The only thing that anyone should hear as they read this:

recent Axios story on maternal health policy referenced "findings" that a majority of people trusted their doctors and nurses. On the surface, there's nothing unusual about that. What wasn't originally mentioned, however, was that these findings were made up. Clicking through the links revealed (as did a subsequent editor's note and clarification by Axios) that the public opinion poll was a computer simulation run by the artificial intelligence start-up Aaru. No people were involved in the creation of these opinions. The practice Aaru used is called silicon sampling, and it's suddenly everywhere. The idea behind silicon sampling is simple and tantalizing. Because large language models can generate responses that emulate human answers, polling companies see an opportunity to use A.I. agents to simulate survey responses at a small fraction of the cost and time required for traditional polling.

As I’ve said a million times, I’m not particularly against smart uses of AI

This is the stupidest use I’ve seen yet though

Surveillance company Flock generates controversy — and a roster of L.A. clients Other cities have ended their relationships with Flock Safety over its ties to the federal government and concerns about cybersecurity and privacy. But connections in the L.A. area endure.

communities and cops have often embraced ALPRs, even in the face of objections (like mine, in my neighborhood) based not only on privacy but on likely abuse by ICE/federal govt. any community that has them should get rid of them now.

what a crazy night for sam altman to be like "yeah we got that dept of war deal, and there's no moral concerns here"

Lawmakers Ask Tech Companies What User Data They Provided to D.H.S.

“With these subpoenas, the government is intimidating anonymous social media users who are documenting ICE in their communities. Companies are capitulating to demands instead of fighting illegal subpoenas in court,” said ACLU attorney @snowjake.bsky.social.

Santa Clara County Leaders Cut Out Flock Safety in New Surveillance Policy | KQED Santa Clara County Supervisors amended their own policies to restrict Flock Safety license plate cameras in three South Bay cities.

Automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) threaten civil liberties and have been used to target immigrants, protestors, and people seeking reproductive care. And Flock has proven itself incapable of securing ALPR location information against illegal sharing. www.kqed.org/news/1207446...

In a sane world, our universities would be suing this company into the ground.

Unfortunately, many of them probably think in order to stay "relevant" or whatever, they need to develop partnerships with these plagiarism-as-a-service companies instead

Op-ed: San Jose can protect immigrants by ending Flock surveillance system - San José Spotlight As ICE and other federal agencies continue their assault on civil liberties, local leaders are stepping up to protect their communities. This includes pushing back against automated license plate read...

ALPRs are marketed to promote public safety, but many are waking up to the reality: they have high error rates and low efficacy for solving crimes — and worse, they can be weaponized against anyone the government chooses to target.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ sanjosespotlight.com/op-ed-san-jo...

This legislation establishes New Mexico’s first statewide regulations for Automatic License Plate Reader (ALPR) data, ensuring that location information isn't weaponized against residents for seeking legal healthcare, exercising constitutional rights, or for federal immigration enforcement.

surprising amount of chilling of dissent in this new era of tech companies and the government collaborating to stand up for free speech etc

Because when you're facing authoritarianism, do not obey in advance.

Read our open letter to Amazon, Apple, Discord, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Reddit here:

Homeland Security Wants Social Media Sites to Expose Anti-ICE Accounts

The ACLU (including my team) has filed multiple actions to block subpoenas sent by DHS to identify people speaking out against its abuses.

Today's NYT story shows that those cases are the tip of the iceberg: DHS has sent HUNDREDS of subpoenas to tech companies. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/t...

Proud to be part of the ACLU team opposing DHS attempts to harass and intimidate people exercising their First Amendment rights.

Seven Billion Reasons for Facebook to Abandon its Face Recognition Plans Meta’s analysis that it can avoid scrutiny by releasing a privacy invasive product during a time of political crisis is craven and morally bankrupt. It is also dead wrong.

Meta thinks now is a great time to launch facial recognition surveillance tech in their creepy glasses because EFF will be too distracted by fascism to notice.

We noticed.

www.eff.org/deeplinks/20...

Ring Superbowl Ad Shows Americans How Powerful Surveillance Systems Have Become, Freaks Them Out | ACLU Think twice about sending video from your home to companies, and possibly police and hackers

Ring is just one piece of a larger picture: data collection devices owned by both government and private entities, centralized by private companies through cloud services, and subject to AI analysis that makes them far more powerful than they would have been even in the recent past.

Meta reportedly wants to add face recognition to smart glasses while privacy advocates are distracted The feature could arrive as soon as this year.

Meta reportedly wants to add face recognition to smart glasses while privacy advocates are distracted

Meta Plans to Add Facial Recognition Technology to Its Smart Glasses

Let’s make sure this gets the attention it deserves and the scrutiny Meta clearly wants to hide from.

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/t...

With Ring, American Consumers Built a Surveillance Dragnet Ring's 'Search Party' is dystopian surveillance accelerationism.

guys please don’t fall for the cute doggo ring super bowl commercial. they’re literally creating a tool that turns all ring cameras in a neighborhood into a surveillance dragnet

Kansas Town Uses License Plate Readers to Go After Man Who Wrote Op-Ed | ACLU Targeting followed opinion piece critical of town’s police and anonymously posted anti-ICE fliers

A Kansas man wrote an op-ed criticizing local police for cooperating with ICE. Instead of respecting his First Amendment rights, the police used automatic license plate readers to track him in hopes of finding wrongdoing.

We must keep getting this easily-abused surveillance out of our communities.

Whatever the federal presence looks like in the Bay Area on Super Bowl Sunday, we won’t allow it to stop us from exercising our First Amendment right to protest ICE violence.

Before you head out on Sunday, here’s what you need to know about your rights to help you stay safe.

I'm encouraged to see more communities in California push back against this dangerous dragnet surveillance technology.

Mountain View police turn off license plate readers, allege unauthorized federal use Mountain View has shut off its Flock Safety license plate readers over concerns that outside agencies were able to access the vendor’s data, police said.

This surveillance tech is a "threat to undocumented immigrants or anyone opposing federal immigration actions who travel[s] through Mountain View, a chilling prospect as the U.S. is rattled by images of federal agents snatching people off the streets, brutalizing protesters and even killing..."

Homeland Security is targeting Americans with this secretive legal weapon Under Trump, the Department of Homeland Security has weaponized administrative subpoenas to attack free speech, according to privacy and civil rights groups.

The Department of Homeland Security is abusing administrative subpoenas to terrorize people and stop them from speaking out. www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...

Proud graduate of a football school. GO HOOSIERS!

pulling this reflection on white silence/fear over here, too:

California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA)

WOW @nicoleozer.bsky.social, a brilliant privacy scholar and leader (and my former boss), has been appointed to the board of @calprivacy.bsky.social. This is ✨amazing news✨ for Californians' privacy. cppa.ca.gov/announcement...

FINAL: No. 2 Indiana defeats No. 1 Ohio State 13-10. The Hoosiers complete a 13-0 season and win their first Big Ten title since 1967. #iufb

BREAKING: @aclu-norcal.bsky.social, Lieff Cabraser, and Tobener Ravenscroft just sued San Francisco landlords over AI-powered surveillance in people's homes.

Our homes are the last refuge of privacy. What happens there is none of your landlord's business.

www.aclunc.org/news/aclu-su...

Lawsuit over San Jose license plate readers A new lawsuit by local advocacy groups alleges San Jose's use of data collected by automated license plate readers violates drivers' privacy rights.

Surveillance is not safety. Yet government agencies deploy untested, invasive surveillance—like automated license plate readers—without considering proven, non-surveillance alternatives first. Mass surveillance should never be the first approach to public safety. www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/l...

DHS Withdraws Subpoena Seeking to Unmask Instagram Users Who Posted About ICE Raids | ACLU of Northern CA

www.aclunc.org/news/dhs-wit...