Thursday Threads this week delves into the rise of surveillance tech used by law enforcement, covering topics like Fog Reveal's phone tracking without warrants, suits against Whitepages for exposing officer info, and NYPD's deals with surveillance firms. It also discusses ICE's informal access to local license plate data and the growth of Real-Time Crime Centers. These issues underscore significant privacy concerns and highlight the urgent need for regulatory oversight to safeguard civil liberties.

U.S. surveillance is escalating: Trump’s order to scrap inter-agency data silos and Musk’s DOGE unite federal databases; Oracle’s Ellison envisions AI cameras and drones; the Pentagon’s Locomotive tracks phones via app data; and brokers sell personal records to law enforcement. As LexisNexis lobbied for hands-off regulation and Apple battled over data access, pressing issues of oversight, due process, and privacy are emerging.

This Thursday Threads issue explores the growth of surveillance camera networks like license plate readers, highlighting privacy concerns despite their law enforcement benefits. It discusses investigations, security flaws, private networks, AI integration, and artistic controversies.

A running list of the protest signs I'm using to protest. Many of them include links to PDFs that you can download to make using your home printer.

Amazon's cloud mandate for Echo recordings sparks privacy worries. Workplace surveillance tech and the FTC’s findings on social media data collection highlight ongoing security challenges, alongside Fiverr's controversial data access listings.

At the Easton #TeslaTakedown, 600 protesters or more covered all four corners for the first time. The pleasant weather brought more families and supportive drivers. High energy. My sign read, 'The SIGNAL is coming from INSIDE the house!' and is available for download.

In Thursday Threads this week: key legal cases and corporate actions on using copyrighted materials in AI training, emphasizing growing tensions between creators and tech companies as AI increasingly utilizes large licensed and some pirated datasets.

At the Columbus, Ohio, #TeslaTakedown, attendance rose to 450-500, featuring music and supportive honks. My improved sign read, 'Our GOVERNMENT was fine. Now it is MUSKed UP! FIRE ELON! Read the post for instructions on how to print your own.

The case of OCLC against Anna's Archive, accused of “data scraping” from OCLC's WorldCat, takes a turn as the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio decides to certify several “novel and unsettled” legal questions to the Supreme Court of Ohio.

This thread of articles reviews social media's role in spreading misinformation and impacting teen mental health, highlighting personal strategies for prevention and a review of how “Community Notes” do and don't help.

The second #TeslaTakedown at the Easton Tesla store saw around 400 attendees, despite gloomy weather reducing family participation. The presence of more police, especially a “Dialogue Team,” was noted, along with increased driver support through honks and thumbs up. The author's protest sign, though still verbose, was better received than last week. A personal dilemma arose over using an old point-and-shoot camera to avoid digital tracking at protests, an effort to maintain privacy while still capturing the event.

This Thursday Threads explores global security issues, encryption reforms, and tech giants’ countermeasures against quantum threats and AI, reinforcing the crucial role of end-to-end encryption in safeguarding privacy and communication.

For #TeslaTakedown, I crafted a sign on economic disparity. Using a “cosmic distance ladder,” I aimed to show that while 1,000 passersby might collectively hold $100M, Musk's net worth of $350B highlights our shared realities versus billionaire influence.

Recent research in generative AI highlights impressive capabilities and concerns. Models show harmful behaviors like 'emergent misalignment' and can 'scheme' autonomously. In Minecraft, AI agents mimic human-like social dynamics. However, models struggle with historical accuracy, revealing biases and knowledge gaps. Despite rapid advances, the unclear mechanisms of AI underscore the need for careful study to manage future risks.

This week's Thursday Threads is on generative AI in libraries, with projects by OCLC, JSTOR, EBSCO, Clarivate, and ProQuest. OCLC's AI model is removing duplicate WorldCat records. JSTOR and EBSCO explored AI tools for article summaries and research questions. Clarivate's survey highlighted AI as a library priority but noted concerns about skills and budgets. Ed Summers critiqued AI's biases, legal issues, and environmental impact, urging responsible use in libraries.

I've been in or near higher education for my entire career, so it is probably no surprise that educational technology ranks high on DLTJ topics. Although a lot of my experience is with library technology, that isn't the only part of the ed-tech landscape that I'm interested in. Take, for …

Batteries are among the technologies that have had a silent, dramatic change over my lifetime. Last week, as I was setting up a blood pressure cuff for my mother, I opened the compartment in the back and realized I needed 4 AA-sized batteries. It was once common for devices to …

With millions of digital transactions taking place every day, have you ever wondered about the complex world behind your simple card swipe? In this week's Thursday Threads, we delve into the multi-layer maze that is the credit card industry. Grappling with $130 billion in fees, merchants are the invisible heroes …

In this week's Thursday Threads, I'll point to articles on the contentious subject of facial recognition technology. This tech, currently used by law enforcement and various businesses around the world, raises critical ethical and privacy questions. Beyond the instances where facial recognition use has resulted in wrongful apprehensions by law …

This week's Thursday Threads looks at digital storage from the past and the future. There are articles about the mechanics of massive data storage systems in tech giants like Google and Amazon, the still existing use of floppy disks in certain industries, and the herculean efforts of digital archivists to …