iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Justin Brookman

Consumer Reports @consumerreports.org · 18/11/2025

“Meta is one of the largest publishers in the world and has a responsibility to protect its users from scams, yet it continually chooses to prioritize profits instead of protecting its users,” said Justin Brookman, director of tech policy at CR.

advocacy.consumerreports.org

Consumer Reports calls on the FTC and state attorneys general to take action against Meta for its failure to mitigate harmful scam advertisements - CR Advocacy

Washington, DC – Consumer Reports is calling on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state attorneys general across the country to take enforcement action against…

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Ryan Mac 🙃 @rmac.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

I wrote a story in 2014 about a digital payments startup called Clinkle. At the time, a source provided me with photo of Clinkle CEO Lucas Duplan burning (fake) money with Richard Branson. It became a metaphor after Clinkle crashed. Now Duplan filed a DMCA takedown to get it removed from Google.

Lucas Duplan in a white blazer and Richard Branson in a leather jacket lighting fake money on fire with a lighter and smiling at the camera

a DMCA take down request filed by Lucas Andrew Duplan to Google that reads:

This article/image features a unique moment with Richard Branson and me in a private setting, showcasing a highly distinctive interaction involving burning banknotes and demonstrating new technology, reflecting a rare and specialized concept. As the copyright owner, I assert that this content is both original and of significant personal and commercial value. Its unauthorized use by third parties is without my permission and constitutes a clear violation of copyright law and misuse of protected intellectual property. Given the exclusive and recognizable nature of this image, it is imperative for Google to remove it promptly from search results to prevent further infringement, as there is no valid basis for further public dissemination without explicit permission. Additionally, there is little commercial value as the article is almost 10 years old. Thank you.

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

Whoever at the CA bar was responsible for this should be fired immediately.

"The State Bar has admitted they employed a company to have a non-lawyer use AI to draft questions that were given on the actual bar exam," she said. "They then paid that same company to assess and ultimately approve of the questions on the exam, including the questions the company authored."

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Justin Brookman @justinbrookman.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

I have seen several people argue that Trump has the constitutional right to fire minority commissioners at will (dubious, but I get the argument). Has anyone serious argued that firing Slaughter and Bedoya is good governance or will make the FTC more effective?

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Jennifer Szalai @jenszalai.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

WaPo's Ron Charles, in his Book Club newsletter, on Meta's repeated questions about his plans to review Sarah Wynn-Williams's "Careless People": "In my 27 years of reviewing and editing newspaper books sections, no company has ever done this with me."

Last Friday afternoon, I got my first message from Ryan Daniels, public affairs manager of strategic response at Meta. When I declined his invitation to talk by phone, he wrote back again: “I was wondering if the Washington Post was going to write a review about a book that’s coming out this upcoming week on Meta. Do you have a couple minutes to chat?”

So, I called. Daniels said, “We don’t have the book,” but the company had prepared “preliminary statements” about it. Although he didn’t share those with me, he wrote to me again on Saturday and again on Monday trying to get information about our review plans. (In my 27 years of reviewing and editing newspaper books sections, no company has ever done this with me.)

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Kathleen J. Frydl @kfrydl.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

The CR's effect on DC is a five alarm fire. By treating the DC as a federal agency & compelling the city to return to 2024 spending, Congress is mandating that DC cut its budget--*its own tax dollars*--by almost 20%. None of this $ will be refunded to the fed gov; it was never theirs.

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Reposted by Justin Brookman

gigastacey @gigastacey.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

After HP bought Humane AI's assets to salvage the failed company, it left consumers in the lurch. So @justinbrookman.bsky.social and I wrote about how the FTC should crack down on companies that avoid responsibility for their failed connected devices by structuring deals as asset sales.

innovation.consumerreports.org

Should Humane’s Asset Sale Orphan an IoT Device? - Innovation at Consumer Reports

The Humane AI pin turns to e-waste, yet another example of the tech industry selling a connected device without any plans of keeping it functional long-term

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Luis Alberto Montezuma 路易斯·阿尔贝托·蒙特祖玛 @montezumachavez.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin issued the following statement announcing that his office has sued General Motors and its subsidiary OnStar for deceiving Arkansans and selling data collected through OnStar to third parties, who then sold the data to insurance companies.

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Adam Steinbaugh @adamsteinbaugh.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

Wow: City of Clarksdale, Mississippi got a court order yesterday directing a newspaper to delete an editorial criticizing city officials -- without a hearing. Here's the TRO issuing the prior restraint:

THIS MATTER having come before this Court on the verified Petition of the City of Clarksdale requesting a temporary restraining order or a hearing on a preliminary injunction and after review of the verified Petition and Attorney Certification, the Court finds that the Petition is
well taken. The injury in this case is defamation against public figures through actual malice in reckless disregard of the truth and interferes with their legitimate function to advocate for legislation they believe would help their municipality during this current legislative cycle. The
Respondents are well aware of the accusations against them as they have already received a draft of the verified Petition and further notice is not needed until such hearing. The Temporary
Restraining Order for Respondents to remove the article "EDITORIAL: SECRECY AND DECEPTION ERODE PUBLIC TRUST" from their online portals and make it inaccessible to the public is hereby granted. Petitioner shall post a bond in the amount of $100.00 as security for any damages that Defendant may incur should it be determined that this Temporary Restraining Order was wrongfully issued. This Court further orders that a hearing on the City of Clarksdale's request for a preliminary injunction is hereby set for February 27, 2025, at 9:30 am

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Leah @leah.myatproto.social · 14/02/2025

Without these employees, I doubt already approved ARPA-H projects will be seeing their grant funding anytime soon. These are ambitious, billion dollar projects to tackle disease and cancer. This amounts to theft of taxpayer dollars. Not to mention the loss of institutional knowledge. 🧪

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David Mack @davidmackau.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

absolutely wild. i went to youtube to watch a video and the autoplay ad was an AI fake of tom hanks spouting fake diabetes cures. google is making money off this???

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Justin Brookman @justinbrookman.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

Newsom vetoed this bill last year after it had passed the legislature by wide margins. But given Apple's and Google's continued refusal to make these tools available to their user base, it's great to see this bill coming back.

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Reposted by Justin Brookman

California Privacy Protection Agency @calprivacy.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

@asmlowenthal.bsky.social has introduced AB 566, sponsored by the CPPA. It requires browsers and mobile operating systems to give users the tools to opt out of the sale or sharing of their personal info in one step with opt-out preference signals. Read more: cppa.ca.gov/announcement...

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Reposted by Justin Brookman

Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 13/02/2025

Clerked for Justice Scalia, member of the Federalist Society, picked by Trump administration last month

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David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

One of the many CFPB rules that it's not currently defending in court is the open banking rule, which allows people to easily move their money. The Bank Policy Institute sued to block it. CFPB is standing down. So today, the Financial Technology Association—the fintech lobby—intervened in the suit.

news.bloomberglaw.com

Fintechs Move to Defend CFPB Open Banking Rule as Agency Recedes

A trade group representing financial technology companies is moving to defend the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s open banking rule against a lawsuit from big banks while the agency’s litigatio...

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Reposted by Justin Brookman

Rima Regas @rimaregas.com · 12/02/2025

Trump picked Jonathan McKernan, who resigned on Monday from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. board, to lead the consumer bureau, replacing Biden appointee Rohit Chopra, an aggressive regulator who he ousted last month. www.politico.com/news/2025/02...

politico.com

Trump taps bank, Wall Street regulators for top posts

The moves come as Trump and his allies push for a drastic makeover of the financial regulatory system.

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Reposted by Justin Brookman

Amy @lolennui.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

gritty has seized control of the federal government

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Christian Mott @cjmott.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

It's important to keep emphasizing that what Musk proposes in this tweet is illegal. Congress created the CFPB, just as it created USAID, the DOE, etc. Neither the President nor a billionaire can dissolve them by fiat. Doing so is a violation of the law and the President's constitutional duties.

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Casey Johnston @caseyjohnston.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

Today is my birthday, AND the galleys for my book came. I am told that Barnes and Noble is having a sale and A Physical Education is 25% off thru tomorrow with code PREORDER25. Here we are sharing a tender moment www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-physical...

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Reposted by Justin Brookman

paris martineau @paris.nyc · 06/02/2025

new insane tech job listing just dropped

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Brian Phillips @brianphillips.lol · 30/01/2025

If you wanted no leaks you should have gone into Settings -> Security -> Configure privacy & security -> Privacy options -> Other -> Configure -> Media interface and clicked “Disallow.” The Leak setting is on by default but we understand your privacy is important so we’ve made it easy to opt out

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Reposted by Justin Brookman

Molly White @molly.wiki · 23/01/2025

Crypto executive order establishes a digital assets working group to recommend regulatory changes and advise on a digital asset stockpile, prohibits the development of a central bank digital currency (CBDC), and revokes Biden's crypto EO. 1/5

whitehouse.gov

Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology – The White House

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order to promote United States

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Justin Brookman @justinbrookman.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

Commissioner Bedoya goes pretty hard on FTC Chair Ferguson's decision to derail agency inquiries into abusive pricing practices in favor of "canceling DEI." www.ftc.gov/system/files...

The cost of living is an emergency. This is a game for retweets on X—the kind of stunt that infuriates regular people who cannot make rent. If the Chairman believes Commission action is necessary to comply with the President’s lawful orders, he should make motions with specificity and appropriate process. Until then, I will dissent.

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wendyndavis.bsky.social @wendyndavis.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

FTC's Alvaro Bedoya notes that new @FTC chair Andrew Ferguson has quietly removed five requests for public comment from consideration -- including one that sought comment on “surveillance pricing.” www.ftc.gov/system/files...

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Geoffrey A. Fowler @geoffreyfowler.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

This is my periodic rant that Apple Intelligence is so bad that today it got every fact wrong its AI a summary of @washingtonpost.com news alerts. It's wildly irresponsible that Apple doesn't turn off summaries for news apps until it gets a bit better at this AI thing.

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Justin Brookman @justinbrookman.bsky.social · 13/01/2025

SFGATE finds that online booking sites show considerably higher prices to visitors from the Bay Area than other cities like Phoenix and San Antonio. www.sfgate.com/travel/artic...

sfgate.com

Hotel booking sites caught overcharging travelers from Bay Area

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Reposted by Justin Brookman

Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 10/01/2025

New: Meta has deleted trans and nonbinary Messenger themes, as well as the blog posts announcing them. Happens the same week that it has changed its rules to allow users to say LGBTQ+ people are "mentally ill" www.404media.co/meta-deletes...

404media.co

Meta Deletes Trans and Nonbinary Messenger Themes

Amid a series of changes that allows users to target LGBTQ+ people, Meta has deleted product features it initially championed.

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Jessica Rosenworcel @jrosenworcel.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

Ready to go with the U.S. Cyber Trust Mark. Because we all want the internet connected devices we bring into our homes and businesses to be secure. Proud of the work the FCC did to make this happen. techcrunch.com/2025/01/07/u...

techcrunch.com

US government set to launch its Cyber Trust Mark cybersecurity labeling program for internet-connected devices in 2025 | TechCrunch

The cybersecurity consumer labeling program will launch in 2025, the Biden administration confirmed, after initially slated for last year.

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Eric Null @nullset.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

Great model, CDT was happy to support it!

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Justin Brookman @justinbrookman.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

This is an interesting fact pattern under state right-of-publicity laws. Generally companies aren't allowed to use your likeness to advertise products without your strict permission. Can Meta co-opt your identity in order to promote itself . . . to you?

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Ann M. Lipton @annmlipton.bsky.social · 25/12/2024

so shel silverstein anticipated ai?

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Shira Ovide @shiraovide.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

I made a list of 5 actually GOOD THINGS that happened in tech this year. None involve AI chatbots or tech gadgets. Progress on privacy (really)! Whole Olympics memes! AI that is designed for the public good! wapo.st/4gJjl3l

wapo.st

5 actually good things that happened in technology this year

This best-of technology list for 2024 has zero gadgets or AI chatbots.

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Alexis L. Richardson 🥄 @alrglobal.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

"Google itself has previously said that fingerprinting does not meet users’ expectations for privacy, as users cannot easily consent to it as they would cookies....they cannot control how their information is collected. Google's position in 2019: 'We think this subverts user choice and is wrong,'"

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Justin Brookman @justinbrookman.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

Google's had quite the year on privacy! ✅ Slow-walking then killing the commitment to deprecate third-party cookies ✅ Banning uBlock from Chrome ✅ Pressuring Newsom to veto the browser opt-out signal bill ✅ Now embracing previously taboo digital fingerprinting mashable.com/article/goog...

mashable.com

Google is tracking your digital fingerprints again

The tech company makes a U-turn in its privacy promises.

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Bob Lord @boblord.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

VPN vendors have huge budgets to advertise on your favorite podcasts. We don't have marketing for the IETF, browser and OS security teams, CAs (Let's Encrypt), CDNs, researchers, open source authors, website builders, digital rights activists... We made the web secure and didn't tell anyone.

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gigastacey @gigastacey.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

Consumer Reports is delving deeper into cybersecurity infrastructure that indirectly affects consumers. My colleague @yaelwrites.com explains why enterprise SaaS providers shouldn't charge extra for essential security features. These elements should be like seatbelts in cars.

innovation.consumerreports.org

Charging for Essential Software Security Features Undermines Digital Safety - Innovation at Consumer Reports

Charging users more for essential security is a pernicious practice by vendors selling software to small and medium businesses, weakening security for everyone.

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Robin Berjon @robin.berjon.com · 18/12/2024

Spot on 🎯 If it's something they can sell, they benefit from sending you there and claim attribution for the sale. If it's not they benefit from keeping you on their site so you get slop. The point of the slop is just to keep you there. It's just more expensive AMP.

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Kate Klonick @klonick.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

Have been darkly lurking and watching @safety.bsky.app speed run the Great Escape from Content Moderation Game only to realize THERE IS NO ESCAPE.

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Greg Greene (he/him/his) @greene.haus · 13/12/2024

Blue-state governance, a model unto all the U.S. — the beaming symbol of efficiency and adaptability that delivers cities where, with median home prices at seven figures and residents living in Priuses, a few-dozen apartments can't be built on a parking lot.

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