MADDY VARNER SECURITY FEB 3, 2026 6:00 AM How Data Brokers Can Fuel Violence Against Public Servants A new report from the Public Service Alliance finds state privacy laws offer public servants few ways to protect their private data, even as threats against them are on the rise. PHOTO-ILLUSTRATION: JACQUI VANLIEW; GETTY IMAGES Get our Tracker: ICE newsletter to understand what’s happening and what’s coming next SIGN UP By signing up, you agree to our user agreement (including class action waiver and arbitration provisions), and acknowledge our privacy policy. You’ve read your last free article. The intersection of technology, power, and culture. Start your free trial and get access to 5 all-new premium newsletters—cancel anytime. START FREE TRIAL Already a subscriber? Sign In The intersection of technology, power, and culture. Start your free trial and get access to 5 all-new premium newsletters START FREE TRIAL You Might Also Like In your inbox: Sign up for our new Tracker: ICE newsletter TikTok now collects even more of your data Big Story: ICE pretends it’s a military force, but it would get soldiers killed Microdosing for depression works about as well as drinking coffee Watch: We raced in exoskeletons to see if they actually help Maddy Varner is a senior reporter for WIRED. In the past, she was an investigative data journalist at The Markup, where she brought numbers to stories about labor, education and politics. Before The Markup, she was a researcher at ProPublica, where she was on a team that won a Loeb ... Read More SENIOR WRITER, INVESTIGATIONS TOPICS PRIVACY LAWS GOVERNMENT DATA PRIVACY Don't Just Keep Up. Get Ahead Sign up for the Daily newsletter to get our biggest stories, handpicked for you each day. SIGN UP By signing up, you agree to our user agreement (including class action waiver and arbitration provisions), and acknowledge our privacy policy. READ MORE FBI Agent’s Sworn Testimony Contradicts Claims ICE’s Jonathan Ross Made Under Oath The testimony also calls into question whether Ross failed to follow his training during the incident in which he reportedly shot and killed Minnesota citizen Renee Good. TIM MARCHMAN ICE Is Using Palantir’s AI Tools to Sort Through Tips ICE has been using an AI-powered Palantir system to summarize tips sent to its tip line since last spring, according to a newly released Homeland Security document. CAROLINE HASKINS ICE Details a New Minnesota-Based Detention Network That Spans 5 States Internal ICE planning documents propose spending up to $50 million on a privately run network capable of shipping immigrants in custody hundreds of miles across the Upper Midwest. DELL CAMERON Palantir Defends Work With ICE to Staff Following Killing of Alex Pretti “In my opinion ICE are the bad guys. I am not proud that the company I enjoy so much working for is part of this,” one worker wrote on Slack. MAKENA KELLY TikTok Is Now Collecting Even More Data About Its Users. Here Are the 3 Biggest Changes According to its new privacy policy, TikTok now collects more data on its users, including their precise location, after majority ownership officially switched to a group based in the US. REECE ROGERS An AI Toy Exposed 50,000 Logs of Its Chats With Kids to Anyone With a Gmail Account AI chat toy company Bondu left its web console almost entirely unprotected. Researchers who accessed it found nearly all the conversations children had with the company’s stuffed animals. ANDY GREENBERG ICE Can Now Spy on Every Phone in Your Neighborhood Plus: Iran shuts down its internet amid sweeping protests, an alleged scam boss gets extradited to China, and more. MATT BURGESS Meta Is Blocking Links to ICE List on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads Users of Meta’s social platforms can no longer share links to ICE List, a website listing what it claims are the names of thousands of DHS employees. DAVID GILBERT Why ICE Can Kill With Impunity Over the past decade, US immigration agents have shot and killed more than two dozen people. Not a single agent appears to have faced criminal charges. LILA HASSAN What to Do if ICE Invades Your Neighborhood With federal agents storming the streets of American communities, there’s no single right way to approach this dangerous moment. But there are steps you can take to stay safe—and have an impact. MADDY VARNER DHS’s Data Grab Is Getting Citizens Kicked Off Voter Rolls, New Complaint Says As states check voter registration against a mashup of federal data, a new complaint says US citizens are getting kicked off state voter rolls as a result. VITTORIA ELLIOTT ICE and CBP’s Face-Recognition App Can’t Actually Verify Who People Are ICE has used Mobile Fortify to identify immigrants and citizens alike over 100,000 times, by one estimate. It wasn't built to work like that—and only got approved after DHS abandoned its own privacy rules. MADDY VARNER