FCC Wants to Kill Flash Phones

After WIRED reported it last week where The Meta smart glasses app had a code which would lead the company to introduce facial recognition features on devices, the company they removed the code this week without commenting on why or if it plans to add this to the program later. A WIRED survey this week found this xAI’s Grok is still behaving badlyincluding “nude” pictures and videos of famous people and one famous politician in the United States.

After delaying the release of its new Mythos-class AI due to cybersecurity concerns, Anthropic announced model upgrade for partners in its limited access group this week and introduced a “secure” version of the model for people with protective equipment to prevent it from being used to promote cyberattacks. Currently, the United States Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued new guidance to government agencies this week based on new AI threats that include the need to fix computer problems within three days.

As Europe looks set to isolate itself from US Big Tech, WIRED compiled a timeline that follows all the ways in which EU governments, companies, and other organizations are moving away from US technology. A a new open source project called Encrypted Spaces it can be used to make many secret-handling applications private and resistant to end-to-end encryption. And illegal websites are drug dealers they hacked the Spotify rankings using fake podcasts, according to a new report by the US Congress.

The 2026 World Cup is at its peak, and WIRED took a look at the monitoring technologiesfrom anti-drone tech to facial recognition, which is being used in the US, Canada, and Mexico Stadium. We too photographed every Flock license reader near the US World Cup stadium. More broadly, Amnesty International said this week that it has completed the recruitment of fans in all three host countries – both residents and foreigners –facing human rights violations because of the FIFA tournament.

American Civil Liberties Union and is suing two Florida police officers for its use of FACES, one of the longest-running facial recognition tools in the US, after it was misused and led to the wrongful arrest of a Fort Myers man. Donald Trump, right now, disrupting the future of the management after appointing Bill Pulte, described as “totally unqualified,” as director of National Intelligence. (Trump chose another nominee to be permanent.)

And there are many. Every week, we create security and privacy stories that we haven’t covered in depth ourselves. Click on the headlines to read all the stories. And be safe out there.

Although digital anonymity has become increasingly difficult in modern times, obtaining a phone number without revealing almost anything personal—whether by buying a flashed phone or registering an account with a privacy-protecting phone carrier—has remained legal in the US. Now the Federal Communications Commission wants to change that.

Late last month, the FCC released a proposal for a new rule that would meet customer demand for mobile networks, requiring cellular providers to “at a minimum, obtain and maintain the name, address, government identification number, and other telephone number of each new customer prior to granting him or her access to service.” The proposal is being described as a measure similar to spending laws designed to make it harder for consumers to use mobile phones. But privacy advocates say it also threatens a last resort of anonymity for those who want to evade mobile surveillance — whether they’re journalists, whistleblowers, activists, or people who want to avoid data collection in yet another form of their communications.