Meta Hid Face-Recognition Code on 50M Phones, The UK's Device-Scanning Ultimatum & A Burner Phone Ban

Meta quietly embedded unreleased facial-recognition code, internally called "nametag" onto more than 50 million phones through its Meta AI app, then deleted it the day after Wired exposed it. This week I also get into Microsoft repos weaponized a second time to push credential-stealing malware to AI users, the UK's ultimatum to scan every device (and Signal's response), the FCC's push to kill burner phones...plus the usual breaches, threats, and a stacked week of FOSS+ updates.

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In this episode:

• Highlight: Meta's secret face-recognition code on 50M+ phones
• Microsoft repos weaponized a second time in weeks to push credential-stealing malware to AI users
• The UK's ultimatum to scan all content on all devices and Signal's one-page rebuttal
• Two states, two directions: Massachusetts bans precise-location-data sales (146–0); Texas forces Apple/Google age verification (SB2420)
• The FCC's push to kill burner phones by making telecoms collect everyone's ID
• Defense Bulletin, Breaches: DentaQuest, UN World Food Programme (600K Gaza households), ServiceNow, SoFi, Dashlane (20 vaults, but Argon2-encrypted), Oxford, 20K Instagram accounts via Meta's AI, French govt messaging
• Threats: Chrome zero-day, WhatsApp/NSO, Microsoft "Nightmare Eclipse" 0-days, UniFi root bug, Gogs RCE, npm + PyPI supply-chain attacks, Hola browser cryptominer, OpenAI Lockdown Mode, Apple's auto-password-changer, license-plate readers adding AirPod/phone trackers
• FOSS+: Tails 7.8.1, Firefox Vulkan video + free VPN going unlimited, Nextcloud Hub 26, Proton Drive CLI for Linux, Futo Keyboard, Brave Origin, FSFE's public-money-public-code win, and Loupe (see what your apps can see)

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🔗 SOURCES & LINKS
View all sources here: https://techlore.tech/meta-hid-face-recognition-code-on-50m-phones-the-uks-device-scanning-ultimatum-a-burner-phone-ban/

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

• (00:00) - WELCOME TO SURVEILLANCE REPORT
• (01:00) - META ADDING SNEAKY FACIAL RECOGNITION
• (05:42) - MICROSOFT HACKED TO PUSH MALWARE
• (08:38) - THE UK'S SURVEILLANCE ULTIMATUM
• (11:40) - OUR SPONSOR: DAWARICH!
• (13:20) - GOOD & BAD NEWS IN US STATES
• (16:42) - FCC BANNING PRIVATE NUMBERS
• (20:00) - DEFENSE BULLETIN: DATA BREACHES
• (24:15) - DEFENSE BULLETIN: THREATS
• (28:54) - DEFENSE BULLETIN: FOSS+

🎥 VIDEO
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📰 ABOUT SURVEILLANCE REPORT
Your essential weekly tech news podcast covering the latest threats to security, privacy, and digital freedom. Hosted by Henry Fisher from Techlore.