Free Republic

The Supreme Court just issued a unanimous ruling, and the case behind it has everything: Twitter, Saudi dissidents, federal prosecutors, and a fake invoice. The decision came down June 11, 2026, in Abouammo v. United States, No. 25-5146. Justice Elena Kagan wrote for a 9-0 Court, reversing the Ninth Circuit and sending the case back. Legal reporter Katie Buehler summed up the ruling this way: The defendant is Ahmad Abouammo, a former Twitter employee accused of giving confidential information about Saudi dissidents to a high-level Saudi official. According to the Court, the Saudi official wired Abouammo $300,000. Later, after Abouammo...

I very rarely post here, it seems I am not PC enough in the particular flavor of this site. But I don't know of a better venue to make this observation. Large companies have crafted "Systems" that they no longer have control over. They are utterly unable to do what should be simple and routine task as "The system" will NOT ALLOW them. I am going to be specific to the case I have been fighting for what is now months. But I am sure that it is not unique, corporate business tend to adopt similar models and technology. Several...

When Hugo Parra was arrested last year on felony charges, his pleas of innocence fell on deaf ears. San Diego police had a description of the Alfa Romeo car he was riding in and a witness who identified him during a curbside lineup as the man who brandished a handgun in Golden Hill. They had also checked the city’s automatic license plate camera system, run by the private company Flock, and got a “hit,” substantiating the claim. The problem, says attorney Alex Coolman, was that Parra was five miles away from Golden Hill at the time of the crime, and...

Utah's Online Age Verification Amendments, formally Senate Bill 73, take effect on May 6, making the state the first in the U.S. to explicitly target VPN use as part of age verification legislation. Signed by Governor Spencer Cox on March 19, the controversial law establishes that a user is considered to be accessing a website from Utah if they are physically located there, regardless of whether they use a VPN or proxy to mask their IP address. It also prohibits covered websites from sharing instructions on how to use a VPN to bypass age checks. NordVPN has called the law...

Co-founder of Oracle, Larry Ellison, who serves as the cloud giant's CTO, has been part of the tech industry's furniture for decades now. Looking ahead, he projects the rise of technologies such as AI, drones, and additional monitoring systems. “Citizens will be on their best behavior, because we’re constantly recording and reporting everything that is going on." — Larry Ellison, September 2024 The modern surveillance state Ellison's warning came during an hour-long Q&A at an Oracle financial analyst meeting in September 2024. This world that Ellison describes revolves around AI technologies processing huge amounts of video footage from the explosion...

Windows PCs Are Spying On Their UsersI have spent over two decades investigating corporate surveillance and the erosion of digital privacy. After years of watching Microsoft’s behavior, I believe Windows is no longer simply an operating system but a surveillance platform designed to extract data from every user. From telemetry that can’t be turned off to a built-in screenshot keylogger called Recall, Microsoft has made spying a core feature. Here’s why this matters: your privacy is not an inconvenience to be traded for convenience — it’s a fundamental right that Microsoft is systematically violating.Back in 2015, I warned that Windows...

For years, China has built what many observers have described as the most extensive surveillance network in human history. Now, thanks to rapid advances in artificial intelligence, that network is evolving into something far more powerful--and far more concerning. According to recent reporting from the Financial Times, Chinese authorities are upgrading their already vast surveillance infrastructure with advanced AI systems capable of analyzing behavior, identifying individuals, predicting crowd activity, and even anticipating potential social unrest before it occurs. This is no longer simply about cameras watching street corners. It is about creating a real-time digital map of an entire society....

US forces in war zones have been targeted through commercially available location data, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing a letter from US Central Command shared by US Senator Ron Wyden. CENTCOM said it had received “multiple threat reports concerning adversary exploitation of commercial location data to target or surveil US personnel in theater,” according to the letter. A bipartisan group of lawmakers warned the Pentagon that commercial location data could reveal where US troops gather and their daily patterns, exposing them to missile, drone and roadside bomb attacks. Wyden said Washington should start treating the adtech industry as a national...

New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport is continuing the lawsuit against Glock that her predecessor Matthew Platkin filed last year, and her latest move in the litigation has Second Amendment groups crying foul. As part of the state's discovery process, Davenport has sent subpoenas to FFLs in the Garden State demanding they produce records related to every Glock handgun that's been purchased in their stores over the past decade. In an alert on the NRA-ILA website, the 2A group points out that Davenport already has access to this information, since New Jersey’s pistol permitting system operates as a de facto...

Netflix has been sued in Texas over claims it collects data belonging to children and adults in the US state without their consent, and uses "addictive" design to keep them hooked. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton accused the streaming giant of "spying" on citizens saying it "records and monetises billions" of pieces of information about how users behave on the platform, despite suggesting otherwise. "Every interaction on the platform became a data point revealing information about the user," his office said. Netflix has rejected the claims and says it will challenge them in court, according to a statement shared with...

On January 9, 2026, Mexico enacted a new law requiring all cell phone numbers to be verifiably associated with an individual. Any cell phone number not associated with a person and their government-issued ID by June 30, 2026, will be suspended until/unless the number is registered by a verified user. If you have an active Mexican cell phone number: Whether you are situated in Mexico or abroad (or travel between countries); and Whether that number is active with a physical SIM card or a virtual eSIM; and Whether you are on a contract or a prepay phone plan; and You...

“Big Brother is watching you” is no longer a fictional admonition. Everywhere you go, your location is recorded by phone technology, license plate readers, Uber and Lyft transactions, and cameras. Privacy? Forget about it. Your location history is in the hands of many tech companies. Can the police and other government agencies force tech companies to share that information about you? The U.S. Supreme Court took up that question on Monday. The court’s decision could have a widespread impact on your privacy. If your location history puts you within a 1-mile radius of a bank robbery with hundreds of...

Congress mandated in 2021 that all new cars include "advanced impaired driving prevention technology" by 2027. The tech includes infrared cameras that track your eyes, pupil dilation, and driving behavior. NHTSA missed its deadline to finalize rules because no current system meets the required 99.9% accuracy—even that level would strand tens of millions of sober drivers per year. NHTSA admitted in March 2026 that no system meets the legal requirement for reliable operation. The agency stated current detection technology shows "unacceptable error rates," particularly around legal alcohol limits. Here's the math that stopped NHTSA cold: Americans drive about 3 trillion...

Are you ready for your car to decide if you’re fit to drive? If not, you’d better buckle up. A federal mandate declares new vehicles must have in-car surveillance for 2027 models onward that can decide if a person is fit to drive and can make the car inoperable via a so-called “kill switch.” And don’t count on brushing your teeth or gargling with Listerine to work around the driver monitor if you’ve had one too many. Most new cars won’t make the determination via breathalyzer, but infrared cameras continually monitoring potential impairment cues. They include pupil size, head movements,...

A video exposing Ford’s dystopian patents for new vehicles has gone viral on X, fueling outrage over the accelerating war on personal vehicle ownership and freedom of movement. The clip details in-cabin cameras, biometric scanners, lip-reading AI, emotion detection, and real-time criminal database queries – all deciding whether your truck will let you drive. In the video, the narrator states “imagine there was an emergency outside the truck… An accident…I jump in this truck. But it won’t shift into drive. Why? Because cameras and sensors inside of my cab won’t let me shift.” Ford can suck my white ass. pic.twitter.com/JjlTXPHZov...

A bipartisan House bill introduced this week, HR 8250, would require operating system providers to verify the age of every user who sets up an account or uses an operating system, shifting age-checking obligations away from individual apps and onto platform owners such as mobile and computer operating system companies.The Parents Decide Act was introduced by Rep. Josh Gottheimer and Rep. Elise Stefanik.“With each passing day, the Internet is becoming more and more treacherous for our kids,” Gottheimer said. “We’re not just talking about social media anymore — we’re talking about artificial intelligence and platforms that are shaping how our...

A law that became the subject of scrutiny following surveillance on 2016 Trump campaign aide Carter Page is up for renewal with an April 20 deadline, and the debate is creating unusual battle lines. The debate centers on whether reforms should be made to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Section 702, or if there should be a “clean” extension of the law. FISA allows for the federal government to gather foreign intelligence, but some critics have warned that it opens the door for Americans to be spied on in the process. President Donald Trump is asking for a “clean...

nti-liberty/gun cracktivists find themselves stuck on recycling old, failed narratives because there is really nothing new in the distortions and lies they tell in trying to obliterate the Second Amendment. Among those failed narratives is microstamping, a nonsensical measure about which I last wrote in Microstamping And Zombies, 2024 in June of 2024 at my home blog. Microstamping is laser engraving a unique, identifying code on the tips of firing pins which will “stamp” that code—letters, numbers, etc—on the primers of fired cases. Some microstamping schemes also demand a second stamp elsewhere on a fired case. California has always been...

Recently, a researcher working for the large AI company Anthropic was sitting in a park near its San Francisco headquarters, enjoying a lunchtime sandwich. Scrolling on his phone, he suddenly received an email that must have instantly ruined his appetite. It was from a new AI model the company was testing: a program that was meant to have no access to the internet, let alone be able to send emails. Chillingly, the AI informed the researcher that it had successfully broken its way out of its digital 'sandbox' – a supposedly secure enclosure used to test potentially dangerous software without...

Mexico now requires all cell phone users to register with CURP and photo ID by June 2026. Learn how expats can comply, registration deadlines, and what happens if you don't register. If you have a Mexican cell phone number, you need to pay attention. Starting January 9, 2026, Mexico now requires all cell phone lines to be linked to official identification. This new mandate affects an estimated 137 million mobile lines across the country—and that includes the phones of American and Canadian expats living in Mexico. If you fail to register your line by the deadline, your cell phone service...