• ‘End-to-end encrypted’ smart toilet camera is not actually end-to-end encrypted (TechCrunch, Dec 3, 2025): In 2025, “home goods maker Kohler launched a smart camera called the Dekoda that attaches to your toilet bowl, takes pictures of it, and analyzes the images to advise you on your gut health. . . . given Kohler can access customers’ data on its servers, it’s possible Kohler is using customers’ bowl pictures to train AI. . . . The Dekoda costs $599 plus a mandatory subscription of at least $6.99 per month.”

• We Need to Talk About the 'Dystopian' PureGym Entry Tubes (Hell Gate, Dec 10, 2025): “To enter dozens of PureGym (formerly Blink Fitness) locations across New York City, members must now step into a tube immediately after entering the building and scanning their membership ID from their PureGym app. Once the PureGym technology has taken several seconds to affirm their true identity, they are then released from the tube, and into the fitness center. Finally, a local gym that feels more like waiting on the TSA line.”

• Over 120,000 home cameras hacked in South Korea for ‘sexploitation’ footage (BBC, Nov 30, 2025):

Four people have been arrested in South Korea for allegedly hacking more than 120,000 video cameras in homes and businesses and using the footage to make sexually exploitative materials for an overseas website.

Police announced the arrests on Sunday, saying the accused exploited the Internet Protocol (IP) cameras’ vulnerabilities, such as simple passwords.

A cheaper alternative to CCTV, IP cameras - otherwise known as home cameras - connect to a home internet network and are often installed for security or to monitor the safety of children and pets.

• NYC Wegmans is storing biometric data on shoppers' eyes, voices and faces (Gothamist, Jan 3, 2026):

Anyone entering the store could have data on their face, eyes and voices collected and stored . . .

Will Owen, a privacy advocate with the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, said that storing customer’s biometric data can open them up to risks from hackers or immigration enforcement.

“It’s really chilling that immigrant New Yorkers going into Wegmans and other grocery stores have to worry about their highly sensitive biometric data potentially getting into the hands of ICE,” he said.

(Above: thanks to listener Ed)

• Disneyland’s new plan to get everyone off their phones (SFGate, Nov 28, 2025):

A Walt Disney executive acknowledged on Monday that phones are ruining Disneyland’s magic.

“You’re there together with friends and family and people that you care about, and every time you have to look down at a device or a phone, it breaks that spell,” Walt Disney Imagineering President Bruce Vaughn said . . .

But according to Vaughn, Disney has the perfect solution: Meta’s AI glasses, which will “reinforce the shared experience” with your family by allowing you to leave your phone in your pocket. What he doesn’t address, however, is the extent to which the glasses let the wearer check out of reality almost entirely, allowing you to simultaneously look at image overlays, do a two-way video call, watch an Instagram Reel, listen to a podcast, view text notifications or record people unknowingly.

• Passenger Jet Suddenly Dropped From Sky for a Wild Reason, Airbus Says (Futurism, Dec 7, 2025):

After taking off from Cancun, Mexico, on October 30, a packed JetBlue airliner . . . suddenly dropped in altitude.

The pilots regained control of the plane, an Airbus A320, but the plunge was so violent and abrupt that at least three passengers cut their heads open after smashing them on the ceiling. . . .

Airbus finally shared the suspected culprit: cosmic rays from outer space messing up the aircraft’s computer systems. According to the BBC's reporting (Dec 1, 2025), the bit flip error occurred in the A320’s Elac system, which controls parts of the plane’s wings and tail.

• Tech billionaires want to make gene-edited babies (The Economist, Nov 19, 2025): “And then, of course, there is the question of designer babies. Dr Harrington has said that Preventive will focus on severe disease. Yet it is only a small leap from fixing a genetic mutation to engineering protective gene variants against cancer or dementia. Ultimately, some companies may promise edits aimed at a person’s appearance or intelligence.”