ Yep. Mass surveillance turns regular citizens into targets.

& history shows the federal government has an insatiable appetite for tracking people with inconvenient politics.

Whatever their political stripe.

By @tombrewster.bsky.social ft @eff.org's Beryl Lipton
www.forbes.com/sites/thomas...

14/ Want to learn more about #penlink & #webloc? Great reporting out there.

Like this investigation by @404media.co's @josephcox.bsky.social
www.404media.co/inside-ices-...

Uncovering Webloc: An Analysis of Penlink’s Ad-based Geolocation Surveillance Tech - The Citizen Lab Location data collected from mobile apps and digital advertising can reveal habits, interests and almost any other aspect of someone's life. In this report, we uncover how a geolocation surveillance system called Webloc uses ad-based data to monitor hundreds of millions of people across the globe.

13/ ADINT's target is YOU.

Search for your country & start asking questions.

Time to bring more sunlight.

By my brilliant @citizenlab.ca colleagues @wchr.bsky.social
Astrid Perry @luisfgarcia.bsky.social @sanstis.bsky.social & @rondeibert.bsky.social

citizenlab.ca/research/ana...

12/ Ad-tech built a warrantless surveillance system in the guise of a marketing tool.

You are the target. So are your kids. And your friends.

And it's being abused by some of the worst autocrats & security forces around the world.

11/ Help starve the ADINT dragnet. Do this now:

iPhone: ⚙️Settings➡️Privacy & Security➡️ Tracking

Turn off "Allow Apps to Request to Track"

Android: ⚙️Settings➡️Privacy ➡️ Ads ➡️Delete Advertising ID

It's only a beginning, but you don't owe any of these companies a drop of your data.

10/ Here's the thing, tons of this technology is hosted by big platforms.

And a sign of how surveillance vendors seek to leverage commercial relationships & infrastructure of big cloud providers.

9/ Think #webloc is bad? Meet another Cobwebs product: #trapdoor.

Hallmarks of a hidden hacking kit + social engineering tools.

Shady looking stuff & much more investigation needed.

8/ We only use mass surveillance against the worst bad guys'

Tucson Police bought #webloc for sex trafficking.

And wound up using it to hunt a guy stealing cigarette packs from a CircleK.

And monitor political protests.

7/ If that's not bad enough, the Hungarian government filed charges against fearless investigative journalist @szabolcspanyi.bsky.social while he was collaborating with us.

After he revealed Russian influence operations targeting Hungary's upcoming election.

(He's also a past #Pegasus target...)

6/ You're 🇪🇺European? Protected by #GDPR, right?

It may be a paper wall.

We sent 96 FOI requests & got some dubious answers.

Meanwhile our collaborator @szabolcspanyi.bsky.social found multiple intel agencies in 🇭🇺#Hungary using Cobweb products.

vsquare.org/orban-spying...

5/ American? Think you're protected by the 4th Amendment from ADINT?

"I know my rights, get a warrant..." Right?

Well, some sheriff is just going to pull out the credit card & buy

graphic from report showing relationships

4/ Where does #Webloc, a tool that can monitor entire populations come from?

Well, it originated from notorious Israeli surveillance firm Cobwebs.

But like so many surveillance products, it's gone through some corporate ownership shuffling.

Now, it's sold by #Penlink.

3/ Companies peddle the BS that advertising data is 'anonymous'

They want to keep you in the dark.

Because, behind the scenes...your weather app is a blinking tracking beacon.

And then players like #penlink turn that beacon into a data flow.

And sell it to governments.

2/ Heard of ADINT aka ADvertising INTelligence?

Your apps don't just show ads.

They stream of info about your GPS location + a unique identifier to HUNDREDS OF BROKERS EVERY SECOND.

The industry swears the data is "anonymous" but it's actually a Spies-eye-view. Of everyone.

heatmaps from the report showing tracking

BREAKING: You checked the weather this morning.

And you just told a surveillance company where you sleep.

Meet #Webloc, used by ICE, cops & foreign govs to track 500m+ phones.

No warrant required.

Our @citizenlab.ca investigation + how to protect yourself 🧵/1
citizenlab.ca/research/ana...

Vibecoding + sharing fixes to unjust "you can't open your fridge because your subscription has ended" restrictions among the highest & best uses of tokens I can think of.

images of hp instant ink errors..

It's a hostage situation.

And we want our printers back.

Would someone with tokens to burn kindly vibecode the #PrinterLiberationFront?

Am I the only person that gets a slight visual illusion of movement of the two flashlight beams when scrolling up and down past this post?

Hey NASA, a few 100 thousand of us are ready to volunteer staff a 24/7 helpline for the consumer tech Artemis II took up there.

Are they using Team Viewer?

Huston, we're having a problem with the printer.

It really is!

First, Outlook fails.

Now: Houston, Bluetooth won't pair.

Artemis II is NASA's most relatable mission yet.

4/ It's also great to see #WhatsApp leaning hard into taking action on spyware companies.

The company really set the tone in 2019 when they sued NSO Group & notified victims.

Years on, they keep showing leadership on this. Sorely needed momentum that helps nudge some peer companies along.

3/ I highly recommend following @lorenzofb.bsky.social
from @techcrunch.com!

I cannot think of a reporter that has spent longer & gone deeper to track the Italian domestic spyware industry.

And the harm caused when the tech gets exported to dictators around the world...
bsky.app/profile/lore...

2/ Italy has a nasty, sprawling mercenary spyware ecosystem.

Look beyond the scandals like #Paragon, which Italy imported... there are tons local shops with less fancy tech..

...requiring trickery to get targets to install...not hard if you can partner with a gov that can work with cell providers.

from the article

the warning

NEW: #WhatsApp shuts down mercenary spyware op, notifies targets.

Sends legal warning to Italian spyware shop #SIO.

Trick is simple & time tested: govs trick people into installing a malicious version of WhatsApp.

Then spy on them. 1/

By @lorenzofb.bsky.social
techcrunch.com/2026/04/01/w...

Consumer Reports Security Planner Protect your privacy by answering a few simple questions to cut down on data collection,and prevent hackers from invading your devices.

2/ Have a few more minutes & want to really dig into getting safer?

Get a personalized security plan with this super-useful tool from @consumerreports.org

And tell a friend.

securityplanner.consumerreports.org

John Scott Railton Shares Tips and Tools to Protect Yourself Digitally YouTube video by Global Investigative Journalism Network

Stop scrolling & watch this.

Follow along. Get safer.

This especially matters if you're pissing off the powerful.

Thanks to @gijn.org for putting this together.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsPY...