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Search: “Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press”

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Supporting independent journalism in Ukraine

OpenAI, AIRPPU, and WAN-IFRA launched a program bringing AI support to Ukrainian news organizations to strengthen independent journalism.

OpenAI is partnering with AIRPPU and WAN-IFRA on a program aimed at helping Ukrainian news organizations strengthen innovation, resilience, and independent journalism. The announcement is a partnership/philanthropic initiative rather than a product or model release.

OpenAI News · 10d agoAI industry

Flock camera use by internal affairs unit puts DC police at odds with officers’ union

DC's Metropolitan Police Department used Flock license plate cameras to track officers under internal affairs investigation, prompting a union grievance and council scrutiny.

The DC Police Union learned in July 2026 that MPD Internal Affairs used Flock ALPR cameras to monitor officers under investigation without their knowledge, filing a grievance that management denied. Secure Justice found more than 90 US cities and counties ended Flock contracts in August 2026 alone, with over 200 terminations since 2021, while Texas and Florida announced new usage restrictions. On September 14, DC Councilmember Brooke Pinto asked Interim Chief Jeffery Carroll ten questions about the department's use of Flock data.

The Record · 13h agoPolicy & legal

Trump may be forced to reveal secret rules feds use for AI safety testing

Protect Democracy sued four federal agencies to force disclosure of the administration's secret framework for frontier AI safety reviews.

Nonprofit Protect Democracy sued four federal agencies, including the Office of the National Cyber Director, OSTP, Treasury and Commerce, seeking disclosure of the secret voluntary framework used for pre-release safety reviews of frontier AI models. The complaint demands the framework text, participant identities and selection criteria by September 30, alleging OpenAI negotiated a private agreement limiting distribution of its cutting-edge models to government-vetted partners. The suit follows the launch of the GOLD EAGLE clearinghouse and the completion of the review framework on August 3, with California Senator Josh Becker supporting the request while the state considers the SB 813 bill for transparent AI safety standards.

Ars Technica · AI · 14d agoAI policy

Microsoft says virtually nobody was grabbing NYT articles through its chatbot

Microsoft files summary judgement briefs in NYT copyright lawsuit, arguing only 59,545 of 8.2M Copilot logs show substantial overlap with news content.

Microsoft filed new legal filings in the consolidated copyright lawsuit brought by The New York Times, authors, and publishers against Microsoft and OpenAI, arguing for summary judgement. Analysis of 8.2 million Copilot chat logs found only 59,545 contained at least 16 words in common with news content, with just 24 responses showing at least 30 matching words in the authors' case. Microsoft argues the numbers support fair use, claiming Copilot rarely reproduces substantive chunks; the Times says discovery shows Microsoft and OpenAI stole from it, and the Trump administration filed a statement of interest supporting OpenAI.

The Verge · AI · 12d agoAI policy1

Cliff Stoll’s DEF CON Talk

Schneier on Security posts about Cliff Stoll's DEF CON talk; the visible text provides no substantive details about its content.

Schneier on Security published a brief post referencing Cliff Stoll's talk at DEF CON. The available text consists almost entirely of standard blog navigation, author biography, and archive listings, with no concrete details about the talk itself. As a general security-community item, it carries no direct risk impact for defenders.

Schneier on Securityupdated · 5d agofirst · 5d agoIndustry 2 sources1

Seattle Times and Newsday sue OpenAI and Microsoft for infringement

The Seattle Times and Newsday sued OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement, seeking destruction of datasets and models trained on their journalism.

The Seattle Times and Newsday allege OpenAI used their journalism as training data without permission and that its chatbots reproduce passages of their reporting, seeking destruction of copies of their works, training datasets, and AI models that incorporate them. Microsoft is named as co-defendant because Copilot is built on OpenAI technology. The suit follows similar actions by The New York Times, Ziff Davis, Merriam-Webster, Encyclopedia Britannica, and nearly 400 local newspapers.

The Verge · AI · 10d agoAI policy1

OpenAI expands initiatives to support journalism from classrooms to newsrooms

OpenAI expands journalism-support programs offering tools, training and partnerships to students, educators, journalists and news organizations.

OpenAI announced an expansion of initiatives to support journalism, spanning classroom education and newsroom operations. The program provides AI tools, training, and partnerships aimed at students, educators, journalists, and news organizations. The announcement did not include specific product, pricing, or technical details in the available text.

OpenAI News · 9d agoAI industry

25 Years of Mass Surveillance Is Enough

Bruce Schneier and Cindy Cohn argue post-9/11 mass surveillance expanded far beyond its counterterrorism justification and should be reevaluated for costs to rights.

An essay by Bruce Schneier and Cindy Cohn (originally in Lawfare) traces the post-9/11 shift from targeted surveillance to mass collection of telephone and internet metadata. It cites the Section 215 bulk phone records program, struck down in interpretation by the Second Circuit in 2015 and curtailed by the USA Freedom Act, and the NSA's Upstream program under Section 702 of the 2008 FISA Amendments Act, which ended content searches in 2017. The authors note mass surveillance now serves routine law enforcement and immigration actions, with FBI Director Kash Patel confirming purchases of Americans' data from brokers, and private systems like Flock license plate readers and venue facial recognition feeding government access.

Schneier on Security · 1d agoPolicy & legal

A Secretive DHS ‘Predictive Policing’ Unit is Analyzing Americans’ Financial Habits and Pulling Them Over

404 Media reveals DHS Border Patrol's secretive Predictive Intelligence Targeting Teams (PITT) analyzing Americans' financial activity and feeding intelligence to local police for traffic stops.

404 Media identified Predictive Intelligence Targeting Teams (PITT) in the Spokane Sector (Washington) and Laredo Sector (Texas), which review law enforcement-sensitive databases including Americans' financial activity and pass intelligence to local police. In one case, a PITT analyst flagged financial patterns associated with narcotics activity, leading Montana Highway Patrol to stop a driver for an obstructed license plate and charge him with DUI and possession with intent to distribute. CBP declined to say what financial data is monitored or whether warrants are obtained; the program extends AP's earlier reporting on ALPR-based predictive policing.

404 Media · 8d agoPolicy & legal

Where the backlash against Flock Safety is having the biggest impact

More than 90 cities ended Flock Safety contracts in August as Texas and Florida restrict license plate reader use amid privacy protests.

Over 90 cities and counties terminated Flock Safety contracts in August, per Secure Justice, which has tracked more than 200 municipal terminations since 2021. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott barred state agencies from funding Flock cameras on Aug. 28 after a report that a state agency secretly diverted $30 million; Florida's transportation department banned ALPRs on state highways and Gov. Ron DeSantis criticized the technology. Los Angeles chose not to renew its LAPD contract over data-ownership terms, and Atlanta's mayor ordered a 30-day review of the roughly 5,000 ALPR cameras in the metro area. Several Flock-related police abuse cases, including a Texas officer indicted on 100 felony counts, have fueled the backlash.

The Record · 8d agoPolicy & legal

Texas Police Used AI to Write Report About Using Flock to Search for Woman Who Had Abortion

Johnson County, Texas deputies used Axon's Draft One AI to write a report about searching 80,000+ Flock cameras for a woman who self-administered an abortion.

Documents show the Johnson County Sheriff's Office used Flock's nationwide camera network and Axon's Draft One, which drafts police reports from body camera audio, in its investigation of a woman's self-administered abortion. The AI-generated report summarized deputies' discussion of legal implications, noting Texas law provided no applicable criminal charges. Flock CEO Garrett Langley has repeatedly claimed the search was a family welfare check, but earlier police reports indicate it was initiated at the behest of the woman's abusive partner.

404 Media · 14d agoAI safety & security

Cops Search Thousands of Flock Cameras for Reasons of ‘LMAO,’ ‘IDK,’ ‘Hehe,’ and ‘asdfg’

EFF analysis found police searched Flock's 19,000-camera ALPR network using joke reasons like 'LMAO' and 'idk,' exposing routine warrantless surveillance abuse.

An EFF analysis of Flock audit logs, shared with 404 Media, found officers across dozens of jurisdictions searching over 19,000 cameras in 1,558 cities with justifications like 'LMAO,' 'idk,' and keyboard gibberish between 2023 and late 2025. One Lake County, Indiana sheriff's deputy searched for a license plate across the entire network citing 'LMAO.' After outlets exposed searches targeting ICE detainees, an abortion patient, and protesters, officers were reportedly told to be 'as vague as permissible,' and Flock replaced the free-text reason box with a prepopulated drop-down list, which EFF called a loss for transparency. Departments rarely disciplined offending officers, and EFF concluded agencies cannot oversee themselves.

404 Media · 2d agoPolicy & legal

HuggingFace: Security.txt

Hugging Face published a security.txt file, prompting limited Hacker News discussion of the RFC 9116 disclosure standard.

Hugging Face's security.txt file, which lists its security contact and disclosure channels per the RFC 9116 standard, drew attention on Hacker News. The RFC 9116 standard lets organizations publish where and how security researchers should report issues, but the submission received only one comment.

Hacker News · securityupdated · 5d agofirst · 5d agoIndustry 2 sourcesHN 22↑ · 1 comments

Lawmakers call on Treasury to sanction hackers-for-hire

Bipartisan US lawmakers asked Treasury to sanction three India-based hack-for-hire firms accused of long-running espionage against Americans.

Sens. Ron Wyden and Sheldon Whitehouse and Rep. Pat Harrigan urged Treasury to add Sunkissed Organic Farms (formerly Appin), BellTroX, and CyberRoot to the Entity List. The letter says the mercenary groups conducted targeted espionage against US citizens, businesses, and lawyers for over fifteen years, allegedly including work for Qatar's government such as targeting opponents of Qatar's World Cup bid and Kristi Rogers, wife of Senate candidate Mike Rogers. Adding the firms to the Entity List would restrict their access to American software, cybersecurity tools, and cloud infrastructure. The lawmakers also accuse the groups of lawfare campaigns to censor investigative reporting on their hacking activities.

CyberScoop · 7d agoThreat actor in the wild

Seattle Times and Newsday are the latest publications to sue OpenAI and Microsoft

The Seattle Times and Newsday sued OpenAI and Microsoft over alleged unlicensed use of their journalism for AI training, joining a wave of publisher lawsuits.

The Seattle Times and Newsday filed a copyright lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, arguing generative AI products like ChatGPT and Copilot are 'rapacious consumers' of human-authored journalism that return derivative imitations. The suit follows The New York Times' 2023 case against the companies and other publisher lawsuits. A Microsoft spokesperson said the company was surprised but always happy to explore solutions; the outlets have received Microsoft funding for journalism projects and fellowships.

TechCrunch · AI · 11d agoAI policy1