The year age verification laws came for the open internet

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When the nonprofit Freedom House recently published its annual report, it noted that 2025 marked the 15th straight year of decline for global internet freedom. The biggest decline, after Georgia and Germany, came within the United States.

Among the culprits cited in the report: age verification laws, dozens of which have come into effect over the last year. “Online anonymity, an essential enabler for freedom of expression, is entering a period of crisis as policymakers in free and autocratic countries alike mandate the use of identity verification technology for certain websites or platforms, motivated in some cases by the legitimate aim of protecting children,” the report warns.

Age verification laws are, in some ways, part of a years-long reckoning over child safety online, as tech companies have shown themselves unable to prevent serious harms to their most vulnerable users. Lawmakers, who have failed to pass data privacy regulations, Section 230 reform or any other meaningful legislation that would thoughtfully reimagine what responsibilities tech companies owe their users, have instead turned to the blunt tool of age-based restrictions — and with much greater success.

Over the last two years, 25 states have passed laws requiring some kind of age verification to access adult content online. This year, the Supreme Court delivered a major victory to backers of age verification standards when it upheld a Texas law requiring sites hosting adult content to check the ages of their users.

Age checks have also expanded to social media and online platforms more broadly. Sixteen states now have laws requiring parental controls or other age-based restrictions for social media services. (Six of these measures are currently in limbo due to court challenges.) A federal bill to ban kids younger than 13 from social media has gained bipartisan support in Congress. Utah, Texas and Louisiana passed laws requiring app stores to check the ages of their users, all of which are set to go into effect next year. California plans to enact age-based rules for app stores in 2027.

These laws have started to fragment the internet. Smaller platforms and websites that don’t have the resources to pay for third-party verification services may have no choice but to exit markets where age checks are required. Blogging service Dreamwidth pulled out of Mississippi after its age verification laws went into effect, saying that the $10,000 per user fines it could face were an “existential threat” to the company. Bluesky also opted to go dark in Mississippi rather than comply. (The service has complied with age verification laws in South Dakota and Wyoming, as well as the UK.) Pornhub, which has called existing age verification laws “haphazard and dangerous,” has blocked access in 23 states.

Pornhub is not an outlier in its assessment. Privacy advocates have long warned that age verification laws put everyone’s privacy at risk. Practically, there’s no way to limit age verification standards only to minors. Confirming the ages of everyone under 18 means you have to confirm the ages of everyone. In practice, this often means submitting a government-issued ID or allowing an app to scan your face. Both are problematic and we don’t need to look far to see how these methods can go wrong.

Discord recently revealed that around 70,000 users “may” have had their government IDs leaked due to an “incident” involving a third-party vendor the company contracts with to provide customer service related to age verification. Last year, another third-party identity provider that had worked with TikTok, Uber and other services exposed drivers’ licenses. As a growing number of platforms require us to hand over an ID, these kinds of incidents will likely become even more common.

Similar risks exist for face scans. Because most minors don’t have official IDs, platforms often rely on AI-based tools that can guess users’ ages. A face scan may seem more private than handing over a social security number, but we could be turning over far more information than we realize, according to experts at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

“When we submit to a face scan to estimate our age, a less scrupulous company could flip a switch and use the same face scan, plus a slightly different algorithm, to guess our name or other demographics,” the organization notes. “A poorly designed system might store this personal data, and even correlate it to the online content that we look at. In the hands of an adversary, and cross-referenced to other readily available information, this information can expose intimate details about us.”

These issues aren’t limited to the United States. Australia, Denmark and Malaysia have taken steps to ban younger teens from social media entirely. Officials in France are pushing for a similar ban, as well as a “curfew” for older teens. These measures would also necessitate some form of age verification in order to block the intended users. In the UK, where the Online Safety Act went into effect earlier this year, we’ve already seen how well-intentioned efforts to protect teens from supposedly harmful content can end up making large swaths of the internet more difficult to access.

The law is ostensibly meant to “prevent young people from encountering harmful content relating to suicide, self-harm, eating disorders and pornography,” according to the BBC. But the law has also resulted in age checks that reach far beyond porn sites. Age verification is required to access music on Spotify. It will soon be required for Xbox accounts. On X, videos of protests have been blocked. Redditors have reported being blocked from a lengthy number of subreddits that are marked NSFW but don’t actually host porn, including those related to menstruation, news and addiction recovery. Wikipedia, which recently lost a challenge to be excluded from the law’s strictest requirements, is facing the prospect of being forced to verify the ages of its UK contributors, which the organization has said could have disastrous consequences.

The UK law has also shown how ineffective existing age verification methods are. Users have been able to circumvent the checks by using selfies of video game characters, AI-generated images of ID documents and, of course, Virtual Private Networks (VPNs).

As the EFF notes, VPNs are incredibly widely used. The software allows people to browse the internet while masking their actual location. They’re used by activists and students and people who want to get around geoblocks built into streaming services. Many universities and businesses (including Engadget parent company Yahoo) require their students and workers to use VPNs in order to access certain information. Blocking VPNs would have serious repercussions for all of these groups.

The makers of several popular VPN services reported major spikes in the UK following the Online Safety Act going into effect this summer, with ProtonVPN reporting a 1,400 percent surge in sign-ups. That’s also led to fears of a renewed crackdown on VPNs. Ofcom, the regulator tasked with enforcing the law, told TechRadar it was “monitoring” VPN usage, which has further fueled speculation it could try to ban or restrict their use. And here in the States, lawmakers in Wisconsin have proposed an age verification law that would require sites that host “harmful” content to also block VPNs.

While restrictions on VPNs are, for now, mostly theoretical, the fact that such measures are even being considered is alarming. Up to now, VPN bans are more closely associated with authoritarian countries without an open internet, like Russia and China. If we continue down a path of trying to put age gates up around every piece of potentially objectionable content, the internet could get a lot worse for everyone.

Source: The year age verification laws came for the open internet

Pebble smart ring for recording thoughts, battery life: years. Software – open.

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Pebble just announced the Index 01, a smart ring for recording thoughts. It’s a little ring with a built-in microphone and that’s about it. The Index 01 is almost anti-tech in its simplicity. There’s no needless AI component shoehorned in, aside from speech-to-text. It’s a ring with a microphone that you whisper ideas into and I want one.

Here’s how it works. You get an idea while walking down the street, so you quietly whisper it into the ring. The ring sends the idea to a notes app or saves it for later review. Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky calls this an “external memory” for the brain, but I call it a nice way to avoid having to dig the phone out of a pocket or bag just to utter something like “pizza, but for cats.”

The ring doesn’t record unless a button is pushed, so it won’t be listening in on private conversations, and it doesn’t require a paid subscription of any kind. It’s on the smaller side, about the size of a wedding band, and is water-resistant.

The battery also lasts for “years” and never needs to be charged. The ring is designed to be worn at all times, so users develop the muscle memory of holding down the little button when they have something to share. See what I mean? I want one, and I’ve quite literally never worn a ring in my life.

A ring.
Pebble

Migicovsky says this is an open source product and that Pebble is “leaving the side door open for folks to customize.” He envisions people will integrate AI voice agents and that the ring will eventually work with stuff like ChatGPT, Beeper, Google and other services.

The Pebble Index 01 works with iPhone and Android and is available for preorder right now. It costs $75 during this preorder period, but the price jacks up to $99 when shipments start going out in March.

This is just the latest product by Migicovsky and Pebble. The company unveiled the Core 2 Duo and the Core Time 2 smartwatches earlier this year.

Source: Pebble is making a weird little smart ring for recording thoughts

Timing cancer drug delivery around our body clock may boost survival

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They say timing is everything, and treating cancer may be no exception. Researchers have found that simply shifting when people with cancer receive immunotherapy drugs could improve their survival, adding to evidence that our body’s internal clocks influence how well cancer treatments work.

The activity of our cells and tissues works on 24-hour cycles, known as circadian rhythms, which coordinate everything from hormone release to the timing of cell division and repair. These rhythms are often disrupted in cancer cells, which tend to divide continuously, rather than at set times.

This has prompted efforts to reduce the side effects of chemotherapy, which targets rapidly dividing cells, by administering it when healthy tissues are least active. Increasingly, however, researchers are exploring whether the effectiveness of cancer drugs might also be improved by giving them at particular times.

One such group of drugs is immune checkpoint inhibitors, which help immune T-cells recognise and attack tumours more effectively. “T-cells and other immune defenders are naturally more active in the morning; primed to respond,” says Seline Ismail-Sutton at Ysbyty Gwynedd hospital in Bangor, UK, who wasn’t involved in the study. “Administering immune checkpoint inhibitors during this window may amplify anti-tumour effects and enhance efficacy.”

Earlier this year, Zhe Huang at Central South University in Changsha, China, and his colleagues reported that giving the checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab alongside chemotherapy to people with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) before 11.30am was associated with nearly double the survival rate seen in those who received most of their treatment in the afternoon.

To investigate whether timing treatments around circadian rhythms – known as chronotherapy – might also benefit people with small cell lung cancer, a faster-growing and more aggressive form of the condition, the same team analysed data from 397 people treated with the checkpoint inhibitors atezolizumab or durvalumab alongside chemotherapy between 2019 and 2023.

“Compared with patients treated later in the day, those treated before 3pm had significantly longer progression‑free survival and overall survival,” says team member Yongchang Zhang, also at Central South University.

After adjusting for multiple confounding factors, earlier administration was associated with a 52 per cent lower risk of cancer progression and a 63 per cent lower risk of death.

Zhang believes this effect probably exists for other tumour types, pointing to hints from studies of renal cell carcinoma and melanoma. As to why this dosing regimen has this effect, the NSCLC trial showed that morning administration boosted circulating T-cell numbers and activation, while late-day dosing had the opposite effect. Studies in mice have also shown that tumour-infiltrating T-cells vary in function over 24 hours, and that the circadian clocks of nearby endothelial cells can regulate when immune cells enter tumours.

Although randomised controlled trials with larger sample sizes are needed, this study “further supports the growing number of reports from all over the world describing better results with early time of day of immunotherapy drugs administration,” says Pasquale Innominato at the University of Warwick, UK.

Source: Timing cancer drug delivery around our body clock may boost survival | New Scientist

Minor Video Call Glitches create uncanny feelings and impact you negatively

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During covid-19, most of us became accustomed to conducting all sorts of business via video call, as well as struggling with the unavoidable technical problems associated with such digital interactions. New research, however, reveals that in certain situations, glitches can be more harmful than one might think.

Researchers found that audiovisual glitches during face-to-face video calls can trigger a feeling of “uncanniness,” even if they don’t impact the communicated information. Depending on the context, this can have serious implications for the outcome of the call. In potentially the most striking example, researchers associated disrupted online court hearings with lower likelihoods of individuals being granted criminal parole.

The danger zone

“The best feature of video calling is the fact that you basically feel like you’re together,” Jacqueline Rifkin, assistant professor of marketing and management communications at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, said in a university statement. “And so when there’s a glitch, you’re right in that danger zone where it’s almost perfect, but not quite—what has become known as the ‘uncanny valley.’ It triggers this switch in your brain where things feel just a little bit creepy,” she explained. She’s a co-first author of a study published December 3 in the journal Nature.

To investigate the matter, Rifkin and her colleagues analyzed previously held video conferences and conducted real-life experiments. They studied a database of over 1,600 “get-to-know-you” video calls that took place in 2020, after which participants took a survey including questions about interpersonal connection and any technical difficulties during the call. The data revealed that the connection was weaker between video callers who had experienced glitches, no matter what type of glitch and whether they had happened for one or both individuals.

Another analysis of transcript data from hundreds of virtual parole hearings in Kentucky in 2021 identified glitches in 32.6% of cases. Individuals whose hearings experienced glitches were granted parole 48% of the time, whereas those who didn’t have problematic calls were granted parole 60% of the time. Taking into account the individual’s or crime’s characteristics didn’t make a difference. Simply put, disrupted connections were associated with lower chances of individuals being granted parole.

“That was when we started feeling like, wow, there’s really something quite important to say here,” Rifkin explained.

Potential to further inequalities

Their experiments also confirmed that glitches during face-to-face video calls broke the illusion of in-person reality. In one, the team had over 3,000 participants watch job interview recordings similarly to how one would experience a video call. Glitches during the “calls” lowered the interviewee’s chances of being recommended for hire. Similarly, of the almost 500 participants who listened to healthcare advice in a replication of a virtual health consultation, 77% said they were confident in working with the professional during a smooth call, while only 61% were confident when they experienced connection problems on the call.

According to Rifkin, the feeling of uncanniness is difficult to ignore once it takes hold. “We tried a lot of different interventions, but we basically struggled to overcome it,” she explained. In short, their work indicates that small audiovisual issues during video calls result in negative consequences for interpersonal judgements. This could further inequalities among already disadvantaged groups, such as those with suboptimal internet connections.

[…]

Source: Even Minor Video Call Glitches Could Cost You a Job—or Your Freedom

Boomerang – the guy from WeTransfer rebuilds file sharing

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We’ve been here before. Back in 2009, the idea was simple: upload without too much hassle. Somewhere along the way, file-sharing got complicated. Features piled up. Ads crept in. Settings multiplied. Privacy gone. We think it’s time to get back to the basics.

Spearheaded by Nalden, one of the original founders of WeTransfer, we’ve built Boomerang for people who believe sharing files should just be easy. We won’t use your data to train any AI models. We simply want to help you to share your files fast.

Built for Speed

Boomerang runs on Cloudflare’s global edge network, one of the fastest infrastructures on the planet. Your files upload and download from the server closest to you, whether you’re in Tokyo, Berlin, or São Paulo. We use modern web technologies including Hono, TypeScript, and Drizzle ORM because we believe the best tools make the best products.

A Canvas, Not a Control Panel

Boomerang has features; stuff you can customize, files you can manage, passwords, collaboration. But we approach design like a wireframe that actually works. A clean canvas where you paint only what you need.

[…]

File sharing hasn’t changed much, but web technology has transformed completely. We’re building Boomerang with the latest infrastructure: edge computing, distributed storage, global CDN delivery, because your files deserve better than legacy tech.

Easy-duz-it.

If you have any ideas, feedback or feature requests, simply reach out via email and we will get back to you. No bots, no AI. Just imperfectly human. hi@bmrng.me.

Source: Boomerang

iFixit Made an AI Assistant to Help You Fix Your Gadgets (and It’s Free, for Now)

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iFixit, the internet’s go-to for repair guides and spare parts, just launched a new mobile app with what sounds like a genuinely useful AI chatbot.

Starting today, iOS and Android users can download the iFixit app and chat directly with the new FixBot to get curated expert advice on how to fix everything from a cracked phone screen to a faulty dishwasher.

The team at iFixit says it spent two years building the chatbot, which utilizes a combination of AI models for its language, voice, and vision capabilities. What makes FixBot stand out from a general chatbot like ChatGPT or Gemini is its laser focus on repairs. FixBot won’t answer questions that are not about fixing things, and it’s trained on iFixit’s 125,000 repair guides, community forums, and a huge repository of PDF manuals.

To use the bot, users can type or vocally explain their issue to the bot, or they can even just snap a photo of whatever needs fixing. FixBot will try to identify the device and model, then ask follow-up questions until it figures out the problem. The bot will then walk users through a step-by-step repair, pulling answers from the iFixIt library, even if that means surfacing something buried on page 500 of a PDF manual. It will also provide links to buy the spare parts you need. Along the way, users can ask FixBot questions. Its voice command features are also designed to help anyone who’s elbow-deep in a repair and can’t reach their phone.

Source: iFixit Made an AI Assistant to Help You Fix Your Gadgets (and It’s Free, for Now)

And this is how you do useful AI

All of Russia’s Porsches Were Bricked By a Satellite Outage

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Imagine walking out to your car, pressing the start button, and getting absolutely nothing. No crank, no lights on the dash, nothing. That’s exactly what happened to hundreds of Porsche owners in Russia last week. The issue is with the Vehicle Tracking System, a satellite-based security system that’s supposed to protect against theft. Instead, it turned these Porsches into driveway ornaments.

The issue was first reported at the end of November, with owners reporting identical symptoms of their cars refusing to start or shutting down soon after ignition. Russia’s largest dealership group, Rolf, confirmed that the problem stems from a complete loss of satellite connectivity to the VTS. When it loses its connection, it interprets the outage as a potential theft attempt and automatically activates the engine immobilizer.

What Actually Happened

The issue affects all models and engine types, meaning any Porsche equipped with the system could potentially disable itself without warning. The malfunction impacts Porsche models dating back to 2013 that have the factory VTS installed. This includes popular models like the Cayenne, Macan, Panamera, Taycan, 911, and the 718 Cayman and Boxster. When the VTS connection drops, the anti-theft protocol kicks in, cutting fuel delivery and locking down the engine completely.

[…]

Some drivers reported success after disconnecting their car batteries for up to 10 hours, while others managed to restore function by disabling or rebooting the VTS module entirely. Rolf dealerships have been instructing technicians to manually reset the alarm units, which often requires partially dismantling the vehicle. Some cars spring back to life immediately, while others remain stubbornly offline despite multiple attempts.

[…]

Source: All of Russia’s Porsches Were Bricked By a Mysterious Satellite Outage – Autoblog

Now you might say Fuck the Russians, but this is something that could happen anywhere and to anyone.

New EU Jolla Phone Now Available for Pre-Order as an Independent No Spyware Linux Phone

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Jolla kicked off a campaign for a new Jolla Phone, which they call the independent European Do It Together (DIT) Linux phone, shaped by the people who use it.

“The Jolla Phone is not based on Big Tech technology. It is governed by European privacy thinking and a community-led model.”

The new Jolla Phone is powered by a high-performing Mediatek 5G SoC, and features 12GB RAM, 256GB storage that can be expanded to up to 2TB with a microSDXC card, a 6.36-inch FullHD AMOLED display with ~390ppi, 20:9 aspect ratio, and Gorilla Glass, and a user-replaceable 5,500mAh battery.

The Linux phone also features 4G/5G support with dual nano-SIM and a global roaming modem configuration, Wi-Fi 6 wireless, Bluetooth 5.4, NFC, 50MP Wide and 13MP Ultrawide main cameras, front front-facing wide-lens selfie camera, fingerprint reader on the power key, a user-changeable back cover, and an RGB indication LED.

On top of that, the new Jolla Phone promises a user-configurable physical Privacy Switch that lets you turn off the microphone, Bluetooth, Android apps, or whatever you wish.

The device will be available in three colors, including Snow White, Kaamos Black, and The Orange. All the specs of the new Jolla Phone were voted on by Sailfish OS community members over the past few months.

Honouring the original Jolla Phone form factor and design, the new model ships with Sailfish OS (with support for Android apps), a Linux-based European alternative to dominating mobile operating systems that promises a minimum of 5 years of support, no tracking, no calling home, and no hidden analytics.

“Mainstream phones send vast amounts of background data. A common Android phone sends megabytes of data per day to Google even if the device is not used at all. Sailfish OS stays silent unless you explicitly allow connections,” said Jolla.

The new Jolla Phone is now available for pre-order for 99 EUR and will only be produced if at least 2000 pre-orders are reached in one month from today, until January 4th, 2026. The full price of the Linux phone will be 499 EUR (incl. local VAT), and the 99 EUR pre-order price will be fully refundable and deducted from the full price.

The device will be manufactured and sold in Europe, but Jolla says that it will design the cellular band configuration to enable global travelling as much as possible, including e.g. roaming in the U.S. carrier networks. The initial sales markets are the EU, the UK, Switzerland, and Norway.

Source: New Jolla Phone Now Available for Pre-Order as an Independent Linux Phone – 9to5Linux

Brickstorm used to backdoor into critical US networks for over a year

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Chinese cyberspies maintained long-term access to critical networks – sometimes for years – and used this access to infect computers with malware and steal data, according to Thursday warnings from government agencies and private security firms.

PRC-backed goons infected at least eight government services and IT organizations with Brickstorm backdoors, according to a joint security alert from the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the US National Security Agency, and the Canadian Cyber Security Centre.

However, “it’s a logical conclusion to assume that there are additional victims out there until we have not yet had the opportunity to communicate with,” CISA’s Nick Andersen, executive assistant director for cybersecurity, told reporters on Thursday, describing Brickstorm as a “terribly sophisticated piece of malware.”

The backdoor works across Linux, VMware, and Windows environments, and while Andersen declined to attribute the malware infections to a specific People’s Republic of China cyber group, he said it illustrates the threat PRC crews pose to US critical infrastructure.

“State-sponsored actors are not just infiltrating networks,” Andersen said. “They’re embedding themselves to enable long term access, disruption, and potential sabotage.”

In one incident that CISA responded to, the PRC goons gained access to the organization’s internal network in April 2024, uploaded Brickstorm to an internal VMware vCenter server, and used the backdoor for persistent access until at least September 3.

While in the victim’s network, the crew also gained access to two domain controllers and an Active Directory Federation Services server, which they used to steal cryptographic keys.

Dozens of organizations in the US have been impacted by Brickstorm, not including downstream victims

Google Threat Intelligence, which first sounded the alarm on Brickstorm in a September report, “strongly” recommended organizations run the open-source scanner that Google-owned Mandiant published on GitHub to help detect the backdoor on their appliances.

“We believe dozens of organizations in the US have been impacted by Brickstorm, not including downstream victims,” Google Threat Intelligence Group principal analyst Austin Larsen told The Register. “These actors are still actively targeting US organizations and are evolving Brickstorm and their techniques after our September report.”

[…]

Source: PRC spies Brickstormed their way into critical US networks • The Register

Cloudflare suffers second outage in as many months

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Routine Cloudflare maintenance went awry this morning, knocking over the company’s dashboard and API and sending sites around the world into error screens.

Cloudflare was working through its scheduled servicing when things went sideways. Maintenance was in progress in its Chicago datacenter from 0700 UTC, with work due to begin in its Detroit datacenter at 0900 UTC when red lights began flashing at administrators around the world.

Cloudflare status

Cloudflare status this morning

The content delivery network giant admitted a problem with its service at 0856 UTC, rolled out a fix shortly after, and seemed to be back up and running by 0930 UTC. It has, however, now reported issues with Workers (the serverless functions, not the employees likely frantically trying to stop the company’s systems from falling over again).

Cloudflare on Down Detector

Cloudflare on Down Detector

We’ve asked the company for more information, and will update this piece should an explanation be forthcoming.

Cloudflare proudly proclaims that “20 percent of all websites are protected by Cloudflare.” Unfortunately, this also means that 20 percent of all websites could catch a cold should Cloudflare sneeze. Two outages in two months is less than ideal, and could cause affected customers to take a hard look at their dependencies.

[…]

A spokesperson at Cloudflare sent us a statement after publication:

“A change made to how Cloudflare’s Web Application Firewall parses requests impacted the availability of Cloudflare’s network at approximately 8:47 GMT and concluded approximately 9:13 GMT. This was not an attack; the change was deployed by our team to help mitigate the industry-wide vulnerability disclosed this week in React Server Components.”

Source: Cloudflare suffers second outage in as many months • The Register

New hotness in democracy: if the people say no to mass surveillance, do it again right after you have said you won’t do it. Not EU this time: it’s India

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You know what they say: If at first you don’t succeed at mass government surveillance, try, try again. Only two days after India backpedaled on its plan to force smartphone makers to preinstall a state-run “cybersecurity” app, Reuters reports that the country is back at it. It’s said to be considering a telecom industry proposal with another draconian requirement. This one would require smartphone makers to enable always-on satellite-based location tracking (Assisted GPS).

The measure would require location services to remain on at all times, with no option to switch them off. The telecom industry also wants phone makers to disable notifications that alert users when their carriers have accessed their location.

[…]

Source: India is reportedly considering another draconian smartphone surveillance plan

Looks like the Indians took a page out of the Danish playbook for Chat Control and turning the EU into a 1984 Brave New World

Kohler Can Access Data and Pictures from Toilet Camera It Describes as “End-to-End Encrypted”

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In October Kohler launched Dekota, a $600 (plus monthly subscription) device that attaches to the rim of your toilet and collects images and data from inside, promising to track and provide insights on gut health, hydration, and more. To allay the obvious privacy concerns, the company emphasizes the sensors are only pointed down, into the bowl, and assures potential buyers that the data collected by the device and app are protected with “end-to-end encryption”.

Kohler Health’s homepage, the page for the Kohler Health App, and a support page all use the term “end-to-end encryption” to describe the protection the app provides for data. Many media outlets included the claim in their articles covering the launch of the product.

However, responses from the company make it clear that—contrary to common understanding of the term—Kohler is able to access data collected by the device and associated application. Additionally, the company states that the data collected by the device and app may be used to train AI models.

[…]

emails exchanged with Kohler’s privacy contact clarified that the other “end” that can decrypt the data is Kohler themselves: “User data is encrypted at rest, when it’s stored on the user’s mobile phone, toilet attachment, and on our systems.  Data in transit is also encrypted end-to-end, as it travels between the user’s devices and our systems, where it is decrypted and processed to provide our service.”

They additionally told me “We have designed our systems and processes to protect identifiable images from access by Kohler Health employees through a combination of data encryption, technical safeguards, and governance controls.”

What Kohler is referring to as E2EE here is simply HTTPS encryption between the app and the server, something that has been basic security practice for two decades now, plus encryption at rest.

[…]

Source: Kohler Can Access Data and Pictures from Toilet Camera It Describes as “End-to-End Encrypted” – /var/log/simon

Subaru Owners Are Ticked About In-Car Pop-Up Ads for SiriusXM

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I’ve written about Stellantis brands doing this twice already in 2025, and this time, it’s Subaru sending pop-up ads for SiriusXM to owners’ infotainment screens.

The Autopian ran a story on the egregious push notifications on Monday, and it only took a short search to find more examples. It happened right around Thanksgiving, as the promotion urged drivers to “Enjoy SiriusXM FREE thru 12/1.” That day has come and gone, but not before it angered droves of Subaru owners.

“I have got this Sirius XM ad a few times over the last couple of years,” the caption on the embedded Reddit thread reads. “This last time was the final straw as I almost wrecked because of it. My entire infotainment screen changed which caused me to take my eyes off the road and since I was going 55mph in winter I swerved a bit and slid and almost went off into a ditch. Something that would not have happened had this ad not popped up.

[…]

At least one 2024 Crosstrek owner reported that the pop-up took over their screen even though they were using Apple CarPlay. To force-close an application that’s in use, solely for the sake of in-car advertising, is especially egregious.

[…]

Reddit posts dating back as far as 2023 show owners complaining about in-car notifications.

[…]

 

Source: Subaru Owners Are Ticked About In-Car Pop-Up Ads for SiriusXM

New Baldness Drug Boosted Hair Growth by 168% – 539% in Trials

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[…] On Wednesday, Cosmo Pharmaceuticals announced the results of its two phase III trials testing out the topical drug clascoterone for AGA. Compared to placebo, people on clascoterone gained back significantly more hair—with one trial showing a roughly 500% improvement in hair restoration. The results will pave the way for a potential FDA approval next year, which could make clascoterone the first truly novel treatment for pattern baldness seen in decades.

First-in-class

Male pattern baldness is primarily caused by having genes that make a person’s hair follicles overly sensitive to androgens (male-related sex hormones), particularly the hormone dihydrotestosterone (DHT).

There are effective medications for AGA, such as minoxidil (the active ingredient in Rogaine) and finasteride, as well as other interventions like hair transplants. But these treatments have all their potential drawbacks (including cost) or may not work for everyone.

Cosmo is hoping that clascoterone can become the first of a new class of hair loss drugs. The topical drug is an androgen receptor inhibitor, meaning it directly targets the hormones that help cause the loss of hair follicles in AGA. The Dublin-based company also argues that clascoterone isn’t systemically absorbed by the body, minimizing the risk of potential side effects.

Its two pivotal trials involved nearly 1,500 male patients diagnosed with AGA. The volunteers were randomized to receive a placebo or a topical clascoterone 5% solution on affected parts of their scalp. Both trials met their primary goal. In one, clascoterone users experienced a 539% improvement in the amount of hair grown relative to placebo, while in the other, there was a 168% improvement. According to the company, however, the absolute amount of regrown hair seen during the trials was similar between the two treatment groups. Clascoterone also appeared to be safe and tolerable, the company said, with most adverse events recorded during the studies not related to the drug itself.

[…]

Source: New Baldness Drug Boosted Hair Growth by 539% in Trials

Build Your Own Glasshole Detector

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Connected devices are ubiquitous in our era of wireless chips heavily relying on streaming data to someone else’s servers. This sentence might already start to sound dodgy, and it doesn’t get better when you think about today’s smart glasses, like the ones built by Meta (aka Facebook).

[sh4d0wm45k] doesn’t shy away from fighting fire with fire, and shows you how to build a wireless device detecting Meta’s smart glasses – or any other company’s Bluetooth devices, really, as long as you can match them by the beginning of the Bluetooth MAC address.

[sh4d0wm45k]’s device is a mini light-up sign saying “GLASSHOLE”, that turns bright white as soon as a pair of Meta glasses is detected in the vicinity. Under the hood, a commonly found ESP32 devboard suffices for the task, coupled to two lines of white LEDs on a custom PCB. The code is super simple, sifting through packets flying through the air, and lets you easily contribute with your own OUIs (Organizationally Unique Identifier, first three bytes of a MAC address). It wouldn’t be hard to add such a feature to any device of your own with Arduino code under its hood, or to rewrite it to fit a platform of your choice.

We’ve been talking about smart glasses ever since Google Glass, but recently, with Meta’s offerings, the smart glasses debate has reignited. Due to inherent anti-social aspects of the technology, we can see what’d motivate one to build such a hack. Perhaps, the next thing we’ll see is some sort of spoofed packets shutting off the glasses, making them temporarily inoperable in your presence in a similar way we’ve seen with spamming proximity pairing packets onto iPhones.

Source: Build Your Own Glasshole Detector | Hackaday

Shopify goes down: Cyber Monday outage disrupting your online shopping

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Here’s hoping the retailers offering tasty Cyber Monday deals that caught your eye aren’t having trouble with Shopify. The ecommerce platform is experiencing some issues. According to a support page, some merchants were having trouble logging into the Shopify platform, which was experiencing outages with the checkout and admin systems. Shopify’s point-of-sale (POS), API and mobile and support systems also saw “degraded performance.”

“We are continuing to investigate and apply mitigations for the issues with accessing Admins and POS systems,” Shopify wrote in an update at 12:39PM ET. “Some merchants may also see an issue with POS checkouts, due to not being able to access POS systems.”

At 2:31PM ET, the company posted an update to its status page, saying “We have found and fixed an issue with our login authentication flow, and are seeing signs of recovery for admin and POS login issues now. We are continuing to monitor recovery.” You might start to see some services go back to normal, and it should hopefully not impact your holiday shopping too much.

Shopify said in a blog post just last week that it powers 12 percent of ecommerce in the US. Brands including Netflix, Mattel, Supreme, Glossier and Converse are among those that use the platform.

When asked for more details about the outage, Shopify directed Engadget to its status page as well as a tweet posted at 10AM that read, “We’re aware of an issue with Admins impacting selected stores, and are working to resolve it.”

[…]

Source: Shopify is down: Updates on the Cyber Monday outage disrupting your online shopping

Netflix Is Killing Casting From Your Phone

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[…]

Among other methods, like plugging a laptop directly into the TV, many people still enjoying casting their content from small screens to big screens. For years, this has been a reliable way to switch from watching Netflix on your smartphone or tablet to watching on your TV—you just tap the cast button, select your TV, and in a few moments, your content is beamed to the proper place. Your device becomes its own remote, with search built right-in, and it avoids the need to sign into Netflix on TVs outside your home, such as when staying in hotels.

At least it did, but Netflix no longer wants to let you do it.

Netflix no longer supports casting on most devices

While you can still cast to your TV from other streaming platforms, there’s bad news for Netflix fans: The company has abruptly dropped casting support for most devices. Android Authority was the first to report on the change, though you might have stumbled upon the development yourself when looking for the cast button in the Netflix app. In fact, Netflix has prepared for your confusion, as you can see from this Netflix Help Center page titled “Can’t find ‘Cast’ button in Netflix app.” This page might offer a glimmer of hope at first, as you think “Oh good, Netflix has a solution if the Cast button is missing.” Unfortunately, the response isn’t going to make you happy: “Netflix no longer supports casting shows from a mobile device to most TVs and TV-streaming devices. You’ll need to use the remote that came with your TV or TV-streaming device to navigate Netflix.”

The exception here is for “older” Chromecast devices or TVs that work with Google Cast—but only if you pay for an ad-free Netflix plan. If you took Netflix up on its lower-cost subscription offer, those ads not only cost you extra watch time, but also your ability to cast—assuming you even have the older hardware to cast to.

[…]

Source: Netflix Is Killing Casting From Your Phone | Lifehacker

Korea’s Coupang says data breach exposed nearly 34M customers’ personal information

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South Korean e-commerce platform Coupang over the weekend said nearly 34 million Korean customers’ personal information had been leaked in a data breach that had been ongoing for more than five months.

The company said it first detected the unauthorized exposure of 4,500 user accounts on November 18, but a subsequent investigation revealed that the breach had actually compromised about 33.7 million customer accounts in South Korea.

The breach affected customers’ names, email addresses, phone numbers, shipping addresses, and certain order histories, per Coupang. More sensitive data like payment information, credit card numbers, and login credentials was not compromised and remains secure, the company said.

Coupang said it has reported the incident to the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA), the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC), and the National Police Agency.

One of South Korea’s biggest e-commerce platforms, Coupang also offers an online commerce service called “Rocket Delivery” in the country, and also operates its marketplace in Taiwan. A Coupang spokesperson told TechCrunch that the investigation has found no evidence that consumer data from Coupang Taiwan or Rocket Now, its food delivery service in Japan, was affected in the data breach.

“According to the investigation so far, it is believed that unauthorized access to personal information began on June 24, 2025, via overseas servers,” the company said. “Coupang blocked the unauthorized access route, strengthened internal monitoring, and retained experts from a leading independent security firm.”

Police have reportedly identified at least one suspect, a former Chinese Coupang employee now abroad, after launching an investigation following a November 18 complaint.

[…]

Source: Korea’s Coupang says data breach exposed nearly 34M customers’ personal information | TechCrunch

India demands smartphone makers install government app

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India’s government has issued a directive that requires all smartphone manufacturers to install a government app on every handset in the country and has given them 90 days to get the job done – and to ensure users can’t remove the code.

The app is called “Sanchar Saathi” and is a product of India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

On Google Play and Apple’s App Store, the Department describes the app as “a citizen centric initiative … to empower mobile subscribers, strengthen their security and increase awareness about citizen centric initiatives.”

The app does those jobs by allowing users to report incoming calls or messages – even on WhatsApp – they suspect are attempts at fraud. Users can also report incoming calls for which caller ID reveals the +91 country code, as India’s government thinks that’s an indicator of a possible illegal telecoms operator.

Users can also block their device if they lose it or suspect it was stolen, an act that will prevent it from working on any mobile network in India.

Another function allows lookup of IMEI numbers so users can verify if their handset is genuine.

Spam and scams delivered by calls or TXTs are pervasive around the world, and researchers last year found that most Indian netizens receive three or more dodgy communiqués every day. This app has obvious potential to help reduce such attacks.

An announcement from India’s government states that cybersecurity at telcos is another reason for the requirement to install the app.

“Spoofed/ Tampered IMEIs in telecom network leads to situation where same IMEI is working in different devices at different places simultaneously and pose challenges in action against such IMEIs,” according to the announcement. “India has [a] big second-hand mobile device market. Cases have also been observed where stolen or blacklisted devices are being re-sold. It makes the purchaser abettor in crime and causes financial loss to them. The blocked/blacklisted IMEIs can be checked using Sanchar Saathi App.”

That motive is likely the reason India has required handset-makers to install Sanchar Saathi on existing handsets with a software update.

The directive also requires the app to be pre-installed, “visible, functional, and enabled for users at first setup.” Manufacturers may not disable or restrict its features and “must ensure the App is easily accessible during device setup.”

Those functions mean India’s government will soon have a means of accessing personal info on hundreds of millions of devices.

Apar Gupta, founder and director of India’s Internet Freedom Foundation, has criticized the directive on grounds that Sanchar Saathi isn’t fit for purpose. “Rather than resorting to coercion and mandating it to be installed the focus should be on improving it,” he wrote.

[…]

Source: India demands smartphone makers install government app • The Register

Autostarting Apple Podcasts Tries to hack Humans by throwing religion, spirituality, and education lectures at them

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You know that feeling when you unlock your phone and suddenly Apple Podcasts is open, showing you some random spirituality podcast from 2018 that you definitely didn’t tap on? Well, turns out that’s not just a quirky glitch—it’s actually someone trying to hack you.

Over the past several months, users have been reporting some seriously strange behavior from Apple Podcasts across both iOS and Mac platforms. According to 404 Media, people are finding the app launching automatically and displaying religion, spirituality, and education podcasts with no apparent trigger. Sometimes you’ll unlock your device and boom—there’s the podcast app, presenting some bizarre show that’s often years old but somehow surfacing now. What makes this particularly concerning is that these mystery podcast pages include links to potentially malicious websites designed to execute cross-site scripting attacks.

How the Apple Podcasts exploit actually works

The technical mechanics reveal just how vulnerable Apple’s ecosystem can be to creative attack vectors. The Apple Podcasts app can be launched automatically with content of an attacker’s choosing, and according to 404 Media, simply visiting a website is enough to trigger Podcasts to open and load a podcast selected by the attacker.

[…]

Apple’s ecosystem security under siege

What makes this podcast vulnerability particularly troubling is how it fits into Apple’s broader security landscape, which has been under increasing pressure from sophisticated attacks. Recent security advisories reveal that multiple vulnerabilities across Apple products could enable arbitrary code execution, with successful exploitation potentially allowing attackers to install programs, modify data, or create new accounts with full user privileges, according to the Center for Internet Security. The scope affects devices running older versions of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS, though fortunately no active exploitation has been reported in the wild.

Even more concerning are recently disclosed zero-click iMessage exploits that remained unpatched through multiple iOS versions. A strategic disclosure revealed vulnerabilities affecting iOS 18.2 through 18.4 that enabled Secure Enclave key theft, crypto wallet draining, and device-to-device propagation via MultipeerConnectivity, as reported in security research. Apple eventually addressed these issues quietly in iOS 18.4.1 without public acknowledgment, highlighting ongoing transparency concerns in vulnerability handling. The fact that these zero-click exploits could facilitate extraction of Secure Enclave-protected keys and enable silent crypto wallet draining demonstrates how sophisticated modern attacks have become against Apple’s supposedly secure architecture.

[…]

Source: Apple Podcasts Security Flaw Enables Device Hijacking << Apple :: Gadget Hacks

Cowed BBC Censors Lecture Calling Trump ‘Most Openly Corrupt President’

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The BBC is now voluntarily suppressing criticism of Donald Trump before it airs—and the reason is obvious: Trump threatened to sue them into oblivion, and they blinked.

Historian Rutger Bregman revealed this week that the BBC commissioned a public lecture from him last month, recorded it, then quietly cut a single sentence before broadcast. The deleted line? Calling Trump “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” Bregman posted about the capitulation, noting that the decision came from “the highest levels” of the BBC—meaning the executives dealing with Trump’s threats.

Well, at least we should call out Donald Trump as the most openly censorial president in American history.

This is the payoff from Trump’s censorship campaign against the BBC. Weeks ago, Trump threatened to sue the BBC for a billion dollars over an edit in a program it aired a year ago. The BBC apologized and fired employees associated with the project. That wasn’t enough. Trump’s FCC censorship lackey Brendan Carr launched a bullshit investigation anyway. And now the BBC is preemptively editing out true statements that might anger the thin-skinned man baby President.

Bregman posted the exact line that got cut. Here’s the full paragraph, with the censored sentence in bold:

On one side we had an establishment propping up an elderly man in obvious mental decline. On the other we had a convicted reality star who now rules as the most openly corrupt president in American history. When it comes to staffing his administration, he is a modern day Caligula, the Roman emperor who wanted to make his horse a consul. He surrounds himself with loyalists, grifters, and sycophants.

Gosh, for what reason would the BBC cut that one particular line?

The BBC admitted to this in the most mealy-mouthed way when asked by the New Republic to comment on the situation:

Asked for comment on Bregman’s charge, a spokesperson for the BBC emailed me this: “All of our programmes are required to comply with the BBC’s editorial guidelines, and we made the decision to remove one sentence from the lecture on legal advice.”

“On legal advice.” Translation: Trump’s SLAPP suit threats worked exactly as intended.

Greg Sargent, writing in the New Republic, nails why this matters:

There is something deeply perverse in this outcome. Even if you grant Trump’s criticism of the edit of his January 6 speech—never mind that as the violence raged, Trump essentially sat on his hands for hours and arguably directed the mob to target his vice president—the answer to this can’t be to let Trump bully truth-telling into self-censoring silence.

That’s plainly what happened here.

Exactly. The BBC’s initial capitulation—the apology, the firings, the groveling—was bad enough. But this is worse. This is pre-censorship. The BBC is now editing out true statements about Trump before they air, purely because they’re afraid of how he might react. That’s not “legal advice.” That’s cowardice institutionalized as policy.

Once again, I remind you that Trump’s supporters have, for years, insisted that he was “the free speech president” and have talked about academic freedom and the right to state uncomfortable ideas.

[…]

Source: BBC Pre-Edits Lecture Calling Trump ‘Most Openly Corrupt President’ | Techdirt

Nexperia accused by parent Wingtech and Chinese unit of plotting to move supply chain

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BEIJING/AMSTERDAM, Nov 28 (Reuters) – Wingtech (600745.SS)

, opens new tab, the Chinese parent company of Netherlands-based Nexperia, accused its Dutch unit on Friday of conspiring to build a non-Chinese supply chain and permanently strip it of its control, escalating tensions between the two sides.
In a separate statement, Nexperia’s Chinese arm demanded the Dutch business halt overseas expansion, including in Malaysia. “Abandon improper intentions to replace Chinese capacity,” Nexperia China said.
Sign up here.
The accusations follow an open letter from Nexperia published on Thursday claiming repeated attempts to engage with its Chinese unit had failed.
Nexperia, which produces billions of chips for cars and electronics, has been in a tug-of-war since the Dutch government seized the company two months ago on economic security grounds. An Amsterdam court subsequently stripped Wingtech of control.
Beijing retaliated by halting exports of Nexperia’s finished products on October 4, leading to disruptions in global automotive supply chains.
The curbs were relaxed in early November and the Dutch government suspended the seizure last week following talks. But the court ruling remains in force.
The chipmaker’s Europe-based units and Chinese entities remain locked in a standoff. Nexperia’s Chinese arm declared itself independent from European management, which responded by stopping the shipment of wafers to the company’s plant in China.

CHINESE PARENT WARNS OF RENEWED SUPPLY CHAIN DISRUPTION

The escalating war of words casts doubt on the viability of a company-led resolution urged by China and the European Union this week.
Wingtech said on Friday that Nexperia’s Dutch unit was avoiding the issue of its “legitimate control”, making negotiations untenable.
“We need to find a way first to talk to one another constructively” a spokesperson for Nexperia’s European headquarters said on Friday.
Nexperia China said that the Dutch unit’s claim it could not contact its management was misleading, accusing it of stifling communication by deleting the email accounts of Nexperia China employees and terminating their access to IT systems.
The Chinese unit claimed that the Dutch side was engineering a breakup, citing a $300 million plan to expand a Malaysian plant, and an alleged internal goal of sourcing 90% of production outside China by mid-2026.
[…]

Source: Nexperia accused by parent Wingtech and Chinese unit of plotting to move supply chain | Reuters

Nexperia crisis: Dutch chipmaker wants continuity from China unit, which is angry that Nexperia wants to open factories outside of China

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Dutch chipmaker Nexperia has publicly called on its China unit to help restore supply chain operations, warning in an open letter that customers across industries are reporting “imminent production outages.”

Nexperia’s Dutch unit said Thursday that its open letter followed “repeated attempts to establish direct communication through conventional channels” but did not have “any meaningful response.”

The letter marks the latest twist in a long-running saga that has threatened global automotive supply chains and stoked a bitter battle between Amsterdam and Beijing over technology transfer.

“We welcomed the Chinese authorities’ commitment to facilitate the resumption of exports from Nexperia’s Chinese facility and that of our subcontractors, enabling the continued flow of our products to global markets,” Nexperia’s Dutch unit said in the letter.

“Nevertheless, customers across industries are still reporting imminent production stoppages. This situation cannot persist,” they added. The group called on the leadership of Nexperia’s entities in China to take steps to restore the established supply flows without delay.

In a statement, Wingtech Technology, Nexperia’s Chinese parent company, said on Friday that the Dutch unit’s open letter contained “a large number of misleading and untrue allegations.”

It said the “unlawful deprivation of Wingtech’s control and shareholder rights over Nexperia” was the root cause of the ongoing supply chain chaos.

“Combined with the recent series of actions by the Dutch government and Nexperia B.V., we believe their true intention is to buy time for Nexperia B.V. to construct a ‘de-China-ized’ supply chain and permanently strip Wingtech of its shareholder rights,” Wingtech said.

JINAN, CHINA - OCTOBER 23: In this photo illustration, the logo of semiconductor manufacturer Nexperia is displayed on a screen on October 23, 2025 in Jinan, Shandong Province of China. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)
In this photo illustration, the logo of semiconductor manufacturer Nexperia is displayed on a screen.
Vcg | Visual China Group | Getty Images

Nexperia manufactures billions of so-called foundation chips — transistors, diodes and power management components — that are produced in Europe, assembled and tested in China, and then re-exported to customers in Europe and elsewhere.

The chips are relatively low-tech and inexpensive but are needed in almost every device that uses electricity. In cars, those chips are used to connect the battery to motors, for lights and sensors, for braking systems, airbag controllers, entertainment systems and electric windows.

How did we get here?

The situation began in September, when the Dutch government invoked a Cold War-era law to effectively take control of Nexperia. The highly unusual move was reportedly made after the U.S. raised security concerns.

Beijing responded by moving to block its products from leaving China, which, in turn, raised the alarm among global automakers as they faced shortages of the chipmaker’s components.

In an apparent reprieve last week, however, the Dutch government said it had suspended its state intervention at Nexperia following talks with Chinese authorities. It was thought at the time that this could bring an end to the dispute and pave the way for a restoration of normal supply chains.

Rico Luman, senior sector economist for transport and logistics at Dutch bank ING, said it remains unclear how long the situation will last.

“The imposed measures to seize the Dutch Nexperia subsidiary have been lifted, but there are still talks ongoing about restoring the corporate structure and relation with parent company Wingtech,” Luman told CNBC by email.

“It’s not only about supplies of finished chips, it’s also about wafer supplies from Europe to the Chinese entity,” Luman said, adding that companies including Japan’s Nissan and German auto supplier Bosch are among the firms to have warned about looming shortages.

[…]

Source: Nexperia crisis: Dutch chipmaker issues urgent plea to its China unit

Canadian data order risks blowing a hole in EU sovereignty

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A Canadian court has ordered French cloud provider OVHcloud to hand over customer data stored in Europe, potentially undermining the provider’s claims about digital sovereignty protections.

According to documents seen by The Register, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) issued a Production Order in April 2024 demanding subscriber and account data linked to four IP addresses on OVH servers in France, the UK, and Australia as part of a criminal investigation.

OVH has a Canadian arm, which was the jumping-off point for the courts, but OVH Group is a French company, so the data in France should be protected from prying eyes. Or perhaps not.

Rather than using established Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties (MLAT) between Canada and France, the RCMP sought direct disclosure through OVH’s Canadian subsidiary.

This puts OVH in an impossible position. French law prohibits such data sharing outside official treaties, with penalties up to €90,000 and six months imprisonment. But refusing the Canadian order risks contempt of court charges.

[…]

Under Trump 2.0, economic and geopolitical relations between Europe and the US have become increasingly volatile, something Microsoft acknowledged in April.

Against this backdrop, concerns about the US CLOUD Act are growing. Through the legislation, US authorities can request – via warrant or subpoena – access to data hosted by US corporations regardless of where in the world that data is stored. Hyperscalers claim they have received no such requests with respect to European customers, but the risk remains and European cloud providers have used this as a sales tactic by insisting digital information they hold is protected.

In the OVH case, if Canadian authorities are able to force access to data held on European servers rather than navigate official channels (for example, international treaties), the implications could be severe.

[…]

Earlier this week, GrapheneOS announced it no longer had active servers in France and was in the process of leaving OVH.

The privacy-focused mobile outfit said, “France isn’t a safe country for open source privacy projects. They expect backdoors in encryption and for device access too. Secure devices and services are not going to be allowed. We don’t feel safe using OVH for even a static website with servers in Canada/US via their Canada/US subsidiaries.”

In August, an OVH legal representative crowed over the admission by Microsoft that it could not guarantee data sovereignty.

It would be deeply ironic if OVH were unable to guarantee the same thing because the company has a subsidiary in Canada.

[…]

Source: Canadian data order risks blowing a hole in EU sovereignty • The Register