After WIRED reported final week that Meta’s smart glasses app contained code that may allow the firm to activate face-recognition options on the units, the firm removed the code this week with out commenting on why or whether or not it plans to add such performance again into the app later. One other WIRED investigation this week discovered that xAI’s Grok is still hosting sexualized deepfakes, together with “nudified” pictures and movies, of celebrities and not less than one outstanding US politician.
After limiting the launch of its new Mythos-class AI mannequin over considerations about its potential impacts on cybersecurity, Anthropic introduced a model upgrade for partners in its limited-access group this week and launched a “protected” model of the mannequin to the public with guardrails meant to maintain the system from getting used to gas cyberattacks. In the meantime, the United States Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Safety Company issued a new directive to federal agencies this week in response to new AI threats that features a requirement to repair the most pressing software program vulnerabilities in as little as three days.
As Europe appears to separate and insulate itself from US Huge Tech, WIRED created a timeline that tracks all the methods EU governments, firms, and different organizations are shifting away from US tech. A new open-source project dubbed Encrypted Spaces might be used to make numerous mainstream collaboration apps extra personal and surveillance-resistant with end-to-end encryption. And unlawful pharmacy and rip-off web sites hijacked Spotify’s search rankings utilizing pretend podcasts, in accordance to a brand new joint US Congressional report.
The 2026 World Cup is in full swing, and WIRED looked at the surveillance technologies, from anti-drone tech to face recognition, that are being utilized in US, Canadian, and Mexican stadiums. We additionally mapped every Flock license plate reader close to a US World Cup stadium. Extra broadly, Amnesty Worldwide mentioned this week that it has concluded followers in all three host nations—each native residents and guests—face potential human rights violations on account of the FIFA event.
The American Civil Liberties Union is suing two Florida police departments over its use of FACES, considered one of the longest-running face recognition instruments in the US, after its alleged misuse led to the wrongful arrest of a Fort Myers man. Donald Trump, in the meantime, jeopardized the future of a key surveillance authority after deciding on Invoice Pulte, who’s been described as “deeply unqualified,” as the performing director of nationwide intelligence. (Trump has since chosen an alternate nominee for the everlasting position.)
And there’s extra. Every week, we spherical up the safety and privateness information we didn’t cowl in depth ourselves. Click on the headlines to learn the full tales. And keep protected on the market.
As troublesome as digital anonymity has develop into in the trendy world, acquiring a telephone quantity with out revealing virtually any figuring out information—whether or not by shopping for a short lived burner telephone or registering an account with a privacy-preserving telephone provider—has remained solely authorized in the US. Now the Federal Communications Fee desires to change that.
Late final month, the FCC launched a proposal for a brand new rule that may implement know-your-customer necessities for mobile networks, requiring that mobile suppliers “at a minimal, get hold of and retain the identify, bodily deal with, authorities issued identification quantity, and an alternate phone variety of any new and renewing buyer before granting entry to its providers.” The proposal is described as a measure akin to money-laundering legal guidelines designed to make it harder for scammers to exploit the telephone networks. However privateness advocates argue it additionally threatens a final conduit of anonymity for these searching for to evade telephone surveillance—whether or not that’s journalists, whistleblowers, activists, or just individuals searching for to keep away from mass knowledge assortment in yet one more side of their communications.
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