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India’s government has ignited nationwide backlash after quietly ordering private companies to preinstall a controversial government app on every smartphone sold or imported into the country, allowing bureaucrats to track members of the public night and day. ...

The order, sent out last week, gave companies 90 days to ensure the government app Sanchar Saathi was “preinstalled on all mobile handsets manufactured or imported for use in India.”

Officials claimed the requirement was designed “to identify and report acts that may endanger telecom cybersecurity.” ...

The moment Reuters exposed the order, the uproar exploded online, especially among critics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s increasingly tech-authoritarian government.

https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/india-orders-mobile-phones-preloaded-with-government-app-ensure-cyber-safety-2025-12-01/

The Council of the European Union has quietly approved a sweeping new mandate that gives unelected bureaucrats direct access to “scan” the private messages of the general public, all under the guise of “protecting children.”

Eurocrats have taken another major step toward resurrecting the EU’s infamous Chat Control surveillance regime.

However, this time the dystopian agenda has been advanced this time behind closed doors. ...

Officials still insist that the chilling plot is about “child protection,” but critics across the political spectrum say the plan is simply Chat Control 2.0, a massive surveillance framework disguised as reform.

UK Lawmakers Push to Mandate Surveillance Tracking on All Smartphones for ‘Child Safety’

Privacy advocates are sounding the alarm over the most sweeping attempt at digital control ever proposed in a Western democracy, as UK lawmakers advance plans to roll out an unprecedented public monitoring program under the guise of “protecting children’s well-being.”

A new set of amendments quietly slipped into the United Kingdom’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill would force nearly all smartphones and tablets sold in the country to come preloaded with tamper-proof government-mandated surveillance software.

Under the legislation, the monitoring cannot be removed, disabled, or opted out of.

UK Lawmakers Push to Mandate Surveillance Tracking on All Smartphones for ‘Child Safety’

NYC Wegmans is storing biometric data on shoppers' eyes, voices and faces

Wegmans in New York City has begun collecting biometric data from anyone who enters its supermarkets, according to new signage posted at the chain's Manhattan and Brooklyn locations earlier this month.

Anyone entering the store could have data on their face, eyes and voices collected and stored by the Rochester-headquartered supermarket chain. The information is used to "protect the safety and security of our patrons and employees," according to the signage. The new scanning policy is an expansion of a 2024 pilot.

The chain had initially said that the scanning system was only for a small group of employees and promised to delete any biometric data it collected from shoppers during the pilot rollout. The new notice makes no such assurances.

Wegmans representatives did not reply to questions about how the data would be stored, why it changed its policy or if it would share the data with law enforcement.