In this edition:
- TikTok Sells Viral GPS Trackers, Marketed to Stalkers
- US ICE Agency Reinstates Spyware Contract with Paragon
- Australia Mandates Digital Age Verification for Major Tech Platforms
- Major Security Breach Exposes Hidden Customer Dashcam Footage
- US-Israel Plan Proposes Relocating Gazans to Build AI-Powered “Smart Cities”
- Former WhatsApp Security Chief Sues Meta over Cybersecurity Failures
- Google Fined Massive €2.95B over Abusive Advertising Practices
- Warrantless Phone Searches Hit Record High in US
TikTok Sells Viral GPS Trackers, Marketed To Stalkers
TikTok shop vendors are leveraging the platform’s powerful algorithm to market GPS trackers and recording devices that can secretly surveil or record a romantic partner or love interest. The products are promoted through viral videos, some with millions of views, featuring voiceovers explicitly encouraging users to hide the devices in a partner’s car to “catch them cheating.” The marketing strategy frames these tools not for personal security, but rather as instruments for domestic surveillance and coercive control, capitalising on jealousy and distrust to drive sales—with some listings boasting over 100,000 units sold.
While the platform’s policies prohibit content that promotes violence, criminal activities, or secret surveillance, these videos often sneak in with disclaimers. Despite TikTok’s statement that this type of content is banned and the platform having removed some videos following media inquiries, dozens of nearly identical promotions remain in the site, with a clear lack of enforcement. To date, eleven US states prohibit GPS tracking in “stalking laws,” and fifteen other states prohibit tracking a vehicle without the consent of the owner.
Ultimately, this highlights a dangerous convergence of accessible surveillance technology, social media influencer-led obsession for viral content, and current societal attitudes that too often downplay or justify illegal or immoral violations of privacy. This type of digital marketing preys on the misconception that stalking is acceptable if one suspects infidelity or feels morally justified. Even though many of these products are unreliable, their viral promotion normalises serious invasions of privacy and breaches of trust, potentially putting countless individuals at risk and exposing a seemingly systemic preference for profit over principle.
US ICE Agency Reinstates Spyware Contract with Paragon
On August 30, 2025, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency reinstated a $2 million contract with the spyware firm Paragon Solutions. The decision came after the company, originally founded by Israeli military intelligence, was acquired by a US private equity firm to bring it into technical compliance with a Biden administration executive order designed to restrict the use of risky foreign commercial spyware. This grants ICE agents access to Paragon’s powerful “Graphite” hacking tool, capable of covertly infiltrating cell phones to extract messages, photos, and location data, including encrypted messaging apps like WhatsApp and Signal— effectively turning them into listening devices.
The main issues lie in the threats to civil liberties and the potential for abuse—as the company has refused to show its client list. Privacy advocates note that Graphite has already been implicated in targeting European journalists and political figures, exploiting vulnerabilities in devices like the iPhone.
This also reveals the US government’s disinterest and resistance in balancing security interests with fundamental privacy rights. While this contract may satisfy “regulatory” requirements, it does not mitigate the inherent dangers of the technology itself.
Australia Mandates Digital Age Verification for Major Tech Platforms
Australia is embarking on a bold and contentious digital policy experiment with its plan to mandate age verification for social media users by 2025. The government’s stated ambition is to create a safer online environment, particularly for minors, by shielding them from harmful content and the potential negative impacts of social media platforms. But the concern is the significant privacy and surveillance risk inherent in the proposed solution.
To effectively verify the age of every user, platforms would be required to collect and process highly sensitive personal data, such as government-issued ID, biometric information, or other official documents. The move would essentially create a centralised database of citizens’ digital identities, which privacy advocates argue becomes a lucrative target for cyber-attacks and data breaches. Also, the infrastructure required for verification could normalise a new level of digital surveillance, potentially allowing both corporations and governments to track online speech with unprecedented specificity.
Major Security Breach Exposes Hidden Customer Dashcam Footage
A security breach at dashcam company Nexar has exposed some profound privacy risks within vehicle dashcams. A hacker gained access to a massive database containing terabytes of unencrypted video footage from users’ cars, revealing intimate moments of drivers and passengers who were completely unaware they were being watched by a third party. The breach occurred due to a critical security flaw via an overly permissive key, allowing dashcam access not just for uploads of its own data, but also access to download entire troves of recordings from every other user—a flaw Nexar says they’ve now fixed.
The compromised videos included footage of a driver approaching the entrance of the CIA headquarters, while Nexar’s own public map showed blurred images of vehicles entering sensitive military installations like Whiteman Air Force Base. Other internal documents revealed a vast network of companies and government entities that have explored or gained access to Nexar’s data, including tech giants like Apple and Google, AI firms, the city of Los Angeles, and even the IDF (Israel Defense Forces), which Nexar denies a relationship with.
Despite Nexar’s claims of anonymisation, researchers and this breach confirm that so-called “blurred” data can still reveal sensitive info, with consumers being entirely unaware.
US-Israel Plan Proposes Clearing Gaza To Build AI-Powered “Smart Cities”
A US-Israeli plan for Gaza proposes to relocate Palestinians and clear the area, to build AI-powered “smart cities”. The proposal dubbed the “Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation Trust” (GREAT Trust), envisions the complete demolition of the Strip and the permanent removal of its more than 2 million Palestinian residents. The plan would replace them with luxury tourist-driven resorts and a high-tech commercial hub, modelled after Dubai, with the territory under the control of a trust managed by Israeli and American investors.
The plan is presented as a “voluntary” departure, where residents would be offered a small financial incentive — reportedly around $5,000 and rental subsidies — to abandon their land and become refugees. In exchange, they would receive a digital token that could theoretically be redeemed for property in the future development, a process critics argue clearly constitutes forced displacement and land appropriation.
The vision prioritises economic and strategic interests, such as positioning Gaza as a logistics hub for a new economic corridor, over the fundamental rights and desires of the indigenous population. Similarly, it sets a precedent for biometric “smart cities” that may well spread to other countries in the future.
Former WhatsApp Security Chief Sues Meta over Cybersecurity Failures
A battle has emerged between Meta and a whistleblower, positioning the public image of WhatsApp as a beacon of privacy, against alarming internal security failures. While the company has filled airwaves with ads featuring celebrities assuring users no one can see or hear their personal messages — a newly filed federal lawsuit from Attaullah Baig, the former head of WhatsApp security, paints a picture of systemic vulnerabilities, often with a stark lack of transparency. The suit alleges that Meta leadership was not only aware of critical flaws but actively concealed them, potentially violating a landmark $5 billion settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
According to the complaint roughly 1,500 WhatsApp engineers had “unrestricted access” to vast stores of user data, enabling them to move or exfiltrate information without any detectable trail. Baig also said the platform failed to implement basic safeguards against data scraping, leading to the profiles of up to 400 million users being copied regularly and used in scams. He also stated that account takeovers were rampant, affecting hundreds of thousands of users each day, and that his repeated recommendations to senior leaders — including Mark Zuckerberg — to address these issues were dismissed for fear they would hamper growth.
Meta has vehemently denied the accusations, characterising Baig as a low-level employee dismissed for “poor performance,” stating his claims were previously assessed and dismissed. The company asserts that its culture encourages rigorous debate and that its security work is ongoing. This lawsuit juxtaposes the gap between a public-facing promise of absolute privacy and the internal engineering and data governance practices which often leave user data exposed.
Google Fined Massive €2.95B over Abusive Advertising Practices
The European Commission has hit Google with a huge €2.95 billion fine for systematically abusing its dominant market position to distort competition in the advertising technology industry. At the heart of the ruling is the finding that Google engaged in biased “self-preferencing” by favouring its own ad exchange, AdX, through its dominant publisher ad server and ad buying tools. This included sharing confidential bidding data with its own exchange and steering advertiser bids away from its rivals, granting AdX an unfair advantage and ultimately harming competitors, advertisers, and online publishers.
Beyond the financial penalty, the EU Commission ordered Google to not only cease the anti-competitive practices but to also implement measures that address the inherent conflicts of interest created by its control over the entire ad-tech supply chain. They’ve signalled that it preliminarily believes only a divestment of part of Google’s services would effectively resolve these structural issues. Google now has 60 days to propose its own solutions, which the Commission will assess as effective or not.
This ruling reflects increasing worldwide scrutiny of the dominance tech giants like Google hold, particularly as the US Department of Justice takes on a parallel lawsuit, set to go to trial in late 2025. For businesses and publishers in the digital advertising ecosystem, the ruling opens doors for more potential lawsuits, signalling a push towards a more transparent market.
Warrantless Phone Searches Hit Record High in US
Travellers to the U.S are facing an unprecedented level of digital surveillance at the border, where Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents are searching personal electronic devices in record numbers. Between April and June of 2025, CBP agents examined the phones of nearly 15,000 individuals, a number that represents a new high and a significant expansion in such draconian measures. The process often begins with a simple but authoritative request for a traveler’s unlocked device, granting agents the power to scroll through photos, messages, emails, and apps without the need for a warrant or reasonable suspicion.
The agency downplays the scale of the intrusions claiming that searches affect less than 0.01% of all travellers. But this does little to minimise the disdain from people subjected to the searches, which critics describe as a “surveillance sprint” operating under a different set of rules from domestic law enforcement. The legal justification hinges on the “border search exception,” which grants CBP broad authority to conduct searches at ports of entry, effectively treating the border as a rights-free zone where the usual constitutional protections don’t fully apply.
Travellers are often tied in a difficult position where refusal to comply can lead to detention, device confiscation, or even denial of entry.
That concludes this edition of Your Worldwide INTERNET REPORT!
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nice, good to see tech stuff, keep it coming
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