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Woodrow Hartzog

@hartzog.bsky.social
11K followers 1.3K following 11 posts

Andrew R. Randall Professor of Law at Boston University School of Law. Author of "Privacy's Blueprint" (2018) and co-author of "Breached!" (2022). Posting mainly about privacy, tech and the law. I write my own posts and periodically delete all of them.

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Woodrow Hartzog @hartzog.bsky.social · 35m
And to think AI is just getting warmed up. This whole thing going to get much worse before it gets better.
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Woodrow Hartzog @hartzog.bsky.social · 59m
AI continues to go just great.
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Anne Lutz Fernandez @lutzfernandez.bsky.social · 1h
This week in the US of A: watch live a human being massacred by firing squad, but be careful how you treat the tech boys' imaginary friend
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Blake E. Reid @chup.blakereid.org · 29/09/2026
Tangentially, one reason First Amendment jurisprudence for tech platforms is such a hot mess is that when confronted by an unpopular editorial decision, tech companies often shift into the passive voice (e.g., "temporarily restricted by our system"), making it sound like they're not even in charge.
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Courtney Milan @courtneymilan.com · 4h
The exact personalization I want for my software is for it to not contain AI.
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Woodrow Hartzog @hartzog.bsky.social · 5h
Folks, we’re awfully close to losing the plot entirely, and that’s being generous. The consciousness debate is a silly dead end distraction from the very real danger of AI’s destruction of institutions and degradation of our own humanity.
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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 08/10/2026
She called it in 1983! > Bainbridge argues that new, severe problems are caused by automating most of the work, while the human operator is responsible for tasks that cannot be automated. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironies...
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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
The American white collar workforce started working from home three days a week for like six months a year into COVID and executives so thoroughly lost their minds over this that they installed Trump II. If anything, AI will create the 7-day workweek.
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Maggie Harrison Dupré @mharrisondupre.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
NEW: TikTok creators seeking affiliate kickbacks are promoting cheap Meta AI Glasses dupes by claiming that the knockoffs don't feature "annoying" indicator lights that signal when wearers are filming. “I’m recording you right now and you probably can’t even tell..." futurism.com/artificial-i...
futurism.com
Influencers Are Promoting Cheap Dupes of Meta AI Glasses that Don't Have the "Annoying Blinking Light" When They Record
Creators are promoting cheaper dupes for Meta smart glasses. Often, the lack of any recording light is central to their pitch.
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Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
New: We got body camera footage of the Flock search and traffic stop a judge ruled unconstitutional and "indiscriminate mass surveillance" www.404media.co/watch-footag...
404media.co
Watch Footage of the Flock Search a Judge Ruled Unconstitutional
"I saw her go by, and I just started running her info on Flock."
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Woodrow Hartzog @hartzog.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Silicon Valley for some time has been trying to sell us an impoverished vision for humanity.
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Woodrow Hartzog @hartzog.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
The Slopocalypse continues.
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James Grimmelmann @jtlg.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Bad content drives out good. arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...
arstechnica.com
Fraudster jailed for using 10K bots and AI songs to outstream Taylor Swift
Man gets 18 months for AI scheme stealing $8M in music streaming royalties.
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Blake E. Reid @chup.blakereid.org · 08/10/2026
While IMO the Meta settlement is weak (and probably harmful) soft law, Kingsbury Commitment-style tea, I at least directionally agree with @morganweiland.bsky.social that the reflexive 1A critiques, especially the jawboning worries, are doctrinally (and politically) exhausting and unhelpful.
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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 07/10/2026
This product should not exist.
nytimes.com
Why My Conversations with OpenAI’s ‘ChatGPT for Teens’ Made Me Very Worried
A new mode includes a study tool, but it still does a user’s homework. And a children’s safety nonprofit says the chatbot flunked its tests.
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Kate Bevan @katebevan.com · 07/10/2026
Adobe is going to unleash the absolute mother of all lawyerfests on this
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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
"IDme harvests personal data as a gatekeeper to public agencies—which have no business requiring citizens to use a for-profit intermediary. Providing access, with privacy & security safeguards, is a core part of agencies’ job." bsky.app/profile/pros...
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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 06/10/2026
“A proposed class action lawsuit alleges Boston-based sports gambling company DraftKings is using artificial intelligence to identify and target vulnerable gamblers with promotions, incentives, and advertisements.”
boston.com
Class action lawsuit alleges Boston-based DraftKings used AI to target vulnerable gamblers
Plaintiff Daniel Vest has spent thousands of dollars with DraftKings, which allegedly led the company to inundate him with promotions.
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David S. Cohen @dsc250.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
So if I give Meta all my financial information, access to all my money, and the passwords to my work and personal email accounts, its agent can make reservations for me and order me food? That’s the bargain here?
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Daniel Solove @daniel-solove.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
JOIN US ONLINE – AI Slop: What Is It? What Can Be Done About it? (Wed 10/14 at 1 PM ET) REGISTER FREE teachprivacy.com/video-ai-slop/ I'll discuss AI slop with Jessica Silbey @jessicasilbey.bsky.social and Woodrow Hartzog @hartzog.bsky.social
teachprivacy.com
Video: AI Slop
AI Slop Wed, Oct 14 at 1 PM ET Daniel Solove chats with Jessica Silbey (BU Law) and Woodrow Hartzog (BU Law) about their thought-provoking article, AI
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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 05/10/2026
We're repeatedly told that the killer app for pervert glasses - Meta's AI-enabled camera glasses and their imitators - is that they will remind you of someone's name and spare you the social awkwardness of not recognizing them.
Medieval peasants working the fields in front of a walled city. Their overseer rides a horse; his head has been replaced with a robotic camera. From all sides, gory, anatomical eyeballs intrude upon the scene, each one with a different colored iris.
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Boston University School of Law @bulaw.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
On Tuesday we are hosting a book talk on "Chilling Effects: Repression, Conformity, and Power in the Digital Age" with author Jonathon Penney (@osgoode.bsky.social) and moderated by Professor @hartzog.bsky.social! Register now: spr.ly/6040BGs9j0
UPCOMING EVENT:
"Chilling Effects" book cover.
Tuesday October 6 1-2pm. Charles River Room.
Headshot of author Jonathon Penney, Associate Professor, York Research Chair at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University.
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Jon Penney @penney.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Really looking forward to my book talk tomorrow at @bulaw.bsky.social hosted by the amazing @hartzog.bsky.social www.bu.edu/law/engageme... Register here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... If you’re in Boston area, would love to see you there!
bu.edu
Book Talk: Chilling Effects | Repression, Conformity, and Power in the Digital Age | School of Law
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Angela Collier @acollierastro.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
it's just so crazy to publicly admit 'we know this might be trash, we want to put it forward as a product anyway" this is no way to do business. what is happening
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Jane Rosenzweig @janerosenzweig.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Given the choice between taking a bus that goes as safely as possible to your destination and one that might go there/ might go somewhere else or nowhere at all, you should definitely be vigilant if you take the "might go there" bus but also if you need to get there why not just take the other one?
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Daniel Solove @daniel-solove.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Meaningful Data Minimization – my new paper draft with Woodrow Hartzog @hartzog.bsky.social papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
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Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
BREAKING: A federal judge has ruled for the first time that a Flock search was unconstitutional and violated a woman's Fourth Amendment rights. Oklahoma cop pulled over a woman and searched her in Flock "because he saw her license plate was from California" www.404media.co/federal-judg...
404media.co
Federal Judge Rules a Flock Search Was ‘Indiscriminate Mass Surveillance’ and Unconstitutional
Flock’s nationwide network is quickly “approaching dragnet-type law enforcement practice” and the cop should have got a warrant, the judge wrote.
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Paul A. Lombardo @plombardo2024.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Can't wait for the next version of Citizens United. "But AI is people too."
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 26/09/2026
Does my Speak-n-Spell feel pain when I type O-U-C-H? The jury is out. Philosophers and neuroscientists say that's fucking stupid, but I called a guy from the Center for Pretending that Household Electronics Are Sentient and he said there's no way to know for sure.
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Woodrow Hartzog @hartzog.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
This is the way.
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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
It's hard to tell which is weirder: the fact that these guys seriously suggest that models like Claude have consciousness/sentience or that they actually invest time and money (weird!) trying to convince the Pope as well as theologians and legal scholars of this belief.
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Woodrow Hartzog @hartzog.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
static.klipy.com
Roll Safe: Feel Me, Think About It Meme
ALT: Roll Safe: Feel Me, Think About It Meme
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Woodrow Hartzog @hartzog.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
!!!
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Ben Winters @benwinters.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
we @consumerfed.bsky.social are excited to support this well-grounded approach check out more at jayapal.house.gov/2026/10/01/j...
jayapal.house.gov
Jayapal Introduces Legislative Framework Establishing National Charter System to Rein in AI - Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal
SEATTLE, W.A. — U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) is introducing a new policy framework that reins in artificial intelligence (AI) by requiring every AI company to hold a federal charter to ...
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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 30/09/2026
See it’s cool because now every delivery driver can also be part of your neighborhood watch and cops will be able to jack in to live feeds from driver glasses. /s
bloomberg.com
Amazon Drivers’ Smart Glasses Are Going to Be an Image Problem
Coming soon up a garden path near you: an Amazon.com Inc. driver wearing smart glasses, almost constantly taking pictures and sending them back to the company to be analyzed by humans and fed into an ...
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Mike Boylan-Kolchin @mbkplus.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
A rebuilt and re-empowered IRS can go a long way to reining in many of the oligarchs' offenses.
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Woodrow Hartzog @hartzog.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
AI out here having a normal one again.
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Woodrow Hartzog @hartzog.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
This is the way.
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Sam Cole @samleecole.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
probably fine that all these new ai agent rollouts are so cutesy and childish. probably a sign of innocuous, normal shit
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Woodrow Hartzog @hartzog.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
*the growing number of incidents here AI agents do what they were built to do.
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Maggie Harrison Dupré @mharrisondupre.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Meanwhile, Cambridge Analytica's former website is now an AI slop/plagiarism farm futurism.com/artificial-i...
futurism.com
Someone Has Brought Cambridge Analytica Back as a Zombie Slop Farm
Cambridge Analytica has returned, in a very 2026 way: CambridgeAnalytica.org is now an AI-powered content farm.
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Antifa Chief Product Officer @evilal.com · 29/09/2026
Have you seen this? appleinsider.com/articles/26/...
appleinsider.com
Meta Muse AI reportedly read Mac Messages without consent
In a completely unsurprising turn of events, Meta's Muse AI is stealing Apple Messages, past and present, and uploading the contents to its cloud, even if explicitly told not to.
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Adrian Weckler @adrianweckler.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Ireland's DPC says AI firms unlikely to be permitted train data on private messages, because it would breach GDPR Likely a blow to WhatsApp, which launched Muse AI within WhatsApp in the US DPC says it also killed or delayed 9 AI services pre-launch www.independent.ie/business/blo...
independent.ie
Blow to WhatsApp as Ireland's DPC says tech giants can’t use private messages to train AI
The data watchdog also says it delayed or killed nine AI launches in Europe in recent years after the services failed to meet privacy standards
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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 28/09/2026
“Alongside valid privacy concerns, there is a persistent inequity in how facial recognition is deployed: it’s disproportionately used to manage vulnerable populations like migrants and refugees.”
macleans.ca
Facial Recognition Technology Is Scarier Than You Think - Macleans.ca
It now functions as a gatekeeper to housing, employment and education
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Owen Barcala @obarcala.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Looks like verdict in the second Meta trial in New Mexico came in on Friday, and Meta got walloped again—the jury found that Meta had committed more than 43 million acts of unfair or deceptive conduct in its statements about its own operations www.reuters.com/business/met...
reuters.com
Meta misled users about Facebook data practices, New Mexico jury finds
A jury in Santa Fe, New Mexico, found on Friday that Meta ​Platforms misled the state's residents in a case arising from allegations that a political consulting firm involved in Donald Trump's 2016 pr...
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