Power
New Jersey Can Give You Body-Cam Video You Cannot Reuse
New Jersey treats body-camera footage as a public record. The same system can deliver it late, heavily muted or in a format that defeats scrutiny.
Lena Vasquez · 8 min read
The archive
All articles
156 articles, newest first — page 3 of 7.
Power
A School Keyword Can Turn a Translation Into a Threat Alert
School monitoring software converts selected language into alerts that can reach administrators or police. The keyword list is where a vendor’s judgment becomes school power.
Lena Vasquez · 7 min read
Power
Turnitin’s AI Score Accuses Students Without Proving Anything
AI-writing detectors sell institutions a quick signal, then disclaim the certainty their interfaces imply. Students are left defending their authorship against a probability with no witness.
Kurt Halloran · 7 min read
Power
Deleting a Face-Search Result May Leave the Faceprint Behind
A facial-search opt-out can erase the visible result while preserving the machinery that found it. Here is how to test the difference without feeding the service more faces.
Kurt Halloran · 8 min read
Power
A Town Alert Can Give Everbridge More Than Your Phone Number
New Jersey municipalities tell residents to sign up for Nixle alerts. The small instruction conceals a larger vendor system built to collect location, device and usage data.
Simone Achebe · 7 min read
Body
Ketamine Clinics Watch the Infusion. Then Care Can Thin Out.
A blood-pressure cuff makes the monitored session visible. Public clinic materials show less agreement about who screens patients, tracks relapse or helps after they leave.
Nour Haddad · 8 min read
Body
After Hours, Emergency Contraception Delivery Is a Checkout Test
In New Jersey, a delivery badge says little about whether the pill can reach your address tonight. Stock, courier coverage, substitution settings and the final cutoff decide.
Nour Haddad · 8 min read
Power
YouTube Can Delete the War-Crimes Record It Hosts
A dead YouTube link can mark more than a moderation decision. It can remove a public path to footage that investigators need to verify an alleged atrocity.
Simone Achebe · 8 min read
Power
Your Chatbot Can Flag You. The Rules Are Mostly Hidden.
OpenAI has described a pathway from threatening chat to human review and possible police referral. Most rivals reserve similar powers without explaining the threshold.
Kurt Halloran · 8 min read
Body
A Therapy Directory Can Log “Trauma” Before You Book
Therapist directories need some sensitive details to make a match. Their analytics, cookies and referral links can turn the same search into a trackable event before a clinician enters the room.
Tallulah Grange · 8 min read
Power
The Tyre Nichols Footage Starts After the Alleged Driving
The four released videos documented police violence in detail. They could not show the alleged reckless driving used to justify the stop, because no released camera recorded it.
Simone Achebe · 8 min read
Body
Tianeptine Is Leaving Gas Stations. Withdrawal Is Still Here.
State bans and federal enforcement can empty a shelf. They cannot safely end physical dependence on tianeptine, an unapproved drug sold through the supplement market.
Ezra Kimani · 8 min read
Body
A Negative Fentanyl Test Strip Does Not Mean the Bag Is Safe
Fentanyl and xylazine strips can look interchangeable. Their thresholds, blind spots and instructions are not, and one negative line answers far less than the packaging suggests.
Ezra Kimani · 8 min read
Feeds
TikTok Search Can Turn Your Name Into a Rumor
A suggested query can attach an allegation to a person before anyone searches for it. TikTok offers reporting tools, but the named subject gets little visibility into why the prompt exists.
Reuben Adeyemi · 8 min read
Power
Campus Protest Maps Make Demonstrators Easier to Identify
A public map can prove that a movement is larger than one campus. It can also turn scattered posts, locations and clothing details into a cheap index for doxxers, employers and police.
Lena Vasquez · 8 min read
Power
Social Media Age Checks Make Every Adult Prove Their Age
States say they are keeping children off harmful platforms. The mechanism often requires an age judgment about every user, then another system to identify the parent.
Simone Achebe · 8 min read
Power
A Turnitin AI Score Can Become a Cheating Charge in New Jersey
New Jersey institutions often call AI detection a clue, not proof. Their misconduct machinery can erase that distinction before a student gets a meaningful chance to contest it.
Kurt Halloran · 8 min read
Body
The Crisis Disclaimer Is Where a Therapy App Stops Being Therapy
BetterHelp’s crisis notice exposes the limit built into app-based therapy: the subscription can organize care, but it cannot promise a clinician when distress becomes urgent.
Ezra Kimani · 8 min read
Power
New Jersey Buys the Police Drone Before Writing the Rules
Municipal purchase records describe powerful drone systems in exact detail. The public policies governing where they fly, what they keep and who gets the footage are often thinner or later.
Kurt Halloran · 8 min read
Power
Google Closed One Door on Location Warrants. Police Have Others.
Maps Timeline now lives primarily on users’ phones, blocking the broad searches Google once ran for police. The rest of the location-surveillance market remains open.
Simone Achebe · 7 min read
Power
A Store Can Turn Your Face Into a Shoplifting Record
A suspected-theft image can become a chain-wide watchlist entry, a vendor record or a police lead. Fixing a false identification means finding every system that copied it.
Lena Vasquez · 8 min read
Power
A Vanishing Instagram Story Can Still Be a New Jersey Record
Instagram removes Stories from public view after 24 hours. New Jersey records law may require government agencies to preserve them much longer, if their content documents official business.
Simone Achebe · 8 min read
Body
A Fentanyl Test Strip Cannot Clear the Rest of the Bag
A strip can detect fentanyl in one prepared sample. Its real value depends on clean handling, correct dilution and refusing to treat one line as a certificate of safety.
Tallulah Grange · 8 min read
Power
The Body-Camera Clip May Start Where Police Chose to Start It
A released body-camera video is usually a constructed public record, not an untouched window. Activation rules, silent buffers and edits determine what appears to be the beginning.
Lena Vasquez · 8 min read