Privacy News

California governor vetoes bill banning use of 'pervert glasses' to secretly record people

The California state bill would have penalized people who secretly recorded people in public with wearables equipped with cameras and microphones.

Oct 1, 2026, 4:35 PM

Apple Watch's new AI features are normalizing the idea that technology is always listening

Apple says its new watches won’t save raw audio, but features that can transcribe recent speech and summarize ambient conversations raise new questions about consent, privacy, and how people behave when they know they could always be recorded.

Sep 9, 2026, 8:24 PM

by Sarah Perez

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Norway considers ban on camera-enabled wearable 'pervert glasses'

The Nordic country says wearable camera headsets need to be regulated given their privacy risks.

Sep 2, 2026, 1:11 PM

More Americans oppose police license plate cameras than support them: survey

The backlash against license plate readers comes amid a wave of police abuses of surveillance cameras.

Aug 28, 2026, 3:57 PM

Ring introduces a new encryption standard, makes it the default for cloud features

Ring says users can still opt for end-to-end encryption.

Aug 26, 2026, 2:44 PM

by Ivan Mehta

Amazon Privacy Summary

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Apple rescues Hide My Email feature from the privacy scrap heap

Apple says it will no longer ditch using its icloud.com domain for hiding people's email addresses.

Aug 25, 2026, 2:46 PM

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Senator asks US government watchdog to review how feds use hacking tools

Senator Ron Wyden sent a letter to the U.S. federal watchdog requesting a comprehensive review of how the FBI, DEA, ICE's HSI, and the Secret Service use hacking tools and spyware against Americans.

Aug 21, 2026, 1:05 PM

Comcast adds motion sensing to millions of its newer routers, with a privacy catch

A new feature added to Comcast's newest routers can detect if there is motion inside your home without needing traditional motion sensors.

Aug 18, 2026, 4:39 PM

US courts will start publishing how often the government uses spyware

The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts told TechCrunch that it will start disclosing how many times judges authorized the use of spyware to wiretap suspected criminals.

Aug 14, 2026, 1:29 PM

Flock says its new tool will help identify police abuse, but hasn’t explained how it works

The surveillance company announced it's making a tool called "Audit Assistance" mandatory for all customers, claiming it's already helped catch abuse. But the company has yet to explain how the tool works in detail, raising questions about its effectiveness.

Aug 13, 2026, 10:02 PM

PSA: Apple’s Private Relay can leak your real IP address

A bug in how Apple implements its Private Relay feature, which in theory masks users’ IP addresses from the sites they visit, can reveal users’ real IP addresses.

Aug 5, 2026, 4:52 PM

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Apple challenges UK government’s latest demand for iCloud backdoor: report

Apple has appealed a new legal demand by the U.K. government, which critics say could threaten the privacy rights of users all over the world.

Aug 3, 2026, 6:54 PM

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Samsung bans smart TV apps that share users' internet connections with strangers

New security research offers a rare view inside residential proxy networks, which rely on apps that share a person's internet connection with someone else.

Aug 3, 2026, 12:10 PM

Period tracker Stardust shares users' health data with analytics firm, says new research

One period tracker app tested by the Mozilla Foundation was 'squeaky clean,' while another app was seen sharing users' health data with an analytics company, underscoring vast differences in user privacy among these apps.

Jul 16, 2026, 3:33 PM

LAPD lets contract with surveillance giant Flock expire, citing 'serious concerns' over civil liberties and privacy

The LAPD, one of Flock's biggest government customers, is ending its contract with the company citing civil liberties concerns.

Jul 13, 2026, 2:13 PM

Meta wants its AI glasses to seem less creepy. Its AI strategy says otherwise.

Meta is adding a new safeguard to stop people from secretly recording others with its AI glasses. But the update comes as the company continues to expand how much personal data its AI products collect and use.

Jul 8, 2026, 5:11 PM

by Sarah Perez

by Zack Whittaker, Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai

In major privacy win, Supreme Court rules geofence warrants are protected by privacy rights

The Supreme Court's decision to limit geofence warrants is a win for privacy advocates, who called their use unconstitutional but sought an outright ban.

Jun 29, 2026, 4:05 PM

Google Privacy Summary

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Cellebrite said it cut off Russia, but Russia used its tools anyway

Security researchers found evidence that Russian authorities hacked the iPhone of a political opponent using a phone-unlocking device made by Cellebrite, even after the company said it would stop selling to Putin’s government.

Jun 25, 2026, 10:00 AM

WhatsApp says it caught new spyware attacks linked to NSO Group in violation of court order

The messaging giant announced that it disrupted a phishing campaign targeting its users with NSO’s spyware.

Jun 8, 2026, 3:37 PM