No One, Including Our Furry Friends, Will Be Safer in Ring’s Surveillance Nightmare

Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
by Beryl Lipton

“Amazon Ring’s Super Bowl ad offered a vision of our streets that should leave every person unsettled about the company’s goals for disintegrating our privacy in public. In the ad, disguised as a heartfelt effort to reunite the lost dogs of the country with their innocent owners, the company previewed future surveillance of our streets: a world where biometric identification could be unleashed from consumer devices to identify, track, and locate anything — human, pet, and otherwise.” (02/10/26)

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/02/no-one-including-our-furry-friends-will-be-safer-rings-surveillance-nightmare-0

Thomas L. Knapp

CA: SF crypto company Archblock, plagued with fraud accusations, files for bankruptcy

Source: SFGate

“The San Francisco cryptocurrency startup Archblock just filed for bankruptcy, throwing millions of dollars into question and continuing a slog of legal woes. Archblock has been plagued with legal trouble over the past few years, facing fraud allegations from the Securities and Exchange Commission and in a civil lawsuit from another crypto company. On Friday, Archblock and its subsidiaries filed a petition for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which lets a company reorganize its debts. The company’s filing makes its financials look dire: It estimates that its assets are worth between $1 million to $10 million, against liabilities between $100 million to $500 million. But one subsidiary, TrustToken, claims in its own filing to have $100 million to $500 million in assets against just $10 million to $50 million in debt. The other subsidiaries tack on millions more for each column — it’s as yet unclear how the overall company will aim to reorganize in this bankruptcy process.” (02/11/25)

https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/crypto-bankruptcy-archblock-21343919.php

Steve Trinward

Britney Spears sells rights to her music catalog for some $200 million, US media reports

Source: France 24 [French state media]

“US singer Britney Spears has become the latest musician to sell the rights to her catalog that includes hits like ‘… Baby One More Time’ and ‘Oops! … I Did It Again,’ US media reported Tuesday. The deal is believed to be worth around $200 million, according to sources cited by celebrity site TMZ, though it said the exact amount is not detailed in legal documents. That sum would be comparable to the sale of Canadian singer Justin Bieber’s catalog in 2023. Spears, 44, joins a growing list of artists who have sold their music rights in recent years including Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan, as well as Shakira and KISS.” (02/10/26)

https://www.france24.com/en/culture/20260210-britney-spears-sells-rights-to-her-music-catalog-for-some-200-million-us-media-reports

Thomas L. Knapp

Open Letter to Tech Companies: Protect Your Users From Lawless DHS Subpoenas

Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
by Mario Trujillo

“In the past year, DHS has consistently targeted people engaged in First Amendment activity. Among other things, the agency has issued subpoenas to technology companies to unmask or locate people who have documented ICE’s activities in their community, criticized the government, or attended protests. These subpoenas are unlawful, and the government knows it. When a handful of users challenged a few of them in court with the help of ACLU affiliates in Northern California and Pennsylvania, DHS withdrew them rather than waiting for a decision. But it is difficult for the average user to fight back on their own. … That is why we, joined by the ACLU of Northern California, have asked several large tech platforms to do more to protect their users …” (02/10/26)

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/02/open-letter-tech-companies-protect-your-users-lawless-dhs-subpoenas

Thomas L. Knapp

Suffocating an Island: What the US Blockade Is Doing to the People of Cuba

Source: Common Dreams
by Medea Benjamin

“Marta Jiménez, a hairdresser in Cuba’s eastern city of Holguín, covered her face with her hands and broke down crying when I asked her about Trump’s blockade of the island—especially now that the U.S. is choking off oil shipments. ‘You can’t imagine how it touches every part of our lives,’ she sobbed. ‘It’s a vicious, all-encompassing spiral downward. With no gasoline, buses don’t run, so we can’t get to work. We have electricity only three to six hours a day. There’s no gas for cooking, so we’re burning wood and charcoal in our apartments. It’s like going back 100 years. The blockade is suffocating us, especially single mothers,’ she said crying into her hands, ‘and no one is stopping these demons: Trump and Marco Rubio.'” (02/11/25)

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/cuba-suffers-under-oil-embargo

Steve Trinward

Federal Judge Dismisses Attempt to Obtain Michigan Voter Data in Latest Rejection of DOJ

Source: US News & World Report

“A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit from the Department of Justice that sought to obtain Michigan’s voter rolls, marking the latest judicial rejection in President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging attempts to gain access to voter data from states. The Justice Department has sued at least 23 states and the District of Columbia in its effort to obtain detailed voter information. In an opinion issued Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Hala Y. Jarbou, a Trump nominee, said the laws cited by the Justice Department in its complaint, including the Civil Rights Act of 1960, do not require the disclosure of the records it sought.” (02/10/26)

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/michigan/articles/2026-02-10/federal-judge-dismisses-attempt-to-obtain-michigan-voter-data-in-latest-rejection-of-doj

Thomas L. Knapp