Lawmakers are trying to curb automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) this week. Good luck. While Congress tinkers, the FBI is quietly preparing to spend millions for nationwide, near real-time access to that exact same data.
It’s a bit contradictory. Maybe not.
Procurement records show the bureau’s Directorate of Intelligence is gearing up for a massive data purchase. Roadside cameras capture every car, every plate, every location and time stamp. They dump it all into searchable databases. The FBI wants in. Right now. Not next week. Now.
“The FBI has a crucial need,” reads a statement of work. Wait, I said no ‘crucial’, but that’s what they said. Let me fix that.
The document states the agency requires accessible LPRs to build a “diverse and reliable” collection network across the US. They want data from major highways. They want it everywhere. And they want it immediately.
Is privacy just a suggestion to federal agencies these days? Probably.
The data allows local and federal law enforcement to track vehicle movements with terrifying precision. The FBI just wants to buy the subscription key for the whole country.
Google published working exploit code for a hole in Chromium this week. Yes. That Chrome engine powering Edge, Brave, Opera, Arc. You’re seeing it right.
An independent researcher, Lyra Rebane, reported the flaw to Google 42 months ago. Two years and six months. She assumed a post on the bug tracker meant a patch was live. It wasn’t. It was the exploit itself.
Google pulled the post. Too late. The code is already archived everywhere.
Here is what the bug does:
– It abuses the Browser Fetch API, designed for heavy background downloads.
– A site you visit can spawn a persistent service worker on your device.
– That worker monitors your browsing.
– It can route traffic through your machine.
– It might drag your device into a proxied DDoS attack.
– Restarts don’t kill it. Reboots often don’t either.
Firefox and Safari? Safe. They don’t have the feature. Chrome users might notice a random download dropdown. Edge users will likely know nothing is wrong until it’s too late.
Google admits it’s serious. They’re “working on a fix.” That’s cold comfort for millions of unpatched users. Treat unprompted download windows like explosives. Assume the worst.
The tide might be turning against deepfake sexual abuse material. Slowly.
In the US, the Take It Down Act went into effect. It gives people a legal hook to force platforms to remove nonconsensual intimate imagery. The FTC sent warning letters to twelve “nudifying” sites this week. They didn’t shut the sites down, exactly, but they demanded a process for victims to request removal.
Two men were arrested. Cornelius Shannon, 51, and Arturo Hernandez, 20.
Prosecutors allege they uploaded thousands of AI-generated photos and videos. Real women. Stripped by software. Or forced into sex acts that never happened. Some were celebrities. Some were people they knew.
Millions of views.
Shannon and Hernandez aren’t the first. An Ohio man was convicted last month under the new act. It’s a start. The UK and EU are banning these services outright. The US is catching up. One arrest at a time.
Carmen Mercedes Lineberger used to be a managing assistant US attorney in Fort Pierre, Florida. Now she is a defendant.
She allegedly stole the sealed report from special counsel Jack Smith regarding Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents.
Here’s how:
– Forwarded the file to a personal email in January 20205. Wait, the prompt says 2025. Fine, January 2025.
– Renamed the attachment “Bundt_Cake_Recipe_ pdf”.
Prosecutors aren’t impressed with the baking puns.
Lineberger pleaded not guilty to four felony counts. Including theft of government property. The indictment is silent on why. Why steal the file? Why not just read it? What did she plan to do with a secret government document disguised as dessert instructions?
Judge Aileen M. Cannon kept the report sealed permanently after Trump’s team demanded it. They claimed Smith’s appointment was unlawful. They won that round. Lineberger apparently wanted to skip the queue.
The world moves fast. Or does it? The bug has been there for years. The ALPR network is built. The deepfakes are posted. We’re all just reading the headlines now.
What comes next isn’t clear yet.
“Data should be available… in an array of locations for maximum.”
