New, by me: Apple told me it's sending out threat notifications to customers in 110 countries saying they've been targeted with spyware. This latest batch also features a new push notification, warning users to take action and what to do next. Bypass for ad-blockers: web.archive.org/web/20260813...

If Apple sends you a push notification alerting you to a spyware attack, take it seriously | TechCrunch

Apple now sends out push notifications to iPhone lock screens when the company identifies government spyware targeting someone's devices.

techcrunch.com

Thrilled to have an opportunity to speak about my new book #ChillingEffects with @justinhendrix.bsky.social, Editor in Chief of @techpolicypress.bsky.social Listen in below!

Tech Policy Press@techpolicypress.bsky.social · 4w ago

How do surveillance, censorship, and technologies of control get weaponized—and how do we push back? Justin Hendrix talks with Jonathon W. Penney, author of "Chilling Effects: Repression, Conformity, and Power in the Digital Age," about his roadmap for reform.

NEW: Google is rolling out a new feature for Android called Intrusion Logging, designed specifically to help researchers investigate attacks done with spyware and forensic tools. Amnesty says this is “a fundamental shift in the amount and quality of forensic data available on Android devices.”

Google launches new Android security feature to help uncover spyware attacks | TechCrunch

Intrusion Logging is a new part of Android’s Advanced Protection Mode, which aims to help protect human rights activists, journalists, and dissidents from government spyware attack and law enforcement...

techcrunch.com

The advertising ecosystem upon which surveillance vendors like Penlink draw their data is a toxic, poorly regulated and exploitative swamp My @citizenlab.ca colleague @wchr.bsky.social with some follow-on observations about this swamp related to our "Uncovering Webloc" report published last week 👇

Wolfie Christl@wchr.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Last week, we published a @citizenlab.ca report on the ad-based location surveillance system Webloc, its capabilities and its customers. Webloc obtains data from consumer apps installed on phones. How? We don't know. But the ad targeting segments shown in this 2021 Webloc screenshot caught my eye:

We publish a major @citizenlab.ca report on Webloc, an ad-based mass surveillance system that monitors the movements and personal characteristics of hundreds of millions people globally based on data obtained from mobile apps and digital advertising. Customers include ICE, El Salvador, and Hungary.

The Citizen Lab@citizenlab.ca · 5mo ago

NEW REPORT: “Uncovering Webloc: An Analysis of Penlink’s Ad-based Geolocation Surveillance Tech” Our research confirms that ad-based surveillance tech Webloc is used by military, intelligence, and law enforcement agencies across the globe. citizenlab.ca/research/ana...

NEW: Former L3Harris boss Peter Williams was sentenced to seven years in prison for stealing sensitive company hacking tools, and then selling them to a Russian broker. Williams, aka Doogie, previously pleaded guilty to stealing and selling eight trade secrets to Russian broker Operation Zero.

Former L3Harris Trenchant boss jailed for selling hacking tools to Russian broker | TechCrunch

Peter Williams, the former head of U.S. hacking tools maker L3Harris Trenchant, was sentenced to seven years in prison for stealing and selling his former company’s hacking and surveillance tools to a...

techcrunch.com

Cory Doctorow serà a Barcelona. Una de les veus q marca el camí en la conquesta d’un futur digital just. I és divertit :). No t’ho perdis. Presentem #Enshittification traduït amb ❤️ per @Capitan_Swing Capitán Swing 📍 Llibreria @Ll_Finestres 📅 20 de març 19.00 h

For 7 years, we’ve powered elections for big orgs, political parties & towns. Now, we're putting that high-guarantee tech into everyone's hands. Introducing the Vocdoni App: Secure, privacy-first voting for any organization. No hidden costs. Announcement & roadmap: blog.vocdoni.io/announcing-...

Announcing Vocdoni App: Making secure online voting accessible to every organization

Governance is the backbone of trust within any organization. Whether managing an Annual General Meeting for a professional association, electing board members for a cooperative, or enabling participatory budgeting for a town, the integrity of the vote is key. Organizations have long struggled with voting platforms that are difficult to use, expensive, and full of hidden costs. Worse still, these "black box" tools function with zero auditability, demanding heavy support and requiring users to ...

blog.vocdoni.io

On Dec 11, tune in for @rondeibert.bsky.social's conversation w/ @signal.org president @meredithmeredith.bsky.social about the critical lessons learned from the Signalgate scandal at @financialtimes.com #FTGlobalBoardroom conference. Learn more: globalboardroom.ft.com/agenda/sessi...

For over a decade, we @citizenlab.ca have documented extensive abuse of NSO Group's spyware, including being used to target political opposition, journalists, activists, human rights defenders and US govt officials. *This sale should not be permitted* techcrunch.com/2025/10/10/s...

Spyware maker NSO Group confirms acquisition by US investors | TechCrunch

NSO Group confirmed to TechCrunch that an unnamed group of American investors has taken “controlling ownership” of the surveillance tech maker.

techcrunch.com

Apple just doubled its top bug bounty: $2M for critical iPhone exploits, up to $5M with bonuses for Lockdown Mode bypasses or beta-phase finds. A clear response to the mercenary spyware booming economy & perhaps an incentive for responsible disclosure. www.wired.com/story/apple-...

Apple Announces $2 Million Bug Bounty Reward for the Most Dangerous Exploits

With the mercenary spyware industry booming, Apple VP Ivan Krstić tells WIRED that the company is also offering bonuses that could bring the max total reward for iPhone exploits to $5 million.

wired.com

Jens Spahn hat sich gerade zur #Chatkontrolle geäußert: "Wir als CDU/CSU-Bundestagsfraktion sind gegen die anlasslose Kontrolle von Chats. Das wäre so, als würde man vorsorglich mal alle Briefe öffnen und schauen, ob da etwas Verbotenes drin ist. Das geht nicht, das wird es mit uns nicht geben." 1/x

🇩🇪 Germany is AGAINST Chat Control: Jens Spahn: "We as the CDU/CSU parliamentary group are against indiscriminate monitoring of chats. That would be like preemptively opening all letters to check whether there's something illegal in them. That's not acceptable, that won't happen under our watch."

The Sagrada Família Takes Its Final Shape #HackerNews https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/09/22/is-the-sagrada-familia-a-masterpiece-or-kitsch

In this week’s Style & Design Issue, D. T. Max writes about the slow becoming of one of the world’s most unusual—and soon to be tallest—churches: the Sagrada Família.

Is the Sagrada Família a Masterpiece or Kitsch?

In the century since Antoni Gaudí died, his wild design has been obsessively realized, creating the world’s tallest church—and an endlessly debated icon.

newyorker.com

💬 «Ils ont cru les promesses de Mark Zuckerberg» 📱 A l’heure où Meta est accusé d’avoir illégalement racheté WhatsApp il y a onze ans, Elies Campo, un ex-employé de la messagerie, raconte à Libé les coulisses du rachat en 2014 :

«Ils ont cru les promesses de Mark Zuckerberg» : un ex-employé de WhatsApp dévoile les coulisses du rachat en 2014

A l’heure où Meta est accusé d’avoir illégalement racheté WhatsApp en 2014, Elies Campo, un ex-employé de la messagerie, raconte à «Libé» les dessous de l’acquisition. Entre annonce surprise et promesses non tenues.

liberation.fr

The Sagrada Família is an immense, unfinished church in Barcelona, begun in 1882—“a famously slow project, even in a country where, to American eyes, many things move without haste,” D. T. Max writes.

Is the Sagrada Família a Masterpiece or Kitsch?

In the century since Antoni Gaudí died, his wild design has been obsessively realized, creating the world’s tallest church—and an endlessly debated icon.

newyorker.com

“…millions in EU subsidies and taxpayer money in member states are supporting an industry criticised for undermining democracy and freedom of speech”. www.ftm.eu/articles/spy...

Spyware industry pockets EU subsidies while snooping on its citizens

The widespread use of commercial spyware for unlawful surveillance across Europe has raised alarm – but the funding of such tools has largely gone under the radar. Follow the Money can reveal how mill...

ftm.eu

Antoni Gaudí’s wild design for the Sagrada Família, begun nearly 150 years ago, has been obsessively realized over time, creating the world’s tallest church—and an endlessly debated icon.

Is the Sagrada Família a Masterpiece or Kitsch?

In the century since Antoni Gaudí died, his wild design has been obsessively realized, creating the world’s tallest church—and an endlessly debated icon.

newyorker.com

thanks anne—and we're not done. if you're considering subscribing to WIRED and still on the fence, this year, we also dropped paywalls for FOIA-based reporting (and some guides). so, here is a 🧵 of some unpaywalled articles (which includes some of our most important work)!

The WIRED Guide to Protecting Yourself From Government Surveillance

Donald Trump has vowed to deport millions and jail his enemies. To carry out that agenda, his administration will exploit America’s digital surveillance machine. Here are some steps you can take to ev...

wired.com

Anne Learns@annelearns.bsky.social · last yr.

Or WIRED. We have subscribed and I didn’t realize they broke so much news until recently.

NEW: 🇩🇪#Germany's top court says spyware severely violates fundamental rights. Bans spyware in cases with <3year sentences. Imposes tough proportionality tests. Restricts #spyware to serious cases. Very interesting 1/ www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/SharedDocs/P...

NEW: I spoke to @rondeibert.bsky.social ahead of his keynote at Black Hat today. Ron travelled to Vegas to warn the cybersec industry that perhaps it’s time to get political. “They should be aware of what’s going on and hopefully they can not contribute to it, if not help reverse it,” he said.

Citizen Lab director warns cyber industry about US authoritarian descent | TechCrunch

Ron Deibert, the head of the prominent digital human rights groups Citizen Lab, sounds the alarm at the Black Hat security conference about the "dramatic descent into authoritarianism," but one that t...

techcrunch.com

Here's an article from Citizen Lab on how the Spanish government used exploits against political opponents in Catalonia: citizenlab.ca/2022/04/cata... Bear in mind even police using these will almost entirely be using them against people not convicted of a crime based on suspicion.

CatalanGate: Extensive Mercenary Spyware Operation against Catalans Using Pegasus and Candiru - The Citizen Lab

The Citizen Lab, in collaboration with Catalan civil society groups, has identified at least 65 individuals targeted or infected with mercenary spyware, including members of the European Parliament, C...

citizenlab.ca

European authoritarians and their enablers in the media are misrepresenting GrapheneOS and even Pixel phones as if they're something for criminals. GrapheneOS is opposed to the mass surveillance police state these people want to impose on everyone. www.xatakandroid.com/sociedad/cad...

"Cada vez que vemos un Google Pixel pensamos que puede ser un narcotraficante". Es el móvil perfecto para el crimen por un motivo

Los Google Pixel son los máximos representantes de Android, con permiso de Samsung. Es por ello que convencen a los usuarios entusiastas del sistema...

xatakandroid.com

I was encouraged to see the #G7 Leaders' Statement on Transnational Repression which also calls out mitigating harms around mercenary spyware 👇🇨🇦 www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/stat...

NEW: #Google's #Android 16 to feature optional high security mode. Cool! It's the 'turn this one thing on if you face elevated risk' that we've been asking for from Google. Bunch of requested features that address the kinds of threats we worry about. Let's dig in a bit 1/

Catalan spyware victims — including the region's former President Artur Mas — this week announced new court challenges against Spanish security services and Israeli surveillance software vendors.

Catalonia reignites its court fight with Spain over spyware

Former Catalan president among those seeking retribution for political hacking scandal revealed in 2022.

ow.ly

In a stunning defeat for the #spyware industry, an Oakland jury has directed Pegasus maker NSO Group to pay Meta's WhatsApp $167 million in punitive damages for routing its attacks through the company's servers. GIFT LINK wapo.st/4jLGYKz

Spyware maker NSO ordered to pay $167 million for hacking WhatsApp

Jury hits NSO with punitive damages after first public legal reckoning for Israel-based maker of spy software banned from use in U.S.

wapo.st

NSO to pay almost 168 million in damages! Congrats to WhatsApp on this historic (yes, historic) jury verdict against NSO Group! This is also a win for all the researchers, advocates & victims who have been tirelessly exposing NSO's abuses & advocating for justice! www.accessnow.org/press-releas...

NSO Fined $168 Million for Pegasus Spyware Attack on WhatsApp

In a landmark verdict, NSO Group must pay almost $168 million in damages for using Pegasus spyware to target WhatsApp.

accessnow.org

🧵 1/ Following our #JUICYJAM report @citizenlab.ca , the Thai authorities admit that the documents leaked to parliament - the ones containing evidence that they were running a longstanding IO using doxxing and harassment to target activists - were real. But *deny involvement in the IOs themselves*.

Thai Enquirer on X: "The Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) has admitted to monitoring and profiling individuals and groups for national security purposes but denied using disinformation or launching cyberattacks as part of its information operations (IO). Leaked documents submitted to the https://t.co/yHeO0TdDA2" / X

The Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) has admitted to monitoring and profiling individuals and groups for national security purposes but denied using disinformation or launching cyberattacks as part of its information operations (IO). Leaked documents submitted to the https://t.co/yHeO0TdDA2

x.com