Caroline Haskins
@carolinehaskins.bsky.social
reporter @WIRED.com caroline_haskins@wired.com 785-813-1084 https://www.wired.com/author/caroline-haskins/
Data centers have become one of the U.S.'s most potent political flashpoints, uniting coalitions on the left and right like few issues do. We sent @mollytaft.com on a journey into the data center resistance. The Unabomber, Steve Bannon’s tech guy, and Bernie Sanders made appearances along the way:
How Data Centers Broke American Politics
What the Unabomber, Steve Bannon’s tech guy, and Bernie Sanders taught me about the great data center backlash of 2026.
wired.com
Steve Eimers, aka The Guardrail Guy, is known for his videos that about faulty guardrails & the risk they pose to drivers He recently began posting about Flock cameras & ALPRs. He’s not anymore. Why? Someone began destroying cameras he’d recently posted about: www.wired.com/story/flock-...
He Went Viral for Posting About Flock Cameras. Then Someone Destroyed Them
Steve Elmers, also known as the “Guardrail Guy,” is done calling out license plate readers after two that appeared in his videos were vandalized.
wired.com
NEW: In 2025 ICE obtained DNA from nearly one million people and funneled it into an FBI criminal database. The collection likely included DNA from young children and was backed by the threat of criminal prosecution. The raw genetic material is stored indefinitely. Free to read:
ICE Collected Nearly 1 Million People’s DNA Last Year—Including Young Children
Internal documents show ICE's DNA collection has skyrocketed in the second Trump administration. Now hundreds of thousands of people never convicted of a crime are in an FBI criminal database forever.
wired.com
SCOOP: 404 Media has obtained a coaching guide that Flock surveillance gives to police about “how to speak to city councils about public safety technology.” It encourages police to “own the narrative before someone else does” by championing the technology before citizens can oppose it.
‘Own the Narrative’: Leaked Flock Guide Shows How It Teaches Cops to Promote Its Tech
"This document shows a coordinated effort from Flock Safety to compel law enforcement agencies to convince our elected leaders to represent their interests as a company rather than the interests of co...
404media.co
Steve Eimers, aka The Guardrail Guy, is known for his videos that about faulty guardrails & the risk they pose to drivers He recently began posting about Flock cameras & ALPRs. He’s not anymore. Why? Someone began destroying cameras he’d recently posted about: www.wired.com/story/flock-...
He Went Viral for Posting About Flock Cameras. Then Someone Destroyed Them
Steve Elmers, also known as the “Guardrail Guy,” is done calling out license plate readers after two that appeared in his videos were vandalized.
wired.com
Blogged about the new Meta ad in which the company doubles down on AI while the song Five Years, the David Bowie song about the world ending in 5 years, plays in the background: www.wired.com/story/meta-d...
Meta’s New Feel-Good AI Ad Uses a Song About the World Ending
The clip features the David Bowie track “Five Years,” which includes lyrics such as “Earth was really dying (dying).”
wired.com
ICYMI last week @wired.com: ICE is renewing its contract with Thomson Reuters for accessing some their suite of proprietary databases. In the description, ICE says the tools will be used to ID "unaccompanied minors" and identify fraud. w/ @carolinehaskins.bsky.social www.wired.com/story/ice-un...
ICE Is Using Data Broker Tools to ‘Identify Unaccompanied Minors’ and ‘Fraud’
A newly renewed, $25 million-per-year contract with a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters further expands the power of ICE under the Trump administration.
wired.com
NEW w/ @telliotter.bsky.social: ICE renewed its contract to buy data from Thomson Reuters at an upped rate of $25 million/year Now, ICE says, it has an urgent, “multiplied” need for data to ID “unaccompanied minors” and anyone involved with “fraud of government funds": www.wired.com/story/ice-un...
ICE Is Using Data Broker Tools to ‘Identify Unaccompanied Minors’ and ‘Fraud’
A newly renewed, $25 million-per-year contract with a subsidiary of Thompson Reuters further expands the power of ICE under the Trump administration.
wired.com
As someone who was in the competitive middle + high school track circuit back in the day, which felt crazy at the time, audibly said "what" to myself reading some of the times dropped in this piece. Worth a read: www.wired.com/story/teenag...
Elite Young Runners Are Becoming Freakishly Fast. Welcome to ‘Trackflation’
Four-minute miles are almost routine. Middle schoolers are beating college runners. Inside the youth track boom that’s turning kids and teens into speed machines.
wired.com
Oops!!! AWS's billing console had a glitch last night, causing tons of customers to get emails claiming that they owed the world’s 5th most valuable company billions upon billions of dollars : ) www.wired.com/story/amazon...
AWS Billing Glitch Hits Customers With Billion-Dollar Fees
An error with the cloud computing giant’s billing operation caused some customers’ monthly bills to rise from a few cents to billions of dollars.
wired.com
NEW w/ @telliotter.bsky.social: ICE renewed its contract to buy data from Thomson Reuters at an upped rate of $25 million/year Now, ICE says, it has an urgent, “multiplied” need for data to ID “unaccompanied minors” and anyone involved with “fraud of government funds": www.wired.com/story/ice-un...
ICE Is Using Data Broker Tools to ‘Identify Unaccompanied Minors’ and ‘Fraud’
A newly renewed, $25 million-per-year contract with a subsidiary of Thompson Reuters further expands the power of ICE under the Trump administration.
wired.com
Haunted by a customer support call I had to make the other day… why why why did I go with “m as in moo” when spelling out the security code 😭
the Apple store has go to be the most loud, unpleasant, crowded, overstimulating place on earth I stg
NEW from me: the US is about to deport a retired pastor, Edward Nalwamba, back to Uganda. Not only is Uganda in the midst of an Ebola outbreak, but Nalwamba says he was the target of the country's security forces before coming to the US. @wired.com www.wired.com/story/the-us...
The US Is About to Deport an Immigrant to the Center of the Ebola Crisis
Edward Nalwamba is a 78-year-old retired pastor whose health has rapidly declined while in detention, his attorney says.
wired.com
After the Club Chalamet incident this week, I wanted to know: what do Hollywood publicists think about celeb fans, and the Heated Rivalry fandom? What I learned was super complicated and fascinating 🧵: www.wired.com/story/hollyw...
Hollywood Thrives on ‘Rabid’ Fans. For Publicists, They’re a Nightmare
A scuffle between stan account Club Chalamet and another “Heated Rivalry” die-hard shines a light on how parasocial fans are a publicist’s greatest asset—and liability.
wired.com
NEW: As resistance to data centers grows, I noticed some interesting convos happening online.... electricians are debating whether wiring data centers is morally neutral, or if it makes you a sell-out. To learn more, I spoke with electricians engaged in this debate: www.wired.com/story/data-c...
Some Electricians Think Building Data Centers Is for Sellouts
Big Tech is throwing big money into data center buildouts. As national opposition to the facilities grows, some workers are beginning to question whether it’s worth it.
wired.com
"Either I'm wiring up a lumber mill or a Dollar General warehouse or a data center or an Amazon facility or whatever else. [It's] essentially the same kind of work—all for already extremely rich pieces of shit to use for the exploitation of the working class so they can get more rich."
Some Electricians Think Building Data Centers Is for Sellouts
Big Tech is throwing big money into data center buildouts. As national opposition to the facilities grows, some workers are beginning to question whether it’s worth it.
wired.com
NEW: As resistance to data centers grows, I noticed some interesting convos happening online.... electricians are debating whether wiring data centers is morally neutral, or if it makes you a sell-out. To learn more, I spoke with electricians engaged in this debate: www.wired.com/story/data-c...
Some Electricians Think Building Data Centers Is for Sellouts
Big Tech is throwing big money into data center buildouts. As national opposition to the facilities grows, some workers are beginning to question whether it’s worth it.
wired.com
NEW: A trove of internal records from Dialog, the secret society cofounded by Peter Thiel, was left exposed online. WIRED obtained a second cache of records that reveal who's really attending, how they're screened, and what personal details they were promised would stay private.
Leak Exposes Members of Peter Thiel’s Secretive ‘Dialog’ Society
More than 200 of the world's elites registered for a retreat whose agenda runs from panels on cult-building and sex to prepping for World War III. An associated app offers matchmaking.
wired.com
"Meta is testing face-recognition software built by a company that sells surveillance tools to police departments and the United States military, as it explores bringing the technology to its smart glasses, WIRED has learned." Another @dell.bsky.social and @dmehro.bsky.social banger
Meta Tapped a Pentagon Supplier to Prototype Face Recognition for Its Glasses
Rank One, whose board includes a former CIA deputy director and a former FBI science chief, supplied face recognition to Meta for internal development of its smart glasses app.
wired.com
NEW from me: If you're in Times Square today, you'll see a massive Elon Musk effigy looming over passersby on the eve of the SpaceX IPO. @wired.com www.wired.com/story/massiv...
Massive Effigy of Elon Musk Raised Over Times Square to Protest Grok
Activists raised a 40-foot-tall inflatable Elon Musk in Manhattan to draw attention to the risk he allegedly poses to investors.
wired.com
Immigration agents have detained a Meta worker who recently lost their job in a massive round of layoffs. from @laurengoode.bsky.social and @peard33.bsky.social
A Meta Employee Who Just Lost Their Job Was Detained by Immigration Agents
Colleagues discussed the incident on internal message boards, according to documents seen by WIRED.
wired.com
As I observed the news cycle about the mysterious men going in + out of manholes throughout nyc....I couldn't help but wonder....are they actually groups of content creators getting material for TikTok? I looked into it.... My investigation: www.wired.com/story/new-yo...
‘Doo Doo Water and a Few Needles’: Inside the Mystery of the New York City Manhole Prowlers
An “urban explorer” tells WIRED their mother checked in to make sure they weren’t one of the people seen scurrying out of a manhole with their friends.
wired.com
Apparently it’s more dishonest to write about facial-recognition code embedded in software distributed to tens of millions of people than it is to embed it there in the first place.
dell cameron@dell.bsky.social · 2mo agoI admit, if you ignore where it says ‘unreleased’ right below the headline (and on our homepage), then skip past the part where we say it required a code review, and ignore paragraphs 4, 8, 10, 12, 16, and all the adjectives that mean undisclosed, it does read like an active feature.
POV: you're me. Your $940 round trip with Norse airlines was cancelled. After 14 days, you can't get a refund. The refund request page doesn't work. You need human help. Norse directs you to a chatbot. There's no phone #, and a gigantic fraud warning on the website 🧵1/3 www.wired.com/story/norse-...
POV: you're me. Your $940 round trip with Norse airlines was cancelled. After 14 days, you can't get a refund. The refund request page doesn't work. You need human help. Norse directs you to a chatbot. There's no phone #, and a gigantic fraud warning on the website 🧵1/3 www.wired.com/story/norse-...
Also, no paywall! (WIRED doesn't paywall pieces that rely on FOIA docs!)
Caroline Haskins@carolinehaskins.bsky.social · 2mo agoAfter a weird experience with Norse Atlantic Airways a few weeks ago, I decided to file a FOIA request to the FTC Ends up, dozens have complained about Norse. It has no phone #, and its customer service relies on AI It’s a perfect situation for scammers: www.wired.com/story/norse-...
After a weird experience with Norse Atlantic Airways a few weeks ago, I decided to file a FOIA request to the FTC Ends up, dozens have complained about Norse. It has no phone #, and its customer service relies on AI It’s a perfect situation for scammers: www.wired.com/story/norse-...
Norse Atlantic Airways Offers Dirt-Cheap Tickets. There’s a Catch
Dozens of people have complained to the Federal Trade Commission about Norse Atlantic Airways’ tech-first customer service operation. Some said they lost thousands of dollars.
wired.com
Some personal news, as they say: I’m so stoked for the rest of the Fired Four getting this deal. Conde is giving them nearly two years of backpay. They offered me 4 months. In the absence of a serious offer, I’m looking forward to my day in court. www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/bus...
Condé Nast and Union Reach Settlement Over “Fired Four” (Exclusive)
The publishing giant is allowing workers to resign as active employees and paying a financial settlement.
hollywoodreporter.com
