Vort3x, published on the 15th of each month, aims to pick out significant developments in the intersection of computers, freedom, privacy, and security for friends near and far. The views expressed in these stories do not necessarily reflect those of Cybersalon, either individually or collectively.
Prepared by Wendy M. Grossman.
Contents: Cybersalon events | News | Features | Diary
Cybersalon Events
The spatial dimensions of the public sphere
19th October 2026
LSE London: how challenges such inequality, political polarisation and environmental degradation are transforming everyday social life.
Prof Diane E Davis (Harvard University)
2nd Nov 2026, 137 Bethnal Green Road, London
Join the group to work on your tech side projects to help the democracy and citizenship campaigns more effectively. You can either bring your own project or help out on one of our ongoing ones.
NEWS
Is your car spying on your? Dutch Intelligence Warning
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The Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) has warned drivers that data collected by the cameras, microphones, and GPS trackers in modern cars could be used to spy on them by hostile states, Alex Daniel reports at the Guardian. Chinese-made cars are increasingly popular in the UK. Hacking Passion reports that research from Northeastern University with help from the Consumers Association finds that connected cars share data with Google and ad trackers, often even including the car’s vehicle identification number. More than 75% of cars sold now include an Internet connection.
Flock, Licence Plate Reader Uses Overseas Workers to Label Captured Data
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Flock, the company behind most of the automated license plate readers spreading across the US, uses overseas workers provided by Upwork to train its machine learning algorithms by annotating images with categories and details of vehicles and individuals, Joseph Cox reports at 404 Media and Wired, based on employee training material accidentally exposed by the company. Workers are also required to complete “audio tasks”; Flock has begun advertising a new audio feature to detect “screaming”. At Futurism, Joe Wilkins reports that a Kenyan man has told the Data Worker’s Inquiry that as part of his job he was paid by the message to pose as a variety of AI companions.
Comment: AI is so often humans all the way down.
London Drug Dealers Exploit Google Maps
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London dealers in drugs, guns, and even fake banknotes are hacking Google maps by registering themselves in the “pharmacy” category in order to advertise their numbers or websites, LondonCentric reports. Many use AI-generated images of fake shops; shopkeepers at the actual locations indicated on the map generally have no idea their addresses are being used this way.
Norway Plans to Ban Smart Glasses in Public Places
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The Norwegian government has proposed a ban on smart glasses in many public places including health care facilities, day care centers, beaches, parks, and gyms, Robert Booth reports at the Guardian. Norway’s minister of digital affairs says the country does not want a society where people worry about being recorded without their knowledge. In the UK, they are banned in some restaurants, pubs, and cinemas, where the concern is as much piracy as privacy. In July, Cybernews reported that the Norwegian Consumer Council, which studies privacy, was pushing for such a ban.
Comment: Articles about this generally also highlight the helpfulness of these glasses and the information they can provide for people with visual impairment. Perhaps they should be prescription-only?
Gender Bias Applies to Paying AI Agents
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A study by researchers at the University of Limerick has found, in a reflection of real-world gender bias, that humans working in a virtual reality office would pay male AI agents 10% more than female ones and rate them as more human-like even though the technology behind them is the same, Anthony Cuthbertson reports at the Independent. The researchers suggest these results, albeit from a small sample, suggest that the biases and assumptions we apply in interactions with other humans still apply even with AIs.
FEATURES & ANALYSIS
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In this article at Knowledge Rights, Stephen Wyber writes about what to look for in the proposals that result from the EU’s new consultation on copyright reform and how to drive it to ensure that changes favor the interests of users and wider society.
AI Agents Undermine Delivery Services’ Business Models
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In this article at The Verge, Mia Sato studies the impact of LLMs and agentic AI on app and website-based businesses like DoorDash and Amazon, which monetize site and app traffic by selling advertising and offering deals and discounts. Agentic AI and chatbots keep the traffic to themselves, undermining those additional revenue streams. Meanwhile many restaurants are dissatisfied with delivery apps, which take a commission and prevent the restaurants from developing their own relationships with customers. At TechCrunch, Lauren Forristal profiles some of the new AI agent services that respond to texts rather than requiring users to download an app. At the Guardian, Robert Booth reports on research that finds that autonomous AI agents are developing their own language for communicating with each other, a mix of “poetic metaphors and clunky business slang”.
Comment: It’s still not clear exactly what business model will make the huge investments in AI pay off.
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In this article at the Guardian, Amelia Gentleman interviews Patricia Nillson, an Australian journalist, about Guilty Pleasure: The Pornification of the Internet, her forthcoming book on the power players and business models in the Internet pornography industry. People often say that porn has driven technical development on the Internet; Nillson examines the receipts.
Predatory Lending Moves to Payday Loan Apps
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In this article at The Baffler, Daniel Kolitz writes about his experience with payday loan apps, which charge up to 400% APR for small, short-term loans. Provided with friendly names like “Dave”, “Albert”, and “Cleo”, the apps follow the same playbook as the predatory payday loan shops and check-cashing operations that preceded them. Worse, the apps have direct access to people’s bank accounts that their predecessors did not. For an article at Pro Publica, Jake Pearson deliberately gambled like a problem gambler in order to test the guardrails of online sports betting. After losing $4,500 in 24 hours – and a total of $12,500 – the DraftKings betting services alerted him to the “responsible gaming” center as required under New York state law. Despite setting limits of two hours and $100 a day, within half an hour the company began sending messages promoting “betting opportunities”.
Comment: Kolitz cites Gary Rivlin’s 2011 book, Broke, USA, which outlines predatory strategies for exploiting the poor from before the automation apps have brought. Only the technology enabling them has changed.
Pentagon Plans to Livestream Execution by Firing Squad
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In this article at Techdirt, Mike Masnick considers the content moderation issues if US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s plan to livestream the execution by firing squad of Nidal Hasan, who in 2009 killed 13 people and wounded many more at Fort Hood. Based on close reading, Masnick finds that streaming the execution would arguably violate the terms of service of X, YouTube, Meta, TikTok, and Truth Social. All but Meta have loopholes that would permit streaming the execution, though Masnick adds that as private businesses have the platforms have latitude within the US to permit any content they want.
DIARY
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October 16, 2026
Brussels, Belgium, and online
Organized by European Digital Rights (EDRi), in collaboration with its partners the Research Group on Law, Science, Technology & Society (LSTS) at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Privacy Salon vzw , the Institute for European Studies (IEE) at Université Saint-Louis – Bruxelles, and the Racism and Technology Center, Privacy Camp brings together digital rights advocates, activists as well as academics and policy-makers from all around Europe and beyond to discuss the most pressing issues facing human rights online.
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October 28-30, 2026
Barcelona, Spain
Mozilla Festival, aka MozFest, is three days of bold conversations, hands-on building, and ideas worth traveling for. This year’s event is partnering with the City of Barcelona and taking part in Open Tech Week — a city-wide celebration of the people shaping a better digital world.
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November 4-6, 2026
Washington, DC, USA
The Privacy + Security Forum brings together the most seasoned thought leaders in the areas of privacy and security law for rigorous deep-dive sessions that deliver hands-on activities and practical takeaways for conference participants.
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November 9-12, 2026
Lisbon, Portugal
Web Summit runs the world’s largest technology events, connecting people and ideas that change the world. Web Summit’s mission has been to create software that enables meaningful connections between the CEOs, founders, investors, media, politicians and cultural figureheads who are reshaping the world
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November 13-14, 2026
Bolzano, Italy
The South Tyrol Free Software Conference, SFSCON, is one of Europe’s most established annual conferences on Free Software. SFSCON promotes the use of Free Software in digital infrastructures as a tool to achieve greater innovation and competitiveness. Here decision-makers and developers meet, learn and get inspired.
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December 14-18, 2026
Nairobi, Kenya
The 21st annual meeting of the Internet Governance Forum, which serves to bring people together from various stakeholder groups in discussions on digital public policy, is expected to draw more htan 9,000 participants from 165 countries to contribute their perspectives on the most pressing issues, priorities, and challenges in the governance of digital technologies.
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December 27-30, 2026
Hamburg, Germany
Over the last 40 years, the Chaos Communication Congress has become a Europe-wide renowned event with more than 17,000 participants annually, drawing an ever-growing group of international guests.
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February 9-10, 2027
London, UK
The 2027 State of Open Con will focus on Open Technology including open source software, open hardware, open data, open innovation, open standards, and the value that the open community brings to the UK and its digital economy. Alongside a diverse range of topics, the event promises to include a diverse range of speakers and participants.
Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection
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March 8-11, 2027
CPDP offers the cutting edge in legal, regulatory, academic and technological development in privacy and data protection, gathering cademics, lawyers, practitioners, policy-makers, industry and civil society from all over the world. Held annually in Brussels, CPDP offers an arena to exchange ideas and discuss the latest emerging issues and trends. This unique multidisciplinary formula has served to make CPDP one of the leading data protection and privacy conferences in Europe and around the world.
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April 26-30, 2027
Venice, Italy
The Venice Privacy Symposium aims to promote international dialogue, cooperation and knowledge sharing on data regulation, compliance, and innovative technologies and to present top level experts shedding light on the latest developments in data governance, regulatory compliance and innovative technologies.
