The government told you to use a VPN, but are you actually making yourself a target for NSA surveillance in the process? This week's highlight story digs into a letter from six US lawmakers pressing intelligence officials to answer whether Americans using commercial VPNs risk losing their legal protections and being treated as foreign nationals under Section 702 of FISA.

Also this week: North Korea's methodical, weeks-long social engineering attack that briefly hijacked the Axios open-source JavaScript library; Android malware called NoVoice that infected 2.3 million devices through the Google Play Store that survives a factory reset; Apple's device-level age verification expanding to the UK, Singapore, and South Korea; and the EU Parliament's dramatic vote to kill Chat Control, plus Patrick Brayer's five-point action plan for genuine child protection that doesn't require mass surveillance. The Defense Bulletin is packed: VeraCrypt's developer locked out by Microsoft, a rare Apple iOS 18 backport patch, Meta losing a child exploitation lawsuit, Apple Maps ads incoming, and more.

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🔗 SOURCES & LINKS
View all sources here: https://techlore.tech/vpns-could-expose-you-to-nsa-spying-north-koreas-open-source-hijack-android-malware-hits-2-3-million-devices-via-google-play-and-the-eu-ending-chat-control/

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

• (00:00) - WELCOME TO SURVEILLANCE REPORT
• (01:18) - HIGHLIGHT STORY: NSA VPN SPYING
• (08:24) - NORTH KOREA HACKS OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE
• (10:30) - GOOGLE HOSTING MALWARE ON PLAY STORE
• (15:00) - AGE VERIFICATION ADVANCES EVERYWHERE
• (26:12) - END OF CHAT CONTROL & WHAT'S NEXT!
• (31:00) - DEFENSE BULLETIN

This week's Surveillance Report covers two sophisticated zero-click iOS exploit frameworks: Coruna and DarkSword hit hundreds of millions of iPhones in the span of a single week. Google finally revealed their controversial Android sideloading "advanced flow," and it involves a 24-hour wait, developer mode unlock, and a wall of warning screens just to install an APK. Meanwhile, Instagram has quietly killed end-to-end encryption in DMs, Colorado is pushing OS-level age verification that would even drag Linux into compliance, and the EU's chat control battle took a wild turn.

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Become a Techlorian and keep this show growing: https://techlore.tech/support

🔗 SOURCES & LINKS

View all sources here: https://techlore.tech/coruna-and-darksword-ios-exploits-explained-what-iphone-users-need-to-do-right-now/

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

00:00 INTRO TO SURVEILLANCE REPORT

01:30 HIGHLIGHT STORY: IOS EXPLOITS

08:02 GOOGLE SIDELOADING ADVANCED FLOW

19:26 INSTAGRAM REMOVING E2EE

22:26 OS AGE VERIFICATION

28:44 EU CHAT CONTROL

31:00 DEFENSE BULLETIN

📰 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, delivering deep analysis to help you reclaim control and defend your rights.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Password managers CAN see your vault (new research reveals attack vectors), Google threatens the open Android ecosystem, Apple rolls out age verification globally, 147 million installs of Android mental health apps with security flaws, Samsung's innovative privacy display, and a massive week of breaches and updates.

NO SR NEXT WEEK - Back in two weeks!

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Become a Techlorian and keep this show growing: https://techlore.tech/support

🔗 SOURCES & LINKS

View all sources here: https://techlore.tech/password-manager-vaults-arent-private-google-threatens-open-android-apples-global-age-verification-sr257

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

00:00 INTRO

00:55 PASSWORD MANAGER VAULT SECURITY

12:51 ANDROID DEVELOPER VERIFICATION

16:36 APPLE AGE VERIFICATION

21:06 ANDROID MENTAL HEALTH APPS

25:17 DEFENSE BULLETIN

📰 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, delivering deep analysis to help you reclaim control and defend your rights.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

No operating system is safe, and this week, Mac users got hit from three directions at once. We cover the attacks, Discord's messy age verification expansion, hidden hotel cameras in China, and everything else threatening your digital rights.

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Become a Techlorian and keep this show growing: https://techlore.tech/support

🔗 SOURCES & LINKS

View all sources here: https://techlore.tech/mac-hit-by-3-simultaneous-attacks-discords-age-verification-fails-googles-deleted-footage-returns-sr256/

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

00:00 INTRO

01:00 MACOS ATTACKS

13:12 DISCORD AGE VERIFICATION

23:34 MORE AGE VERIFICATION

26:08 GOOGLE NEST FOOTAGE MYSTERY

30:56 DEFENSE BULLETIN

📰 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, delivering deep analysis to help you reclaim control and defend your rights.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The FBI couldn't crack a journalist's iPhone because of one security feature, and we'll break down exactly how Lockdown Mode stopped them. Meanwhile, Austria, Spain, and Greece all announced age verification mandates in the same week, Chat Control 1.0 just got an extension, and Microsoft is finally backing away from Recall as AI fatigue reaches a breaking point.

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Become a Techlorian and keep this show growing: https://techlore.tech/support

🔗 SOURCES & LINKS

View all sources here: https://techlore.tech/fbi-admits-defeat-iphone-security-actually-works-and-a-new-ios-cellular-security-feature/

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

00:00 INTRO

00:40 HIGHLIGHT STORY: APPLE LOCKDOWN MODE

08:05 AGE VERIFICATION EXPANDING TO 3 COUNTRIES

12:38 CHAT CONTROL 1.0 EXTENSION

17:54 MICROSOFT ADMITS THEIR AI IS BAD

22:56 THE DEFENSE BULLETIN

📰 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, delivering deep analysis to help you reclaim control and defend your rights.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week's Surveillance Report covers Microsoft handing BitLocker encryption keys to the FBI, meaning your "encrypted" Windows data isn't as secure as you thought. This two-week Surveillance Report covers age verification laws spreading across three continents, 840,000 malicious browser extension installs, WhatsApp's encryption challenged in court, a trusted Android launcher turned spyware, and how social media platforms engineer addiction by design. Plus major breaches, and essential security updates you need to know about.

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Become a Techlorian and keep this show growing: https://techlore.tech/support

🔗 SOURCES & LINKS

View all sources here: https://techlore.tech/microsoft-gave-fbi-your-encryption-keys/

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

00:00 SURVEILLANCE REPORT INTRO

00:53 HIGHLIGHT STORY: BITLOCKER ENCRYPTION

09:36 MORE GLOBAL AGE VERIFICATION

14:24 DANGEROUS BROWSER EXTENSIONS

19:44 WHATSAPP ACCUSED OF NO ENCRYPTION

26:20 PROMO SEGMENT!

28:10 NOVA LAUNCHER SELLS OUT

31:50 SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS CAUGHT BEING ADDICTIVE

37:38 THE DEFENSE BULLETIN

📰 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, delivering deep analysis to help you reclaim control and defend your rights.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week's Surveillance Report covers Microsoft Copilot's ongoing security failures putting users at risk, the FTC banning GM from selling driver location data, California banning data brokers from reselling health information, Iran's internet shutdown reaching record lengths, the EFF's guide to navigating age gates, and more!

🔎 EasyOptOuts is the easy, affordable, and effective way to automatically remove your data from people search sites: https://easyoptouts.com

Thanks to the EasyOptOuts team for sponsoring Surveillance Report!

🧡 SUPPORT TECHLORE

Become a Techlorian and keep this show growing: https://techlore.tech/support

🔗 SOURCES & LINKS

View all sources here: https://techlore.tech/microsoft-copilots-security-failures-are-putting-everyone-at-risk/

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - INTRO

00:46 - NEW COPILOT VULNERABILITY

07:35 - GM PUT ON TIMEOUT

12:24 - DATA BROKER PUT ON TIMEOUT

15:56 - OUR SPONSOR: EASYOPTOUTS!

16:54 - IRAN INTERNET SHUTDOWN

22:30 - EFF AGE GATE GUIDE

26:06 - THE DEFENSE BULLETIN

📰 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, delivering deep analysis to help you reclaim control and defend your rights.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week's Surveillance Report covers Microsoft removing offline Windows activation, California's new tool to delete your data from brokers, cryptocurrency theft traced to the 2022 LastPass breach, France's social media ban for under-15s, and more!

This week's Surveillance Report covers:

- Microsoft continuing to remove more offline Windows activation options as well as what you can do (besides just switching to Linux!)

- A deep-dive into California's new tool to remove you from data brokers and how I'm approaching this news as a Californian

- More age verification scares coming out of France and other countries

- LastPass data breach STILL impacting people to this day

- Defense Bulletin: Threats, breaches, and service updates

🧡 SUPPORT TECHLORE

Become a Techlorian and keep this show growing: https://techlore.tech/support

🔗 SOURCES & LINKS

View all sources here: https://techlore.tech/microsoft-just-removed-another-way-to-activate-windows-offline/

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - INTRO

00:40 - Highlight Story: Microsoft removing more Options

05:48 - California's New Data Removal Tool

13:24 - LastPass Data Breach Still Impacting People

18:50 - Support Techlore!

19:43 - More Age Verification in France, US, and more

24:04 - The Defense Bulletin

📰 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, delivering deep analysis to help you reclaim control and defend your rights.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.