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.