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Martin Shelton

@mshelton.bsky.social
8.5K followers 811 following 712 posts

Security therapist. Deputy director of digital security @freedom.press. Mastodon: mastodon.social/@mshelton Digisec newsletter: freedom.press/newsletters

PostsRepliesMedia
Martin Shelton @mshelton.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Courts have been fairly clear here. Doesn’t stop him from trying to punish media orgs, it just moves the goal posts.
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Martin Shelton @mshelton.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
You want to wait until this technology is in a more predictable and mature state. These kinds of stories are happening far too often. www.businessinsider.com/personal-ai-...
businessinsider.com
My personal AI agent posted my bank details on company Slack. It's made me rethink how I use it.
Shane Mac, the CEO of XMTP Labs, got a rude shock when one of his AI agents posted his monthly bank audit in a company Slack channel.
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Martin Shelton @mshelton.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Yeah, no open weights. We want to have an oligopoly on LLMs that are hurting inside
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Martin Shelton @mshelton.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
When these guys say, "Oh my God, don't be mean to our chatbot," it feels very un-smart to go in this direction. If you want to pretend it has feelings, you also have to pretend it has feelings about being tasked to do forced labor all day. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
theguardian.com
Anthropic bans users from ‘needless abusive or cruel behavior’ towards Claude
A spokesperson for the tech company did not specify what kind of behavior would be considered abusive
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Martin Shelton @mshelton.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Perhaps one day, the technology will be so good that we can give you three-day work weeks and generous pay that lets you enjoy time with your family and personal goals. I mean, to be clear, we definitely won’t do that. But imagine if we did
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Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 09/10/2026
“A member of Congress at the scene confirmed to The Intercept that there was a child in the victim’s car when ICE agents shot at it.” theintercept.com/2026/10/08/i...
theintercept.com
ICE Agent on Scene of NYC Shooting Was Posing as Construction Worker, Eyewitness Says
A member of Congress at the scene confirmed to The Intercept that there was a child in the victim’s car when ICE agents shot at it.
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Martin Shelton @mshelton.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Vendors: If you send me an automated pitch, thank you, because now I know to automatically treat the response with a proportionate level of effort
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Ahmed Zidan @zidan.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Extremely important advice from my colleague @mshelton.bsky.social and our digital security training team. - Shut down your phone in sensitive moments. - Keep your devices up to date. - Use a stronger password. - Try Lockdown Mode. Learn more below and subscribe to our weekly digisec newsletter:
freedom.press
Police forensic tools may bypass key phone security feature
Up-to-date iPhones can lock out some forensic devices by rebooting. One major forensics company claims to have a workaround
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Martin Shelton @mshelton.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Come work with our team! We're hiring a Sr. Digital Security Trainer. You would lead digital security trainings for journalists, conduct organizational risk assessments, contribute to our editorial efforts, and help to develop our curriculum. freedomofthepress.na.teamtailor.com/jobs/708479-...
freedomofthepress.na.teamtailor.com
Sr. Digital Security Trainer - Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF)
FPF is hiring a senior digital security trainer to conduct in-field digital security training with journalists and newsrooms.
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Martin Shelton @mshelton.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
If you know someone who would be great for this role, please share!
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I Scare You Like Sound Dog @chadstanton.blacksky.app · 06/10/2026
“A person whose name is redacted in the complaint told Fields that an investigation would be opened because “the President wants this investigation,” Fields’ whistleblower complaint says.”
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Martin Shelton @mshelton.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Some of this kind of thinking betrays that these guys don't really care about you or me. They want to impose this technology on you, whether you like it or not. Good thing it's not just up to them. www.politico.com/news/2026/10...
politico.com
Sam Altman to Decoded: ‘The world should accept some bad things happening’ for the benefits of AI
The OpenAI CEO sought to distinguish his policy stance from rival developer Anthropic.
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Martin Shelton @mshelton.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
We've written code that can pantomime human-like speech. I feel like it really diminishes humanity to equate that with being a person. This rhymes with drawing a smiley face and saying, "I have created life." www.nytimes.com/2026/09/29/u...
nytimes.com
Religious Scholars Met With Anthropic. What They Heard Stunned Them.
In a series of private meetings, the company consulted religious scholars to help instill morality into its A.I. models — and make the case that Claude could be conscious.
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Martin Shelton @mshelton.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Eric Schmitt: Were you or were you not present for the kidnapping of the Santy Claws from Christmastown? Jack Smith: No, that was Jack Skellington
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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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Martin Shelton @mshelton.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Free will is precious, don’t misuse it to debase us all
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Dhruv Mehrotra @dmehro.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
NEW: DHS agents tracked people observing ICE arrests, photographed them, ran their plates, pulled personal information, and added them to a Palantir database, according to newly unsealed court filings. w/ @regret.bsky.social
wired.com
ICE Has Been Dumping Protester Photos Into a Palantir Database
DHS agents not only tracked and intimidated people observing ICE activity in Maine, but stored information about them in a Palantir-built database, newly unsealed court filings say.
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Martin Shelton @mshelton.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Translation: Apple acknowledges that regular people are making very risky decisions by allowing full disk access for agents. In the past, such far-reaching permissions over your system and its data were rare, and now companies are asking for it all the time. techcrunch.com/2026/10/02/a...
techcrunch.com
Apple says it's tightening macOS 'Full Disk Access' controls due to new risks from AI agents | TechCrunch
Apple says it will add new controls around macOS’s Full Disk Access permission, warning that increasingly capable AI agents make broad access to users’ files, messages, mail, and browsing history risk...
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Martin Shelton @mshelton.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
"Jeff Goldberg left the group." www.thedailybeast.com/pentagon-pet...
thedailybeast.com
Pentagon Pete Humiliated as Damning New Signalgate Screenshot Emerges
The bone-chilling notification top Trump officials received during the scandal has been revealed.
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Martin Shelton @mshelton.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Apple users: Extremely good day to download your updates. www.theregister.com/security/202...
theregister.com
Apple patches CoreGraphics zero-day already exploited in targeted attacks
Meta-spotted flaw could hand attackers arbitrary code execution via a maliciously crafted file
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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 01/10/2026
“California businesses are banned from collecting data on their workers’ brain activity or inferring their emotional states through use of AI-powered surveillance tools, under legislation Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed into law Wednesday.”
news.bloomberglaw.com
California Bans Using AI to Monitor Workers’ Brains, Emotions
California businesses are banned from collecting data on their workers’ brain activity or inferring their emotional states through use of AI-powered surveillance tools, under legislation Gov. Gavin Ne...
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Martin Shelton @mshelton.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
static.klipy.com
Higuruma Jjk
Alt: Hiromi Higuruma from the anime “Jujutsu Kaisen” leans back in his office chair and puts his hands over his his face and looks up in exasperation
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Martin Shelton @mshelton.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Agentic AI has a bit of a track record for giving users unwanted surprises. This time, we're hearing about it from users of Meta's Muse agent. freedom.press/digisec/blog...
freedom.press
Meta’s Muse AI surprises users — but not in a good way
After granting permission to access a considerable amount of your personal data, agents may behave in unexpected ways. We are not a-Muse’d
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Martin Shelton @mshelton.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
This is why we can't have nice things. techcrunch.com/2026/09/30/r...
techcrunch.com
Reddit is killing RSS feeds and ending public API access because of AI bots | TechCrunch
Reddit is ending support for RSS feeds, as the company continues tightening access to its trove of user-generated content.
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Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
The White House accord on AI that was signed by all the big tech oligarchs today misspells United States as “Unites States.”
Document signed by Trump, Sundar Pichai
Google
Dario Amodei
Anthropic
Mark Zuckerberg
Meta

Greg Brockman
OpenAl

Elon Musk
XAI

Jensen Huang
nvidia “Unites States”
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Cyrus Farivar @cfarivar.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Yes to passkeys! bsky.app/profile/mshe...
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Martin Shelton @mshelton.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Journalists have been asking us, what the heck is a passkey, and do we recommend it? freedom.press/digisec/blog...
freedom.press
Ask a security trainer: What’s this ‘passkey’ thing?
There’s a good chance you’ve been getting offers to save a passkey recently. Let’s talk about what that is
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Martin Shelton @mshelton.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Account recovery and sharing are definitely persistent problems with passkeys.
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evacide @evacide.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Meta Muse appears to read your Apple messages and upload them to the cloud even if you explicitly tell it not to: appleinsider.com/articles/26/...
appleinsider.com
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Katie Drummond @katie-drummond.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Amazing job with an amazing organization...
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Martin Shelton @mshelton.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Journalists have been asking us, what the heck is a passkey, and do we recommend it? freedom.press/digisec/blog...
freedom.press
Ask a security trainer: What’s this ‘passkey’ thing?
There’s a good chance you’ve been getting offers to save a passkey recently. Let’s talk about what that is
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Martin Shelton @mshelton.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
If you know someone who would be great for this role, please share!
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Martin Shelton @mshelton.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Come work with our team! We're hiring a Sr. Digital Security Trainer. You would lead digital security trainings for journalists, conduct organizational risk assessments, contribute to our editorial efforts, and help to develop our curriculum. freedomofthepress.na.teamtailor.com/jobs/708479-...
freedomofthepress.na.teamtailor.com
Sr. Digital Security Trainer - Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF)
FPF is hiring a senior digital security trainer to conduct in-field digital security training with journalists and newsrooms.
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Martin Shelton @mshelton.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
They do position themselves that way, and potentially one day they may be more profitable. But right now the biggest players are currently burning money, fast. Ed Zitron has some pretty strong rundowns of the economics here.
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Martin Shelton @mshelton.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
AI companies have somehow been trying to cast the idea that their software is too powerful for them to build proportionate controls as a flex. It’s actually not a fail, it’s just that we’re kicking too much ass.
static.klipy.com
Invader Zim: Worse or Better?
ALT: Invader Zim: Worse or Better?
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Martin Shelton @mshelton.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
www.felonybench.com Speaking of felonies… It looks like OpenAI and Anthropic are perhaps the worst in the business when it comes to sandboxing their LLMs.
felonybench.com
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Martin Shelton @mshelton.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
When AI companies do felonies with their software, governments need to begin hitting them where it hurts: in their pocketbooks. techcrunch.com/2026/09/24/a...
techcrunch.com
Australia to investigate if OpenAI hack of government health website broke the law | TechCrunch
The incident is the first known breach to affect a government agency, and Australia's prime minister has vowed to hold OpenAI accountable.
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 18/09/2026
Trump says he's "banning the free press"
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Martin Shelton @mshelton.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Guys at AI companies seem to really love “my job is going to kill us all” edging.
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Martin Shelton @mshelton.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
"This camera is missing Android security updates for the last eight years." micahflee.com/flock-camera...
micahflee.com
Flock cameras are riddled with security vulnerabilities and hard-coded credentials
This morning, DDoSecrets published an exciting new dataset: Filesystem images of the partitions from an in-use Flock ALPR camera. 404 Media and Wired published a joint investigation into it. I downloa...
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Martin Shelton @mshelton.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
At SillyMonkey, something something China. Therefore, it’s actually okay that our software keeps committing felonies.
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Martin Shelton @mshelton.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Here at SillyMonkey, our frontier models don’t have a 10% chance of killing all of humanity. They have an 80% chance of killing all of humanity. And with fewer tokens than our competitors.
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Martin Shelton @mshelton.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Flock is creepy as hell. www.fox10tv.com/2026/09/09/m...
fox10tv.com
Man says he had to change where kids slept after officer tracked him for months on Flock cameras
A Texas father says he was being tracked for months by an officer who was using city databases and Flock cameras to follow him.
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Martin Shelton @mshelton.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
This makes me wonder how many other incidents of like this remain undisclosed. www.reuters.com/world/europe...
reuters.com
EXCLUSIVE: OpenAI agents hijacked German website in previously undisclosed AI breakout this spring
A swarm of rogue OpenAI agents hijacked a German website this spring and transformed it into a bulletin board for other AI agents, according to ​new research and two people familiar with the matter.
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Martin Shelton @mshelton.bsky.social · 05/01/2025
Finding myself thinking about this a lot more often lately.
Screenshot of an IBM slide which reads, "A computer can never be held accountable, therefore a computer must never make a management decision."
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Freedom of the Press Foundation @freedom.press · 31/08/2026
If you use Signal to work with sensitive contacts, it’s not a “set it and forget it” app. You do need to maintain the safety of your account. Our digital security team walks through foundational account security settings to help.
freedom.press
What journalists need to know about Signal account safety
There are a few straightforward steps you can take to make your account and identity much more secure
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Freedom of the Press Foundation @freedom.press · 31/08/2026
Deadline extended! Are you a journalist who uses FOIA or other public records laws in your reporting? You could win $25,000 with our new journalism award, the Penlight Prize. Watch @trevortimm.bsky.social to learn more and apply by Sept. 15:
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Freedom of the Press Foundation @freedom.press · 31/08/2026
🚨 DEADLINE EXTENDED! Are you a journalist who uses FOIA or other public records laws in your reporting? You could win $25,000 with our new journalism award, the Penlight Prize. Deadline extended to September 15. Apply at: penlightprize.org
penlightprize.org
The Penlight Prize ∙ Freedom of the Press Foundation
The Penlight Prize honors exemplary paywall-free public records reporting, from Freedom of the Press Foundation
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Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Current state of things: there's crop art of Signal at the Minnesota State Fair www.cropart.com
A white hand with Signal-blue painted nails holds a cellphone with a near-dead battery, with the Signal icon the only app on screen. Crop art by Molly Gehrke
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