Your Age Is Now Required: Australia's Social Media Ban Explained
This week's Surveillance Report covers the dangerous reality that social media bans ARE age verification, India's push for even more invasive phone surveillance, a massive vulnerability actively exploited against major companies, the EU's new proposal to gut GDPR protections, Petco's escalating security disasters, border agents charging people for protecting their data, and more!
đź“°
Listen to the weekly podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any RSS app. You can also watch Surveillance Report on YouTube or Techlore.TV
Episode Timestamps
00:00 Welcome to Surveillance Report
00:40 Highlight: Australia's Social Media Ban
08:06 Vulnerability Hitting Countless Sites
09:52 India's Surveillance Tech Continues
13:30 Support Techlore!
14:50 EU's Digital Omnibus
19:56 Petco's Data Breach(es) Saga
23:20 Man Arrested for Wiping Phone?
27:20 Defense Bulletin
Episode Sources
Highlight: Social Media Bans ARE Age Verification
- https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/10/australia-16-year-old-teens-ban-social-media-policy-law-ig-tiktok-fb-reddit-youtube-snapchat.html
- https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/australian-teens-confident-that-theyll-beat-new-age-checks/807316/
- https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/12/10-not-so-hidden-dangers-age-verification
- https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/12/age-verification-coming-internet-we-built-you-resource-hub-fight-back
- https://tuta.com/blog/chat-control-criticism
Story 1: React2Shell - Critical Vulnerability Actively Exploited
- https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/react2shell-flaw-exploited-to-breach-30-orgs-77k-ip-addresses-vulnerable/
- https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/cloudflare-blames-todays-outage-on-emergency-react2shell-patch/
- https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/react2shell-critical-flaw-actively-exploited-in-china-linked-attacks/
Story 2: India Pushes for Greater Phone Location Surveillance
Story 3: EU's New Digital Package Threatens to Gut GDPR Protections
Story 4: Petco's Escalating Security Disasters
- https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/05/petco-confirms-security-lapse-exposed-customers-personal-data/
- https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/08/petcos-security-lapse-affected-customers-ssns-drivers-licenses-and-more/
- https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/10/petco-takes-down-vetco-website-after-exposing-customers-personal-information/
Story 5: Man Charged for Wiping Phone Before Border Search
- https://www.404media.co/man-charged-for-wiping-phone-before-cbp-could-search-it/
- https://www.techspot.com/news/110560-man-arrested-allegedly-wiping-google-pixel-before-cbp.html
The Defense Bulletin
- https://krebsonsecurity.com/2025/12/sms-phishers-pivot-to-points-taxes-fake-retailers/
- https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/11/security-flaws-in-freedom-chat-app-exposed-users-phone-numbers-and-pins/
- https://privacytools.techlore.tech/#messengers
- https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/cisa-warns-of-chinese-brickstorm-malware-attacks-on-vmware-servers/
- https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/predator-spyware-uses-new-infection-vector-for-zero-click-attacks/
- https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/04/sanctioned-spyware-maker-intellexa-had-direct-access-to-government-espionage-victims-researchers-say/
- https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/google-ads-for-shared-chatgpt-grok-guides-push-macos-infostealer-malware/
- https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/google-fixes-eighth-chrome-zero-day-exploited-in-attacks-in-2025/
- https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/new-droidlock-malware-locks-android-devices-and-demands-a-ransom/
- https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/new-spiderman-phishing-service-targets-dozens-of-european-banks/
- https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/pharma-firm-inotiv-discloses-data-breach-after-ransomware-attack/
- https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/fbi-warns-of-virtual-kidnapping-ransom-scams-using-altered-social-media-photos/
- https://proton.me/blog/sheets-proton-drive
- https://www.wired.com/story/new-anonymous-phone-carrier-sign-up-with-nothing-but-a-zip-code/
- https://nextcloud.com/blog/december-maintenance-updates-nextcloud-hub-10-nextcloud-hub-25-autumn/
- https://blog.mozilla.org/en/firefox/firefox-146/
- https://blog.mozilla.org/en/firefox/firefox-2025-updates/
- https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tails-7_3_1/
- https://brave.com/blog/ai-browsing/
- https://www.freebsd.org/releases/15.0R/announce/
- https://tech.yahoo.com/computing/articles/homebrew-now-help-install-flatpaks-175146379.html
- https://9to5linux.com/new-jolla-phone-now-available-for-pre-order-as-an-independent-linux-phone
- https://almalinux.org/blog/2025-12-02-almalinux-media-entertainment-sig/
- https://blog.notesnook.com/notesnook-and-addyio
- https://www.mullvad.net/en/blog/2025/12/10/removing-openvpn-from-the-mullvad-vpn-app/
- https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/10/amazon-changes-how-copyright-protection-is-applied-to-kindle-directs-self-published-ebooks/
- https://joinloops.org/our-mission
Written by
Know Your Rights. Protect Your Freedom.
Digital Rights Digest—threats to your freedom and how to fight back. A five-minute weekly read, 100% free.
