Palantir Wards, Biometric Glasses, and the Encryption Wars
June 6, 2026
Corporate platforms and defense contractors are hardwiring biometric tracking and AI-driven analytics into health infrastructure, border control, and municipal networks, effectively normalizing digital authoritarianism across democratic states. The integration of autonomous AI worms and platform-side social engineering exploits is outpacing encryption safeguards, while corporate legal threats and legislative gridlock systematically suppress independent security research and warrant oversight. This convergence transforms everyday devices and public institutions into opaque surveillance nodes, forcing communities to resort to physical countermeasures and decentralized defense strategies.
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AI Worm
Researchers have prototyped an AI-powered internet worm. The coolest thing about the prototype is that it carries its own LLM with it, and runs it on computers that have been broken into. This is the closest to John Brunner’s original 1975 conception of a computer worm that I’ve seen.
- Cybersecurity
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Meta Silently Added Face-Recognition Code for Its Smart Glasses to Millions of Phones
Code reviewed by WIRED uncovered an unreleased face-recognition system embedded in Meta’s smart glasses platform. It’s designed to identify people via biometric data stored on users’ phones.
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Palantir is turning the NHS into a tool for mass surveillance
Kicking out Palantir, experts warn, may not solve the problems its Federated Data Platform has created.
- structural power
- geopolitics
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What happens when your phone is confiscated at the airport
Even if you've done nothing wrong, it's never a good idea to hand your phone to the cops. But international travelers at American airports often have no choice - even if they're US citizens. When Minnesota labor organizer Janette Zahia Corcelius returned home from a three-week trip to Europe in late…
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Microsoft Threatening Security Researcher
An anonymous security researcher called “Nightmare Eclipse” has been publishing a series of significant security exploits against Microsoft Windows—including one that breaks BitLocker. Microsoft has threatened legal action against the researcher. Lots of recriminations are being traded back and fort…
- Cybersecurity
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Because Flock Can’t Be Trusted, Cities Are Covering Cameras With Garbage Bags
Flock Safety doesn’t seem to care about anyone. Not its customers, not those captured by its cameras, not even the legislators trying to find a balance between safety and privacy. Flock started out by pitching its cameras — with built-in license plate readers — to the kind of people with money to bl…
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Hacking Meta’s AI Chatbot
Hackers are convincing Meta’s AI support chatbot to let them take over other peoples’ accounts: A video posted on X showed the step-by-step process to hack someone’s Instagram account. The hacker allegedly used a VPN to spoof the targets’ presumed location to avoid triggering Instagram’s automated a…
- Cybersecurity
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Move Fast, Surveil Things
Meta has deployed facial recognition code to millions of their always-on surveillance glasses, according to new reporting by Wired. EFF’s Threat Lab was able to confirm that the facial recognition code is present through static analysis of the application. This dangerous new Meta functionality store…
- AI governance
- structural power
- media and technology
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From exporting spyware to surveilling activists – how democracies became the new digital authoritarians
“Digital authoritarianism” refers to governments using technology for surveillance and censorship to repress dissent. China remains the master practitioner. There, sweeping surveillance and censorship at home is combined with cyber-espionage and disinformation, censorship and influence campaigns abr…
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Congress still can’t decide what to do about warrantless surveillance
The deadline to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is coming up a week from now on June 12th, and legislators seem no closer to reaching a deal. If this sounds like deja vu, it's because we've been here before. Congress reauthorized Section 702 in late April - but o…
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The Intersection of Encryption and AI
As part of their 20th Anniversary celebration, Dark Reading asked five cybersecurity industry leaders who wrote blogs or columns for them over the years to select their favorite piece and share their reflections on the topic today. This is my section. Renowned technologist and author Bruce Schneier…
- Cybersecurity