Laura Hoffman
@lahoff.bsky.social
Then: Former health tech lobbyist for the AMA, focused on protecting privacy and opposing data-based personal surveillance Now: travel pro, cat mom, and immigrant Trained in public health, human rights, & law
“In recent months, ICE has deployed a round-the-clock digital dragnet to scour the public internet—from Facebook to Instagram to X—for speech that could endanger the agency’s mission.” Speech. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
How ICE Is Weaponizing Social Media Against its Critics
Agency says its surveillance program searches for threats to agents, but critics see free-speech infringements.
wsj.com
This week’s main story is about how police use surveillance tools like cameras, microphones, license plate readers, “cell site simulators,” and the practice of “predictive policing,” to create a world that has been lovingly described as “Big Brother on steroids.” Full segment at the link in our bio.
“Rewriting the rules of business” is very funny. That man can do and get away with anything because even the media treats the kind of corruption that would have ended anyone else as part of his radical way of governing.
Bloomberg News@bloomberg.com · 5d agoThe US government granted a permit to build a 211-mile road through Alaskan wilderness. In exchange, it gets a stake in a mining company. This is how the Trump administration is re-writing the rules of business. Read more: bloom.bg/3RBNlHv 📷: Emily Sullivan for Bloomberg Businessweek
It’s time for people to see that not only is this a make or break moment when it comes to tech fascism, but also that there is no resistance to it within the Democratic Party because they’re flushed with tech cash as much as the GOP. This is a clarifying issue and it needs recognized. Fast.
I hope you read this vital, powerful writing from @reproutopia.bsky.social in today's edition of The Key: "This is what it looks like when a society has settled the question of who counts as rapeable – which is to say, who counts as human." www.thekeymagazine.com/p/israel-rap...
“Everything Is Legitimate”: How Israel Uses Rape as a Tool of Genocide
The rape of Palestinian detainees is so commonplace that it’s no longer hidden. It’s filmed, joked about, and celebrated in parliament. This is no mistake; it’s core to Israel’s colonial project.
thekeymagazine.com
This is why I give extreme side eye to the smart people who flatly ignore this. They know data centers are being built in black and brown neighborhoods and that AI is upping the cost of living for everyone. And if you know this shit and still say fuck it, I know exactly what kind of person you are
AI is making everyone's life more expensive, according to CNN. "Households must spend just over $375 more to purchase the same goods and services as they did this time last year due to AI’s inflationary impact,” Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, says. www.cnn.com/2026/07/28/e...
AI is making your life more expensive. Here’s how | CNN Business
AI is raising prices for Americans – and not just electricity bills.
cnn.com
As part of @nacchoalerts.bsky.social’s annual conference earlier this month, EPIC Senior Counsel @sarageoghegan.bsky.social spoke on a panel about health data surveillance and criminalization. Hosted by the Center for HIV Law and Policy, the discussion is available to watch here:
Center for HIV Law and Policy: What We Do Now: Data Privacy and Public Health in the Authoritarian Police State
PAST EVENT
epic.org
1/2 - ONE HALF - of the US, experienced power flickering directly related to data centers in Virginia.
Cishet Billionaire@bennettelder.net · 2w agoThat's fun. Large ass noisy neighbor problem. Lol and you thought the pods in your cluster were noisy. www.youtube.com/watch?v=auUj...
There it is. RFK Jr’s son, “Finn” Kennedy recently launched his own investment fund focused on AI in healthcare. It should surprise no one that he worked at 8VC—the investment fund launched by Peter Thiel’s Palantir co-founder (Joe Lonsdale)—in 2025. 4/24/26 … 1/ www.facebook.com/financialtim...
The World Cup ended, but the increased surveillance won't, write Ranking Digital Rights’ Tayrine dos Santos Dias and Leandro Ucciferri. Their investigation maps the companies behind the data harvesting, predictive policing, and aerial surveillance across 16 host cities.
The Silent World Cup Winners are the Companies Normalizing Surveillance
Ranking Digital Rights (RDR) released an investigation into the companies supporting surveillance and policing in the 16 host cities of the 2026 World Cup.
buff.ly
Ah yes, privacy exclusively for the rich. Very original, MSG!
Noah Shachtman@noahshachtman.bsky.social · 2w agoEXCLUSIVE: Madison Square Garden's sprawling surveillance system can monitor guests down to the second. MSG boss Jim Dolan recently made a major exception—for Taylor Swift. I reviewed the internal memo locking MSG security staff out of their own surveillance network. www.wired.com/story/for-ta...
alcoholic trying to get sober after a relapse tells Google's "Health Coach" about it. it tells them to drink every hour and messages them to make sure they're drinking as soon as they wake up.
The revelations came out in a federal court case brought by Democratic states challenging ICE's access to Medicaid data to aid in deportation efforts. n.pr/4f9OdMn
ICE shared Medicaid data it wasn't supposed to have with Palantir
The revelations came out in a federal court case brought by Democratic states challenging ICE's access to Medicaid data to aid in deportation efforts.
n.pr
Elon Musk's xAI has installed more than double the number of gas turbines than it has publicly acknowledged to power its Colossus 2 data center project, without federal permits, and the pollution is hitting predominantly Black neighborhoods the hardest reut.rs/4bIghEm
More signs of resurging HIV after USAID’s closure. African Neonatal Network reported at IMNCH (a global health conference): HIV+ pregnant women ↑50% & those not on antiretrovirals ↑>300%, year-on-year, across 22 hospitals in 5 nations. @vtoxfordnetwork.bsky.social
a 2018 study in the American Journal of Public Health found that between 2012-2018, police were responsible for 8% of homicides where the victim was an adult male. cops are committing a significant chunk of the murders in this country.
Risk of Police-Involved Death by Race/Ethnicity and Place, United States, 2012–2018
Objectives. To estimate the risk of mortality from police homicide by race/ethnicity and place in the United States. Methods. We used novel data on police-involved fatalities and Bayesian models to es...
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
most murders are committed by someone the victim knows - a partner, neighbor etc. but in cases where there is no relationship between murderer & victim? the killer is a cop about a third of the time. if you are killed by a stranger, there is a 1 in 3 chance that stranger is a cop.
Violence in Blue
‘One-third of all Americans killed by strangers are killed by police.’
granta.com
This morning in Biddeford, Maine, a 26-year-old man said goodbye to his wife and daughter and left for work. Moments later he was dead, shot in the head by ICE agents, the second man ICE has killed in six days. ICE is killing our neighbors. ICE cannot be reformed. Abolish ICE.
Another brilliant plan from our esteemed health goon squad. What could go wrong?
Healthcare-Global@healthcare-global.bsky.social · 3w ago
Reminder: we are war crime-ing Cuba right now because Trump and Rubio want to collapse their government. Not a major part of the media discourse but it should be.
The Associated Press@apnews.com · last mo.An island-wide blackout hit Cuba as fuel reserves dwindle and its electric grid continues to crumble.
What is currently missing from the discussion is the hidden children's rights and human rights cost of mandatory age assurance, write Emma Day and Sabine Witting of Tech Legality.
Human Rights Experts Should Engage in Age Assurance Standards
In the absence of proactive regulatory enforcement, technical standards have become more important for age assurance vendors, write Emma Day and Sabine Witting.
buff.ly
The dangerous air quality will last for 24 hours. When asked about the health impacts of the excessive and unnecessary display, an EPA spokesperson said, "Fireworks are awesome."
Surprise! Surprise! TV Host
Alt: Surprise Surprise! TV Host meme where a woman shimies in a sparkling dress while singing, "surprise surprise"
static.klipy.com
KFF Health News@kffhealthnews.org · last mo.Medicare has a new program to root out waste with AI: prior authorizations. Months into the program, patients are getting delayed care, doctors aren’t getting paid, and there are AI hallucinations to deal with. From @dariustahir.bsky.social ⤵️ kffhealthnews.org/medicare/med...
