These are other people's headlines, not mine. Linking a story is not an endorsement of it, and I have not verified every claim in every piece. Read them the way you would read anything: with the outlet's name in view.
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Updated August 20, 2026
Artificial intelligence
What the systems can actually do, who is deploying them, and what that costs the people on the receiving end.
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Meta ran ads for an app promising to nudify female politicians
Ars Technica
One ad featured a pornographic video with deepfake closely resembling a US politician.
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Did someone wearing Meta Glasses film you today? Are you sure?
The Guardian
People say they’ve been secretly filmed in their own homes, at concerts and at work. Are the wildly popular smartglasses the final nail in the coffin of personal privacy? “I’ve had one person who told me that their...
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Will AI give you the job? Automated hiring tools spark discrimination and secrecy lawsuits
The Guardian
A rise in lawsuits over AI use in employment decisions is raising questions about how companies hire and fire For the last four years, Erin Kistler has applied for thousands of jobs at companies like Paypal , Microsoft...
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OpenAI announces slowing pace of development after hack by rogue agent
The Guardian
Amid race with Anthropic, firm plans to overhaul research and training and require more safety parameters after hack OpenAI on Tuesday said it had slowed down the pace of its AI development while it overhauled its...
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OpenAI launches ChatGPT for Teens with stronger safeguards
The Guardian
Teen version is intended for children aged 13 to 17 and includes content protections on self-harm and sexual chats OpenAI is launching a version of ChatGPT designed for teenagers – the first generation to grow up with...
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AI’s recursive self-improvement might not come so quickly after all
MIT Technology Review
The AI industry’s boldest promise right now is that AI will soon improve itself, with almost no need for human oversight. LLMs can already write code, generate synthetic data for training, and optimize the computer...
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Claude to start watermarking AI-generated text – but will it make quality worse?
The Guardian
Anthropic says it will change way chatbot makes small, random choices, to comply with EU regulation The world is familiar by now with the usual tropes of machine-generated text: overuse of the word “delve”, an excess of...
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Report supporting Australia’s teen social media ban appears to contain AI hallucinations, Senate hears
The Guardian
Exclusive: Guardian analysis finds one section of report includes links to academic articles that do not exist, but authors deny the references were made up by AI Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates...
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Suspecting court of using AI, man injected prompts in filings to try to win case
Ars Technica
Judge warns pro se litigants are using chatbots wrong and getting desperate.
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Flock is tightening its rules in response to a growing surveillance backlash
MIT Technology Review
The police-tech giant Flock is announcing today that it will change officers’ access to its nationwide network of license plate readers, in an apparent effort to quell a growing backlash and win back contracts lost amid...
Coercive control and technology-facilitated abuse
Surveillance inside relationships, stalkerware, and the safety practice built around both.
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Travelodge boss quits amid fallout over hotel chain’s security failings
The Guardian
Joanna Boydell steps down after widespread criticism over company’s handling of guest safety issues The boss of Travelodge has resigned after widespread criticism of her handling of security failings at the hotel chain...
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More women will die if domestic abusers leave prison early, victim’s parents warn
The Guardian
Parents of Michaela Hall, whose partner killed her after he left prison in 2021, say Probation Service cannot cope with mass release More women will die if ministers include domestic abusers in the early prison release...
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Ali came to me seeking help for disordered eating. The real issue was a relationship built on control | Ahona Guha
The Guardian
She second-guessed herself and was eager to please. She ‘felt frozen’ when she believed she displeased someone The modern mind is a column where experts discuss mental health issues they are seeing in their work Ali*...
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‘What’s happened to us? Where did we get lost?’ Zimbabwe reckons with the reality of violence against women
The Guardian
The deaths of a Bulawayo mother and her daughters spark calls for an urgent action on gender-based violence The three white coffins were draped in white lace and topped with small sprays of flowers. The mourners who...
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Woman assaulted after Travelodge staff gave room key to her abuser
The Guardian
Woman had gone to London hotel for ‘night away from the fear’ in latest incident of chain giving keys to men without checking Travelodge staff gave a room key to the domestic abuser of a woman, who then physically...
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A Queensland domestic violence victim was promised a voice – then told she was no longer welcome to call the minister’s office
The Guardian
Some of the victim-survivors who produced an official report for the state critical of police say their work has been buried and their members ignored When the Queensland minister, Amanda Camm, announced her hand-picked...
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The Rollback of Instagram Encryption, and What It Means for Survivor Safety
NNEDV Safety Net
As of May 8, 2026, Instagram has removed the option for end-to-end encryption in direct messages. In practical terms, this means messages that were previously only accessible to the sender and recipient may now be...
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Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month at Safety Net: A Month in Review
NNEDV Safety Net
February always invites us to pause and reflect closely on young people and their relationships: the joy, vulnerability, and very real risks that can show up in both digital and in-person spaces. At the Safety Net...
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Google Safety Tool Updates Increase Options for Survivors
NNEDV Safety Net
Many victims and survivors of abuse have concerns about keeping their personal information safe online. Some abusers chose to misuse that information in order to stalk and harass survivors. This can make those concerns...
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Intertwined Events: National Stalking Awareness Month and Data Privacy Day #NSAM2026
NNEDV Safety Net
January is an important month in the tech safety world. It is National Stalking Awareness Month, and January 28 was Data Privacy Day. These are inextricably linked. Privacy of data – location data and contact...
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A Year of Safety Net: Supporting Survivor Safety in a Rapidly Changing Digital World
NNEDV Safety Net
As we close out 2025, one thing is clear: this has been a year of both emerging technology and ample conversation surrounding it. The “architects of AI” were named TIME’s Person of the Year, and ‘slop’, defined as...
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A Preventive Win for Survivor Safety: FTC Denies SpyFone Petition
NNEDV Safety Net
A keyboard with black keys, with one red key with a shadowy person wearing a spy hat. nnedv logo top right. text at bottom reads, “A Preventive Win for survivor safety: FTC Denies Spyfone petition. Last week, the...
Institutional accountability
Reporting on what institutions do to the people who depend on them, and on the records that prove it.
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What Parents Need to Know About Sexual Abuse in Youth Sports
ProPublica
The post What Parents Need to Know About Sexual Abuse in Youth Sports appeared first on ProPublica .
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A New Zealand journal deleted a paper for potential harm to Māori months after publishing it
Retraction Watch
When Arna Mitchell submitted her article critiquing a proposal for different standards of practice for Māori and non-Māori clients in clinical psychology, she thought it would be too controversial to publish because it...
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Sage issues dozens of retractions from two journals it acquired
Retraction Watch
In recent weeks Sage has retracted batches of articles published in two journals it acquired from IOS Press in 2023. In each case, the retractions were for manipulation of, and concerns about, peer review. The first...
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At “Quasi-Public” Private Schools, 100% of Students Get Tuition Vouchers. There’s Almost No Accountability.
ProPublica
The post At “Quasi-Public” Private Schools, 100% of Students Get Tuition Vouchers. There’s Almost No Accountability. appeared first on ProPublica .
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JAMA journal won’t retract oxycodone paper despite author request, citing no ‘falsification’
Retraction Watch
JAMA Internal Medicine has rejected a petition by a group of clinicians calling for the journal to retract an article on oxycodone therapy for osteoarthritis. The request — which initially included two of the paper’s...
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A Youth Sports Giant Promised Reforms to Protect Kids From Sexual Abuse. Most Never Happened.
ProPublica
The post A Youth Sports Giant Promised Reforms to Protect Kids From Sexual Abuse. Most Never Happened. appeared first on ProPublica .
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Biology journal pulls 100+ articles and counting from special issues for peer review manipulation
Retraction Watch
Elsevier’s International Journal of Biological Macromolecules has issued more than 100 retractions and counting for manipulated peer review in guest-edited special issues. The publisher has said one more retraction is...
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“They’re Putting Kids’ Lives at Risk”: How Abuse in a Tennessee Businessman’s Juvenile Prisons Remained Under Wraps
ProPublica
The post “They’re Putting Kids’ Lives at Risk”: How Abuse in a Tennessee Businessman’s Juvenile Prisons Remained Under Wraps appeared first on ProPublica .
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BMJ Group retracts paper on COVID-19 vaccines and mortality featured in Senate hearing
Retraction Watch
BMJ Public Health has retracted a paper some — including a witness at a recent U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing — have used to link COVID-19 vaccines to deaths. The action comes more than two years after a researcher...
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Clarivate removes hold on mega-journal Heliyon after internal audit, 650+ retractions
Retraction Watch
Clarivate has lifted its hold on Heliyon after the journal’s internal audit led to over 1,000 retractions, expressions of concern and corrections. As a result, the journal will receive an impact factor in the coming...
Privacy and surveillance
Data brokers, monitoring, and the law that does or does not restrain them.
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📍 The Sneaky Code Tracking App Users | EFFector 38.15
EFF Deeplinks
Your location isn't just a pin on a map—it can expose some of the most intimate details about your life. The value of this information to advertisers and others has turned the location data business into a multi-billion...
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Who’s Tracking You? Use This New Service to Find Out
Krebs on Security
It can be daunting to determine who's responsible for showing ads on the websites we visit, or who's harvesting data from the mobile apps we use every day. That information is already semi-public, but it is not easily...
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Too Little, Too Late: Flock Admits Their Technology Needs Reforms
EFF Deeplinks
Flock Safety, the embattled vendor of mass surveillance technology, has rolled out a handful of new reforms intended to appease the justified nationwide anger that has seen scores of towns cancel or suspend their...
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Riley Says Get a Warrant — So Why Are Schools Skipping That Step?
EPIC
Introduction This past April, the Fourth Circuit held in O.W. v. School Board of the City of Virginia Beach that an assistant principal’s warrantless search of a 13-year-old’s cellphone in the presence of school police...
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EPIC Urges 7th Circuit to Uphold Wiretap Act to Protect Private Communications Containing Sensitive Health Data
EPIC
EPIC submitted an amicus brief in Stein v. Edward-Elmhurst Health, urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit to apply the Wiretap Act’s crime-tort exception to the Defendant’s practice of disclosing...
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Lawfare: Closing the Front Door: The Case for DOJ’s Bulk Data Security Program
EPIC
“Two and a half years later, what the Duke team demonstrated in a controlled study is now a matter of public record. In March 2026, the Electronic Privacy Information Center flagged 33 data brokers that, in disclosures...
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Common Dreams: Thomson Reuters Slammed for Deal That Gives ICE Access to Private Profiles of Tens of Millions of Americans
EPIC
“On Tuesday, a coalition of advocacy groups, including Public Citizen, ACLU, the Center for Democracy and Technology, Common Cause, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and the Electronic Privacy...
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EPIC, Advocates Celebrate As New Jersey Signs Nation-Leading Kids’ Online Safety Bills Into Law
EPIC
JERSEY CITY, N.J. — EPIC and New Jersey Kids Code Coalition advocates celebrated as Governor Mikie Sherrill signed the landmark New Jersey Kids Code into law alongside bills to create social media mental health warning...
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Mobile Ad Software Encourages Location Data Sharing, EFF Report Finds
EFF Deeplinks
Developers Must Beware of Ad Libraries that Betray Users’ Privacy SAN FRANCISCO – Some software development kits (SDKs) provided by advertising companies to help developers monetize their apps are automatically feeding...
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Developers: Beware of Ad Libraries that Betray Your Users’ Location Privacy
EFF Deeplinks
Across mobile platforms, advertising companies provide developers with software development kits (SDKs) that make it easy to monetize their apps. But those same SDKs can automatically feed users’ location data into ad...
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San Francisco: Don’t Fall for Industry Defense of Surveillance Pricing
EFF Deeplinks
The concept of “surveillance pricing” is just one part of a much larger problem and business model: corporations maximizing their profits by invading our privacy. The all-too-common business model is to systematically...
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Brazil gives parents social media controls for their kids. Should the US?
The Markup
California is leading on kids’ data privacy in the U.S. but still lags internationally.
Where these come from
The full source list lives in the repository, in
_data/news_sources.yml. Suggest an addition and I will look at it.
- Ars Technica
- MIT Technology Review
- The Guardian
- NNEDV Safety Net
- ProPublica
- Retraction Watch
- EFF Deeplinks
- EPIC
- The Markup
- Krebs on Security