ICE can now spy on every phone in your area

After federalism A US agent shot and killed 37-year-old Rene Judd in Minneapolis on Wednesday, WIRED has surfaced December federal court testimony from the reported ICE shooter, Jonathan Ross. In it, he said he was trained in firearms and had had “hundreds” of encounters with drivers in his professional capacity during enforcement proceedings. Separately, we looked at how the tactics behind protest policing move toward deliberate hostility. If you haven’t seen it, here’s our guide to protesting safely in the age of surveillance.

Meanwhile, the AI-powered chatbot Grok, developed by Elon Musk’s xAI company, was everywhere this week as the platform expands access to digital “nudity” capabilities that allow users to create nude photos of people and then post them to social media platform More explicit than the content on X. All of this has led researchers and activists to question why Grok and On Friday, X appeared to have taken steps to limit who can create photos with Grok to paid, “verified” users. However, in practice, chatbots are still being used to create “nude” sexual images on the platform, even if the ability isn’t quite as available as it once was.

If you, like billions of other people globally, are a WhatsApp user, we have tips on the features in the comprehensive encrypted calling app that can further enhance its privacy and security. Plus, although invasive spyware is still relatively rare, it continues to spread around the world, so we’ve got a guide to protecting your smartphone.

And there’s more! Every week we round up security and privacy news that we haven’t covered in depth ourselves. Click on the titles to read the full stories. And stay safe out there.

Materials obtained by 404 Media shed new light on how Tangles and Webloc surveillance tools from a company called Penlink provide information to ICE agents after the agency contracted out the services in September. Social media and phone monitoring platforms could be used to monitor neighborhoods or city blocks for cell phones and track devices over time, which could reveal where people live, work and visit. Penlink purchases large amounts of commercial location data to augment and expand its cloud network.

“This is an extremely dangerous tool in the hands of an out-of-control agency,” Nathan Freed Wessler, deputy project director of the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, told 404 Media. “This precise location information paints a detailed picture of who we are, where we go, and who we spend time with.”

Over the past two weeks, thousands of Iranians have demonstrated against the country’s brutal regime and leadership, demanding reform after protests were initially sparked by poor economic conditions. In response to the growing unrest, the country’s supreme leader has signaled the possibility of harsh crackdowns. As part of the country’s response, it initiated a complete internet blackout: as of January 9, Iranians were offline for more than 24 hours. Reports indicate that people are unable to access social media, isolating them from communicating with their family members, as well as preventing them from using ATMs and bank cards.

This is not the first time that Iran has cut off the Internet for millions of people. The country, which has been building the technical capacity to digitally isolate itself from the global internet for years, had previously shut down communications in 2025, 2022 and 2019. These internet shutdowns are often designed to prevent protesters from communicating with each other and organizing, to limit the spread of news, and to prevent video footage of law enforcement brutality from spreading around the world. It also causes enormous economic damage to Iran.

In October, US and UK officials imposed sanctions on Cambodian national Chen Chee and his company, Prince Holdings Group, for allegedly running fraudulent forced labor complexes across Cambodia – and a $15 billion fraud in the process. This week, Chen was extradited to China from Cambodia. He was shown on television wearing a hood and handcuffs as he was escorted off the plane in Beijing. The Guardian reported that it was “not immediately clear” what charges Chen faces in China, although officials have said his case is part of a broader crackdown on notorious fraud pools that have stolen billions from people around the world.

Notorious Chinese spy hacker Salt Typhoon has reportedly compromised the email accounts of a number of US Congressional committee staff as part of a campaign discovered in December. The attackers targeted the communications of staff of the House China Committee as well as those of the Intelligence Committee, the Armed Services Committee, and the Foreign Affairs Committee. The incident is the latest in a sprawling series of public and private breaches carried out by the SALT Typhoon that gave Chinese intelligence a wide-ranging view into US government communications.