California Exempts Open Source From Age Verification, Plus School Bus Surveillance Getting Out of Control

On Our Radar 🎯

Open Source Just Got A Real Win Against Age Verification

There are two ways to read this week's biggest story.

1. The pessimistic way: age verification laws are still happening, still expanding, still going to require operating systems and app stores to expose age signals to apps.
2. But there's also an optimistic way this week: since California is now following Colorado in carving out an exemption for open source operating systems, and that exemption only exists because the open source community spoke up!

Both states originally proposed laws requiring every operating system to collect a user's age or birth date during setup and expose that signal downstream. System76, the Linux PC manufacturer based in Colorado, went back and forth with the state senator pushing for an open source exemption that they finally got. And now California is amending its Digital Age Assurance Act to do the same. This means Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu, Arch, Mint, and basically every mainstream Linux distro will be exempt. The bill now narrows its scope to commercial platforms shipping their own app stores: Apple's iOS with the App Store, Google's Android with the Play Store. SteamOS is the odd edge case still being argued.

This doesn't dismantle age verification. The Digital Age Assurance Act still exists. If you're against age verification outright, which is a legitimate position with plenty of merit, this is nowhere near a complete victory. But it does two important things:

1. It removes the absurdity of penalizing the people who already opted out of the surveillance economy
2. It sets concrete precedent that other states and countries proposing similar laws will now have to address.

What you can do: If age verification is being proposed in your state or country, contact your reps this week! Point to California and Colorado as precedent for narrowing the scope. Tell them what kind of operating system you use and why a blanket law penalizes safe technologies. Stories like this are proof that political engagement can actually pay off!

Bits & Bytes 🤖

~ Story 1: AI Cameras On School Buses Want To Give Cops Access
A company called BusPatrol installed AI-powered cameras on tens of thousands of school buses across the US, originally to catch drivers illegally passing stopped buses. But according to 404 Media, the company is now turning those cameras into automatic license plate readers, capturing the location of every vehicle the buses drive past and giving that data to law enforcement...likely without warrants.

My take: This is textbook surveillance creep, a tool starts with a defensible purpose, then gets repurposed for ethically grey law enforcement once the cameras are deployed, all to "protect the kids." I also want to call attention to the funding, as BusPatrol took a $300 million investment from GI Partners, who are now pushing them to find alternative revenue streams. This is why I always like to ask who funds the tools I'm using, as the incentives of that funding can seriously influence the longevity of the service.

~ Story 2: A Bipartisan Amendment Could End Police License Plate Tracking Nationwide
A federal highway bill amendment, supported by both parties (yes, shocking in 2026!) would strip federal road funding from any city or state that uses automatic license plate readers for anything other than tolling. These are some of the most egregious forms of surveillance deployed all around the country. Title 23 funds roughly a quarter of all US public road mileage including most state and county arteries, so in practice this would force nearly every jurisdiction to either dismantle their ALPR programs or restructure them around tolls only. This has not yet passed, but the bipartisan backing is genuinely exciting.

My take: This is funny enough a semi-structural fix to the BusPatrol problem one story up. Private companies are deploying surveillance technology on public roads and selling that data to law enforcement, which can't legally collect it directly themselves—and this amendment targets that loophole directly. Contact your reps! Tell them you support it. Bills like this don't pass without public pressure, and the bipartisan window is a real opportunity.

This Week on Techlore 📺

This week has been a bit lighter on content. The main video I have to share with you is something I put together in light of the recent anti-Google coverage in light of them prioritizing AI over search results. I noticed a lot of people were expressing frustrating about the changes, without actually covering the alternatives to Google.

Google Replaced Search With AI. Here Are 6 Alternatives.

Google I/O this year made something very clear: Google Search isn’t really for you anymore. AI agents that buy things on your behalf, Gemini reading your Gmail and Calendar to “personalize” your results, and AI Overviews pushing real links further down the page with every update...it all points

TechloreHenry Fisher

Action Item ✅

Contact your reps! At the state level about age verification, and at the federal level about the ALPR amendment, or anywhere else for your local issues. Both stories this week are happening because people are speaking up. If age verification is being proposed where you live, point your reps at California and Colorado as precedent for narrowing the scope. If you're in the US, tell your federal reps you support the bipartisan ALPR amendment. If you're in Europe, same action item. These take five minutes. They actually work, and this week's stories prove it.

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