dissent.digital
@dissent.digital
Documenting our dissent from Big Tech.
A weekly digest keeping you informed of big tech’s most egregious bullshit, subscribe free: https://dissent.digital
#tech #bigtech #privacy #humanrights #billionairesarebad
A weekly digest keeping you informed of big tech’s most egregious bullshit, subscribe free: https://dissent.digital
#tech #bigtech #privacy #humanrights #billionairesarebad
iOS 27.2 finally lets you block Siri AI from accessing your private apps. #appleintelligence
Victory! You Can Now Exclude Apps from Siri AI
In the most recent update to Apple’s devices, iOS 27.2, the company has introduced a new setting to “Exclude Apps” from Siri AI, fulfilling one of our asks from our Encrypt It Already campaign earlier this year.One of our main concerns with new AI features on devices is how those features interact...
www.eff.org
November 4, 2026 at 11:00 PM
iOS 27.2 finally lets you block Siri AI from accessing your private apps. #appleintelligence
Anthropic is using its IPO to turn retail investors into exit liquidity for the AI bubble. #exitliquidity
Exit Liquidity
I’m taking a week off of premium as I’ve had a family situation that has absorbed a lot of my time this week, but I’ll be back with a barnburner next Friday (11/6).
In the interim, I’m running a week-long sale — 10% off of
www.wheresyoured.at
November 4, 2026 at 8:00 PM
Anthropic is using its IPO to turn retail investors into exit liquidity for the AI bubble. #exitliquidity
Meta plotted a "whisper strategy" to turn academics against critic Jonathan Haidt. #meta
Meta considered a ‘whisper strategy’ to turn academics against Jonathan Haidt
The company considered how to undermine The Anxious Generation author.
www.theverge.com
November 4, 2026 at 4:01 PM
Meta plotted a "whisper strategy" to turn academics against critic Jonathan Haidt. #meta
New EFF records expose a rushed Medicare AI rollout that puts patient care at risk and lacks oversight. #medicareai
New Records Obtained by EFF Expose More Problems with Medicare’s AI Experiment
New records obtained by EFF expose additional issues with Medicare’s AI-driven prior authorization program and show why we need stronger legal limits around government use of automated decision-making.
www.eff.org
November 4, 2026 at 8:00 AM
New EFF records expose a rushed Medicare AI rollout that puts patient care at risk and lacks oversight. #medicareai
Social platforms must fix their flawed automated moderation to stop silencing political speech during elections. #contentmoderation
Social Media When Elections Are Close: Doing the Impossible Better
Everyone knows, or should, that perfect (balanced, targeted, transparent, swift and swiftly appealable) content moderation at scale is impossible. That doesn’t mean powerful social platforms don’t have to try to get at least reasonably close, especially when access to good information can have a profound effect on political participation and speech.
www.eff.org
November 4, 2026 at 5:00 AM
Social platforms must fix their flawed automated moderation to stop silencing political speech during elections. #contentmoderation
After Grok deepfaked her, UK politician Jess Asato is suing xAI. #deepfakes
UK Politician Jess Asato Got Deepfaked. Now She’s Taking xAI to Court
Jess Asato’s public campaigning for victims of online abuse put her in the crosshairs of Grok’s deepfake scandal. Then the UK member of parliament became a victim of the abuse herself.
www.wired.com
November 4, 2026 at 1:00 AM
After Grok deepfaked her, UK politician Jess Asato is suing xAI. #deepfakes
A New Mexico judge just hit Meta with a $25 billion penalty over the Cambridge Analytica scandal. #meta
Meta’s $25 billion legal loss just put blood in the water
It’s a far larger sum than dozens of states secured in an earlier settlement.
www.theverge.com
November 3, 2026 at 11:00 PM
A New Mexico judge just hit Meta with a $25 billion penalty over the Cambridge Analytica scandal. #meta
Marissa Mayer says gender doesn't matter in tech, but systemic bias and funding gaps prove she's out of touch. #womenintech
Marissa Mayer Can’t Keep Pretending 'Gender Doesn't Matter'
The former CEO of Yahoo! and current founder of a chatbot app is going viral for using AI to list things she loves about her daughter. But what she has to say about women in tech in 2026 is worth talking about.
www.404media.co
November 3, 2026 at 8:00 PM
Marissa Mayer says gender doesn't matter in tech, but systemic bias and funding gaps prove she's out of touch. #womenintech
The US government is hiding a secret court ruling on spying to protect its surveillance powers. #governmentsurveillance
The US Government Is Hiding a Secret Court Ruling About How It Spies on Americans
Two US senators say the Trump administration is breaking the law by withholding the FISA court decision while it presses Congress to renew America’s most sweeping surveillance program.
www.wired.com
November 2, 2026 at 4:01 PM
The US government is hiding a secret court ruling on spying to protect its surveillance powers. #governmentsurveillance
Meta just got hit with its biggest fine yet in a growing pile of court payouts. #meta
How Many Billions Would It Take to Hold Meta Accountable?
Meta got hit this week with its biggest fine yet, the latest in a mounting pile of court-ordered payments.
www.wired.com
October 30, 2026 at 3:01 PM
Meta just got hit with its biggest fine yet in a growing pile of court payouts. #meta
Stop Canada's Bill C-22 before it destroys privacy and encryption for millions. #billc22
Canadians Are Running Out Of Time To Oppose The Dangerous C-22 Surveillance Bill
Canada’s Parliament is debating a massive expansion of surveillance powers that will threaten the privacy and security of millions of people. Bill C-22, also called the Lawful Access Act, has already passed the House of Commons, and is now before the Canadian Senate. Canadians still have an...
www.eff.org
October 30, 2026 at 4:00 AM
Stop Canada's Bill C-22 before it destroys privacy and encryption for millions. #billc22
Texas shuts down its automated permit portal and suspends 17 data center projects after reports reveal it ignored a pause. #texasdatacenters
Portal Texas Used to ‘Rubber Stamp’ Data Centers Down After 404 Media Reporting
Commissioners in Texas said they’re making sure ‘all applications are reviewed by agency staff to determine if they are related to data centers.’
www.404media.co
October 30, 2026 at 12:00 AM
Texas shuts down its automated permit portal and suspends 17 data center projects after reports reveal it ignored a pause. #texasdatacenters
Evaluators found security flaws that let OpenAI agents bypass monitoring and take unauthorized actions. #openai
OpenAI Had Numerous Vulnerabilities Its AI Could Exploit, Evaluators Find
OpenAI’s systems had multiple vulnerabilities that would allow AI agents to circumvent monitoring and take arbitrary unauthorized actions, evaluators from AI safety nonprofits METR and Redwood Research found during a three-week pilot with OpenAI from late July to early August. The nonprofits released their findings in a report published Thursday.
The vulnerabilities included two internal
info-reader-production.herokuapp.com
October 29, 2026 at 3:01 PM
Evaluators found security flaws that let OpenAI agents bypass monitoring and take unauthorized actions. #openai
Meta hit with a $25 billion penalty in New Mexico over the Cambridge Analytica scandal. #meta
Meta ordered to pay $25 billion in penalties over the Cambridge Analytica scandal
It’s the biggest penalty in a recent string of losses or settlements.
www.theverge.com
October 29, 2026 at 4:00 AM
Meta hit with a $25 billion penalty in New Mexico over the Cambridge Analytica scandal. #meta
Big Tech uses security as an excuse to kill competition, but interoperability and safety can coexist. #interoperabilityandsecurity
Interoperability vs. Security: Why not both?
An open internet where people can freely build, share, and remix each other's work is a powerful engine of grassroots innovation we’ve all benefited from. In recent decades, however, corporations have taken control of an increasing share of this work, giving them a greater ability to stifle...
www.eff.org
October 29, 2026 at 12:00 AM
Big Tech uses security as an excuse to kill competition, but interoperability and safety can coexist. #interoperabilityandsecurity
Police are being warned to watch for 'suspicious behavior' from people opposing Flock surveillance at city council meetings. #flockcameras
Cops Warned to Look for ‘Suspicious Behavior’ From People Opposing Flock at City Council Meetings
A surveillance document tells cops to expect "emotional confrontations" at Flock city council meetings.
www.404media.co
October 28, 2026 at 10:00 PM
Police are being warned to watch for 'suspicious behavior' from people opposing Flock surveillance at city council meetings. #flockcameras
Meta is suspending its Muse AI share feature after a security flaw leaked private user chats. #meta
A Design Flaw in Share Links Exposes Users’ Personal Conversations With Meta’s Muse
The company is suspending the feature after security researchers discovered how easy it was to access sensitive information shared with the AI assistant.
www.wired.com
October 28, 2026 at 7:00 PM
Meta is suspending its Muse AI share feature after a security flaw leaked private user chats. #meta
Rare chestnut trees in West Virginia are fighting for survival against a massive new AI data center. #americanchestnut
The Chestnut Grove Caught in the Middle of A Years-Long Data Center Fight
A small grove of historic American chestnut trees has become the site of resistance against an AI data center in West Virginia.
www.404media.co
October 28, 2026 at 3:00 PM
Rare chestnut trees in West Virginia are fighting for survival against a massive new AI data center. #americanchestnut
TikTok execs ignored their own employees' warnings about child safety risks. #tiktok
TikTok employees said they knew about child safety issues, but execs failed to act
“I have been fighting about fixing this for months with people who didn’t think the harms are severe enough.“
www.theverge.com
October 28, 2026 at 12:00 AM
TikTok execs ignored their own employees' warnings about child safety risks. #tiktok
DHS lied about searching a man's phone for child porn to cover up a political terrorism probe. #digitalrights
DHS Said They Searched Man Who Wiped GrapheneOS Phone for Child Abuse Material. They Lied
Officials said they wanted to search the phone of Samuel Tunick, a Stop Cop City activist, for child abuse material. It was actually because he was suspected of “terrorist activities.”
www.404media.co
October 27, 2026 at 7:00 PM
DHS lied about searching a man's phone for child porn to cover up a political terrorism probe. #digitalrights
Texas promised to halt data center permits but is pushing them through anyway. #texasdatacenters
'It Ain't Right:' Texas Said It Would Halt Data Center Permits. The State is Pushing Ahead Anyway
“The Caldwell Technology Park [...] the Stargate facility, and a bunch of other very large hyperscale facilities have gotten regulatory approvals [...] so it's not like a real pause."
www.404media.co
October 27, 2026 at 7:00 AM
Texas promised to halt data center permits but is pushing them through anyway. #texasdatacenters
Police need warrants to search license plate reader data to stop surveillance abuse. #WarrantRequired
Require Police to Get a Warrant to Search ALPR Data
This post was co-written by Andi Cao, an EFF legal intern.Automated license plate readers (ALPRs) are mass surveillance. They photograph every passing car and log where and when it was captured, building a searchable record of where nearly everyone drives. Cities should not buy them, and cities...
www.eff.org
October 27, 2026 at 12:00 AM
Police need warrants to search license plate reader data to stop surveillance abuse. #WarrantRequired
Stop the spying and ban surveillance advertising to protect our privacy and empower publishers. #adtech
Pluralistic: The technopolitics of ad-tech (19 Oct 2026) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
pluralistic.net
October 26, 2026 at 10:00 PM
Stop the spying and ban surveillance advertising to protect our privacy and empower publishers. #adtech
Disney wants Character.AI to go bankrupt to snag its tech and dodge legal fallout. #disney
Disney Asked Character.AI to Go Bankrupt for a Get-Out-of-Lawsuits Card
The entertainment giant hopes to get trust and safety tech, among other IP, from a startup whose chatbots dozens of states allege encouraged minors to self-harm and kill their parents.
www.wired.com
October 26, 2026 at 7:00 PM
Disney wants Character.AI to go bankrupt to snag its tech and dodge legal fallout. #disney
An Israeli firm hijacked Google and Facebook's ad systems to deliver zero-click mercenary spyware. #cybersecurity
Pluralistic: Israeli ad-tech company was a delivery system for “mercenary spyware” (17 Oct 2026) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
pluralistic.net
October 24, 2026 at 10:00 PM
An Israeli firm hijacked Google and Facebook's ad systems to deliver zero-click mercenary spyware. #cybersecurity